Houston Rockets‘ newly acquired forward, Ron Artest, is releasing his latest mixtape, “King of Queens,” with his crew the Worldwide Wariers.
According to Rolling Stone, the project will be backed by prominent mixtape genius DJ Drama, who has worked with rappers like T.I., Lil Wayne, and Little Brother. Drama’s involvement with the mixtape will hopefully enhance Artest’s credibility as a Hip Hop artist.
“Hip Hop is almost like a religion,” explains Artest to a Chinese Hip Hop site. “It’s an expression of mainly pain and suffering. I think rap is more of a job and Hip Hop is more about expression. Hip Hop has been heavily watered down and knocked off course by the big money makers. There are many artists who are scared to make music for themselves, and they cater to the boss with the grey hair or light skin, who never ever been caught in a cross fire, or been racially profiled, or cut in the face, or been face to face with multiple crack heads.”
The Queens native is no stranger to controversy. His reputation has been paved by a slew of unfortunate occurrences including domestic abuse, a penchant for flagrant fouls, and of course, his significant involvement in the infamous Pistons/Pacers brawl of 2004. Yet, he still supports the kind of Hip Hop that is positive and uplifting.
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“The Hip Hop I’m accustomed to is Rakim,” he continues. “Rakim should be able to say what’s Hip Hop and what’s not. And give the other good music a different genre. Hip Hop is influenced by God, meaning artists like Run DMC and positive Hip Hop. I think gangster rap is a fake. I think it should be labeled pain music.”
When asked about his thoughts on the current Hip Hop industry, Artest answered:
“It is not hard to sell music. I think people who buy music are not stupid. When 50 put out Curtis he tried to fool people and his fans wanted that real 50. Same with Nas and Nastradamus and Jay with the one album that he had that was unsuccessful…People don’t want to hear lies, they want pure hearted music.”
Despite his claim that music isn’t hard to sell, Artest’s first album, My World, only managed to sell a reported 343 copies in its first week. His status as a Queensbridge native unfortunately hasn’t given him the credibility such as that of fellow Queensbridge rappers Nas and Prodigy.
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Artest’s mixtape is available online for download.
Reported by Salima Koroma.
