Joey Bada$$ has been prepping the material on his upcoming album, B4.Da.$$, which he says will contain some unexpected elements.
“Definitely a few surprises,” Bada$$ says of what fans can expect from his album during an interview with Topman. “But you can just expect pure greatness, you know, I’m really putting my all into this.”
Joey’s album, set to be released this year, is one that will stand as a statement against his detractors, he says.
“Generally I don’t think I get the respect that I deserve, but I’m not one to complain,” the New York emcee says. “I’m just gonna show and prove, so that’s what I’m gonna do with this album.”
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This album is also set to be a statement about the rapper’s freedom to express himself without too much outside influence.
“I’m the type of artist that needs full creative control,” he says. “I can’t have anybody dictate what I want to do. I have my own ideas when it comes to marketing strategies and things like that so I’m just like all independent.”
Beyond being an independent emcee, Bada$$ also says he is a balanced person, a trait he elaborates on when asked about how he deals with the pressures of the music industry.
“Well, I just keep good people around me,” he says. “I can tell right from wrong, and I can tell what’s hype and not hype [laughs]. Other people get jerked up in the hype, but I’m not even like that.”
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When Bada$$ mentions “other people,” he may be referencing other artists. Nevertheless, the emcee says he has no plans to battle anybody in the industry soon.
“I don’t think anybody wants to rap battle me right now,” he says when asked who he’d want to battle. “I would definitely love to cypher with a few people but I’m not really a battler, that’s not really my thing. I like to just add to the pie.”
Bada$$ mentionedB4.Da.$$ during a HipHopDX interview in 2013, noting that the project would be released the following year. At the time, he discussed his songwriting as personal. “I just write for myself,” Joey said at the time. “It’s a lot of things that boost it, or keeps it moving, or charges it, that keeps me motivated, but that’s what it is most of the time. Pressure is like steam that burst; I just take it in and release it.”
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