Rhymefest left Chicago for Indianapolis in order to be close when his son Solomon (now 6) was born. Solomon’s mother was already settled there. He has joint custody, which will allow Solomon an opportunity to spend time with his father this summer. Fest is happy to provide his son the chance to travel and see him tour. "I want to raise my son for at least the first ten years in Indiana where he can be around nature, see farms and horses, things he can’t see in Chicago. Then, when he’s a teenager I could see going back to Chicago and showing him the hood."

Speaking of Chicago I can’t resist asking about the growing trend of Chicago bred MC’s --- like Common and Kanye West (who duets with Fest on the single “Brand New”). Fest laughs, "Yeah, the Chi is trendy right now. Go get that Common "Be" album in stores now, then later in the summer you gotta pick up the Kanye album "Late Registration" and Septemeber 20th my album, then you’ll have the Chicago trilogy."

Rumor has it that in addition to co-writing "Jesus Walks," Rhymefest has done a fair share of ghostwriting for Kanye, but when the question arises he quickly dismisses it. "No I don’t ghostwrite for Kanye. We do collaborate. Kanye and I have been friends for a long time. We came up together as teenagers in the Chi. We used to battle. When I had a chance to sign a deal I had a choice between G.O.O.D Music, Kanye’s label and Allido (label run by Marc Ronson, the producer/DJ son of guitarist Mick Ronson and stepson of Foreigner guitarist Mick Jones, Allido is named after Stevie Wonder’s song "All I Do") but I knew that Kanye is going to be the quarterback on his label. There can’t be two quarterbacks, so I chose to go to Allido."