Praised for his lyrical ability, Cormega might not have gotten the commercial success of some of his peers, but he’s more than made up for it in respect and acclaim.

Listeners might have first encountered him when he was shouted out on Nas’s “One Love” or for his brief spell as a member of The Firm supergroup. But he carved an impressive discography since then, releasing albums like The Realness and The True Meaning on his independent label, while decrying the role of big money in hip-hop.

A friend of Jacobin and Cincinnati native, producer Sal Dali has worked alongside hip-hop legends like Sean Combs, Black Thought, Killer Mike, Pusha T, Hi-Tek, ASAP Ferg, and Young Guru. Earlier this summer, he sat down with Cormega to discuss his long career, his early 1990s battles with a brutal criminal justice system, the state of hip-hop, and why he decided to vote for Bernie Sanders, despite thinking that “politics is a dirty game.”