I, Necro, love metal. There is no debate about that. That’s why at the age of 11 I could play guitar better than most 30 year olds.
I was playing in a progressive death/thrash band called Injustice. I remember when I first learned how to gallop on guitar (play triplets). It was like I was given a new power, like riding a bike for the first time. At the time, I was living in the Glenwood Housing Projects in Brooklyn, and s–t was stressful — drama everyday, every building corner you turned there was a potential enemy. But the music saved me. I was very into getting my respect from the older metal heads and older people in general who were always so disrespectful to the youth, and through my skills on guitar, I earned a lot of respect. People were amazed. I also got older chicks. I remember when I was 12 years old I had a 16-year-old girlfriend. She was a groupie and was actually my brother Bill’s girlfriend. She dumped him for me. I know, weird.
The first time I met Trevor Peres, [guitarist] from Obituary was a cool day. We were opening for Obituary in New Jersey at some fucking dive, and I was like 12 years old when I saw him. The dude looked like a walking corpse. I asked him if he would wear my band Injustice’s shirt. It was a pretty sick shirt, with a demon in purple falling through a black hole on a white shirt. He was real cool and actually rocked the shirt on stage at that show. I was real happy that this guy who I had mad respect for showed love like that. Who would think that almost 14 years later he would be playing on my album as a respected fan and homeboy, and I would be rapping over his riffs? Weird how life shifts and changes with each day and year. you never know who will contact you.
Another example: When [Sepultura drummer] Igor [Cavalera] sent me a message saying he wanted to be down with my movement. Now you gotta understand that Sepultura’s Beneath The Remains is one of my favorite metal albums of all time. That record is godly, and to have the drummer from a band I respect tell me he is my fan, that’s some s–t. I didn’t even believe him at first, man. I thought it was a f—ing prank, but it wasn’t. He was for real. Anyone who knows what I’m about, knows Igor and I ended up creating the track “Necrotura.”
Metal has shown me a lot of love as a rapper. I don’t get nearly the same love from the hip-hop community. In hip-hop, it seems everyone is out to stab each other in the back. Metal is more about music and musicians and the love for riffs and creativity. I have met most of the hip-hop legends and they don’t compare to the coolness of metal legends. But I have always considered myself both metal and hip-hop. I don’t see why there is a separation when both art forms started out super underground, rebellious, and original, and most of the world hated both.
In the projects my brother Bill and I both watched a channel called u-68. That channel would play one metal video, and then a hip-hop video. You could see the Beastie Boys one second, then Anthrax’s “Mad House” the next, then Queen, then Run DMC, then Rush, then Mötley Crüe’s [cover of Brownsville Station's] “Smokin’ In The Boys Room”, then Quiet Riot or Twisted Sister, and then some Herbie Hancock s–t. So, we were just naturally into both art forms. Thus, for me, I don’t relate to a person that is close-minded and only likes metal or only likes hip-hop.
A lot of metal guys I have worked with love hip-hop, whether it’s [guitarist] Mark [Morton] from Lamb of God, who basically listens to hip-hop more than metal, Igor, who is one of the best drummers in metal but moonlights as a hip-hop DJ or Trevor from Obituary, who is all about hip-hop. The list is long, man. Jamey Jasta from Hatebreed loves hip-hop. Lord Ezec, a hardcore legend, rhymes himself. Music is music, man. It just depends on how you do it and present it.
When I do some metal hip-hop s–t, I make sure I’m rapping like a real hip-hop artist and that the metal is real metal, not some corporate hybrid but an actual real creation that a real metal guy can say, “Hey that riff is f—ing dope, no matter who played it.” I don’t like how young metal kids are so close-minded to my s–t. They are so used to what they see on TV as being rap that they don’t realize all rapping is poetry. Just because that guy’s poetry is about cars and crap, doesn’t mean mine is.
My poetry is metal because I say it is, not because I want it to be. I don’t have to want to “be” anything. I was doing metal before most of these kids were even born. That’s a fact. In the end you are what your heart is, and in my heart I’m a metal head, as well as a hip-hop head. I’m both.
