For more than 20 years Randy Savage toured the world as one of the biggest names in professional wrestling. Fans raised their eyebrows last year when it was announced that Randy Savage was headed back into the public eye … as a rapper.
“I’ve loved music all my life, it’s influenced me, just like it has other people. I got the opportunity to lay out some tracks with the Raskulls & Big 3 Records and express myself musically. I have always been more of a rock ‘n roller but the fact that I can’t sing always stopped me from entertaining in that way. When rap came along I jumped all over it,” Savage told SLAM! Wrestling
Thus, the CD “Be A Man” was born. Savage joined forces with his posse of producers, Ted Howard, Jerome Jefferson, Khalid Keene and Brian Overton who collectively are known as “The Raskulls” (not to be confused with Canadian hip hop artists “The Rascalz”). They put the CD together and the end result was 14 tracks.
“The only song I was involved in with writing was ‘Be A Man’, the diss to Hulk Hogan. Otherwise I just hung out with my crew and they came up with the tracks and lyrics and figured out what I was about. Different things I would say during a conversation would come back in the lyrics. If I said I wrote these tracks people would probably believe me, because it sounds like stuff I would say. However, these guys wrote it and they are musical geniuses.”
The CD’s title track is based around his real life feud with Hulk Hogan. The two feuded in both the WWF and WCW but somewhere along the line their issues became personal. Savage laid down a challenge two years ago to The Hulkster.
“Two years ago I challenged him to a charity match for a children’s hospital. It didn’t matter if he won or I won, that the kids would win. I kept it on the high road, and said we have personal business differences, let’s settle it in the ring. I gave him two weeks, until Christmas Eve, and if he didn’t accept the challenge, I would give $10,000 to the kids.”
The match never came about.
“He came up with a thousand and one reasons why not to, and one of them was that I wanted a tax write off before the end of the year. When I gave the money to the children’s hospital I put it in the ‘Hulk Hogan Coward Fund’ so he could get the write off.”
So Savage decided he wanted to “cross the t’s and dot the I’s” on Hogan and diss him one more time.
“If he doesn’t answer the challenge then everyone will know he’s a punk and a wuss. I hear he is headed to NWA-TNA. I may just have to follow him there.”
The other wrestling related track on the CD is the final song, “My Perfect Friend” which is dedicated to “Mr. Perfect” Curt Hennig. Hennig died February 9, 2003.
“That song was something I felt I had to do for Curt Hennig. He had four kids and was the coolest person. He was a great entertainer, amateur wrestler, and great in the locker room. Everybody liked him.”
Savage was also hit hard two months later when on May 1, 2003 his former wife and valet Elizabeth Huelette died. The two met in 1985 and divorced in 1992.
“We had closure and separation after the divorce. We were still cordial to each other, but we had moved on. It was a sad situation for her and her family.”
Savage is on the road now doing a promotional tour for the CD. While on the road he is joined by a few other members of the wrestling fraternity. Former WWF, WCW and TNA star Ron Harris is his tour manager, and Brian Adams, who wrestled as Crush and one half of Kronic is his bodyguard. Macho has done a few live shows and described the experience of performing for a live crowd in a different format then what he was used to.
“The live feel was just like walking down the isle at the Pontiac Silverdome for Wrestlemania 3, it was the same rush. I was really happy with the show, even though we had a couple of haters there we had a good time.”
Savage is already writing tracks for his second CD, while preparing to embark on a performance tour, with dates possible in Canada.
“We are absolutely going to have more records. We are writing the second album right now. It’s a work in progress, we are promoting this CD but at the same time we are having fun performing it, and also laying down tracks for our second CD. Coming up to Canada sounds good to me, we’ll try and make that happen. Canada has always been real supportive of me over the years, and I want to thank all my fans up there for that.”
Savage approaches his music the same way he did his wrestling, giving it “one million percent.” His classic feuds with Jake “The Snake” Roberts and Ric Flair, as well as the lengthy angle involving Elizabeth in the ’80s and ’90s are all fondly remembered by fans for the intense emotion they evoked. It is something that is lacking in today’s wrestling.
“Getting into the angle a million percent and having that translate in the ring is probably the secret. It’s not really a secret, you have to build up to something and the longer you build it up, as long as it is interesting, the bigger the explosion will be when the match actually happens. Wrestling is emotional you have to be into it in order to translate that to the wrestling fans, and that is what they deserve.”
Savage isn’t the only wrestler to foray into rap music. WWE’s John Cena currently plays the role of a hip-hopper on Smackdown!, and is reportedly planning on releasing a CD. So who would win a rap-off between the two?
“I don’t know who would win that one. Cena takes himself more seriously then he should. I don’t take myself that seriously as a rapper. I’ve heard he is really out there, that he says he bleeds hip-hop. I’ve asked my DJ Big K about Cena’s skills and K said he shouldn’t take himself that seriously.”
One of the tracks on the CD “I’m Back” says, “People want to know if Randy’s still in the ring.” The answer is no.
“I am done with my wrestling career unless Hulk Hogan accepts my challenge then I will be right there and we will have the first ‘real’ fight in professional wrestling history.”
In the meantime, Savage continues to promote his CD and plan his musical future.
“I hope the best is yet to come and I can continue to entertain fans in a different way.”
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