Tell me about your debut The Hunger For More.
I started working on my project during the Roc The Mic tour, which was this past summer with Jay-Z, Snoop Dogg, Fabolous, Bone Crusher, Chingy. Lil’ Mo, a lot of artists. I had the chance to see what works and what doesn’t work. I’m a critic, but I look for the things that artists do good. It’s easy to find out what somebody’s flaws are. I look to see what’s making them sell records, and I build it into what I can do. I had the privilege of making a percentage of my album in Southside Jamaica, Queens, where I grew up at and I had the pleasure of making the rest of my album all around the world. That made my music broaden to the masses ’cause I’ve been everywhere, Japan, Germany, London, everywhere. You see different things. The things you go through make you who you are. That’s why I feel like I had the privilege of having the best of both worlds. I gave you what I feel like you need to know from my personal experiences and I gave you what I’ve been learning. I think I have records on my first album that could have made my second album because of the broadness. Things that I’m talking about and seen. For the most part, my mind state was still from my neighborhood, because just last year the finances weren’t there so I remember. So it’s still the struggle there, just mixed in. Kind of like when Biggie did his first album. I actually put my album to the side to finish my performance on the G-Unit album, Beg For Mercy. Once I was done with that, I was already18-19 tracks deep into my solo project. Before I knew it I had 50 records. My problem was selecting the records I wanted to go on the album.
Why did you pick “On Fire” as your first single?
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“On Fire” means I’m the shit. I’m really what’s happening right now. It’s been done. I’ve heard the term. But nothing’s new. “On Fire” was one of the last records I recorded. Eminem produced it. It came at a time when I had a lot of singles. But that was the club one. I wanted to get in the club because I perform more than the average artist. I’d rather give you a club banger than a radio record. At the end of the day your performance determines whether people wanna buy tickets. One show can determine your next 50 shows.
How did you pick your collabos, like with Snoop, Fabolous?
Personal favorites. Snoop is my favorite all-time. Even though I’m considered the lyricist out of the group I think that came from me wanting to be complicated, not to be what you could predict. In NYC there’s so many rappers you have top stay on your toes just to separate yourself from everybody else. You have to say something that makes everybody say “Whoa!” I found the way to do that is to be predictable. Snoop was my all-time favorite, not because of what he said but how he said it. He could get his point across with three words, just stretched out. He was lazy. He’s cool.. And that’s my whole persona. I’m the laid back one out the group. That’s why I like Slick Rick, Big Daddy Kane, the smooth ones. Fab is kind of the same way. He’s cool. That’s all I got: Snoop, Fab, Eminem, 50, Buck and Game. Tony Yayo comes out the day before my deadline to record records. Hopefully, I can get him home and go straight to the studio so he can be able to get on my album.
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Do you and G-Unit ever feel like D12 on their single “My Band?” I understood it. For the most part we don’t have that problem. Maybe when we go overseas, they build the interview around 50 because he was the forefront. Then again there was only three of us from the beginning. That
