Fun fact: HipHopDX has published roughly 115 interviews in 2014 alone. Artists are prone to talk and join the promotional cycle when they have an album they’d like you to purchase. And 2014 has been no exception as everyone from Krayzie Bone to Wiz Khalifa, Tech N9ne, Pharrell, Madlib and Freddie Gibbs has weighed in on their artistic merits and why you should give them your hard-earned cash. In that regard, the Q&A interview isn’t particularly unique, and that fact alone helps explain why artists hold press junkets and conduct dozens of interviews in one day. But we do appreciate those of you who specifically come to DX for the conversations we facilitate with artists about their music.
Sometimes, it’s more than just music. Before Dame Dash called out several high-ranking major label executives for being what he deemed “culture vultures,” he was holding court with DX about the importance of independence. You may have noticed that’s a sticking point with Dame. Prior to working on House Slippers, Joell Ortiz wasn’t specifically talking about music. But he was more than happy to chop it up about the lifestyle changes he made (including dropping upwards of 30 pounds) and how that impacted his music. The same applies to Jack Thriller, who recounted how being teased about his eye and his schoolmates “whooping [his] ass all over the bus” molded him into who he is today.
You likely don’t have time to sit and read all 115 of DX’s Q&As from 2014. But here, ranked in order of traffic by readers like you, are the 10 most popular interviews of the year thus far. Hopefully you’ll enjoy reading them as much as we enjoyed conducting them.
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Ab-Soul Addresses “These Days…” Critics
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Run Date: August 11, 2014
Author: Janice Llamoca
Notable Quote: “How was [These Days…] not Control System Part 2 either? I came off on my first song, I said, ‘Blame God, don’t blame her / All I did was take gangsters to church / Got your lady with literature in her Louis bag / Got your kids studying outside of class / Every project that I drop, she bought ‘em / So now she reads more than she red bottom.’ How is that not Control? That’s the first song. What are they talking about? I probably said third eye on the album 10 times at least. I’ma let you all sit down and dissect the movie. You know it’s a great one, like Inception. You’re not done watching Inception yet. You’re just not.”
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Krayzie Bone Announces Title Of $1 Million Album
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Run Date: July 16, 2014
Author: Justin Hunte
Notable Quote: “When I heard about what [Wu-Tang Clan] was doing—and I think it was you who told me about it—I just thought it was a brilliant and genius idea. I thought to myself, ‘It’s not that many groups that can do something like this and have major results from it—Wu-Tang being one and us another.’ I took it back to my dudes and they thought it was a [great] idea. Ever since I told Bizzy [Bone] about it, he’s been on my neck everyday like, ‘Yo, we need to do this, Kray! We need to do this, I’m telling you. I love Wu-Tang but I think we’ll have much better results, I’m telling you.’”
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Joell Ortiz Connects Healthy Living & Hip Hop’s Marketing
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Run Date: January 1, 2014
Author: Michael Trampe
Notable Quote: “Hip Hop felt rough, and bigger dudes came off rough—big beard, skully hats in the winter. It was a rough aura that surrounded Hip Hop. It wasn’t healthy. It was Hennessy, blunts and who the hell cares about a fucking treadmill. There’s loud music, Hennessy, blunts and bitches sucking you off who didn’t care how your balls smelled. That’s what Hip Hop was, and that’s what I grew up to. But the business is interfering with the creative, and people are becoming conscious of the money that is outside and how people perceive them.”
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DJ Yella Reveals Why Dr. Dre Shelved “Detox”
Run Date: March 11, 2014
Author: Joe Jeffrey
Notable Quote: “There was one [unreleased Eazy-E track], and it was a dis song. That’s why I didn’t put it on that album. That’s about it. I don’t even think it was a whole song, but maybe about half of it. I was like, ‘Nah, I’m not gonna put that on that album. This stuff is old.’ So I didn’t even put it on the tracks.”
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Kevin Gates Talks Ignoring Sales & Not Glorifying Street Life
Run Date: April 28, 2014
Author: Jasmine Hardy
Notable Quote: “Individuals that glorify the streets would lead me to believe that that was an individual that was wowed by it and impressed by it. And that would lead me to believe that if you were wowed by something, you only see the glory of it. You only see the glamour. That means you don’t see the struggle, you don’t see the consequences that comes behind being in the streets, and when I talk about the streets it’s a very sad experience. Although I’ve had some great times, I think about all the people that I lost. I have a lot of loved ones that are in prison. I have a lot of loved ones that I will never see again. A lot of my best friends are either dead or in jail. I know them for the rest of my life, but I’ll never see them again, because I’m a convicted felon. So I can’t go to a prison—a penal system—and visit someone that I love. Do I think it’s fair? No, but at the same time, it is what it is. It’s beyond my control. So an individual that glorifies this and that in the streets, hey I look at it like maybe you lived a sheltered lifestyle, and this lifestyle is amazing to you. But this lifestyle has brought me nothing but grief, emotional discomfort, psychological discomfort and mental strain. I say if I could go back in time and change everything, I wouldn’t change anything because it made me the person I am today. But I oftentimes wish I would’ve took a different route.”
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Jack Thriller Says Tupac Is Still Alive & Calls Solange Ungrateful
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Run Date: August 7, 2014
Author: Justin Hunte
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Notable Quote: “The first time I put the star in was the first time I had got the glass eye that was cross-eyed. Man, the dude that made my glass eye made me a cross-eyed glass eye. It’s not because he was trying to, it’s just because the technology at that point in time couldn’t get a eye lined up with this other eye. I was like, “I don’t want that shit. The only reason I’m coming to you is become I wanna be a real boy like Pinocchio. And you over here finna give me some shit where people still gonna be talking about me about it? I’d rather have a piece of tissue stuck in this motherfucker than the eye you’re about to give me.” The eye was over here, like it don’t come with a steering wheel on the motherfucker or a parking brake. It was a disrespectful eye. So, to answer your question, I think I was about maybe 17 when I first put the star in, and I never took it out. I wanted something that I didn’t mind people staring at me about. I always saw myself as a star.”
Stat Quo Says “Get Rich Or Die Tryin’” Beats Were For Rakim
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Run Date: April 29, 2014
Author: Justin Hunte
Notable Quote: “Yes, all them shits was Rakim songs. Rakim problem is he couldn’t do the hooks. The choruses were never strong. He a dope ass rapper but in your mind right now can you remember a Rakim hook? I mean maybe cause you young or whatever…”
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Ebro & Rosenberg Say, “Hot 97 Is The Only Station That Matters”
Run Date: April 2, 2014
Author: Justin Hunte
Notable Quote: “We live in a world where the most interesting things on social media are driven by a passion point and a lack of support for independent or local scenes or specifically a New York scene—when there’s eight million people in New York City, which is probably two or three times as large as [Atlanta, Georgia] to put it into perspective—it’s a passion point and it will get clicks on a website. People use it to get clicks. Saying that the local scene is supported and doing well isn’t interesting. That’s not just the reality. It’s more interesting to say you’re being hated on or your being held down or oppressed or big corporate whatever is not supporting. That’s gonna get more clicks than, “HOT 97 is showing love.” Troy Ave is not saying that we’re not showing him love. Action Bronson, A$AP Rocky, the whole A$AP Mob for that matter, Bodega Bamz, French Montana…”
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Scarface Clarifies Position On White Rappers
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Run Date: January 3, 2014
Author: Justin Hunte
Notable Quote: “I don’t know why people try and make it seem like I’m against what the White boys is doing in Hip Hop. I dig that shit. At the same time, the fucking “boss man” make a nigga look stupid and y’all look smarter. They’ll make a nigga look terrible and y’all look better. Don’t do us like that. We fuckin’ dope. You got muthafuckas like Black Thought, Lupe Fiasco. [Lil Wayne] is dope. And there’s niggas that don’t get a spotlight that’s cold as fuck. It really disappoints me that they’re trying to say that I’m against the White boys in Hip Hop. I’m not against the White boys in Hip Hop. That shit is fuckin’ dope. But at the same time, “Big Boy” and them—whoever’s running this shit—make us look dope, too. Don’t make us look fuckin’ stupid like we ain’t got a junior high school education. Give a nigga some shine that’s dope.”
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DJ Whoo Kid Details G-Unit’s Split
Run Date: May 6, 2014
Author: Martin Caballero
Notable Quote: “50 is right. A lot of them need help with taxes and stuff like that or money issues because they became spoiled. But at the end of the day, everybody made millions. That’s not 50’s responsibility, and he shouldn’t be giving a fuck. Everybody made millions, everybody got super rich and everybody did their thing. If you don’t know how to handle your shit, that’s your problem. But when it came to the third and fourth time, [and] Buck’s on stage cursing 50 out like really bad, that’s when 50’s like, ‘This is ridiculous.’ That day when he was recording him, it’s not like 50 was recording him on purpose. Whenever he has a lawyer meeting—because the lawyer was on that meeting too, he put both of them together, and he’s recording the conversation for legal shit. They’re talking about future albums or whatever Buck had to do. And that’s when [Young] Buck kind of felt crazy because of what he did on stage. It just happened during the legal proceedings where the lawyer was recording, and he just cried at that time. So if you wanna fuck with 50, he’s just gonna put it out. He’s like, ‘Fuck it. This guy wants to make me look stupid publicly? Alright, here you go.’”
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