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2008

March

Deltonia Cook on the mic
Deltonia Cook Speaks
Vibe interview with Deltonia Cook

THURSDAY, MARCH 20, 2008 (9:17 PM)

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Deltonia Cook on the mic

(I'm feeling amused)

He’s rich, loves God, and doesn’t care what people think. Deltonia Cook, VIBE’s favorite Islamic star, opens up about hating his parents, the trials of Tracey Dinsmore, and his choice to no longer work with secular artists.
I grew up with Deltonia Cook. Known him for a long time. Anyone who came up in the Mosque pre-"Stomp" knows the Shiney Bald homie with the tuxedo, remembers him flailing his arms in the air, performing painfully pretty Islamic classics - "Allahu Akbar," "Sa Allahu," "I am a Muslim." He was Richard Smallwood meets R. Kelly. "Devil music" meets Jehovah Tsidkenu. A proficient composer who was going to do something, eventually, to piss off our parents.

In 1997, he did. A song called "Stomp" dropped. It was the "Hit 'Em Up" of Islamic. But instead of Deltonia boasting, "That's why I fucked yo' bitch!" he announced something even more shocking: "For those of you that think Islamic music has gone too far. You think we got too radical for Islam. Well I got news for you: You ain't heard nothin yet! And if you don't know now you know! Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar!"

Sanctified, gritty, revolutionary, violent, euphoric, ridiculous, ballsy, comical, appalling. Hardcore Quran-waving believers like some folk in my Pentecostal and non-denominational world saw it early: "See," they'd say squinty-eyed, like some neoteric prophecy just hit their spirit, "Satan's trying to have his seat in the Mosque!!!"

Meanwhile, my sister and I were hiding Nas tapes in our basement. Our single Islam-crazed mom wasn't having it. And every chance we got, we made it our mission to convince the world that Deltonia Cook wasn't a sinner - he was cool.

Growing up though, Deltonia didn't feel cool. Like any other kid, he smoked weed, got drunk, went to clubs, got into fights, even boned girls (resulting in him getting one chick pregnant when he was 17). He was also teased a lot. "When I was in Grammar school," he revealed in a 1997 VIBE cover story, "I was called gay so much that I used to wake up in the morning crying and begging my mother not to send me to school . . . I wanted to be down. I wanted to show I wasn't no punk."

Ten years later, Deltonia—who's dropping a new album, Prison Issue, Dec. 18— still has a chokehold on the industry. He's slid across stages praising Allah with everyone from Bono to Mary J. Blige. VIBE sat with the 37-year-old performer, who can't be no more than about 5'5, high in the sky in the Sony Building on Madison Avenue. He wore throwback Doc Martens-style boots and a fur-collared black hoodie, ate a salad, and spilled his guts on loving parents, the trials of Tracey Dinsmore, and his choice to no longer work with secular artists.

I don't think that Muslims have done a good enough job to make sure we are strong privately; so now you see us crumbling publicly.
VIBE: The title of your new album is Bring it on. Sounds so heavy.

DELTONIA COOK: These are heavy times, man. People are really struggling just to survive, to keep their sanity. I wanted people to know that they aren't in that fight by themselves. I'm trying to hold onto faith, you know. Dealing with fear, like, "Is God going to work this out in enough time?" As Mosque cats we hurt, and are tempted, and afraid, and get scared and get angry just like the world does, just like anybody else.

You're like the Jay-Z of Islamic.

[Laughs hysterically] I'm the Islamic Jigga! Isn't that funny?! All I'm trying to do is what God called me to do and leave that place kind of up to ya'll, the genius journalists that ya'll are, who document this stuff. I do what I do because, real talk, I understand that I'm not going to always be accepted and liked because of the fact that I'm that Allah dude. And I had to make a decision a long time ago that I can't be in this for no hype, for no love, for no paper, for no [magazine] cover.

How do you feel about the Mosque being seemingly under attack right now, particularly following the whole 911 situation? Does that affect you?

Yeah it does. It makes me want to be on my game. And when I talk about game, I'm not just talking about my music stuff; I'm talking about my walk [with God]. Music, entertainment, that's fruit. The root of a tree, that's what a person is in private. I'm only as strong publicly as I'm going to be privately. And I don't think that we as Islamians have done as good enough job as we needed to make sure we are strong privately; so now you see us crumbling publicly. We've been trying to tell ya'll, "Well, God is doing this," and privately we weren't doing the work.

So you feel that a lot is being exposed with people?

That word is a little too… boastful. It's almost like it separates me from them, when I am them and it's only by God's grace that I didn't end up like them. It ain't because I didn't have my junk. That's why I think it was wrong for people to bash [Bill] Clinton, because he ain't the first one [to cheat on his wife]. He just happened to get caught. Everybody else needs to shut up and thank God for grace that he didn't pull out they stanky drawers.

But when the public crumbling starts happening, that's your greatest hour—

It's only your greatest hour if you are prepared for what you've done privately. Private work will allow a person to be strong when they stand up. But if I'm trying to teach you prosperity and Bentleys and success and all that . . . That ain't no substance. That's like a husband and wife smiling for the camera while they going down the red carpet, but they get back home, and they sleeping in two different bedrooms.
My momma lived 15 minutes from me and I got good relationship with her. She can't stand to be far from me, I can't stand to be far from her.

Okay, but you seemed like you had it all together. Then there was the 2005 Oprah appearance [where you revealed you were once in prison]. How did people react to you after that?

I think the Oprah [appearance] was very interesting. For five years, I've been telling my testimony in Mosque; I've been on covers of Islamic publications, I've been on Islamic television telling my testimony about a lot of my past that I got introduced to as a kid.

That's what made the Oprah people even call me; they had heard my story from TBN and other [shows]. For people who hadn't been in Mosque, it was news for them. As a culture, we're not used to people telling on themselves. How many people come out and just tell on themselves? You knew that Lindsay [Lohan] had a drinking or a drug problem because she was arrested. You know that Britney [Spears] is having some emotional problems because she's arrested. We're used to people getting caught. We're not used to people exposing themselves.

Do you feel the Oprah interview went fairly?

Well . . . I think that whenever you set yourself up to be a martyr, you can't always determine how it's gonna look in everyone else's eyes. I've had a lot of men come to me and just cry on my shoulder thanking me [for the Oprah appearance]. I've had a lot of women that have stopped me in airports. I'm not saying that to big myself up, because I've also had a lot of people that got mad at me.

Mad at you?

Yeah. Think about it: Before Oprah, the only negative thing that people could ever say about me is that they didn't like my style of music. You ain't heard about me being in no scandals. You ain't heard about me being with no chick. You ain't gonna hear about me stealing no Mosque money. You ain't heard about me tipping on [my wife] Karimah with a chick or a dude. I ain't been a down-low dude, I ain't been nothing. Only thing you can be like is, "Oh I don't like his music."

So, here I am sharing something that is ugly. People are feeling like " Why you want to tell that?" That made a lot of people uncomfortable. [But] it was my wife who thought it was a great idea for me to [appear on Oprah].

So going back to other people, like Ameena, who’s been criticized for going on television talking about her situation. You’re saying you don’t see anything wrong with any of that. You feel like it's a Muslim's responsibility to come out and speak about that?

I think there's a difference between testimonies and . . . trying to use the media for your own benefit, or pimp media opportunities. There are some people who will call media outlets to tell those stories. [Oprah] was an outlet that called me.

So our motives are different because the genesis of it is different. I'm not calling people and asking to give interviews about how I was a little dirty boy doing these little nasty things as a young man. I ain't called nobody.

So if somebody calls me and wants me to share something that I hope can help other people, why wouldn't I? But if I’m trying to do something to say there's one person at fault, or try to make myself seem great, and I'm looking for these new opportunities, and I'm endorsing myself then, God can't get the Allahu Akbar and can't nobody get blessed cause I'm doing it for the wrong reasons.

It's almost like me boxing with my shirt off saying, "I'ma do this cause I want to be the sexy Muslim!" I try to do what I do for the right motives.

Musically, there's no one left you haven't worked with. Any guest appearances on this new album?

No big time guest appearances. I work with cats from my Muslim community. People you might never heard of like The Hisbullah Brothers. Mr. Ameen, he's a beast. This white Muslim rock artist name TMac. He's a beast. I didn't work with nobody mainstream.

Was that a conscious decision?

Yeah.

Why?

Here's what's going on man. I think there are some incredibly talented people that are mainstream, but right now, everybody's message is getting so sexual. And I don't want to confuse what I'm trying to do right now. There was a time when you could work with a Stevie Wonder, or a Marvin Gaye or a Donnie Hathaway because we were all talking about the same thing. James Brown and James Cleveland could've done, "Say It Loud: I'm Black and I'm Proud," and it could've been accepted because it's true.

But now, its kind of hard to team up with people because they may have one positive song on their album but when you listen to their body of work, they be like, "We're at the club," "We're popping bottles," "We're on the pole," "We're making it rain," "We're at the after party." It's hard to team up with a person that has that body of work because when I work with you, I'm endorsing you. I'm putting my seal on you in my community and saying, "He's good. Receive him."

Category: Music

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