I don't think it was for no reason, there was a lecture he did and PRT and some of their peeps were there, and some of the peeps were challenging KRS, quite forcefully/rudely depending on your opinion and KRS responded. Also there was some philosophical differences when KRS was on the more humanist vibe and they were on the more 5 percent/nation of islam vibe. KRS was approached by some 5 percenters before and by a big dude that was with PRT. Anyway it got squashed, and Wize been supporting KRS movements consistently after that. They did Conscious Style too, which they paid KRS 15 G's for the verse.
Cedric Muhammad: Now for the record, and I think this deals with some of what we are talking about, how did the whole situation evolve where I believe you confronted Brother KRS-One at a lecture. And then how did your relationship evolve and grow to the point where you were on tracks together, the Poor Righteous Teachers’ “New World Order” album in particular?
Wise Intelligent: What happened was I never had any beef or problem with KRS-One. That’s not my nature. That’s not how I operate. I go to the lecture. I was with my Queen. We are sitting in the audience and she is with seed, she is with child, so you know I wasn’t coming for no confrontation. I am coming in peace because I feel this is a good environment for me to bring my pregnant wife. So, what happens is when I came to the lecture, I just happened to be with 30 other heads from the projects. And you know what kind of current they come in. They usually come in a cold current – these particular individuals. So, we are listening to the Teacher (KRS-One) speak and one of the Brothers with me, asked him a question, he said, ‘Why does your speech change when you get in front of White people? Why does the overall message change to a more euphoric, utopia kind of unity in a melting pot, and everybody getting along, and then when you speak to us, you are more revolutionary, speaking to our emotions?’ That’s what the Brother asked him and he (KRS-One) said, ‘No, even Jesus taught come in peace, he was against violence.’ And that’s when I said, ‘No. Jesus wasn’t against violence. He said if anyone of you that’s following me had any valuables and any money he said take it and buy yourself a sword.’ ‘When the Romans came to get Jesus,’ I said, ‘they sent a cohort of men, that’s some 600 men, you don’t send 600 armed men with swords and bucklers to come and get a man that is talking about peace and throwing flowers around.’ Jesus was running up in the temple turning over tables. It wasn’t really me doing the speaking, it was somebody who was waiting, that was doing the large majority of the speaking but the people over here in the crowd – I was who they noticed. I am the familiar face. So they were like, ‘Word. Wise Intelligent. Word!’ And then the Sisters from the other side of the crowd were like, ‘KRS-One, you are a sell out!’ And then he (KRS-One) was like, ‘No, the only thing that is selling out is my records in your neighborhood.’ So it just went on, and on, and on. It was a big brouhaha he said a bunch of things about us in
The Source magazine before the lecture. So Culture (Culture Freedom of Poor Righteous Teachers) was with me and hey, he is a cold current – an official project baby. (laughter). And he is like, ‘Yo, what’s with all of that? If you feel that way about us I think you should say it, man up, and say it right in my face.’ And (KRS-One) was like, ‘I didn’t mean it
like that. See, we come from the same place.’ But it was childish to me, the whole conversation and what led to it. But that is pretty much what started the whole thing. And a lot of people were like, ‘get at him on a record’. And I was like, ‘No, that is not me. I’m not going to say anything about him on a record, I would rather get him
on a record with me. And we just put something down and do it like that.’ And my thing is I paid him to do the record (‘Conscious Style’). It isn’t like I didn’t pay him. I paid him some $15,000. And I am not ashamed to say it. I am not ashamed to put out there what he was paid. He was paid $7,500 for the track and $7,500 for a vocal. I paid him for that. It ain’t like he came and did it for free.
Cedric Muhammad: I didn’t know that.
Wise Intelligent: Yeah exactly. I didn’t have no problem paying him for the track. I paid him $15,000 for that. And that’s what I mean when I say
when you get into a position of power how you delegate that power is what determines whether you are with me or not. And that’s why I do that man. I deal with people on that level. I’m like ‘yo I wanna see what kind of person he really is so I know how to write him off or not.’ My thing is I would rather not deal with you ever again than to keep going back and forth, and back and forth with you on a record – dissin this guy and that one. I would rather do a record, showing Black men moving in accord. Give the people something as opposed to keeping the beef escalating. Keeping the beef escalating would have been the monetary thing to do, the capitalist thing to do, but that is not me. And I could have easily made 100 records. I could have easily made a 20 album catalog just about the situation but that is not me man. That’s what happened with that whole thing. I thought it would be a good idea to get with KRS-One to do a record to say it ain’t even like that and I am not holding a lifelong grudge with this Black man. That is not how I operate, let’s move forward.