This past Wednesday, Rocks Off ended up sitting across from Lil' O indoors at the nearly empty Muldoon's Patio Bar on Westheimer. We spoke with him for about an hour or so, about all sorts of things. He was polite and friendly and wore one of those puffy sleeveless vests. Some leftover notes from the conversation:

First, and this wasn't the most surprising thing but was certainly the most obvious, is that Lil O looks good. He released his first album, the street drenched Blood Money, back in, like, 1984 or something. (1999, actually.)

We'd seen him from a ways back at the SUC Reunion show and he'd looked fresh enough, but we were anticipating that up close he was going to show a bit of wear, like how the dolphins at Sea World are clean looking until you get up next to the tank and see they're all scratched to shit. But nope. Lil O does not have dolphin scratches. And that means a lot.

Lil O says that his next album, called Grind Hard, Pray Harder, is the finest thing he has ever worked on. He was adamant on this point when he brought it up, but he only brought it up once or twice. The music will speak for the music, he says.

For a bit, he discussed all of the people in his life that he'd lost, counting them up on his fingers. He could easily fill up both fists and both feet keeping track that way. It's always remarkable to fully consider how much experience with death these guys have, especially the guys that haven't gone completely crazy like NIP.

Ooh, speaking of, Ganksta NIP sent us a message that he has a new album about to come out. And since we're talking about the SPC, K-Rino has a new album out right now, Alien Baby. Get it.