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A Conversation with Del Tha Funkee Homosapien

by Glenn Fullington
10/29/2007

It’s early evening at the Holiday Inn Express in Athens, Ga., and I am standing at the top of six stairs, next to a top-heavy luggage cart with three members of Oakland’s Hieroglyphics.

“Ah, hell no!” exclaimed somebody under their breath.

Loading the cart had already been an ordeal in the parking lot, and the few stairs that block our path seem to mock us. So we backtrack to take a handicapped ramp to the third floor. On the third floor we wait for an elevator, which is too small for all of us even without the group of ladies occupying it already.

“Let’s take the stairs,” I suggest. I follow Del tha Funkee Homosapien and Nobody (yes, everybody calls him that) down the ramp back to the second floor.

We finally make it to the first floor and walk to the very back of the hotel to find that the two double rooms reserved are only singles. Del shrugs it off, as does A-Plus, because they know they will get the beds that night. Nobody, a rookie member of the crew, and Scott, the tour manager, are both taking the fold out couches.

In the hallway I can smell the chlorine from the pool out the back door. I step into room 116 with Del to start the interview. He is carrying two bags, and a small amp that he throws on the bed. I take a seat on Scott’s bed.

Del put out his last solo album, Both Sides of the Brain, in 2000 and since then he says he has been working on musical theory to better his understanding of music.

“I just wanted more control over my career and my future. I didn’t want to be sitting back feeling like I was helpless,” explained the 35 year old artist.

“My whole focus has shifted. I mean, I spent so many years just playing around and then it came to a point in my life where I actually didn’t know what I was doing, what I was going to do next, what my future was going to look like... I was like, 'I better get to work or it’s over,'” Del confesses.

He feared that people were going to think, “He’s actually not talking about nothing, and he actually doesn’t know anything that he is doing.”

“I felt like it was going to show after a while... I figure that the public deserved more, and I deserved more, you feel me?”

So he hit the books and went back to the funk classics that shine through in his earlier works. Del claims that being born in the 70s is a big reason why he has so much funk in his soul.

Del’s hometown of Oakland is also a big influence on the rapper. With lots of “pimpin’ and hoin'” going on, music was a way to stay out of trouble. “It’s kinda cool to people out there, so that’s always been a part of my demeanor, I guess. But you know I wouldn’t say I’m a pimp or nothing like that, but I’ve learned shit from the streets and being around dudes.”

Del’s past collaborations have spanned from tripped out space odysseys to groovy ghoulish rap with a virtual band. But he says that those concept albums are hobbies that he is trying to get away form now. His main goal is to put something out that represents him in reality, not his imagination at play.

That’s what 11th Hour is, Del’s first solo album in seven years. He explains that the album is a better representation of him and his more mature sound stemming from his increased studies in the art of hip-hop, funk and soul. It should be out soon, if not by the end of the year then in the first half of 2008. A DVD of the same name has already been released and is a compilation of live performances and documentary-style accounts of Del’s life.

During the interview I can’t help but see the fatigue in his demeanor. He confesses that he really doesn’t like touring, especially in Europe, although he has to make money somehow. “It’s getting to the point where my health is suffering, and my... my mental stability has been suffering. After a while it all becomes a blur, you know?”

A spark jumped in him when I mentioned working in the studio. “And that’s home for me, so...” I feel that is really where Del thrives, at home, in a more chilled out atmosphere than the cramped hotel room that still smells of chlorine. With recent drama in the female department, Del seems to want his privacy. His new home “right down the block” is solace from his ex-girl. It’s in the cut, away from any passers-by.

I went into this interview somewhat star-struck. Hiero has been a huge influence for me since I first heard Del’s “If You Must” on the Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3 soundtrack. I was pleased to find that Del is very down to earth, if a little stressed. I think the music speaks for itself.

“It’s Del tha Funkee Homosapien, going from town to town to town and just making friends, reach out and shaking hands with the public and they love it.”

From the reactions at the concert later that night, I can attest that they do love it.

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