EW caught up with Del the Funky Homosapien a few minutes before he took the stage at Deltron 3030‘s  sold out show (Nov. 22) at WOW Hall.

Was Event II always part of the plan for Deltron 3030 or did it just sort of happen years down the road? And why such a long break between albums?
We kind of always intended on the new one but I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go through with it. With the first one, the touring just wasn’t pleasant for me. I wasn’t able to study the lyrics so I basically free-styled every night the whole show. And the fans liked it but it was hella stressful for me. So that just left a bitter taste in my mouth. I kind of didn’t want to do it again. But I thought about it. And they were patient. They waited for years, you know what I’m sayin’? They gave me the music hella long ago, like years ago. And I kind of just nibbled at it. Ultimately the fans are what made me want to do it because they were raving about it [Deltron 3030]. It really affected a lot of people. So yeah, that’s why I decided to do it and to do it the way I did it. It’s hard though so that’s why it took so long. I had to research to write the shit basically. Then I had to figure out how to fit all that into a 3-minute/4-minute song format. It’s not like writing a novel. It’s a different type of writing. So I just had to figure out how to make it all work. I was checking out other rock operas and shit, you know? See how the classics were done, how they made it work. This isn’t as loose because they’re a lot of lyrics flying by. I think we did a good job.

Could you tell us about your inspirations for writing to this album?
George Orwell and 1984 is probably the main reference point for me for this project and for the rest of the shit that I do too. Pretty much all my artistic output references 1984 just because he and I have the same mindstate about shit. I mean, I read that book in high school but it just stuck with me.

Has this touring experience been better than the last?
Yeah. Hell yeah! I mean, I’m enjoying this shit. But we have it set up to where I can do the lyrics and not be fucking up. So it’s cool. Automator has a different set up. Everybody in the band is hella cool. I get along with everybody really well. They’re all great musicians. The vibe is better. The music … I personally like the music better. I like the lyrics better. I’m starting to get into the songs more as I perform them. Sometimes when you do songs you’re not even thinking about it but with performing these new ones I’m starting to realize myself what the fuck I’m saying.

Do the performances evolve at each show?
It evolves as far as how involved I am with the performance part of it. Because like I said, I’m learning the lyrics more and more every show. At this point I damn near know it all by heart. As far as that goes, the shows are getting better every night. And the band is feeding off me. They’re getting better, knowing the material better. So that allows them to flex a little bit, style a little bit. It’s just a better overall performance. I can tell from the audiences’ reaction. People always was thought it was tight. But motherfuckers was following me from a few of the other shows. I was skating home and folks was following me. And I was like, “Damn?! It’s that great?” Not that I hella mind. I’m just peeping that the vibe is stronger because the shows are getting better.

Well no doubt you are revered by fans and viewed as an influential underground MC? Does that have any affect on you or feel like pressure when you are writing?
I take it all with a grain of salt. I mean, it’s cool. I understand. But I’m not trying to get a super dome or whatever and let it affect me like it really means something. This shit is entertainment. It’s not no big-ass deal. But I understand why people get so fanatical. When you get into something, you’re fanatical about it. Like, I’m kind of that way with skating right now. Every fucking town we go to I get another board. You know what I’m sayin’? I got hella boards now.

I don’t know if you saw the construction but we have a really big skate park underway over between Washington and Jefferson. Just a few blocks from here, really.
That’s tight man. I got a little skate park where I stay at. It’s inside of another park. Kind of far away but when I get tired of riding on gravel and shit or if I really want to practice, I go up there.

What got you into skating? 
’Cause I be around skaters all the time and just finally decided to. I was riding a scooter for years as a means of transportation. Then, I got a caster board. That’s what started me skating. I liked the caster board because it just looked hella fresh. It looked like an anime jousting stick or some shit. You know what I’m sayin’? It just looked hella sick. So I bought the shit and learned how to ride that, which was hella hard. But it looked so fresh and futuristic that I learned how to ride it anyway. And skaters that I was around was kind of clowning me like, “Why you riding that?” I’m like “What’s wrong with it?” They wouldn’t say but just said, “Man, ride a skateboard. Ride something real.” So eventually I said fuck it. And then I found that when I got on a skateboard, it was hella easy after learning the caster board. You know? ’Cause with that you only got two wheels and it spins 360 degrees around … which I thought was tight. So when I hopped on a skateboard it wasn’t shit. But before I was scared to get on a skateboard because I fell down when I was hella young. I was trying to go down a big hill or some stupid shit that I had no business doing even if I knew how to skate. Now it’s not a big deal. The hard part for me is learning how to ollie. That shit is hella hard. I almost got it now but I spend a lot of time practicing. You got to.
But yeah, that’s pretty much how I got into it. It’s just the culture that I’ve been around ever since I was younger. Counter-culture type dudes. After a while I just wanted to try it. It’s hella fun. I take it wherever I go. But I use it mainly as a means of transportation.

Any other Del projects in the works?
Yeah, I’m working on a project with Ladybug Mecca from Digable Planets. It’s called Beat Intellectual Project or Beat Intel Pro for short. That’s pretty much done and the next one out. I’m just trying to get some guest appearances. I think Dan said he wanted to do some production too. Koala wants to do something with it because he liked it when he heard it. That’s the main thing that I’m working on now. So look out for that in 2014.

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