SAN FRANCISCO -- Paris reached a big hand across the counter of a

Mission District sandwich shop at the end of his recent interview with

SonicNet Music News. He grabbed the journalist's list of questions,

reading them over, assessing them, leaving nothing to chance.

Paris is taking a lot of things into his own hands these days as he readies for the

April 7 release of his fourth album, Unleashed -- the first on his own

Unleashed label.

Even dressed casually in a green, short-sleeved T-shirt and blue, nylon

sweatpants for an interview, Paris is a large and imposing figure. But, perched

on a counter stool at the sandwich shop, he was genial as he answered

questions about Unleashed.

The album finds the 30-year-old, San Francisco-born rapper evolving and

moving in a new direction with songs such as the blistering put-down of the

music industry,

HREF="http://www.addict.com/music/Paris/Record_Label_Murder.ram">"Record

Label Murder" (RealAudio excerpt). That would be in keeping with

certain changes in his life: becoming a father for the first time and moving to the

suburbs.

"There's a lot more maturity on this record," Paris said. "I think, musically, it's

more mature. This one's like a post g-funk [gangsta-funk] record. There's many

different directions that this project is going in, and it's going to be interesting to

see how it's received in the 9-8."

"Post g-funk" is a far cry from the overtly political raps that characterized Paris'

earlier albums. The second -- 1992's Sleeping With The Enemy,

featuring songs with politically provocative titles such as "Coffee, Donuts &

Death" and "Bush Killa" -- got him dropped from the Tommy Boy label.

"I never want to be known for coming the same, over and over and over," said

Paris, who relocated from his longtime San Francisco home to suburban

Danville, Calif., and celebrated the birth of his daughter in the past year. "At

least you know when I come out, I'm going to be sayin' something."

According to Paris, Unleashed "probably has a lot more to do with the

music industry than it does anything else." Take "Record Label Murder," a

pivotal track on the album. There's plenty of heat to the pointed lyrics: "Talkin'

about these white boys tryin' to do promotion/ and white bitches tryin' to get

fucked by these soldiers/ talkin' with that slang like you down but hold on/ that's

enough to get your devil ass stole on." The difference between this song and an

earlier effort such as the anti-government diatribe "Bush Killa" is that "Record

Label Murder" finds Paris directing his scathing, socially conscious glare toward

a recording industry that he feels leaves blacks out of the mix.

The "post g-funk" sound also relies less on the classic funk samples used on

earlier Paris recordings and more on original studio instrumentation. In addition,

Paris cultivated a more collaborative approach on Unleashed, with guest

appearances by Spice-1, Mystic, and Unleashed artists Jet and Nuttso.

Mystic, a.k.a. Mandolyn Ludlum of Oakland, met up with Paris through the

rapper's protégés Conscious Daughters. She teamed up with Paris for the duet

"44

Wayz" (RealAudio excerpt) and said that working with the rapper kept

her motivated.

"It was a dope experience. He's very well-trained," Mystic said of Paris, who is a

classically trained pianist, as well as an accomplished bassist and drummer.

"He definitely has a gift for nicely pushing you to sound the best that you can."

Despite his reputation as someone who makes music with an agenda, Paris, a

University of California at Davis graduate, shrugs off the political tag and boils

his approach down to simpler terms.

"What I'm doing is trying to reach people that need it the most," he explained.

"Not to say that I'm adopting a 'let me save the world' kind of an attitude. It's just

that I make music I feel comfortable with. I like beats that's slammin', and I never

want to say anything that doesn't make sense."