S. Samuel
G-Unit's DJ Whoo Kid recently opened up about his thoughts on the state of hip-hop and why 50 Cent nemesis Rick Ross' image perpetuates myths of gangsterism within the music.
While not co-signing Ross’ movement, Whoo Kid did give props to rap stars like Jay-Z, Kanye West and Drake.
“The state of hip-hop is for the kids, dance music, snapping and occasionally gangsterism,” Whoo Kid told radio host Tim Westwood. “But the gangsterism is not definited as reality. It’s like they’re in a movie. It’s like Scarface part one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. Do you believe Rick Ross is a gangster from his music? Like if you see him, if you never met him, would you believe he’s gangster? Like he’s threatening? Uh! Uh! Uhh! Uhhh! Whattt? I’m being serious too. There’s no focus in hip-hop but it’s cool. The kids are happy. There’s good music out there still like Jay-Z, Kanye [West] with the open doorways, not being in the box and then there’s Mims. [laughs] I’m sorry, I meant to say Drake. Thank God there’s Drake out there.” (“Tim Westwood TV”)
Recently, 50 Cent reflected on his 2009 publicized rap battle against Ricky Rozay.
50 said he believes Ross started the feud to raise his own rap profile: “He says it started because I looked at him the wrong way,” Fif recalled of an incident on the red carpet for the 2009 BET Awards. “That just means he wanted to compete, he wanted to move up, he wanted to create an awareness for himself, and he did it.” While the two did trade insults, specifically on Rozay’s “Mafia Music” and Fif’s “Officer Ricky,” the G-Unit general said he didn’t take the barbs personally, and in his mind, the two had a battle — not a beef. “This is why they changed the terminology from ‘battling’ to ‘beefing.’ It was always that battling was a part of the culture; they didn’t do that until Tupac and Biggie Smalls’ situation,” he said. “That’s when it became taboo to actually mention an artist’s name.” (MTV)
Last year, Fif said he never reached out to make a truce with Ross.
“I never had a conversation with him. My focus shifted during that record. A lot of times, earlier in my career, I was competing with artists because that was what I loved about hip-hop: The idea that battling someone was necessary to defend your spot and you had to take on all challengers — so I did that constantly. No one thinks that way now and everyone looks at me like I’m the Broad Street Bully. The younger kids coming up missed that time frame, and even the conscious rap is gone too. The stuff that Common Sense and Talib Kweli and Mos Def were rhyming about. What was socially conscious and responsible about the music has been replaced by hipster kids in skinny jeans and mohawks. Of course, that’s always been around, but it was usually confined to the Village. Artists have always had the opportunity to influence the culture, but now it’s the other way around: They’re trying to look like their audience to attract their audience. Now you can’t tell the difference between a Led Zeppelin fan and a hip-hop fan.” (Los Angeles Times)
A few week ago, Whoo Kid updated fans on 50’s delayed LP.
“He wants it to come out but he’s dealing with label sh*t too,” Whoo Kid said about 50 Cent’s album delay. “It’s like the politics of when to drop and you gotta understand there’s competition with other people too. So labels are just, like, maneuvering when to drop ’cause I know he did, most of it is done. Like 95 percent of it is finished so he wants it to come out and if it was up to him it would but I may assume it’s the labels that’s f*cking with him but at the end of the day I heard like nine joints that’s crazy. I wish I had it now so I could f*cking make some serious money off of it myself, but, you’ll hear it soon.” (Amaru Don TV)
Check out DJ Whoo Kid’s interview below:
