Spencer Pratt

Talking with Spencer Pratt is like encountering a mythical beast -- you've heard about it, maybe even seen it in pictures, but you still can't quite believe it exists.

Oh, but it does. And it wants to tell you all about its Machiavellian genius.

Pratt's knack for self-promotion will come as no surprise to fans of the MTV reality show The Hills, currently in production on its fifth season and co-starring his wife, Heidi Montag. Most recently, the newlyweds -- a.k.a., Speidi -- were seen fleeing NBC's I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here because the Costa Rican jungle wasn't up to their "5-Star everything" standards.

And now, as if the haters didn't have enough ammunition, Pratt is getting into the rap game. His first single, "I'm a Celebrity," produced by sometime Lil Wayne collaborator Steve Morales, is out. An album, tentatively titled Info Wars, is due later this year.

Speaking on the phone from his home in L.A., Pratt tells SPIN.com how money motivated his foray into music, why he thinks he's more famous than President Obama, and how America will go crazy for his Chicken Wing dance.

You've been warned.

Why on earth would Spencer Pratt make a rap album?
To be honest, my whole life I've always been listening to rap music or reggae. But I never heard of rappers making billions of dollars, so being a rapper wasn't really in my crystal ball. It took people like 50 Cent to come along and, you know, he's on the Forbes list making $500 million, so I'm like, 'Wow, there can be a lot of money in this.'

So you're in it for the money.
This is what I say to people: I'm not in the music industry. I'm in show business. So when people are like, "What are you doing coming into the rap game?" That's the wrong question. I'm already in the game I'm in, and that's pop culture and entertainment. I'm not coming in saying, "Oh, I'm the truth, I'm the biggest lyricist ever to walk on the Earth." I'm not trying to make music that changes history. No one is doing that anymore. Music has become disposable. You're lucky if your song lasts a month. That's the state of the music industry right now.

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Saying that you'll be making disposable rap doesn't make me want to run out and buy your music.
Let me be clear: I'm making phenomenally great music. "I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here" is one of the catchiest songs in years. I plan on making hit music, but I just don't believe that it's like when Eminem first came out with "Lose Yourself." I'm not trying to make an inspiring song right now. I'm just making what the market wants right now. Ringtone rap.

I read an interview where you referred to yourself as the "White Jay-Z." Seriously?
I have more street cred than any new dudes: I manage a professional fighter, King Kevin Casey -- who is also a hip-hop superstar -- and every single day I do MMA training with him where I have a 195-pound black belt in Brazilian Ju Jitsu try to punch me in the face. I know for a fact that Jay-Z in his whole life has never been for one hour in the situations I put myself in with my professional fighter.

I thought you were a lover, not a fighter.
I'll challenge pretty much anyone to a fight, if that's what is needed to prove my street cred. If it's about toughness, I'm tough. If it's about how many guns you have, nobody has more guns that me. If it's about ammo, nobody has more ammo than me. So when I say I'm the white Jay-Z, I'm just like, "So all this guy does is talk about all the expensive things he buys?" Well I buy expensive things and I'm 30 years younger. I was never a fan of Jay-Z. The only rapper I really was into was Tupac.

How good of a rapper are you?
Incredible. I have the biggest mouth on earth, so why wouldn't I be the best rapper -- you know what I mean?

Can you freestyle right now?
I mean, everybody keeps on asking me to freestyle. But I always say, "Please, I don't do freestyle, my goal out here is to get paid." The word "free" does not exist in Spencer Pratt's vocabulary.

Is it true that your rap nickname is going to be Great White?
I'm going with Great White. Once you get Great White in the game, he's growing each day and is gonna start eating people. That's why I love rap. You can come up with so many different names. This is what people need to realize: Since the 9th grade, I was referred to by my teachers and classmates as "Pratt Daddy." Then it became P. Diddy. I was there first. I have a thousand witnesses saying for years I was known as P. Diddy. Diddy has taken that and done his thing with that.