The infamous Bela Nagy has yet again scored an wicked interview spanning the shaky bridge between hip-hop and metal…

Q-Unique aka Capital Q is quite a legendary name in the indie hip-hop world. Hailing from Brooklyn and The Bronx, the MC/producer is in a tumultuous period now. He just released the second solo record Between Heaven & Hell and –the readers of Metal Israel might already know- he is about to put out the debut LP of his rock/metal influenced group with Fieldy of KoRn.

Metal Israel: First of all, this is mainly a metal related magazine.  We are about to cover all of your musical projects, but at first let’s focus on your group with Fieldy of Korn, called StillWell. Introduce a bit, how the whole project came together…

Q-Unique: About 5 years ago, we were introduced by a mutual friend, the president of Tribal Clothing, when we 1st met we did our 1st song the same day, it was the “Killing Myself to Live” song, but that song is very different from what we do now with StillWell, the band is a full on rock band, and I, as the lead vocalist sing, so its very different from what I do with the Q-Unique brand of music.

Metal Israel: Fieldy is definitely one of the top bass-players nowadays. How much did he influence you back in the day and what does it mean to you to work with him?

Q-Unique: Well it was more of the insight that he gave me and the inspiration to go beyond what I normally do, in StillWell he is actually the lead guitar player, so it puts both of us in a place where we are doing different things than what people expect of us, and we grew together as musicians.

Metal Israel:The music I heard so far is something not easy to put in a box (and this is a good thing). Hip-hop, metal, hardcore – all in one package. How could you describe your music?

Q-Unique: We call it Street Metal, its describes the 2 different worlds where we come from, but like I said, the song that’s on Youtube was done about 4 years ago, before we had any direction for the band. Now we have a sound and a direction.

Metal Israel: Some of the readers might know, but at the first place you are a well-known and respected MC from New York City for mad years. First as a group member of the legendary The Arsonists, then a solo artist. Whats the main difference in your writing style in StillWell and when you do the straight hip-hop thing?

Q-Unique: It’s 2 different mindstates, but being with StillWell and working with Fieldy has brought a different thinking process to how I approach music. With both Q-Unique & StillWell, I’m in a place where I want to make good songs, in the past, with hip-hop, at times I just wanted to say great things about myself, but it’s very different now.

Metal Israel: This month you dropped your new solo album “Between Heaven & Hell”. The title sounds really hard. Tell about this material…

Q-Unique: The material is dark, almost in the same vein as grunge rock, very personal and emotional and very realistic with sharing life experiences, almost like Alice in Chains for hip-hop.

Metal Israel: As a lyricist what did you try to accomplish with this LP?

Q-Unique: I wanted to speak more about life experiences and things that I find necessary to speak about, real life issues.

Metal Israel: How would you compare to your last album “Vengeance Is Mine”?

Q-Unique:Vengeance has ½ of what I did on this album as far as sharing life experiences and telling true to life stories, I think Vengeance was a more angrier album, a lot of fire in my thoughts.

Metal Israel: You always operate with diverse flows in each track, keeping’ it fresh. How do you expand your word power, train yourself to be better and better? Do you read a lot?

Q-Unique: Ill Bill is the one that made me challenge myself when it comes to coming up with new flows. When we worked on Vengeance he would always push the best out of me. I do read a lot, and I read anything from real serious non-fiction books to comic books. I love to read.

Metal Israel: Besides Korn, what are the main metal/rock/hardcore groups that influenced you and what part did these styles play in your life?

Q-Unique: I’m a big grunge rock fan, Alice in Chains, Nirvana, Sound Garden, Pearl Jam. Other metal includes Korn (of course) Slipknot, Down, Audioslave, Rage Against the Machine, Madball, Sick of it all, and of course the great Metallica.

Metal Israel: What’s your life-creed or philosophy?

Q-Unique: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

Metal Israel: At the end of the interview, share your plans and/or anything you feel important…

Q-Unique: We are almost done with the StillWell album, I know a lot of people have heard me say that a lot, we just really had to find our path, and we finally did, we recorded a lot of songs over the years which is a good thing because we needed to build as a band and try different things in order to get where we are. As far as Q-Unique, the album is in stores now…just go to q-unique.com and it will navigate you to where you want to go as far as Q-Unique is concerned. Thank you!