Why'd you move to Detroit?
We left Hollywood cause it's not a good place to raise kids; I have kids, so when I'm in Michigan, I'm just dad.
Your kids don't call you Whipper Whip?
Actually, they do sometimes.
That scene in Wild Style is classic. Do you watch it a lot?
Oh yeah, I know it like the back of my hand. So many people are like, "I got the movie Wild Style!" You can't run away from it.
Do people recognize you?
Usually the reputation precedes me, but yeah... that's what I like about the hiphop culture, all the heads of course won't recognize me cause I look different from then and now, but they hear the name and they're like "Whoa!" They get all excited.
Isn't it amazing? You helped start hiphop, dude.
Yes, it is. I mean, I work a regular job, I've always been a hustler as far as making money, you know; you got a wife and four kids you gotta keep the money comin' in. We're not on tour every few months, we just go out a couple times a year.
Are you pretty happy about how hiphop is basically the most influential music in the world right now?
Yeah, as long as people keep rememberin', you know. I like the part about my suit being exhibited in the EMP. I'd had this outfit since 1983-'84. And I always said that even though that waistline was so many years ago, one day, that outfit's gonna be in a museum; I'm gonna keep it. And I got the call, and EMP gave me $5000 for a suit that I think I paid $35. Now it's encased in glass forever, for years to come. That kinda makes me feel cool.
Do you feel like the stories of the true school have gotten lost?
Aw, heck yeah! There are so many books with all these B.S. stories, so Hollywood, with people filling in their own blanks. I don't know who they do these interviews with, but there's even one book, I think the Source magazine came out with it, and they got Grandmaster Caz, Missy Elliott, Kobe Bryant, and they ain't got no Prince Whipper Whip in there, and I'm like, "Who wrote this bullshit?" You know what I mean? How the fuck you gonna put Caz in there--oh, excuse me for cursing--how do you put Caz's name and not have my name on there? So, I'm like, "So much for your credibility."
