like I’m tryin’ to stay with Jay. Jay sat me down one time, like, “I definitely think you’re a star, so anything you need me to help you with your career, I got you.” But that’s pretty much it. He deals with the Roc-A-Fella side, so I deal more with L.A. Reid and all those other dudes at Def Jam. I know Jay is there for my project, but it’s not like he’s actually hands-on with me. It was never really a thing between Jay or Dame. I got a lot of respect for Dame. He’s a great nigga, and he did so much for my career. At the time, I felt like Dame had a lot of stuff going on besides the music that he was focused on. Right now I’m so focused on my career that I just wanted somebody around me that was just focused on that. I was on that up-and-coming grind. You got some dudes that feel like, if my thing don’t go well, it’s off to the next thing. But if they feel like this is all they got, hey, they’re gonna do everything in their power to make my situation work. There was rumored to be some friction between Jay and Cam. Did that ever affect you? Nah, nah. And once again, it was never really a problem. I would definitely say that was an ego situation. Jay is his own man, Cam is his own man. Nobody caters to each other in that situation. When it comes to them, if you see Jay or Cam in the office, they’d give each other a pound and that’s gonna be it. Nobody’s gonna stoop to that level and be like, “Yo, I fucks with you,” even though they both fucks with each other. I seen that. I’m a real nigga and I know what it is. They both respect each other, bottom line. That’s just how I feel. But it gets to that point where, you know, Cam is like, “I’m that nigga,” and Jay is like, “I’m that nigga.” It comes to a point where they can’t come to an agreement. So from the outside looking in, it looks like a separation. To me, it was never really a separation. They were just doing they own thing. They not colliding, but they not cool like Dame and Cam was or Jay and Dame was. It was a different type of relationship, that’s all. Tell me about some of the new artists coming out of the Diplomats camp. Oh, we got a hell of a new roster. You know, Hell Rell was incarcerated. I really like Hell Rell. I really wanna sit down and be really involved with his album. That’s one thing I always wanted to do, be involved with artist development. Not to say that Hell Rell needs artist development, but he’s just a dude where I like his music and I want to say I had something to do with his project. To be honest, I really enjoy his music. That’s my dude. Then we’ve got JR Writer who’s been doing his thing for a minute. Jha Jha is new too. I really feel like she brings something different to the table. She’s from Dade County, Miami, so when people hear her come out they expect her to be raunchy and raw to the core. But when we hear Jha Jha, we hear songs. She didn’t come to us like a regular bitch on the street trying to spit. She came with music; well put-together music. People never really got to hear that from Jha Jha yet cause we never really had the time to put her out. When you hear her on a radio station, it’s like, damn. She’s not really a spitter like that. We come from Harlem, so this is what we do, but her music is so well put-together. I think when Jha Jha comes out, it’s gonna be a turning point in the game. She’s not really your average sexy rapper. She does make some dirty South songs, like the song she just did for Jim’s album called “What U Been Drinkin’ On.” Jim picked that for his single. He’s got Paul Wall and Puffy on there. They shot the video in Miami. She had a song on the last album called “Get From Round Here.” That song was so big. We never did a video, but in the clubs in the South people loved it. I really think she’s on a different type of shit. When people hear her music, man, they’ll know. People are followers. Once she gets that one little push and a bunch people saying it’s hot, you know what it is. So you’ve got a new album coming out. Man, I have everything going on at once. My album is done. It’s called What The Game’s Been Missing. I still kept it funky and worked with all the up-and-coming producers, the heatmakers. It’s definitely a different sound from the last time. It’s the same me, but a different side of me. The last album was more personal. I dealt with a lot of personal issues, like the jealousy song. It was a real personal album. This album is more like, I went in the studio and knew what I wanted to do. It’s more fun. People get to see a different side of me. My last album was dwelling on my whole life. Since it was my first album, I talked about everything that led up to that. Who’s featured on the album? For those who don’t know, Game is on the title track. I got Lil Wayne, Young Jeezy, Cam, and Sizzla on my album. I just shot a video for my first single, “There It Go,” a.k.a. the whistle song. It’s got a loud whistle throughout the whole song. 56
