Interview with Darkness of Man star Kirk “Sticky Fingaz” Jones
review by Bobby Blakey
In 1993 the now iconic rap from Onyx smashed fans in the face with their hard-hitting aggressive style and bald heads with this hit song SLAM from their debut album Bacdafucup. Since then, they have been tearing up stages and released over 13 albums not to mention varying solo projects and collaborations. Of them all it was Sticky Fingaz aka Kirk Jones that stood out for me with his unique flow and style. Eventually he branched out into the world of acting in a wide variety of projects including taking on the role of Marvel’s Blade for the short-lived TV series. Now he is teaming up with Jean Claude Van Damme for his latest flick Darkness of Man and I had the chance to sit down and speak with the legend himself about the film and more.
Bobby: Thank you for taking the time to speak with me. I'm a huge Onyx fan from back in the day so, it’s exciting to get to talk to you. How did you get involved with Darkness of Man?
Kirk: James, the director said I have a chance to fight Van Damme, so I said, let's go.
Bobby: Then what happened? Why didn't you get to. (laughs)
Kirk: Cuz I'm Blade. You know, it's hard to catch me. (Laughs) Seriously though, I read the script, and it was an intriguing story. It's kind of like the song that I put in the movie for the theme music called The Darkness of Man. You know, you can't break me down, it's a buildup story.
Bobby: We all know you are prolific in music, was acting something you always wanted to go into when you got into music, or was that something you found later?
Kirk: No, and I never even wanted to get into music. I was kind of abducted into music by the late Jam Master Jay from Run-D.M.C. and then the acting just fell out the sky on my lap, and thought I was good at it, and I just kept doing it. You know, when I was a kid, I just wanted to be a hit man or a con man you know.
Bobby: You've worked on so many different things with so many different people, and you have your own star power from being an icon in the rap industry, do you still find yourself kind of getting nervous with these different actors and people that you work with at all?
Kirk: Absolutely not. I hate to say this, but I'll probably never be a huge, big star because I'm so down to earth, you know? I'm just a real human being, a good one too, I think. I don't get nervous. I make people nervous. Mike Tyson told me “You make me nervous.” I got nervous when he said that. I'm like, what the fuck?
Bobby: When you when you go into a role, do you have any kind of process of
trying to find that character or do you just go and do what they give you to do and just run with it?
Kirk: I'll do anything anybody gives me to do, you know? I've noticed like a Denzel or Robert De Niro plays the same character in every movie but in different situations. So, I just go in and be myself. People say, oh, you act as though you know, but they pay me to act real, so I do. I just try to be prepared, so I'm not unprepared.
Bobby: I know people take on roles for various reasons. Do you ever take roles just because of who's going to be in the film with you, or do you just read that script and do your thing?
Kirk: This time, I took it because of Jean Claude Van Damme. Right? But, then turned out the script was amazing. As for the director, James Bressak, I didn't know he was such a brilliant director until I worked with him. Now he's one of my favorite directors, so it was a win win for me.
Bobby: I am not going to spoil it, but…
Kirk: I won't say it, but Imma say it. (Laughs)
Bobby: (Laughing) No, I'm not going to say their names, but there's a couple of people that show up in the movie that aren't even pivotal to the plot, but they're kind of fun cameos.
Kirk: I'm one of the ones that you don't know is in the movie until you watch the movie. (laughs)
Bobby: Maybe, but you have you have an actual point to your character unlike some of these other ones who just show up. There’s one specific character at a food truck that just comes to order something and disappears and is never in the movie again. They will have to go watch it and see if they notice who it is. There's the nurse that’s the same way who is a martial arts icon but doesn’t do anything. Do you know how any of those cameos happened or did you even know about them?
Kirk: It happens because we have a brilliant director in James. He's planting landmines all over the place. You've seen the trailer, but you're still surprised when you watch the movie.
Bobby: Before I run out of time, what is going on in the world of your music career and Onyx?
Kirk: We just put one out and on tour for the new album we just put out. It's called Onyx World Takeover. I'm displaying the whole album on my membership gang that I've started at https://www.patreon.com/stkyfngz . I'm just showing the stuff on stage, what behind the scenes was actually was like arguing with somebody one day, like stuff like that. The people want to see like the gritty grimy.
Bobby: Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me. I love your music and it’s a real honor to get to speak with you.
Kirk: I appreciate you, brother.
Bobby: Have a great day and keep doing your thing.
Kirk: You as well.
Check out Darkness of Man when it hits digital on May 21st and you can find all the tour information and the cool world of Sticky Fingaz and Onyx at his Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/iamstickyfingaz/ as well as the above mentioned Patreon.