by Contributor

Octopizzo had planned to release an album every year on August 8th, a pattern that he started with his last album, LDPC. Unfortunately, this year he’s been a caught up assisting the United Nations with the refugees crisis in Kakuma. Pizzo says that he hasn’t really been able to put together an album although he did promise to release something of the 23rd of August.

That release was his new video for Utanisho, (slang for what can you tell me?) a song that many feel was taking shots at Khaligraph Jones. I think he definitely did. He starts off by saying some rappers are still releasing cyphers (I assume he's referencing The Khaligraph Jones Cypher Presents...) and from my interview with him where he mentions the same cypher, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to join the dots.

Earlier in the month, soon after the release of his latest track Butere which is a celebration of the Western culture and initiation of young boys into adulthood through traditional circumcision, I caught up with him to discuss a couple things, starting off with a QnA session from fans.

On Butere, he says the idea actually came from video director Enos Olik and his fear of releasing the track because it was something totally different from what he usually does so he wasn’t sure if the fans were going to embrace it.

He also talks charging for features, working with the female artists in the game, how he met Vicmass Luodollar and how the hit song Bank Otuch Remix came into existence.

He talks beef in the rap game and how “everybody out there beefs with me. I don’t have that time” He also airs his opinion on Khaligraph, saying that he’s always taking jabs at him and how he’s on such a higher level than Khali is because he [Octopizzo] has performed abroad while Khaligraph hasn’t.

Octopizzo also speaks on a possible collaboration with Kristoff and on family life, how different he is from his parents as a father now, how tough love from his folks shaped him as a person (he had lost them both by the time he was 15 years), getting his siblings out of Kibera and re-uniting them after not seeing any of them for seven years, between the period of 2003 and 2010.

He airs his opinion on what he terms “cheap rappers”and how they aren’t strict enough.

On a lighter note, he talks his favorite meal by his wife, exotic locations for vacation with her, what he drinks these days, the kind of car he drives (and since he used to fix cars before his rap career kicked off, does he fix his own?)

We wrap up the interview with the million dollar question (literally, I might add): How much money do you make?