Although both rappers are 20-years-old and hail from Brooklyn, New York, Joey Bada$$ spoke on the difference between himself and fellow lyricist Bobby Shmurda, during a recent interview with Complex. According to Joey, who was asked about Shmurda when his record “Bornday” was mentioned, they both represent everything they come from, but he instead strives to maintain a balance with his music.
The East Flatbush rapper then spoke on the timing of the arrest of Shmurda and how it relates to the lack of an indictment against the police officers involved in the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner.
He explained that not only was Shmurda’s arrest a loss for the city of Brooklyn, it made young, black men look “even more bad” in the wake of the Brown and Garner verdicts.
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“I represent maintaining a balance in this game. You feel me? People gonna represent what they come from,” Joey Bada$$ said. “And for his case, that’s everything he comes from. And my case, I represent everything I come from. And I just wanna make sure we always have this balance in this game. It’s nothing wrong with having the other side to it. As long as this side is shown too. You gotta shed light over here as well because it gotta be positive. It’s gonna be positives, it’s gonna be negatives. That [energy] is a double-edge sword…I felt bad like I said that’s an L for Brooklyn. Word up. He’s young and he’s black. That’s an L for us as a whole. And even the fact that everything after the whole Michael Brown and Eric Garner situations, I felt like they try to use that to cover that shit up. And make us look even more bad. And I don’t respect that.”
Prior to speaking on Bobby Shmurda, Joey was asked if what he felt following the release of his 1999 mixtape was similar to what he felt following last month’s release of his debut studio album, B4.Da.$$. He was also asked if his debut album differs greatly from his mixtape work.
“It feels quite similar actually,” he said. “Cause when I dropped 1999, I kinda celebrated the same way yesterday. I was chillin’ with my Pros. We was at the crib. Then after that I went to link up with Ma Dukes. And we just stayed up all night, bumping mad songs and then bumping the whole album. It was great, man. Beautiful. That’s like all I could ever ask for. Just love…Even though I thought about my mixtapes as if they were albums anyway, just the title of an album made me think that ‘Alright, now I need to take my game to a whole ‘nother level. I gotta really focus and hone in. And I gotta really build this all together.’ I took time out to just study, time out to just be to myself and really focus on what I wanted to say.”
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Joey Bada$$’s interview with Complex can be found below.
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For additional Joey Bada$$ coverage, watch the following DX Daily:
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