S. Samuel
With his new I Love You mixtape keeping the streets hot, The LOX's Jadakiss recently shared his input on who he feels is keeping New York City hip-hop relevant.
Along with naming mainstream acts like Fabolous and Jay-Z, Kiss also gave his co-sign of rap rookie Fred the Godson.
“I feel New York is doing d*mn good,” Kiss said in an interview. “You still got me here, [Styles P], Sheek Louch, Fab, Uncle Murda, Maino, Joell Ortiz, Nas, Hov, you know. New cats, Fred the Godson, we good. We’ll be all right. Don’t worry about New York at all. We’re gonna be around. When the trumpets blow, we’re still gonna be here. For real.” (“Femme Fatale Mixshow”)
Last year, LOX’s Styles P pointed out the lack of unity amongst some New York rap acts.
“I think unity among New York rappers is cool,” he said in an interview. “I think if you a New York rapper you bred different and me being a follower of New York rap, being a follower of Hip-Hop and real emcee’s I can say that I’ve never really heard Kool G. Rap and Rakim on a song — you know it’s a lot of emcees I ain’t hear on a song so I think it’s supposed to be competitive in New York. I think it’s bred to be competitive, I’m cool with everybody else but if you ask me who’s the best, my click of course.” (Miss LS)
In 2009, Dipset’s Cam’ron spoke on artists like Jay-Z helping to place New York rap back on the map.
“Jay-Z done made it look real good,” Cam said in an interview. “Jay-Z just sold 530,000 so it’s still looking good. Whenever there’s ever anybody out in New York still doing over half a million in a week, it’s still available. I don’t really f*ck with Jay but I got mad respect for anybody who makes money and anybody who still sells that much records after having a lot of albums out. Jay-Z really definitely did help out New York a lot.” (Hip Hop Beef)
New York rapper Saigon previously discussed the difficulty rappers around his area have with getting recognition.
“All of us got caught up in the emergence of the South movement,” Sai said about the delay of New York rap newcomers. “All of us came on the scene when the South was really makin’ their move to take over. The record companies was like ‘F*ck the New York n*ggas, the South sh*t is where it’s at.’…All labels look at are radio spins really. If you can get a record up to 400, 500 spins on your own, they gonna come give you a record deal right away. They don’t even have to listen to the song, they just need to see how many spins you got. Us from New York, you’re not gonna get 500 spins on your own unless your name is Jay-Z.” (Q The Question)
Check out Jadakiss’ interview below:
