As my persistence to tell the story of the Hip-Hop Cops increased, my “fixers” — Steve Lobel and Pistol Pete, delivered on their promise to secure me interview subjects.

What sounded good in theory, was in reality far different, as their strategy was to merely accost artists and executives pretty much anywhere—at studios, at parties, concerts, on the street, back alleys—they even spotted Kanye West at an album release party and convinced him to do an interview in the back of the club’s kitchen.

In true Kanye fashion he gave me a great sound byte, even though I was only able to ask him one question. Here is his response to me asking him about the scrutiny that the police had on the industry. This was polo Kanye, College Dropout Kanye… but still it was Kanye in the back of a kitchen….

I was trying to tackle racial issues, but my execution was off—it was sloppy.

I just had to grab anything I could from the celebrities as it was rare to get an actual sit-down interview.

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