Though 9th Wonder’s latest project, The Wonder Years, has been released to critical acclaim, the producer won’t take full credit for the album’s success.
As such, 9th recently spoke on what it meant to have Raekwon and Mac Miller on his album, in an interview with Page 31.
“I mean the Chef cooks man!” exclaimed 9th about Raekwon. “Before my man Lil B came along, somebody was cooking before him…my man Raekwon. It was a tribute to Wu-Tang and the thing that started off his whole legacy, and he’s one of my favorite rappers ever.”
Just as 9th extended accolades to the Wu-Tang vet, he sang the praises of a relative newcomer, Mac Miller. “Better not nobody say a bad word about that dude man,” warned 9th. “Man, I blast people on twitter man. I might hit somebody in the face for saying something bad about Mac Miller man. Because he just breathes positivity, and I love positive people, and I hate negative people. Nobody is connecting with their fans the way he is, and it’s completely honest. He’s not trying to be anything he’s not, which is a bad epidemic in Hip Hop; you got a whole lot of niggas lying. Doing things, and being things that they’re not because they think that gets them somewhere. Mac Miller is totally opposite. He’s from Pittsburgh, he loves Hip Hop, he likes to party at his shows, and his shows are incredible. I’m not on the Mac Miller payroll either, he don’t pay me to say this.”
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On the topic of the what verse over one of his beats meant the most to him, 9th understandably chose Jay-Z’s “Threats” off of the Brooklyn legend’s 2003 album, The Black Album.
“A tear ran down my face,” he said, laughing. “Ain’t gon’ lie. Because, he said my name on the track and I had been working so hard for a moment like that not knowing the moment was gonna come from him. It was a sense of relief to finally know I made some kind of a mark.”
“Not that I didn’t make a mark with Little Brother, that I did, but you know, on that particular level I made a mark. He said my name on the track and he put my track between Timbaland’s and Eminem’s on the album. My career can end tomorrow but nobody can take that away from me. I was on one of the top three Jay-Z albums ever.”
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