Rick Ross’ Protégé Reveals What Kendrick Lamar Song Took His Career To The Next Level

Written By S. Samuel

Maybach Music Group's Gunplay recently shared his thoughts on religion, wrestling and what collaboration set his career ablaze.

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Depsite having a handful of years in the rap game to his name, Gunplay credited his Kendrick Lamar collabo “Cartoon and Cereal” for widening his fan base.

“I haven’t been to church in a minute but I believe in God. He’s the one pulling the strings. I say prayers in my head constantly. I’m not perfect but I try to live as righteously as I can. It was by the grace of God that I was able to get on Kendrick Lamar’s “Cartoons and Cereal” and take my career to the next level. I didn’t have to worry about trying to survive for the next year. That was an opportunity–the type of record that makes you. No video, no radio play, no nothing.” (Complex)

The Miami rapper also talked about his love for vintage professional wrestling.

“People want to be entertained. I was a big fan of wrestling back in the day. I liked Hulk Hogan, The Ultimate Warrior, Hacksaw Jim Duggan, Junkyard Dog, Koko B. Ware. That’s my era. That’s me in real life, though. I do wrestling moves in my boxers in front of my girlfriend. She looks at me like I’m crazy, but she laughs. If you listen to my music you wouldn’t know that I like to joke around, because I’m serious, and when I get down to business, I get down to business.” (Complex)

Gunplay and Lamar’s “Cartoons and Cereal” track premiered online last year.

In this tenuous era of rap music, inspired and strategic collaborations have been thrown out of the window in favor of getting the current hottest MCs on a song and seeing if it sticks. It’s led to albums with enough features to make your eyes glaze over, and streams of random mp3s that seem to feature the same three artists over and over again. That’s what makes “Cartoon & Cereal”, the unexpected team up between self-styled “black hippy” Kendrick Lamar and Maybach Music goon Gunplay, so refreshing and satisfying. At first blush, it’s a pairing that sounds better in theory than practice– but both artists have an anti-social streak that runs through their music, fueled by pain that bubbles just beneath the surface. So here we get Gunplay seething over a dank beat from frequent Lamar producer THC, while Kendrick kicks typically knotty verses that lick shots at both enemies and society. But it’s Gunplay– out of his realm sonically but at home spiritually– that truly stuns: “Nobody can’t mute me / But I never said nobody can’t shoot me…” (Pitchfork)

Recently, Gunplay raised some eyebrows after deciding to tattoo an actual wrestling championship belt across his belly.

The World Wrestling Federation doesn’t even exist anymore, but rapper Gunplay is joining the ranks of Hulk Hogan, Ultimate Warrior, and more … as the new WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMP — at least according to his new tattoo. The heavily-tatted Gunplay was in NYC Wednesday when we asked if he’d gotten any new ink recently, and the guy lifted up his shirt — revealing a tattoo of the most famous championship belt in wrestling history … the winged eagle belt. The belt was first worn by Hulk Hogan in 1988 — and subsequently by legends like Macho Man, Ultimate Warrior, The Undertaker, Ric Flair, Bret Hart, Yokozuna, Shawn Michaels, and Stone Cold Steve Austin. The belt vanished into obscurity in 1998, and no one really knows where it went. (TMZ)

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Written by S. Samuel

Steven Samuel is the co-founder of SOHH.com.

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