S. Samuel
Rap newcomer Maino recently spoke on his ties to incarcerated rapper T.I. outside of the rap game and what he has planned for the "King" upon his release.
Calling Tip his “brother,” Maino explained why his association with the emcee is deeper than rap.
“That’s my brother,” he explained in an interview. “The love I got for him is outside of music. The love I got for him and his family and the love he showed me, he’s done things for me that nobody, not even people from my own city was willing to do for me. Like, he’s the type of dude that any help I could possibly need, he’s willing to get down and help me. He’ll do that on any level. That comes far and few in this business, son, when you do come across someone like that you have to salute him because there are not many…As far as the music, that’s the homie right there. I mean when he gets out, the sky’s the limit. I mean right now I’m more concerned with him getting out of there, but I’m going to be here.” (Hip Hop DX)
Maino previously gave his opinion on Tip’s 366-day prison sentence.
“It ain’t like he ain’t never been to jail before,” Maino explained in an interview. “It’s just a hard pill to swallow when you got so much going on. He’s a strong dude and I know he’s gonna get through it. He knows what it is when he goes in there, he knows how to handle himself and the focus, goal, is to get back there to his family and to his business, music, money and do what you gotta do. In and out. He gonna be all right.” (iHipHop)
Aside from being close with the “King,” the rapper recently spoke on his impact in the rap game since last summer.
“All I do is just project success and I’m just try to come up and just because I’m able to perform in front of 65,000 screaming fans and I’m doing stadiums now and people want to touch me now,” he explained. “It don’t go to my head. I’m still who I am. I’m a grounded n*gga that’s because when you see me — even though I’m on my third single and my second one is a gold single, I’m still me.” (Rap Radar)
In addition to his debut album dropping later this month, Maino recently released his Unstoppable DVD.
“A lot of industry people didn’t believe in me when I first started pounding the streets,” he said via a statement. “Many said I wouldn’t make it off of mixtapes, now look…my album is dropping June 30th. Haters inspired me to write my last two hit records. Unstoppable is the story of my life and struggles to get to the position I’m in now. I had a rough life growing up and nothing ever happened the way it was supposed to happen to me, so I’m accustomed to being turned down.” (Statement)
If Tomorrow Comes hits stores Tuesday, June 30th via Atlantic Records. Check out this video of Maino’s “A Decade” Series Pt. 2
