Rapsody may no longer be working side-by-side with the producer who brought her into the game, 9th Wonder, but that doesn’t mean that they have serious problems.
In a new episode of the Elliott Wilson Experience, Rap sat down with Wilson, the Editorial Director of Hip Hop Journalism at DX’s parent company, UPROXX Studios. He asked the rapper about a lyric on her song “God’s Light”: “Me and 9th’s relationship like Q-Tip and Phife.”
Rapsody said that it made sense to compare her relationship with the producer and label head to the famously brotherly but contentious one between the A Tribe Called Quest members.
“Our relationship has changed,” she said of her and 9th, who originally signed Rapsody and produced the lion’s share of her previous albums — though he appears not at all on her latest, this year’s Please Don’t Cry.
“We know the love and respect [Q-Tip and Phife] always [had] for each other, but we also know it wasn’t always the best of times. That happens with a lot of groups or a lot of people that work closely together, and me and him are no different.
“I’ve grown in my own ways, he is who he is, and we didn’t always see eye to eye on things… You just accept what it is. And one thing, though: I’ll never lose love and respect for him, and vice versa. If he needed something, I’m there.
“Because we still in contract together, I always make sure I respect him. I send him the album like, ‘Listen, let me know what you think.’ So the love and respect is always there, but the relationship is definitely different.”
You can see the entire segment beginning at the 27:28 mark below.
Elsewhere on Please Don’t Cry, Rapsody has a duet with Lil Wayne. She revealed in a recent sit-down with HipHopDX that being on a track with Weezy made her re-think her approach numerous times.
“I just wanna say what I say and make it fun,” she said. “But then, he sent his verse, and I was like, ‘I gotta match the level of artistry.’ Like, it’s Wayne!”
She continued: “And I ain’t scared to say it, because he’s one of the GOATs. It is what it is. A lot of artists won’t say it. But I’ll say it: I probably wrote my verse like 27 times.”
Ninth Wonder seems to be a hard dude to work with. Sounds a lot like what Phonte was saying about him when they tried to reunite and dude came back in on some executive producer attitude shit.
Yup. The Little Brother scenario comes to mind. Also the Nas conflict in which 9th released God’s Stepson’s remix album.
Phonte isn’t the easiest either, Pooh can attest to that. When 9th was already out the picture and it was just them two, there were still problems.
9th Wonder is an arrogant dude. I met him one time at NCCU a few years back. And he’s a cat that cuts people off and loves to hear himself talk. I could see him being difficult to be around lowkey because he got his head up his own ass after the Jay-Z and Beyonce songs. He just has a good rep for his sample game but behind the scenes the dude is a jerk.
That tracks then because that’s the vibe I get from the people who regularly work with him. He sounds like he thinks he actually made the music he samples. Like on some Kanye god complex type shit.
Very talented guy. Can’t deny that. But obviously he has a complex that is unwarranted and hard to handle. He’s very arrogant, he’s very conceded, and he doesn’t follow through with anything. At least he is consistent. Sucks cause we all wanted better longevity with his projects and groups. Jamla …….. sorry Rapsody
you mean *conceited, which means ‘to be vain’. conceded, means ‘to surrender or give up’