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What about musically? How does this album differ from the last? The last album was slower. It had more of a gangsta feel to it. I got a couple of storytelling songs on this new album. I got a song called “Little Boy Fresh.” I was sitting there watching this movie called Fresh, and it reminded me of a lot of shit I see in my hood. A lot of these young niggas coming up good with drugs and other situations. I actually wrote out the whole movie and kicked it different. It’s gonna be a big song for my album. I got another song called “Gone Like Another.” I told two different stories. The first story is about an old-timer who just came home and he wants to block the young niggas. I see that a lot. That’s what’s going on in my hood right now. Young niggas got the block right now, but old niggas coming home want the block back. I just did a scenario of something I’ve seen. Then the chorus talks about how you don’t appreciate life until you’re gone. The second story is about another situation, a bitch in my hood fuckin’ with the average drug dealer. She’s kinda blind to the situation, she doesn’t really know what he does. She’s running around with a brand new Benz and new friends, so she ain’t worried about it. She winds up getting kidnapped and they call the dude for ransom money, and he’s like, “I don’t give a fuck about her. I got a wife and kids somewhere else anyway.” It was a different type of song for me, just to prove some things. This album touches a lot of different bases. I got my own studio, and I’ve recorded over 160 songs. It’s a lot of different types of music that I wasn’t even doing last time around when I had to worry about my recording budget. My songs were kinda limited then. This time around, I just got to do so much music and I was really into it. I knew what I wanted to do and what I wanted to get across. You’ve got a home studio now? No, I got a nice studio, a separate studio. I spent over $250,000 on that studio. Cam is in the process of building his own studio right now too. Cam wants us all to be entrepreneurs and have our own. I feel like the more we do for ourselves, the more he appreciates it and the more he makes it happen, just to be able to see me go out on my own and do shit like that. Do you and Cam have kind of a younger brother/older brother type relationship? Yeah, he’s like an older brother/mentor. Cam does a lot for me. I just appreciate the situation he’s put me in. A lot of people don’t be willing to push situations. With my first album, it wasn’t even like I sold mad records or nothing like that. But I’m still A-List with the Diplomats. He’s not putting nobody in front of me. Even though, in my situation, I try to make it to where nobody can get in front of me, because I’m always gonna remain hot. Whether my album sells a mil or doesn’t, I’m gonna stay out there in the streets and let niggas know. I’m like a brand new artist. For me, that’s a big thing right now, I’m pretty much gonna kill the streets. I got my mixtape and the joint with Jeezy coming out. This time around, I really feel like it needs to be big because I put in so much hard work. Were you disappointed with the response to your first album? Nah, I wasn’t disappointed. Numbers-wise, maybe, but that’s just how the game goes. That shit is not always what you expect it to be. It just makes me want to work harder. Honestly, some people take that shit and step back, but that shit really made me want to work harder. I be looking for these niggas, and there’s no future for their next album. I seen that shit, but for me, it wasn’t like I crossed over or did no dumb shit for my first album. My street shit was still solidified. I still had shows. My show list was longer than niggas who went platinum. So I’m still that nigga. With certain niggas, if you cross over tryin’ to do something, it doesn’t work. I’m performing in clubs where people don’t wanna hear that bullshit. I’m not performing for 40,000 people every night where I’ve gotta go out and do a bunch of commercial music. I’m going to clubs where 1,600 niggas are drunk and high as fuck, so if you go up in there with some bullshit you might get a bottle thrown at you. It just enabled me to come bigger the next time around, because niggas know it ain’t gonna be no bullshit. He still keeping it real, he still on that shit. So I’m gradually grabbing everybody. As long as I keep moving forwards and not backwards, I feel like I’m doing the right thing. I feel like this time around will definitely be bigger than last time around. Every album is gonna be bigger as long as I could get a bigger presence. Every album makes me bigger in the long run. When I leave here, people will really understand what I did. I can guarantee that longevity. Any last words? Get used to the future, cause I am that. I don’t claim to be the king, I just do my thing. Niggas know what it is.