After a magnificent performance at London's Jazz Cafe, I had the distinct privilege of taking a ride around London in a black cab with Hip Hop royalty and underground luminary Masta Ace. This was more than an interview. It was a more like two Hip Hop fans just picking each other's brains about the culture.

For those who don't know, you've just released a collaborative album with the equally legendary Edo G from Boston, Massachusetts, called “Arts & Entertainment”. For those who haven't got the album yet or for those still deciding whether or not to cop it,
give us a brief preview of what we can expect on the L.P?
Well, you can definitely expect that real boom bap Hip Hop stuff. Hard beats, great lyricism and good hooks. Posdanous from De La Soul is featured on the album, we got Large Professor, KRS-ONE, Doitall from Lords Of The Underground and Marsha Ambrosius from Floetry. I mean, its a star studded event because everybody stepped up and did their thing and contributed to a great project. The project came out so much better than I initially thought it would. We both put our all into it and didn't half step. We got a great album because of that.

One of the most important things in collaborations is the chemistry between the artists or the producer. On that note, tell us what is so special about the chemistry that you and Edo have.
Chemistry is something that develops over time, you don't just get it overnight. It took us nearly two years of working in the studio and trying to figure each other out in order to find that chemistry. It took us doing a bunch of small knick knack shows here and there on stage to feel each other out. We had done a couple of small one off shows... not even shows but it was like he did a couple of records and I did a couple. It was no planned out routine or nothing. It took those little shows to figure each other out, to learn each other's music better, to be able to back each other up and know what each of us does in certain spots and certain parts of the show. Its through doing those little shows together that we've developed a chemistry now. I know that once we've completed this tour that the chemistry is gonna be even more crazy.

As fans of Hip Hop, sometimes we look back and think of groups like Gang Starr, Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth and Organized Konfusion. Some of these groups have either split up, broken up or are inactive.  How does the fan in you feel about these groups and do you want to see them make a come back?
You talk about Pete & C.L., Gang Starr – to me those are like two of the groups that I really came up listening to and enjoying. Those are two groups that inspired me to make music. Organized Konfusion too. So as a fan of Hip Hop – because I'm still a fan of Hip Hop – I want those artists to get back together and do records. Now, sometimes the personal part comes into it and dudes just don't get along no more and that's just part of the game. People want me and Lord Digga to do I.N.C. again but that's not happening because we're in different places in our lives. So I can understand why they don't but as a fan you just wish they'd drop it and do another record. We all wish that Pete & C.L. would do another record because it would be classic.

You mentioned on stage tonight that “Be A Father To Your Child” is one of your favourite Edo G records. But what is your all time favourite Edo G record or that Edo G track that you wish you would have written?
“I Gotta Have It” is too easy so I won't even say that one 'cos that's like the joint. Edo had a joint on his “My Own Worst Enemy” album called “Voices” produced by Pete Rock. That shit right there... we did a tour together in 2004 and I demanded that the D.J. play that record first at every sound check because I just needed to hear that beat. Its just an incredible song and track – that one is definitely up there.

Going back to collaborations, we mentioned some groups earlier and we also have artists who aren't necessarily groups, but they are frequent collaborators who also share a good chemistry. I'm going to name a few of these people and I want you to rate them for their overall chemistry on a scale of one to five. Five being the best and one being the worst. Let's kick it off with.... M.O.P.?
M.O.P. is a five. They represent Brownsville to the fullest. Those guys FIT. They both bring the same energy, the same type of voice, flow, style... they're perfect together. I'm looking forward to their new project.

Royce Da 5'9” and Eminem?
That's a one to me. They were never really a group to me, they were just like rhyme partners. Em was like in another league and though Royce did his best to kinda stay with him... to me if Royce had been rhyming with anybody else he would have been killing it. But because he was rhyming next to Em, he didn't shine like he should have.

Talib Kweli & Mos Def?
Ahhh that's a really nice collab right there. That's definitely a four. The only reason I don't say a five is because after their first album they left us hanging. After that, their careers went in different directions. Mos ascended and started doing acting and all this other stuff and he left it alone. Talib seemed to have a more balanced interest in the project whereas Mos Def's interest kinda decreased and Talib really kinda needed it at that time. But you know what, it forced Talib to go back into the lab and really focus on his solo stuff and make better music and that's what he turned around and did.

I got a feeling I know how much you're gonna give this next collab. Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth?
Oh man that's five and a half. Can I give them a six? They're beyond a five. I really feel like they need to co-exist. I love Pete Rock as a producer but as an artist, I need to hear them together. I need to hear C.L. rhyming over Pete Rock beats. Period. The proof was when Pete Rock dropped his solo album and he had two C.L. Smooth songs on there...

On the “Soul Survivor II” album?
Yes! Those were THE BEST SONGS ON THE ALBUM! Oh man, just hearing those songs made me want to hear more. I needed to hear an album behind that. Both of those songs were great. “Appreciate” was one of them

There's a duo that I think don't get a lot of love and a lot of people don't know about them. How high would you rate The Artifacts?
I rate The Artifacts pretty high. Um,definitely in the three and a half to four range. I think that they gave a dope contribution to Hip Hop. They took the graffiti element of Hip Hop and rhyming together to another level and really put it out there for people. Once again, they parted ways early so we didn't get a chance to see them blossom into what they could have been. So it isn't really fair to judge them on the little bit of work they did together.

Moving on, have there been any collaborations in Hip Hop that left you scratching your head thinking “that didn't work” or it wasn't as good as it looked on paper?
Rakim and Dr. Dre come to mind only because it never really happened. There was a lot of anticipation for it and everybody was all hyped up about it. It sounded like it was gonna be this incredible project and then they started leaking a couple of songs, but the songs that they leaked weren’t really what you expected. I thought it was gonna be much better than what I was hearing on the leak. Then I think it wound up making everybody that was involved in the project take a step back and maybe for that reason it never came out. They were probably just on two different planes creatively. I thought it was gonna be great.

Will there be another Masta Ace solo album? I read somewhere that you were putting together a DVD with some additional Masta Ace music?
Yeah, the DVD is gonna take so long. Man, I don't know when that will come out because it'll take at least two years to film it. So in terms of another album – there will be new Masta Ace music that will be the score to the DVD.