Thanks, mango!  I instinctively like you, as well, just based on this message.

I’m pleased when someone who hasn’t enjoyed rap before finds some rap they enjoy, and flattered when it’s me, but I always hope it doesn’t stop there.  There are very few rappers in existence whose styles and approaches are so absolutely unique and unprecedented that it would be possible to like ONLY them and no others.  Certainly I’m not one - I can only promise that if my pointy spires tear into the hull of your ship, you can consider that to be nothing but the very tip of a grand, looming iceberg in the arctic sea of hip-hop.

We all start somewhere, but we don’t have to STOP anywhere!  WHO’S GOING TO MAKE US, RIGHT??

I’m really touched that Inter Alia ranks so highly with you!  What would you say makes it stand out above the other, more recent albums?  I’m just gathering data about what people like so I can sell out most effectively, haha. HA. No really though.

I make the most from sales on Bandcamp, followed by CDbaby.  I don’t mind iTunes though - in the vast majority of cases, people who buy me on iTunes would not have paid for my music through any other means.  They use it as their primary music source, like a mall they hang out in when they don’t know what they want to get, but they know they want something.  The cut iTunes takes (about 30%) is worse than NO cut, but they also take on absolutely all of the infrastructural overhead.

I mean I would never in a zillion years give them my money as a consumer because I don’t have an iPod and I can’t stand their product, haha, but I’m glad that people who DO like them sometimes also like me!

But yeah, Bandcamp is where it’s at, really.

Thanks a ton for writing, and remember… you can’t spell mangodeluxe without man-god!