Lean, Mean and Seventeen by Branden Janese

Rap is no longer a young man’s sport. From Jay-Z, to Kanye West to Danny Brown, some of today’s most critically acclaimed rappers are over thirty, hell Drake even has ten years on Bishop Nehru. However, your playlist always has room for a teenage New Yorker addicted to a fresh beat and a microphone. Bishop Nehru is only seventeen but his rhymes feel like they belong on a cassette tape. The only appropriate thing to say when Strictly Flowz is playing is, please and thank you.

Do you have a driver’s license?

No, I got my permit.

What was the first rap album you listen to from front to back?

Pharrell’s In My Mind, I listened to it in my mom’s car.

How many Ghostface Killah verses do you have memorized?

I’m not sure.

MF Doom is one hell of a co-sign, can you tell us what to expect from the up and coming collaboration album.

It’s dope and amazing, it’s definitely something you haven’t heard. I don’t think any Doom project sounds like this, none of mine surely don’t. It’s just creative, out of the box, but still hip hop, just something people haven’t heard yet.

There are several interview and movie scene samples on Nehruvia, who’s interviews do you never miss reading or watching?

I watch a lot of Kanye interviews just to see how he is thinking being in his position, one of the top artist out right now. I don’t listen to a lot of current interviews, I watch a lot of interviews from the past. I am watching a lot of Michael Jackson interviews right now, John Lennon, Kurt Cobain.

What’s the best track off of Beyonce?

I like Drunk In Love.

It’s refreshing to hear a rapper rap, and not sing but who is a non-traditional artist that you can see yourself working with in the future?

Outside of rap, I like a lot of jazz artist. Roy Ayers is dope. Erykah Badu, that’s a big one for me.

Have you ever passed notes, or do you and your friends only use text?

No, I’ve never written a note.

Did you ever get Uncle Rosenberg that weed connect he asked for?

Laughs. No, I didn’t.