S. Samuel
Atlanta rapper Young Jeezy recently offered his take on what makes a real/fake hip-hop artist and why a majority of street stories are more fiction instead of fact.
Crediting himself as a real street rapper, Jeezy said his past upbringing speaks for itself.
“A lot of these rappers aren’t rapping about their lives. You just know they’re good at what they do. Some people are good at touching people in other ways. Yeah and it’s about that. A n*gga beating on a lunch table rapping, you know d*mn well he didn’t shoot anybody last night. But he going to shoot five motherf*ckers in his rap. That’s what it’s always been about. Rap changed my life so much, because what these other rappers talk about, it was really my life. I just think there’s no other way to tell someone other than to show them.” (Global Grind)
Having served nearly ten years behind bars on a gun conviction, rapper Shyne gave his take on fake emcees in 2010.
“I’m not a bully,” Shyne said in an interview. “So I don’t believe in taking advantage of people per se, though, I do have my feelings on this issue. And you know that when people listen to my music, they’ll hear me talkin’ about it and how I feel about the situation. But it’s not that important for me in the sense of callin’ a muthaf*cka’s name. I don’t think about muthaf*ckas like that. And they don’t matter that much to me. But I won’t do a record with anybody that’s not who they say they are. I won’t do a record with a muthaf*cka that’s gettin’ on the stand. I won’t do no record with no cops, no sh*t like that. I’m not doin’ that. And that’s just personal. I won’t do it, I won’t talk to them, I won’t f*ck with them, I won’t look at them, I’ll keep it movin’ and have nothin’ to do with them. That’s just some personal sh*t…So particularly, that’s why I don’t do it. So I feel the way I handle it, is you’ll never see me f*ckin’ with none of them dudes. You will never see me shakin’ they hand– nothin’. I won’t be in they video, they can’t be in my video– nothin’. That’s how I handle it, by not f*ckin’ with ’em.” (XXL Mag)
Undefeated boxing champion Floyd Mayweather, Jr. previously called out fake hip-hop artists.
“You got rappers in today’s time, they get a small advance from their record label, get a bunch of tattoos, a few piercings on their face, go to jail for 10 or 20 days, [then] they killers,” Mayweather weighed in. “Next time out, they rock stars. I think rap is crazy, but it’s still very creative.” (MTV)
Outside of pointing fingers, Jeezy’s new Thug Motivation 103 album is slated to dominate its competition next week.
Def Jam/IDJ’s Young Jeezy album, Thug Motivation 103: Hustlerz Ambition, hits fourth, looks set for an impressive first week sales number of between 200-225k, based on one-day reports from those retailers who took time out from making fun of Newt Gingrich‘s double chin to respond. The South Carolina-born rapper’s previous album, The Recession, debuted with nearly 260k upon its release in Sept. 2008. (HITS Daily Double)
Check out a recent Young Jeezy interview below:
