S. Samuel
G.O.O.D. Music's Pusha T recently discussed the advantages of being associated with rap crews like Kanye West's growing team and how the in-house competition keeps him on his A-game.
Pusha said being in situations like Re-Up Gang and his current G.O.O.D. Music, there is much more responsibility on his shoulders.
“It’s an easier situation. It’s just 100 percent easier. With me going solo, I found out how much I leaned on my brother [Malice]. I’m talking about in a music sense. I’m talking about the press portion, too,” Pusha said when asked about his knack for being associated with groups. “Man, they might have told me that you were gonna call me at one o’clock and, like, since I was just picking up my dog , I wouldn’t have answered (laughs), because then I knew y’all would call my brother and he would answer and he would’ve done the interview. Those type of things don’t happen no more, dog. It’s all on my shoulders.” (Life + Times)
The Virginia-bred emcee also revealed how the G.O.O.D. Music team feeds off one another.
“H*ll, yeah. I mean, it’s just great for creativity as a whole, man. And it sort of keeps you abreast of everything that’s going on,” Pusha added. “I can easily talk to CyHi [Da Prynce] and be like, “Yo, what’s the popping record in Atlanta right now?” And he may tell me something that I don’t know, you know what I’m saying? Or [Big] Sean…Sean is a great gauge of what’s hot in a couple different capacities, like what’s hot fashionably. He has his hand on the pulse–I’m talking about the opinion of the young guy who is in the know, who actually knows which Jordans are dropping or so on and so forth.” (Life + Times)
Last month, Pusha spoke on his crew not wasting time competing with other hip-hop groups or record labels.
“No. I don’t think that G.O.O.D. Music ever considers any of the other labels that are out there. We like the music. We appreciate it. But at the end of the day I think it’s more competitive in-house. You’ve got guys like [Big] Sean, who’s like running his little section,” Pusha explained in an interview. “You’ve got guys like Common, who will just rap you out of house and home. You’ve got guys like myself who, you know… I get busy. You’ve got Kanye. You’ve got [Kid] Cudi in his lane. It’s more of a puzzle trying to get all those different characters and all those different forms or rap to mesh well on a record. [To even] find the right record. Ye’s got to go through his whole production line process before it’s perfect. That’s really what we consider in the studio.” (Complex)
Recently, G-Unit leader 50 Cent offered his take on today’s growing trend of rap crews forming.
“I think it’s good, I think we’re in a good state now,” Fif said when asked for his take on the current status of New York hip-hop. “I just think a lot of the artists are hovering under the older crews that worked already when they should be creating their new crew. … Of course you need one person that’s really a spearhead, when one break, the rest of them get a shot. Without [Lil] Wayne, there’s no Young Money. Once one artist gets over the wall, that brand is cool. Wiz [Khalifa,] you see he’s got a group of artists around him now. It really takes one artist to come in and have that song take off and then have that ability to continue to create that material.” (V.I.P. Saturdays)
Check out a recent Pusha T interview below:
