Temple Hills, MD - If you don’t know the name, you know the voice, and if you don’t know the voice, then turn on your radio and meet Bear Witnez.  One word accurately describes Bear Witnez: confident.  And why not, with virtually no help, BW has a hit single bumping on radio stations up and down the East coast.  His gritty, hypnotic, “I’m a Hustler” has people talking and haters stalking.  I had a bunch of questions to ask BW after he got off stage, but one of them he answered in the middle of his energetic performance.  What does he do when something goes wrong on stage?  He keeps it moving.  Right in the middle of his number one song, the music cut off and BW didn’t miss a beat.  He kept flowing, getting the crowd to clap along to replace the misfiring speakers.  And you know what, it worked.  If I can say anything about this man, he is a professional if there ever was one.  He’s also a student of the craft.  When we sat down and started talking, I soon became acutely aware that he’s more than just a rapper.  The way he broke down the intricacies of hip-hop, one could easily argue that Bear is the professor of the rap game.  One thing he’s not is shy.  This had to be one of my most enjoyable interviews because of how sincere he was in his abilities and where he’s headed.

33: How did you get the name Bear Witnez?
Bear Witnez: Actually, it was an epiphany.  God gave me that name.  I don’t even remember what my rap name was before Bear Witnez.  I was riding around with one of my boys, smoking, trying to figure out what I wanted to call myself, and it just hit me.  And to break it down, rapping is an animal instinct.  It’s not something I ever wanted to do - I never tried.  It was something I was just blessed with.  So I figured if I was any animal I would probably be a bear.  Not to be conceited, but I’m too cute to be a gorilla.  Bears are cuddly and cute when they’re small, but if you piss ’em off they’ll tear you apart.  So a bear is a good animal for me.  Just my voice, everything, it commands a certain amount of attention, it commands your ear.

33: What’s been your biggest challenge coming into the game?
BW: Timing really, ‘cause I’m one of the most talented people in the game.  But it’s all about timing, ‘cause it doesn’t matter how good you are.  Unfortunately with rap, it’s the one industry where how good you are doesn’t matter.  It’s all about your opportunity window, ‘cause the opportunity will eventually knock, but you gotta be awake to make sure you answer that door.

33: What is your ultimate goal - money, success? 
BW: My ultimate goal is to be president of the United States, but I know my background will probably inhibit that, ‘cause I actually wanna change things.  I’m not just being cliché with it.  This is before Barack.  I’m pissed Barack won because I actually wanted to be the first black president, [laughs] but it’s cool.  But I just wanna change the world because I actually think there’s a lot of good that gets overshadowed by the bad, and there’s a lot of good people who do bad things.  I’m one of ’em.  Unfortunately, the way this game is rigged, you kind of gotta play dirty to live.  But outside of that, yeah, I wanna a sell a million records.  But I don’t want just some ring tone career.  I don’t wanna make a hundred million dollars off one song.  I’d rather go gold ten times, you know what I mean, than have one album that sells ten million.  ‘Cause as you can see, I’ve got a lot to say, I can’t get it all out in one record.

33: Are you under a label?
BW: Naw, everything is just an army of two, me and my man DJ Money.  I gotta bunch of affiliates and a bunch of friends who wanna see me win, so I get a lot done.  But truth be told, people are surprised that my team is just me and one dude, DJ Money, that’s it.

33: So how did you get “I’m a Hustler” to become such a hit if you don’t have a label?
BW: ‘Cause the one thing I’ve learned is some things are undeniable.  You can play politics all you want, but I think politics are for a substandard product.  If you’ve got a substandard product, then you need politics to help push your shit through.  If you’ve got a hot record, it’s undeniable.  And I feel like my music is so pure, I’m so real, I’m not real just by the hip-hop definition of real, I’m an artist for real, you know what I mean?  I feel like that just comes through in my music.  I try to just make the best record I can make.  I don’t follow no formula, I don’t go into the studio and say, 'Oh, I need a beat that sounds like six-foot, seven-foot,' or 'I need someone singing on my hook that sounds just like Trey Songz, ‘cause you fail that way.  I believe you just go in and put your heart into your music.  And at the end of the day you just gotta be cool, man, you gotta be a cool dude because you could be a real hip-hopper, but sometimes you don’t win ‘cause you just not cool.  You gotta be a cool dude that people wanna gravitate to, people wanna get to know.

33: What are some of the traps of success?  Is it true - more money, more problems?
BW: Truth be told, as long as you alive you’re gonna have problems.  So it seems like it doesn’t matter.  I’ve actually been blessed to be on both sides of the fence.  I’ve been dirt poor and I’ve had cake, and it's problems with both.  But I’d much rather be rich and have problems.

33: How long have you been rapping?
BW: Aw man, since Rakim started.  First rap album I ever heard was Rakim, I got sold.  And I actually started rapping a couple of weeks after that.

33: How do you feel about music today?  Is hip-hop still hip-hop, or is it something else?
BW: Being that I came from that Rakim era, that’s where I really started with hip-hop.  It’s easy to get caught up with that.  I feel like my parents sometimes when they listen to jazz, and they say, ‘Oh, this new jazz ain’t jazz.’  It still is.  Times change, people change, and music changes with it.  Truth be told, it’s really a big situation, because hip-hop started being a secret society.  It was something that only a select few were supposed to be involved in, it was the enlightened, the voice of the enlightened.  It kind’ve got out of control when money came into the situation.  And once people started going gold, now you’ve sold your private society your secret society.  You sold it, and you basically put your mom and pop business on open market.  And now that everyone’s going into it, you can’t get mad at the direction it’s going because it’s not your baby anymore -  you gave it away.

33: What’s next for Bear Witnez?  How can fans find your music?
BW: The album is WitneZwinterEP, February 1, 2011.  Late March, early April, Beware is the full-length album, that’s what “I’m a Hustler” is on.  And you can get that at BearWitnez.BandCamp.com.  BearWitnez.com coming soon.

By Correspondent: Michael Cohen

Michael Cohen catapulted into this world via the Lone Star State during the cute baby shortage of ’78, and thus ended the crisis.  He then went on the military brat world tour, laying his hat down in Japan, Alaska, Florida, Virginia, and now watches the sun set in Washington D.C.  He’s been known to mumble in his sleep “I’m hip-hop ‘til I die.”  With a passion for arts and entertainment, Michael has produced his own public access television show, has been beaten up as a small time hustler on HBO’s “The Wire,” and writes screenplays in his spare time.

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