About IW

Reported by: ALBERT DABNEY

In your face, just won’t cut it.  “He keeps it real” would be a disservice to the message. The living room is plain.  The car has no rims.  The neck has no ice. And the music, the music, is beyond unique.  The days of throwing money and measuring wheels may soon be facing extinction.  Drastic times, call for drastic measures, and in his first national interview, IW explains why, in the face of mindless music, he has come to declare that it is “About Time.”

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           IW (Cornell Hunter) was born on June 25, 1981 in New Orleans, Louisiana, to Janice Joseph and Cornell Hunter.  Though sadly familiar, Janice was forced to raise IW on her own, after his father was murdered in 1984.  When asked about his earliest childhood memories, he states, “It sickens me to know that I only remember my father as a dead man.  Literally, the very first memory of my life starts out at my father’s funeral.”  IW would later explain how he vividly remembers seeing the gravediggers, lowering his father into the ground. He also recalls telling his mother not to cry as he wiped the tears from her face.  He was only 3 years old.

         Through family ties, IW spent most of his childhood years bouncing around between the B.W. Cooper (more commonly known as the Calliope {Cali-o}) and the St. Bernard Housing Projects.  As for growing up in such a tough community, IW says, “I can honestly say that without my early childhood experiences, I wouldn’t be the person I am today.” He believes that these horrific events helped harden him, later allowing him deal with how harsh the world can be at times, “Especially in New Orleans” he states.  

          Sadly, the early tragedy that haunted him as a child, would soon show its face again, early into IW’s teenage years.  While living in the St. Bernard Projects, Jammie Cameron (his childhood best friend) was shot in the head by a stray bullet.  He recalls how this event sent him into a serious downward spiral.  “I was so gone in the head, that I literally would cut school everyday.  I had serious questions about life in general at this point. I mean, I love to play sports, but I was even failing P.E. I was really tripping. I wasn’t going to school at all by the end of 1995.” Though Jammie would recover, IW marks this event as one of the most eye opening events of his life. He was 12 years old at the time. 

         During middle school, IW remembers being very “confused and misled.” He would cut class daily, didn’t take school seriously, and eventually found himself failing out of the school.  He couldn’t help but laugh as he recalled, “I really thought I was untouchable. I mean, imagine being 12…13 years old, thinking that you have the world figured out. I mean, I look back at those days and really trip out of how young and dumb I was.” Thanks to the help of a school teacher, Mrs. Gill, he was granted a year of academic probation, and was allowed to return to school.

         While in high school, IW says he began to focus on his future. “I made a promise to myself, that I would not fail.” Sadly, during the summer of 1997, Jammie was shot again. This time, he was dead (shot outside of a New Orleans bowling alley).  Jammie was 16 years old at the time.  “It still kills me to this day,” he explains, “Knowing that I can only remember my podna as a 16 year-old kid. That’s it! I will never know what he would have been like as an adult, or a father, etc.” As he continues, it’s painfully obvious that he still has trouble dealing with that reality.  “Yet people rap about killing each other like it’s something to be proud of.”

        He would later explain that the death of his friend forced him to focus on the harsh realities of life more then he ever had before. He went on to graduate high school with a respectable GPA (3.0), and went on to attend college at LSU (Louisiana State University) in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. IW says that his college experience opened his eyes to a world that he had no clue existed.  “The things that I learned, both class and life lessons, and the number of important connections that I made in college can’t even be counted. Put it like this, I view college as the place where the future leaders of the world go to do business. That is where the move makers make moves.” 

          During his second year in college, IW signed his very first record deal, being discovered by a Baton Rouge based record label while working an on-campus job.  He explains that he was so excited about the opportunity, that he soon withdraw from college and began traveling, writing and recording for the label from 2001-2003, appearing on a number of features. While traveling, IW states that he learned invaluable information about the record industry as a whole.  “I was fortunate enough to get a first hand look at how this business is run behind the scenes.” 

IW goes on about how the amount of overall deceit and bogus record industry politics forced him to make a very important decision: he re-enrolled at LSU.  After returning to school IW says, “Man, I lived in that library. I was so focused on being able to take care of myself, that my last two years of college were outstanding. I began making the highest grades that I had ever made in my life (at any level of school).  My lowest GPA from that point forward was a like a 3.6.”

         After graduating from LSU during December of 2004, IW says he found his calling as a teacher.  He’s far from smiling when he says, “Until you’ve set foot in an urban classroom, you have no clue how serious the problems are that kids deal with today.” He continues, “It wasn’t until I started teaching, did I realize how easily influenced kids were by music.” He leans back and goes on, “For real….We’ve all had our parents try to control what we listen to, but you cant grasp the reality, until you see it.”

          At this point of the interview, I can tell that this topic (above all others) bothers him to no end. The rant goes on, “If a kid knows the words to every rap song on the radio, but can’t read, we have a serious problem. You can’t rap if you don’t appreciate the words.  There are no raps without words.  Period!! How in the hell do these kids think that they can be rappers, if they can barely read and write.  And then people wonder why the quality of music is so poor.  Rap has gone from a way to express yourself, to a way to try to get rich.”  Though I wanted to express a few words of agreement, I didn’t even try to interrupt IW at this point, because it was obvious that he wasn’t done with this topic.  

         “Man, It’s just like the lotto, typically, the poorest people play the lotto because the dream of being rich.  Today, every kid wants to be a rapper, because they dream of having ice and rims, and cars and houses.  But just like the lottery, millions play, but there is only one winning ticket. At some points, kids must realize that Youtube,BET, MTV, VH1, etc, don’t have enough television time for 10 million people to be rappers.  At some point somebody must tell them that the easiest way to get money is to be as smart as you possible can be.  You have to have more going on in your life than just assuming that rapping will save you.  That’s like spending all of your money on lottery tickets, and not saving to pay your bills.  What happens if you don’t win?”

          “The more you know, the more you can talk about. Man, just because you make words rhyme, doesn’t mean that you can rap.  Most kindergarten students know a few rhyming words. These new age rappers have absolutely nothing to talk about. It’s almost to the point where I can’t listen to the radio. ”

Hopefully, the radio is ready to listen to him.  After listening to the album thoroughly, I am willing to bet that the world will certainly agree, it is definitely, “About Time.”