Saturday Interview

B L A C K I E

Forget Malcolm Gladwell's 10,000-hour rule. B L A C K I E's thinking 40,000.

"You gotta spend 40,000 hours doing something before you become a master at it," says the Houston rapper, real name Michael LaCour, about perfecting his hard-banging noise-rap. "I don't think words do justice to how much time I spend doing this shit. I fucking sat in one room for days, didn't eat, and lost 20 pounds programming stupid-ass shit just to make it sound cool."

In October, B L A C K I E's mad-scientist debut, True Spirit and Not Giving a Fuck, loosened an 18-minute street riot ready-made for an old Peavey 4x12.

"I'd been making beats I wanted to put into a punk song," B L A C K I E remembers. "I'd speed the beats up, and it wouldn't sound right. Since I was a fucking teenager, I'd hang with these kids and listen to Black Flag. Then I'd go hang out with other kids and smoke weed and listen to Cypress Hill."

Both took – or maybe neither. These days, B L A C K I E stands alone.