For Lil Joe Posorski, the comparisons have just fueled him
to succeed.
I sat down with Lil’ Joe right before the “Long Road Home”
Tour with Josh “Handz Onn” Russell. The tour, which hit several states, was a
success, allowing Lil Joe to get his music to a whole brand new audience.
And now, the sky is the limit for Lil Joe. And as far as the
comparisons go, he is not too worried about them.
After all, he is Lil Joe, Dammit.
What is going on in your career right now?
I am actually working on THREE new albums. One of them is
with Mr. King that is One Night Engagement”. Another one I haven’t named yet,
but it is going to be a compilation of me and other artists. All of the
proceeds from that will be going to the “It Gets Better” Project. The project
is designed to stop teen gay and lesbian suicides. I believe that is a really
good cause to benefit, so the proceeds from that album will go to the project.
Let’s talk about the “Long Road Home” Tour.
It’s a tour where Josh “Handz Onn” Russell is headlining.
There is me, SQ, and Snake Eyez. And we are going to be going around thru a few
different states. Right now we have Wisconsin booked; we have got some show in
Ohio and West Virginia. We are also trying to book shows in Indiana, and a
couple of other places. It is going to be a weeklong event, and it is going to
be one show every night; it should be a good time.
What is the reasoning behind the tour?
Handz Onn hit me up one day and said that I haven’t been
back home to West Virginia in a long time and no one there has really heard my
music or seen my live out there. So let’s do it. And I said ok.
Let’s talk about Last Trac?
It’s a clothing line I started about seven years ago. We did
three or four different seasons with it, and then it kind of fell off for a
while. I am actually going to start producing new clothing soon. It was
t-shirts, pants, hats, and it did fairly well. We had it in few stores here.
When did you first fall in love with music?
I have always loved music. I can’t ever remember a time when
I didn’t love music. When I was younger, I would take songs and remake the
words into the way I wanted to as they were on the radio. I really started
getting into it myself in high school when I was in the choir classes. My
sophomore year, I made my first song. It was horrible, and I have it on my
website somewhere. I have it out there for everyone to listen to in case I want
to see the progression. I recorded it because I was going to go do a talent
show for Kiss-FM. Failed that miserably to. I just kinda stood there frozen.
Who are some of your musical influences?
That is a really good question. I am actually influenced by
all music. I can’t really pin down who I am influenced by because I listen to
everything. Any song can just spark me. That is usually how it is. When I write
the depressing songs, I have listened to country. Depending on what song I
write, that could tell you what I have been listening too.
Describe YOUR music.
Most of my recent music has been kind of a mix between hip
hop and pop. Hip-hop, pop and dance. But I like to have some real heart-felt
music in there as well. Some REAL stuff. My albums kind of clash with each other.
I will have real high energy music, and then I will have real mellow kind of
real music. There is not a whole lot of in between.
Name an artist, alive or dead, that you would want to do a song
with?
I want to do a song with T-Pain so bad. I don’t know why,
but it is one of those things where he has a LOT of talent. A lot of people say
‘oh, he does the autotune thing’, but I have heard him sing without it. He has
a lot of talent. He CREATED the autotune movement, so in my opinion he is the
only one that should be allowed to use it. In ALL of his songs. Dead, I was
working on something with MC Breed, and we didn’t get to finished it before he
passed away. I was working a joint tour with him.
One song that describes your life?
{Long pause} That is a good question. You know, it’s funny.
Off the top of my head, I can’t think of anyone else’s songs that describe my
life in whole. I have made some of my own. I have got a song called “On My Own”
and it describes a lot of my life.
As a fan, what was your first concert?
Alabama at Country USA. IT was a good show too.
You are making a mix tape of your all-time favorite songs. What is
the first song on it and why?
“Take Your Shirt Off” by T-Pain. There is just something
about it. Every time I hear it, I just want to get up and start moving. It
grabs me. It is the way the vocal are on the beat.
What are some of the good things, in your mind, about the music
scene in this area?
There used to be a lot of really good things in the area for
music. And we are trying to bring those good things back. I think a lot of
people have lost focus with what they were trying to do. When I started doing
this, there wasn’t a whole lot of hip hop out here and I was doing it for fun.
I got one of the first venues in Kaukauna to do a hip-hop show. Handz Onn has
some things going on, and Spotlight was doing their own thing. Really there were
only four people doing it. I moved to Florida and when I came back, it seemed
like no one was trying to work together anymore. One of the good things that is
starting to happen is people are starting to work together again.
Why do you think people DON’T want to work together?
People have developed big heads. Everyone is trying to be
the rapper, and no one is trying to be the entertainer. My song “It’s a Shame”
stems from true events. I was coming up here to do my album release party, and
while I was up here I wanted to get on a couple more show besides the album
release party. And when I called up some of the artists around here that had
shows booked but weren’t full, I basically got told to take a hike, for lack of
better words. They basically told me to fuck off.
What are some of the things that need to be improved about the music
scene?
I really think people need to take a look at what they are
doing. Most of the rappers that are out here, the entertainers, they have never
left the area. They have never done a show outside of, maybe as far as Chicago.
They don’t know what it’s like further away. They don’t deserve to have a big
head. I have done all that, but I don’t have a big head. I have been all over
the country, and I have performed with some really awesome people, and I still
like to work with everybody.
Best performance you ever gave?
{Long pause} You know it’s bad when nothing sticks out. Some
of my better shows have been at ET’s Dogg Pound in Kaukauna.
Worst show you ever did?
I did a show called Local Fest. It was in Kiel. It was at
Snake Eyes. It was in the middle of nowhere. He had some property, so he set up
a stage, set up some sound and it was basically an outside party. A couple of
fans of mine made the drive from Kaukauna to Kiel and decided to bring me a
show president of a bottle of vodka and Red Bull. My friend poured a drink that
was 90% vodka and a splash of Red Bull. By the time I hit the stage, about 3
hours and 2 drinks later, I couldn’t remember any of my English lyrics. The
only thing I could remember was my stuff in Italian. My 30 minute set turned
into me talking on stage.
Your first time on stage, you got the inevitable comparisons to
Eminem and Vanilla Ice. Tell me about that.
It was that talent show I talked about earlier. I was doing
a song called “Unity”. The song talks about everyone needing to stop fighting
and we need to come together. I had to be the first people up there and I was
nervous. I had never been on stage before, never performed one of my song
before. It was the first song I wrote. I started the performance, and I just
stood there. I wasn’t even rapping at the time; I was just talking on the beat because
I was so nervous. A couple of dudes out in the crowd were like “you are just an
Eminem wannabe!” Which I thought was funny.
When all this is said and done and the career of Lil Joe is at its
end, what do you want people to say about you?
I want them to say when they saw me, they had fun. That they
had a good time. I do this to entertain people. So, if I am not entertaining
people when they come to my shows, there is no point in me doing this. That is
all I really need for them to think.
