Because, just as it is for a spy, if a legend reads false for a rapper, it’s pretty much curtains. And, as Bronson tells his number-one fan, actor Jonah Hill, he’s just trying to get in tune with his own tuning fork. Wait, did someone say fork?

ACTION BRONSON: Yo, what up, baby?

JONAH HILL: Bronsonmania, what’s going on?

BRONSON: Flawless from the neck up. Underneath that, I’m a little chunky.

HILL: So, three or four years ago, my buddy Dave Appleton, who is up on all hip-hop stuff before anyone knows about it, hips me to Bronson. This was before Fuck, That’s Delicious. He showed me some kind of YouTube show of you cooking with this very hip-hop dialect and extreme knowledge of the culinary arts. [Bronson laughs] I was already in, and then he started playing your music, and I was … It was all I listened to for, like, three months straight. There’s a lot one can say about you to someone who has no knowledge of you: born in Queens; Albanian; former chef. And that’s how I pitch you to people who are stupid and don’t know who you are. But then I go, “You got to see him to believe him.” My work as a fan has been to just share the gospel with as many people as I could.

BRONSON: That’s fucking incredible right there. That’s quite an introduction.

HILL: I’m constantly trying to get you cast in movies. And I have to explain to these older white directors who you are. It’s been a hilarious process so far.

BRONSON: Let’s go. You know I’m ready.

HILL: What are you doing today?

BRONSON: I’m trying to get this home setup going on. I just got the studio. We went to buy a whole bunch of shit yesterday, set up the Pro Tools, to have me recording in the house in my underwear if I want … naked if I want. [Hill laughs] I can’t keep relying on people to do this shit for me, so I got to learn it. And there’s no better time than now. I just finished having some Israeli food. It was incredible—some whole-wheat couscous type of deal with lentils and some grilled chicken breast. I’m trying to eat a little bit cleaner nowadays.

HILL: Did you make it yourself?

BRONSON: Nah, I ordered it from this nice place by my house in Flushing. Israeli is a delicious flavor of the Mediterranean that I’ve been lacking in my life.

HILL: [laughs] You felt an absence in the Mediterranean lifestyle?

BRONSON: It’s such a relaxing lifestyle: all white everything, little light shorts, the lightest of fabric, you know what I mean?

HILL: A lot of your imagery feels like a 70-year-old wise guy going back to Europe, possibly on an escape or to just enjoy the finer parts of the summer.