As we head deeper into the last quarter of 2016, the “Best/Top Album” lists naturally begin forming. Although I wait until the shiny ball drops in Times Square to officially lock in my picks (#CarlitasCuts), one album in that convo will be Statik Selektah and KXNG Krooked’s ‘Statik KXNG’. One half of the duo, East Coast jack of many trades Statik Selektah’s stacked discography includes other legendary collabos with artists like DJ Khaled, Action Bronson, Talib Kweli, KRS-One and Large Professor, to name a few. Being an on-air host on Eminem’s Shade 45 show on Sirius XM for well over a decade, adds to an already impressive storied career.

I luckily connected with him earlier this year at SXSW to discuss the untimely loss of labelmate, Duck Down’s beloved Sean Price and the unreleased material they were working on at the time of his death, his connection with Joey Bada$$ (if you’ve been to Joey’s shows, you’ve seen it onstage and he produced one of my fav songs of 2015 “No.99”), his most prized records, working with Q-Tip, DJ Premier, Freeway, and Styles P, what we’d be surprised to know and sharing stages with Nas, Kanye and Snoop. Listen to the interview clips BELOW and like and follow Statik HERE and HERE.