S. Samuel
Southern rapper Shawty Lo has publicly apologized to his fans for being absent from the music scene since dropping his debut album, Units in the City, two years ago.
The “Dey Know” hitmaker said he is now trying to build up a strong following before dropping his next album, I Am Carlos.
“I wanna make sure my fanbase is all the way built back up and everybody screaming ‘Shawty Lo’ again before I put a date on the album,” Shawty said in an interview. “I wanna drop an album when my fanbase is where it’s supposed to be. I ain’t say I disappointed, what I mean by disappointed fans is that I ain’t coming back to music like I’m supposed to, dropping it like I’m supposed to. [I was] taking my time, being lazy. They still love me — I feel I let them down a little bit about my work ethic — so I ain’t never gonna disappoint again.” (Industry Muscle)
Last January, Shawty spoke on incarcerated rappers Gucci Mane and T.I.
“I talk to him on a regular basis,” Shawty said in an interview. “We keep him posted [on things going on in the industry]. He probably on the phone right now. I ain’t got to give him advice, though. Gucci know what he gotta do — he’s a grown man. You know, he got his head up. He’s ready to come back home…His spirits is up, and he get a lot of mail and get a lot of support from the fans in the streets and, you know, he’s just waiting to come home to reclaim his career…I wrote a song called, ‘Look What You Got’ and I’m talking about all the situations. Me and T.I. situation, Gucci and [Young] Jeezy situation, and how the beefs end. It’s like, let’s just move forward and just do it for the fans because there’s people that look up to us. And we don’t need negativity.” (VIBE)
He also talked about squashing his 2008 beef with Tip last fall.
“Me and Tip, we talked for about 15 minutes on November 24th [2008],” said Shawty Lo of last year’s Dirty Awards altercation. “And we just came to a conclusion [that] it ain’t need to go no further. Basically, it’s over with. Homie be home next year. Free Tip. [T.I.’s] last show [before beginning his jail sentence] at Club Crucial I came out and showed – What better place to do it [than] on Bankhead, and show in front of our peoples [that the beef was squashed]? I came on stage, the people saluted and they went crazy.” (Hip Hop DX)
Shawty began his return to the music spotlight with his recent collaboration with Lil Wayne, “WTF.”
“It’s just what it stands for: ‘What the F,’ man,” Lo said about the song. “It’s crazy, man. It’s a record me and Weezy did at the beginning of the month. We decided we might as well shoot the video for it. It’s a good look. Everybody wants the song, but I’mma release it [NBA] All-Star Weekend. It’s just basically street. ‘What the F.’ Our style of music. Nice beat, crazy lyrics. It was crazy. Everybody came out and supported. We started 6 in the a.m. and didn’t finish until 6 the next morning. We had a club performance, we had the rooftop performance and an inside-studio performance. Like, three, four good scenes. It’s gonna be a good video…We got a lot of good footage.” (MTV)
Check out Shawty Lo speaking on his fans below:
