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Maino has lived enough lives in this game to understand that surviving Hip-Hop can be just as significant as succeeding in it.
The Brooklyn rapper-slash-podcaster emerged nationally in the late 2000s after years of grinding independently, eventually breaking through with “Hi Hater.” And then he stuck gold with the T-Pain-assisted “All the Above.” His debut album, If Tomorrow Comes…, arrived in 2009 and it’s been way up ever since. More than 15 years later, Maino is still making music, but his definition of success has expanded. A lot.
These days, he is one-fourth of Let’s Rap About It, alongside Fabolous, Jim Jones and Dave East, where conversations about Hip-Hop, relationships and more routinely become viral clips. This includes an overabundance of trolling.
In an exclusive conversation with AllHipHop’s Slops, Maino talked about the podcast rumors, why Kitchen Talk is finished, the changing standards of Hip-Hop, internet lies, fatherhood, marriage and why he believes his ability to survive multiple eras makes him a proverbial national treasure.
AllHipHop: You hit us with the “RIP Let’s Rap About It.” What was that?
Maino: We just talking and trolling and having fun, man. We playing into things. You know where that really came from? We shot that episode when we went to the Hamptons. This summer we were doing this outside series where we left our set and started moving around different places.
We went to a vineyard in the Hamptons, and in that episode it was a lot being said. I was like, “Oh man, we over. They gonna cancel us. RIP Let’s Rap About It.”
AllHipHop: When people see those headlines, they immediately think there’s friction.
Maino: I like that, though. I like the fact that they so tuned in that even when they see me in the street, they be like, “Yo, what’s good? Yo, it’s really over?”
AllHipHop: What have you learned working every week with three other legendary New York rappers?
Maino: The thing is, we already was working together. We already was debating in the studios and in the gym. The relationship that you see had already been cultivated a long time ago.
You just seeing it on camera. Me and Jim been debating about Harlem and Brooklyn and who started this first for years. That’s why the podcast comes across the way it does. It’s not like we just got up one day and said, “Hey, you want to shoot a podcast?” and didn’t know each other. The relationship was already developed.
AllHipHop: Can we expect Kitchen Talk to come back?
Maino: Nah. No more Kitchen Talk. We did Kitchen Talk. We got up to like 70-something episodes.
Everything is not meant to be forever. You do certain things, you learn from it, and then you do something else. Shout out to Kitchen Talk because it helped us in that time. When we started, we were still on quarantine. It was Kitchen TalkSundays at my house. Everybody was coming to my house. I got the chef over there. It was a party every Sunday.
It was a vibe. We did that. Now we moving on to different things.
AllHipHop: Your annual Maino Day is also about giving back. Why was that important?
Maino: The city actually gave me the day. We had the ceremony for it. I got the citation commemorated. But I wanted to do something really special for the community. I didn’t want to just have a day and run around like, “I got a day in my name.”
That wasn’t good enough to me.
Every year on my mother’s birthday, we gonna give back. We gonna inspire. We gonna bring things to the hood. We bringing rides for the kids, school supplies, health resources. It’s always a stage out there for the up-and-coming hungry artists that need some shine.
It ain’t about me at all. It’s about resilience. What I represent is never giving up. No matter how we started, how bumpy that road was, you still can figure it out.
AllHipHop: After all these years, you can still go back to the trenches in Brooklyn and get that embrace. How does that feel?
Maino: That was always important for me, to still be somewhat connected to the community. It’s one thing to be able to pull yourself out, but then you still want to inspire others to do the same.
Somebody can look and be like, “Damn, I watched Maino standing around on Gates, shooting videos on Gates, to him going on BET and TV, to him coming back and doing Maino Day and doing big things.”
I feel good being able to do that.
You’ll see me on any random day. People stop me like, “Yo, I came out here to visit and I never thought I would run into you in Brooklyn on a random Friday.” I like to pull up and pop out sometimes.
AllHipHop: Where is music on your priority list now?
Maino: I’m always gonna do music. I’m gonna do music until I’m 175 years old just because I like to do it.
But the greatest thing about now is that I got so many other things that music is not my one and only. The times that we living in, I feel like it’s more about brand building.
I’m not just a rapper. I don’t even want to be pigeonholed into that. I’m not just a podcaster. Overall, I’m a brand. I’m trying to increase my value in that way.
When people look at me, they be like, “Oh, that’s Maino,” whether I got a song or don’t have a song. I don’t want to be based on something that’s trendy.
AllHipHop: When did you realize it was bigger than music?
Maino: When I was down and the music wasn’t working.
The music wasn’t working, but I still had a good name. People would still be like, “Yo, but you good.” I was trying to chase after what I did early on. “I just need another hit. I just need this. I need that.”
Those things are not always gonna be obtainable when you want them. You got to figure out other things.
AllHipHop: Do you think all the branding and other opportunities have hurt the actual music?
Maino: You got to think about the game as a whole. Technology made it where anybody could just be an artist.
There’s no standard.
Music is the only thing where you could just be. I can’t just be a professional football player. I can’t just be a lawyer. There’s steps. There’s schooling. There’s a standard that you have to reach.
Music ain’t like that.
You might have 4,000 followers and wake up one day and feel like, “Yo, you know what? I’m lit. I’m making me a record tomorrow. I’m a rapper.”
You can just say you’re a rapper. You can’t just say you’re a professional basketball player. You can’t just say you’re a certified plumber. You have to earn those things and reach a certain standard.
Before, when we seen a rapper, we wasn’t seeing them all the time. It was like, “Oh my God, this is Big Daddy Kane. This is Rakim.” It felt like if you had a record deal, that meant you were really good enough to have that.
Now it’s too accessible.
AllHipHop: On “Rumors,” you addressed the darker side of YouTube and people constantly bringing up stories about your past. Does that stuff bother you?
Maino: That’s what “Rumors” was. Shout out to my man Hustle Hard Gotti. He gave me the idea. He said, “Talk about all the lies and all the made-up s###. You say it.”
I thought it was an ingenious idea.
You can’t hurt me with some s### that’s never been proven, never been found to be true. If you say it and another n#### is repeating it, that’s just noise. But once I take it and say, “N####, this is what you n##### are saying about me,” it takes the power away from it.
I don’t want to spend time addressing that because it doesn’t need to be addressed. I don’t have to correct things all my life.
What I learned now is all that s### is just content-driven for n##### to monetize their pages. Go ahead and eat. Earn your money the way you want to earn it.
AllHipHop: You’ve always said the underworld is small enough that it only takes a phone call or two to find out who somebody really is.
Maino: Anybody that knows me understands me. I don’t have to try to portray nothing. I’ve been the exact same person from the day that I stepped in here.
I’ve always been respected. Boy, I was respected 30 years ago. This didn’t start with music. I had a name before these n##### even knew what was going on.
I’m a survivor of eras.
I’m a national treasure, n####. Let me tell you why. I’m a n#### that survived eras. When it was time to put my suit on, it was on. When it was time for me to perform, I did that. When it was time for me to do what I needed to do, I did that.
I took my losses and I earned my stripes.
Bottom line, I should be preserved. I am a national f###### treasure. I’m a survivor, for a fact.
AllHipHop: The podcast can go viral for the wild stuff, but you guys also talk about fatherhood and real life. How do you balance that?
Maino: We talk about a lot of real things. We talk about fatherhood. We talk about family. But we know the world we live in is more drama-based.
We understand that some of the low-vibrational things are what people are going to hang on to. I’m the type of n#### that always likes to throw in little jewels, things people can take from in the midst of all that.
Sometimes you got to come to the people as the people. You come to them on a level they understand, and then you throw little things in there as you go.
It’s balance, bro.
I watched Fab get up and take his kids to school for years. People don’t even know that about him. He gets up every morning and takes his kids to school.
Those are the things I always thought were admirable about men like us. Balancing the ups and downs of trying to be in this game, the scars that we’re going to get in this life, but still being there for our kids.
AllHipHop: Since we’re talking about growing up, do you ever plan on settling down?
Maino: It’s happening. It’s happening. We getting married.
AllHipHop: You engaged?
Maino: I didn’t say I was engaged! It’s gonna happen, though. Eventually, we gonna get there, man.
AllHipHop: Give me your top five alive from Brooklyn.
Maino: No particular order. Hov, Biggie, Kane, Fab and Kim.
AllHipHop: All stars.
Maino: We gonna do it for the hood.
