Celebrity Rap Superstar

Efren Ramirez gained fame as Pedro, the blank sidekick of Jon Heder's titular character in the cult classic Napoleon Dynamite. Recently, he switched tracks and became a part of the MTV reality series Celebrity Rap Superstar. The show featured eight celebrities who team up with rap mentors to perform each week and be voted on by the viewers.

Last week Efren Ramirez became the second person voted off the show after it came down to him and rock star Sebastian Bach in the bottom two. Efren spoke to BuddyTV about his decision to appear on the show, the criticism he received from the judges, and his final performance. Below you will find the mp3 audio file of the interview as well as bullet points of the major topics we discussed.

-Efren's initial decision to appear on Celebrity Rap Superstar came from his desire to test himself as an actor. He finds rapping similar to delivering dramatic monologues.

-Efren knew of his rap mentor, Bizarre, prior to being on the show due to the rap star's association with Eminem and D-12. Efren occasionally works as a guest DJ.

-He knew he was among the worst on the first week, but vowed to improve afterwards and he felt as though he did. Efren was shocked when Bach was in the bottom two with him, as Bach had been getting lots of positive feedback, but Efren still went out to give the best performance he could.

-It was difficult for Efren to decide what to write when he had to come up with his own rap song, because he wanted to balance writing about his own experiences growing up in a rough neighborhood and his desire to simply entertain the audience.

-Efren was very grateful to have the experience of appearing on Celebrity Rap Superstar. It gave him an opportunity to expand his acting horizons, and we enjoyed the experience of working with the other contestants.


-Interview conducted by John Kubicek
(Image courtesy of MTV)