Interview by Lucas Wisenthal
Photos supplied by ILL BILL

This is a mad-old interview that Montreal based journalist Lucas Wisenthal did with Underground Hip-hop / Rap artist Ill Bill back in 2005, for Jewish Mayhem but we have never used it because it was lost in our archives and we have been looking for it since.

A lot has changed for Bill since 2005 but because this is a good interview that has never been read before, we’ve decided to run it. We will be featuring Bill again in the next issue with all of the updates with what’s new with Bill.

JM: Let’s start with the basics on Ill Bill.
IB: I’m a member of Non-Phixion. I also run, own and operate Uncle Howie Records. I put out a solo album this year through Psycho+Logical records, which is my brother’s label. I worked on the Non-Phixion Green DVD, which I directed. For the most part, people know me as being an MC in Non-Phixion, but we’re branching out now and starting to do solo stuff. I’ve been around forever. I mean, Non-Phixion, next year’ll be our tenth anniversary as a group. I’ve been rhyming for years. I’ve also been in bands.

JM: I read that you and Necro played in hardcore bands.
IB: All that shit. Whatever makes you want to jump out of a plane, that’s what I’m about.

JM: Who would you rather have appear on one of your albums: Jackie Mason, Andrew Dice Clay or Larry David?
IB: Absolutely Larry David. That’s me in about 25 years. I’m a mess, you know? On one hand I’ve got it together, but on another hand I’m a neurotic mess.

JM: Why are you a neurotic mess?
IB: I think it just might the fact of growing up in a Jewish household. It’s just something that kind of comes with the territory of being a Jewish kid from Brooklyn.

JM: Ill Bill, why are there no Jewish skateboarders? I mean, the ollie was invented by a Jew from Hollywood, Florida named Allan Gelfand.
IB: I don’t even know! My boy Vinnie Ponte, he’s an honorary Jew. He just operates like a Jew. He walks, talks – he thugs it like a Jew.

JM: How does a Jew thug it?
IB: I don’t know, I mean, just the way the way we do it. I don’t think there’s an actual blueprint to it; it’s kind of the way we do it. It’s kind of the way we wear our hat kind of to the side, the way we sag our pants a little bit, the way we lace up our sneakers.

JM: In the song Black Helicopters, your fellow Non-Phixion member Goretex mentions “golden showers on the poor shiksa.” How often do non-Jewish women get pissed on during Non-Phixion tours?
IB: Probably just as often as Jewish women do! We don’t discriminate, we have golden showers for all women – shapes, sizes, colors, creeds, religions, race, earth and space, it doesn’t matter. We piss on everyone who we get a chance to piss on.

JM: A friend of mine suggested that there’s a Holy Trinity of Jews. This Trinity, he says, is comprised of Howard Stern, the neurotic Jew; David Lee Roth, the comedian Jew; and Gene Simmons, the medieval sorcerer Jew who makes matzah out of Gentile baby blood. In your opinion, who should be added to or removed from the Trinity and why?
IB: (Laughter) I wouldn’t remove anybody! I think that’s pretty much damn on point!

JM: Being that you feel this Trinity is so on point, how much Gentile blood do you think should be used in the making of your matzah?
IB: Probably a gallon per pound. It also depends if we’re talking about square matzah or the round schmoor matzah. I definitely prefer the schmoor matzah, the Lubavitcher matzah. I like my food well done, and the schmoor matzah comes well done.

JM: They deliver that to my house every year, Bill.
IB: You know what? I’ve never had ‘em delivered, actually. We actually go to the matzah factory and pick them up ourselves. Part of the reason is because when you buy those matzahs, they’re pretty costly. They charge a lot for those matzahs. So you have to make sure that they’re whole, because when you go for the afikomen, you wanna be able to break it. You wanna have solid pieces of matzah to break in half so the children can get what they gotta get.

JM: I once read an interview with MC Serch where he said that he didn’t know that you were Jewish. Why, in spite of the fact that he obviously knew you at the time, would he make such a claim?
IB: Oh shit, I don’t know. That I don’t know. He absolutely, definitely broke bread at the Shabbos table with me many a time. You’d have to ask him, I have no idea. He absolutely knew.

JM: Regarding hip-hop, Ras Kass once said, “Jews run it; niggAS run around it.” As both an artist and a businessman, where do you stand with respect to a statement like that?
IB: I wonder what Puffy would think about that statement. He’s absolutely running things himself.

JM: Is Puffy a black Jew?
IB: (Laughter) Maybe he is! That’s what I’m saying. Then again, Madonna’s name is Esther now and she’s a Kaballah scholar! I read that Britney is a Jew now, too.

JM: But did you ever feel any type of animosity from anyone in regard to your own Jewishness?
IB: Absolutely. There’s definitely animosity coming from the realm of just being a business person and the level of competition. And yeah, there’s animosity coming from every angle, certainly. I felt animosity growing up being a Jew. I felt animosity in the business. It’s hard to really say for sure what’s the real reason. Is it because they’re jealous? Is it because of the fact that I’m Jewish? Is that like, really an issue? I don’t really know. I hope that the hate isn’t being thrown at me because I’m a Jew. I mean, that would really suck.

