S. Samuel
Memphis Bleek recently revealed his reasons for not using a Jay-Z guest feature on his solo projects and for passing up the opportunity to appear on Jay's last four albums.
Bleek believes it would mean more to find success on his own.
“You know, Jay put out four albums and I was there for the making of all four of them,” Bleek said in an interview. “I ain’t get on none of them, people are probably like ‘Why?’ I did a whole album with Jay, I did nine singles with Jay, I shot seven videos with Jay, how much more can we tell people he’s my man than you already know? That’s number one and of course people are looking at me like ‘Why would you do that, you could get a record with Jay, get hot and be right back in the spotlight,’ but then you know what that is to me? That’s like buying a Playstation game from the store right now, putting in the cheat code and calling my man saying I beat the game. In all reality, I didn’t beat the game, I cheated. Me doing a song with Jay right now feels like I would cheat the game.” (Rap Radar)
Despite no longer being on the Roc, Bleek recently called Hov his biggest music critic.
“Jay. Because he my biggest critic,” Bleek said in an interview. “Jay is the type of person, it’s never right. I don’t care how much I can sit in my house, record 20 thousand records and I can say ‘this one is the record!’ Ain’t nothing no body can tell me that’s gonna change my mind. And soon as I get to the office, he be like that’s bulls**t. You for real thinking that’s crazy? And I be looking at him like “Am I bugging? Or is it you?” He’s my biggest critic. I’m tryna always get his approval and make the boss happy. And it’s never gonna happen I see (laughs) I definitely gotta come from the street first.” (All Hip Hop)
Last December, Bleek explained why he turned down an opportunity to join Hov’s Roc Nation.
“I coulda went to Roc Nation, but then what am I getting out of that?,” Bleek asked in an interview. “Another $150,000 check advance, then I come out [and] sell 300,000 probably, somebody makes two or three million, and I gotta mess with the fact that they gon’ say yo you bricked out? Like that’s the industry. And that’s [with a label run by] my homie. Now if [it’s] somebody else, [they] might not even get a 150 [thousand dollar] advance, they probably go get 30. And plus I’d rather be on my own, fam. I been in the game, like you said a decade now, I know what to do; I know what not to do. It’s time for me to have my own record [label]. I got a lot of n*ggas behind me that’s ready to get they shot. And me being behind Jay, they ain’t gonna never get they shot.” (Hip Hop DX)
In addition to his departure from the R-o-c, Memph also said he is no longer under contract with Def Jam Records.
“[The album] is called The Process,” Bleek revealed in an interview. “Same album I was working on when everybody was under the Def Jam structure. But once Jay moved and did the Roc Nation thing, I hollered at him and told him I wanted to create my own umbrella to be a branch off Roc Nation…I don’t want to be under Jay-Z’s shadow forever. I feel like I’m gonna get criticized for that forever. So, yeah. It’s one reason I want to do the Get Low thing. People will respect me more if I can show them I know how to walk on my own two. But I still got the big homie. He’s setting up meetings with every distribution company for me. I’m just trying to see what’s the best fit.” (VIBE)
Check out Memphis Bleek speaking on Jay-Z below:
