King Sun article from December 1994:

Some nights are so long that they almost seem eternal. But no matter what happens, the night always gives way to the sun. Guaranteed.For his rap music fans, the darkness has ended and King Sun has once again returned with his new 7-song EP, Strictly Ghetto on Cold Chillin' Records. Songs like "Street Corner" and "Robin of Da Hood" take you on a tour of the Bronx, while The Jeweler Sundulah lets us know, without pulling any punches, what he has been going through on "Once Upon a Time" and "Suck No Dick".
As you will read, a lot has been happening with the righteous but ruthless rapper in the 7 years since he first appeared on the scene with "Hey Love".
DJ Toast: You've got a new EP out titled Strictly Ghetto. Who produced it?
King Sun: These kids from Connecticut called the Boiler Room. Those brothers are very musically inclined. Me and TC Islam went to Afrika Bambaataa's house one day and I met the brothers and we made some tracks. These were all programmed beats, none of the sh*t was samples.
Toast: Back in 1987 you released "Hey Love" backed with "Mythological Rapper" on Zakia Records. Was that your first time on wax?
Sun: Yeah, that was my first single. I hit Zakia Records off with like 14 songs. "Mythological Rapper" was the first song on the tape, then "Hey Love". But they were done in a pre-demo form. They dug the first two songs, so they gave me a single deal. That's when King Sun came out and it was all good.
Toast: Then a few years later in 1989 you released the album XL on Profile Records, which also had "Hey Love" on it.
Sun: That's where my problems began. After I had "Hey Love" out, I had to come out with that next single. I had all the sh*t ready, which was the album XL. Everything except for that song, "On the Club Tip", I had made back in 1987. Profile Records never gave me a reason why they couldn't put my sh*t out, for two whole years.
Toast: So between 1987 and 1989, you made some noise with "Hey Love" on Zakia, and got your deal with Profile?
Sun: Since Run DMC was hot at the time, Robert Hill (president of Zakia Records) took me over to Profile. We figured they would promote me as they promoted Run DMC. I could ride on the coat tails of Run DMC, but that was some f**ked-up thinking.
Toast: It took a while but finally XL did come out.
Sun: That was after the 'pulling of the gun' incident. Between 1987-1989, I was having a lot of f**ked-up sh*t with Profile. They weren't giving me any reason why they couldn't put out my songs. Profile has like 20-40 songs of mine recorded up in their office. After awhile you're watching new people come out. You're watching hip hop change, and they're debating what to put out. Once I went up there with the gun and all that, they suspended me. Well f**k it, I'm gonna keep going up there f**king sh*t up until they decided what to do. Then they put out the old album, and everything was two years old. Stuff I had looped and concepts I used were old and people had already come out with them.
Toast: So the only reason they gave you was that they didn't like the cuts you made, or were they just pulling your chain?
Sun: After awhile you could see they were just pulling my chain, because some of the songs on Righteous but Ruthless were from back in 1987 also. They were trying to stretch every dollar. If I took one photo shoot, they used those same pictures for everything instead of trying another photo.
Toast: It's odd that they wanted to save every dollar, while they were making you go back in the studio and put together six songs when they really only wanted one or two.
Sun: But in doing that I'm costing more money that is recouped from me. So that puts me more in the red as far as owing them money. And I never received no money from Profile. They jerked me on sales. See, Profile had owned Landmark Distribution. They had records selling in places that weren't reporting. When we touched bases with these people, they were congratulating me because they thought my sh*t went gold. I know I got jerked for a gold record. When I went up there and wanted to have the books audited, they started jerking me about my music and sh*t like that. But I was always braced about record labels. Cutmaster DC warned me. He said that you can be friends with them, but don't be friendly. Whatever they give you, they're always gonna get it back. They ain't giving you something for nothing. I knew about that, but I didn't know about studios and shit like that. They had me working at the studio they wanted me to work at.
Toast: As opposed to a studio where you felt comfortable working?
Sun: Right, the sh*t cost $125 per hour. I'm in there for 8 to 9 hours a session, and all that sh*t adds up.
Toast: So basically all you saw from Profile was the advance and everything else was recouped?
Sun: Advance? I saw one $900 advance and that was all. Profile wouldn't give me money to go to the studio, they had the studio bill the label. I wanted an advance to go get some clothes, so they gave someone a credit card and sent them shopping with me.
Toast: Back to the music, the one cut that didn't seem to fit in with the rest of the XL album was "On the Club Tip".
Sun: Totally not my idea. The studio was Centerfield and that's where Hollywood was producing for this guy who played tennis with Cory (Robbins of Profile Records). When Hollywood told him of this track that was supposed to be for LL Cool J, he had me flip a freestyle to it.
Toast: And that was the single?
Sun: Yeah, that was the single. Why? I'm 6'7". I'm trying to get off the 'love' sh*t and I'm gonna jump on the 'club' sh*t? While on Profile I had a dictated career. I had no artist creativity or artist control.
Toast: But still, you had some classic cuts off of that album, with "Heat Up" and "Snakes".
Sun: But you know, a lot of people never saw the "Heat Up" video, or even heard "Snakes".
Toast: Didn't the "Heat Up" video have all the fire trucks in it?
Sun: Yeah, but a lot of people didn't see it, even with Ice-T in it. And on the video, I even paid some money for it.
Toast: Let's jump to 1990 and the Righteous but Ruthless album. I'm surprised that with all the trouble you had with Profile, you decided to do another record with them.
Sun: Yeah, I figured 'let me start all over again'. And I had to kiss their ass to put "Soft Shoe Booty" on the record.
Toast: But they were still willing to do another album with you?
Sun: Yeah, if I hadn't bought out my contract, they would've still been willing to do more albums with me. But look at Poor Righteous Teachers, look at Special Ed, and I don't think Dana Dane's still down with them. But Special Ed sold like 499,000 units and Profile wouldn't buy that one to make it gold. That's their style. Once they had a bread winner with DJ Quik, they didn't give a f**k about me or anyone else.
Toast: But on Righteous but Ruthless, you again had some solid tracks with "Be Black" for example.
Sun: When I made "Be Black" I had a strategy, but it was f**ked up because they put out "Big Shots" as the single. But they didn't want to spend what it would have taken to shoot the "Big Shots" video, so they gave me a bullsh*t video and told me that I could work with it for "Big Shots" or I could do "Undercover Lover". So "Big Shots" was the single and "Undercover Lover" was the video. They were just f**king my whole sh*t up.
Toast: After Righteous but Ruthless, you had to buy yourself out of your contract with Profile?
Sun: Yeah, I bought out my contract.
Toast: Then you fronted some money to put out your own music on Money Bag Records?
Sun: Yeah I started it, but one the kids from Fat Joe's crew and Fat Joe's uncle financed the label for me. It took about $2,000 to make the music. Once I made the music, I needed to press up copies, and sh*t like that. So all we did was press up about 1,000 copies of "Sippin' Brandy" with "In Pursuit Uptown" as the B-Side. Fat Joe put me down with his crew when I was going through a little hard times. I drew up a strategy and showed them. I said that if they invested $10,000 in blowing up the label and the single, that I would give them back $15,000 when I got a distribution deal. So each brother put in $2,500 a piece. After spending that, Fat Joe and I had an argument. It wasn't really an argument, but I had a little beef with Fat Joe because he didn't put me on the Diamond D posse cut ("You Must Be Out of Your F**kin Mind") on his album with Kool G Rap and Apache. Instead he put me on a bullsh*t track, "Another Wild N****r From the Bronx". How come if I'm your man and we cool, and I put him down when I had shows and Video Music Box, how come you didn't put me down with the Diamond D track? I also wrote two songs for Fat Joe. I'm the one who wrote "Da Fat Gangsta" and "Shorty Gotta Fat Ass", for nothing, no dough, no nothing. So I said f**k it. Niggas ain't got to do nothing for me. I told Diamond D, Jazzy Jay, Apache, all of them that was there. I said that I'm gonna be back some day.
Toast: Tell me about your appearance on the 48 Hours television show when you were busting up bootleggers.
Sun: When I was on Profile, I was affiliated with ACT (Artists against Counterfeit Tapes). I was the first one going around and beat the bootleggers down. They locked me up for that, down on 57th Street. I had even gotten a copy of Righteous but Ruthless from a bootlegger before it was out. A lot of things that people do now with hip hop, I was doing a while back. Like right now you hear people talking about Supernatural and how he freestyles off the top of his head. I like Supernatural, but when people tell me about that, I'm like, 'Who the hell do you think you're talking to right now?' I make records. You give me a track and I'll make a song. And there is all these bald heads, that I had back in 1987.
Toast: Now its 7 years after "Hey Love" and you're on Cold Chillin'. How did that happen?
Sun: Tyrone Williams (of Cold Chillin') always told me to check him out. I hooked up with Fly Ty at the BRE and we talked. So I went up to Cold Chillin' and he gave me money to do a 4-song demo. So with that money I went and did 12 songs, to show him that I've got album material. They gave me money for a single deal, and with that money I mastered and mixed down everything. So that's where we are now. I showed them I'm all about work.
Toast: Now I heard "Suck No Dick" a while back on Flex's show.
Sun: Funkmaster Flex gets props because he has always looked out for me, ever since he had any radio position whatsoever. At one point he had given me money to go into the studio before I was with Cold Chillin'. I was gonna do a promo for Flex, so he had me kick "Suck No Dick" for him, a radio version.
Toast: What was the situation with Ice Cube all about?
Sun: Before Cold Chillin', I had hit off Ice Cube with a tape and he never got back to me, so that's when I put my own music out. Only to later find out that Ice Cube bit the hook and made it his chorus to "Wicked".
Toast: Do you feel that you were represented properly in the article about that in The Source?
Sun: Nah, he (the writer) didn't even talk to me. I think he talked to someone in the Zulu Nation. He didn't even talk to me. That's why I've got so much animosity towards people because they don't know me.
Toast: People were wondering why King Sun entered the MC Battle at the New Music Seminar this year, when that's typically for people trying to come out and make a name.
Sun: Well, I was starting from scratch again, and if I'm an MC, then I'm supposed to be able to battle. With me, competition is competition whether you've got a name or not. You don't see rappers with something to lose entering the seminar battle.
Toast: What do you see as the biggest problem in hip hop today?
Sun: There is too much politics and not enough creativity. When I debuted with "Hey Love", it was from "Moments in Love" by Art of Noise which didn't hit too hard over here. Back in the day you found hidden records, you didn't use a record that was a hit in itself. Now people are using old songs that were hits. We used to use stuff like "Last Night Changed It All" and "Big Beat", now people are using artists that are basically still out.
(Article written by DJ Toast in December 1994. The article originally appeared in numerous national music magazines.)