It’s not often that a track with Young Bleed and Tech N9ne is going to be completely stolen from a third party, but Brotha Lynch Hung did exactly that with his offering of the final verse on “How Ya’ Do Dat’ Again” from Young Bleed’s debut Strange album Preserved. After many back-and-forths, we had a chance to catch up with the enigmatic MC from Sactown to find out how much of a relief it was for Lynch to be able to spit a verse about something other than guts, cannibalism, and serial killing. Lynch also shared his perspective on his old Priority label mate, Young Bleed.

When was the first time you’ve heard of Young Bleed and what was your impression of him?

Shoot, I was signed with him at Priority with Dave Weiner. That’s the first time I met him and he had the hit song out right there. I was just like, boggled, like “Man this boy spit!”

What do you think of him as an artist and what are your favorite qualities about him as an artist?

That he sticks with what he does and still knows how to make hits. He doesn’t try to sound–a lot of rappers today try to sound like what’s poppin in music today, what people are catching on. For instance, everybody’s catching on to the spitting fast like Tech N9ne does. Everybody’s catching on to it and starting to do it…and I don’t like that, but Young Bleed he does it his way and he stays him.

Where do you think his place is in the history of hip hop? What does he represent and what is his importance?

He’s a legend in the game–straight up! His struggle is what keeps him afloat and everything because he talks about everything like that and I feel the same way too.

How important is he to the movement of Southern hip hop?

Shhhh–like I said, he’s a legend. He holds it up for them, straight up. Lil Wayne got it on the commercial level but I think that Young Bleed is the original pioneer like Scarface to me. That’s how I look at him. He’s very important.

What are your hopes for him now that he’s united with Strange?

I hope just like I hope for me, that we get our props. We’ve been around for a minute, staying on the underground circuit and doing what we gotta do to survive so I hope he gets as big as possible and gets respected as a down South legend.

In my opinion and that of a lot of others, you kind of stole the show with “How You Do Dat Again”. How did that collaboration come about and who’s idea was it to have you on the track?

Well to be honest I wanted to be on it back in the Priority days when it first came out because I loved that song. So when Dave Weiner hit me up and said “Bleed wants you to hop it” I was like “What?! I’ve been wanting to hop on that!” because it was a cut back in the day. I was really amped up to do the song so about time they sent me the beat and stuff–Grrr!–I was already on it!

The track is a departure from your usual sound as of late, how was it to write for that song?

Um, well I’ve been rapping since 1983. I’ve done all the down South beats, I’ve done your New York beats, I’ve done the West Coast beats–I’ve pretty much rapped to everything already. I don’t mean to put my age out there but I rap to any kind of beat. Just as long as the song is a hit–as long as the song sounds hella tight, I could probably do something to it.

Do you think your verse will silence critics that say you can only rap about cannibalism?

What people don’t know is that when I signed with Strange, it was for three albums about being a cannibal, so when me and Strange get together and do this album after this trilogy they’ll see that I can do other things.

What do you think it is about you, Tech, and Bleed that worked so well for the track?

We all got distinctive voices. We don’t have the average, regular, and everyday voice. That with our talents put together makes it happen.

The verse sounded like you were scratching an itch that has been there for awhile, to deliver some verses that aren’t constrained by any concept or anything, to where you could just go. Is that true?

Oh yeah! I’m glad you brought that up. Me doing this three-album thing with Strange that had to be about a serial killer, it’s hard to rap that way and keep a steady storyline–in the timeframe that Strange wants it done [chuckles], you know what I mean? I could do it but Strange, we move fast and that’s what they want for me, so it’s a little harder to stay on-point with those type of raps in the time that it has to be done and keep a storyline–for me.

How did it feel to be able to get behind the mic and just spit?

Ohhh it felt beautiful! If you hear the song you can really hear it in my voice that I was having fun with it.

Definitely, it sounded like you were having a blast.

Thanks man I appreciate that.

So…Mannibalector…

That’s all we can reveal for now but stay tuned for the rest of our interview with Brotha Lynch Hung in which he addresses:

• Mannibalector: How much darker can the Coathanga Strangla trilogy go?
• What happened with the Holloween EP?
• How has sobriety treated him?

Stay tuned for that and much more in the rest of our exclusive interview with Brotha Lynch Hung!