Spitta’s trajectory has been careening softly into fourth gear since his latest retail album the Stoned Immaculate, and that’s precisely where he wants it. The man has endured his share of label riffs, law suits, twists and turns since leaving Cash Money for greener pastures, but the New Orleans native whose slinky southern drawl rolls best outside of a car stereo has settled nicely into a life on easier streets. His fan base is now as loyal as it is deep, and when you ask someone, “Who’s underrated?” in the wide world of Rap, the most enterprising of the group will always bring up Curren$y.
But don’t let that smooth demeanor fool you, Curren$y’s carved his lane out of spending countless weeks on the road every year since giving us Pilot Talk I and II, which effectively put him on the map. He’s made key partnerships within the industry as well, one of which is Mr. O.N.I.F.C himself, Wiz Khalifa, who he collaborated with on their Live in Concert EP.
“You can hear all through his music, this is exactly what he wanted,” the Nola emcee had to say about Khalifa. “[Wiz Khalifa] want… wanted, to be a fucking planet… and by God, he is. He’s a planet. Me, I wanted to build a lowrider, be in the cut, and just do my shit.” While Curren$y is often “in the cut,” his THC filled persona is hyperbolic in its charisma, a quality hard won through constant touring.
“I’m on HipHopDX?” asked the zen-like emcee. “I ain’t gonna lie… I got a pretty sweet review for Drive In Theater. I want to say thank you, HipHopDX. Sometimes I used to get railroaded on the interviews. It’s no big deal. It’s all love. I never stopped checking the site. I would just be like, ‘Damn… they are getting creative with ways to say my tape is not hot.’ The fucking Drive In Theatre tape? I read that. I showed that to my momma ‘cause it’s tough to get a good one on HipHopDX. They are sticklers.”
AD LOADING...
That we are, but the Jet Life star earned that review by sanding his style down into the stickiest indica, and followed up by explaining the rationale behind dealing with BitTorent for Drive In Theatre, what’s on deck for the Jet Life crew, and what sort of plans he’s got for Boosie.
Why Curren$y Favors Movie-Themes For His Projects
AD LOADING...
HipHopDX: For the Drive In Theatre project, you returned to the Bit Torrent deal. How long do you see yourself doing the Bit Torrent deals, and how does that benefit you?
Curren$y: As long as they’re willing to listen to the ideas we got on how to make it different every time we do it, we’ll always do it. I always want to do free shit. I feel like the free tapes are what make the shows sell out, ’cause muthafuckas feel like, “I owe dude.” You do a lot of shit for free, then when you make a move on the retail thing, muthafuckas feel obligated to shop with you if they real. I only fuck with real people. You know, you drop your joint at a show, somebody just gonna pick it up and give it back to you. It’s all love in this muthafucka. You can walk through the crowd with all your jewelry on. You’ll get in the car with your jewelry on.
HipHopDX: Drive In Theatre was based on the The Godfather, New Jet City was of course based on New Jack City…
Curren$y: And Priest Andretti was Super Fly. It’s basically this: anybody who burn enough gas… You burn as much killer as I do, you get couch locked. You gotta watch TV. You watch TV [and] you get tired of watching the same episodes, you wanna watch a movie. You watch a movie so many times, [and] you begin internalizing the movie, identifying with the characters, applying the shit to your regular life. You apply that to your life. It’s like your life is a movie.
DX: So what would you say are your type five movies of all-time?
Curren$y:The Godfather, The Godfather: Part II, Goodfellas, Casino, and The Business. I don’t know if you guys know this movie, The Business. It’s this London gangster movie, a couple guys from Layer Cake is in it.
DX: Is it a Guy Ritchie movie?
Curren$y: Muthafucka, I don’t know! I don’t know if its Guy Ritchie, dog…see, you get on DX, they get all….I said, “sticklers.” I can’t even say top five movies without them asking who did the producing.
AD LOADING...
Curren$y Details His Louisiana Kinship With Cash Money & Lil Boosie
DX: Recently I saw on Twitter you were really excited to get a gift for Bash [Wiz Khalifa’s son]. Wiz brought a kid into the world, do you feel like the perception of Hip Hop and family has changed recently?
Curren$y: You know what I think? I think the presence of so many untrustworthy women in the industry, and …I’d say ratchets. A lot of bitches we shouldn’t be fucking with have made us lean toward trying to find something more legitimate, and that’s what you show off. Instead of, “I got all these bitches,” we been doing that. It’s more like, “What’s up at the house?” That’s what that’s about. The ladies, the real women, they get mad at the hoes. They say the hoes make it hard for them, but the hoes making it easy for them, because niggas is like, “I did that shit already, where’s a legit bitch?” So don’t hate on them, let them do what they do…they make y’all more valuable at the end of the day.
AD LOADING...
DX: You dropped Drive in Theater, and Roddy dropped Route the Ruler. What’s on deck for the Jet Life movement?
Curren$y: Roddy’s working on a retail. Cornerboy P got Don P dropping May 6. I just signed LE$. He just dropped that Expansion Pack, and he’s working on Gangsta Grillz. Me, I’m about to get me eight or nine old No Limit beats and do my thang. I’m gonna call it Jet Tank. You know I got love for the tank. I’m gonna show love to the colonel. RIP to Mr. Magic. I’m sorry I’m talking so low…this shit so good. Shit so good I’m trying to buy a house because of it.
DX: One of your fellow brothers from Louisiana came home: Lil Boosie. How do you feel about that?
Curren$y: Everybody was waiting on Boosie to come home. I should probably get him on a record. I want to get him on that Pilot Talk 3. I’m gonna go ahead and put it out there: Fuck with me, and we’ll try to get you on that Pilot Talk 3. I know I can’t burn that gas around you. You just came home. You on papers. I’ll sacrifice and go 45 minutes without smoking a joint to get a Boosie joint.
DX: Recently you did the “10 Gs” remix with Baby. How does it feel to link up with the Cash Money fam?
AD LOADING...
Curren$y: Me and Birdman is fam. You know I went and did that BMI joint. When they did the BMI awards to celebrate, I performed with them to celebrate the illustrious decade and what they brought to the game. It’s nothing new. Wayne did that “442.” I reached out to Birdman for that “10Gs.” I reached out him at 10 in the morning, and I had it back by like one in the afternoon.
DX: You’re from New Orleans, and New Orleans has a reputation for violence and things of that nature. We’ve seen more recently that Chicago has to deal with the same image. How do you feel about how our cities are portrayed in the mainstream media, as opposed to what you’ve experienced?
Curren$y: You know what? We do it too. So it’s not just what they say. We do it too. So I don’t really feel no kind of way ‘cause I’m from New Orleans. At the time we were ranked as the murder capital [of the U.S.]. It’s not something we were proud of, but it was something that we spoke on. When you speak on it–even though you aren’t trying to glorify it–[there’s] some people who think that’s tight. So just speaking on your situation you’re damn near promoting it. When a muthafucka talk about how it is, when you add Iraq to it, to fuse the word, and let people know Chicago is in this state, you letting muthfuckas know. Some people understand it as a bad thing, and some people think that’s the shit. We can’t control how muthafuckas think. We just letting them know the situation, yet some people think it’s dope. You hear a muthafucka frustrated talking about how rough it is, and another muthafucka will think that’s the best shit.
RELATED:Curren$y Reflects On Lil Snupe’s Murder & Reconciling With Dame Dash [Interview]