JM: Have you gotten ahead at all on account of being Jewish?
IB: Absolutely not. No way. Definitely not. I don’t believe it’s worked for me or against me. It’s a non-issue in terms of my success.

JM: Why are so many rappers that we like – arguably the best rappers right now – anti-Semitic? I’ve read interviews with you where you say you’re a huge Ghostface fan, and some of his lyrics contain anti-Semitic sentiment.
IB: You think that Ghostface is anti-Semitic?

JM: Some of what he says definitely is.
IB: Give me an example. I love Ghostface.

JM: I love Ghostface too. What about on the Ironman album where he says, “Yo they got a hit placed on my head, what should the God do? Max out in Spain and do business with the Jews. Never that.”? That’s anti-Semitic.
IB: But didn’t he sign to Def Jam?

JM: Def Jam might be run by Jews, but you can’t tell me that that line isn’t anti-Semitic.
IB: I think overall in America today it’s starting to become cool again to hate the Jew. I absolutely see that. I just think that people are always looking for a scapegoat, and what’s been a major scapegoat in world history: The Jew. He’s been an easy person to point the finger at, saying, “And they got all the money!” I know a lot of Jews that have shit, that have nothing.

The way I think that as an individual you’re able to really disprove things like this and really reflect your own personal views is actually by coming in contact individually with people. I think that one advantage I have being an artist and having the ability to reach a lot of people is that I’m able to kind of like let people know what time it is. I don’t even think that my music is overtly quote unquote Jewish. It’s not something I’m shooting for and not shooting for; I’m just doing what I’m doing. I think you’ll find elements in there if you’re looking for them. I think overall there’s a lot of anti-Semitism, but there’s also a lot of anti-black, anti everything. Everywhere you go, there’s racism, segregation. And everybody has a problem with everybody at one point or another.

At the end of the day, ain’t nobody gonna stop me – you know what I’m sayin’? – from doin’ what I’m doin’, whether it be someone who doesn’t who doesn’t like Jews, or whatever, ‘cause I’ll go out shootin’. I don’t give a fuck. I ain’t havin’ it. I’m one of those. I’m one of the Jews that ain’t havin’ it, you know what I’m sayin’? My brother Necro ain’t havin’ it! Come up to me poppin’ that Jew shit, poppin’ that Jewboy shit – It never did get popped, nor do I believe it ever will, because of the fact that I ain’t havin’ it, and I feel like people can sense that, you know what I’m sayin’? It hasn’t been a problem, in all honesty.

Then again, we’re not from Austin, Texas, man; we’re from Brooklyn, New York, which is probably the biggest melting pot in the world, you know, in terms of just a lot of different cultures coming together. Sure there’s beef. If you wanna take it back to grade school, everybody called each other a dumb spic, dumb wop, dumb kike, dumb nigga. We’ve heard all that shit, people that are within my circle. Dumb chink, whatever. It’s all been said, you know what I’m sayin’? But at the end of the day, as adults, as grown men, ain’t nobody steppin’ to me with that shit. That ain’t happenin’. I’ll go AWOL.

JM:How do you feel about Jewish rappers who draw parallels between the respective plights of black and Jewish people in order to appear authentically hip-hop, when in reality, in America today, these two groups stand at opposite ends of the socio-economic spectrum?
IB: I mean, that’s all relative, then. Go to Crown Heights, there’s no divide between blacks and Jews.

JM: But there was in 1991.
IB: No, there was. But you know what? Shit happens. That’s like saying that there’s a divide between Italian-Americans and blacks because some kid got hurt up in Howard Beach. But if you look at the entire Wu-Tang mythology and what was going on within let’s say the last seven years of hip-hop, everybody wants to be an Italian gangster. Where’s the separation? Where’s the beef? Where’s the drama?

JM:Do you think black kids really want to be Italian, or that they just want to be gangsters?
IB: No, because they might also want to be Jewish gangsters. Shit, Vegas was built by Bugsy, Myer Lansky. It’s all tied together. So I just think gangsterism played a part in it.

I think there’s a lot of love/hate relationships, man. And I think that blacks and Jews have had a love/hate relationship throughout American history, and let’s say really within the last 50 or 60 years. And I think at the end of the day there are a lot of similarities. Just the overall struggle in of just being considered a second-class citizen. And not just Jews, we’re talking about the Irish, we’re talking about the Italian-Americans that came here and had to make their bones. 15:30.

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About the writer:

Lucas grew up in a goyish area of Montreal’s West Island where he seriously tore up curbs and rails skateboarding, and listened to hip-hop and rap voraciously. He finished his English Literature degree at Mcgill University in 2003 and is currently enrolled at Concordia University and writes on the side for prestigious publications such as Jewish Mayhem.