While talking about what keeps him motivated to continue to rap, Hov discussed his feelings on the current state of hip-hop.
“I don’t think people process music the same way [we used to],” He said. “Before, we used to listen to lyrics and then find out if the beat was hot later and then did the Wop.” he called out a line from MIMS’s “This is Why I’m Hot”. “When a guy says ‘I could make a million saying nothing’ on a track, you know you’ve reached a bad place,” he said. “It’s way past salvaging. I’m going the other way. That’s why [my album] is the way it is.”
For “American Gangsta” Jay used personal memories he hadn’t gone back to in a while. He reflected on his early life when he was living in Brooklyn’s Marcy Projects, saying, “The things that we have to see in one day, a lot of people never see in their life. People could live their whole life and never see a crack vial or a dope needle or a shootout. When I saw my first person get shot, I was nine years old”, “It’s typical to see people get shot before you’re ten. That has to have some type of effect on you.” He added, “People act this way for a reason: hope. You start looking around the neighborhood and there’s no role models to look up to. You got the worst schools, the worst roads, the worst of everything. To see the straight way to get out of that, it’s so far away that you start losing hope.”
During the interview Jay tried to defend his music by saying; “I try to tell both sides of the story,” he said, reciting lyrics from “Dead Presidents” (“Hit with the RICO, they repo your vehicle/Everything was all good just a week ago”). “There’s pitfalls: you might go to jail, you might get shot, your brother might die, and your neighbor’s mother just sold her crack and she’s messed up. And you’re messing up the community. You gotta deal with that.”
While discussing one of the tracks from the new album “Ignorant Shit,” a track that deals with censorship and calls out Don Imus, Jigga let loose on the radio host and the controversy about hip-hop lyrics that was stirred by his firing. “Imus is a racist,” Hov declared. “He’s not a person that listens to rap or was influenced by rap, so the two things don’t have anything to do with each other, so fuck him.”
He also spoke on the big marketing push that preceded his last album, Kingdom Come which saw him collaborating with everyone from Budweiser to NASCAR. “People talk about the marketing plan as if I spent some money. I’ve been watching this for a year — ‘the marketing plan was $30 million’ — I didn’t pay them, they paid me,” he said. “I didn’t pay Budweiser, I didn’t pay TNT, I didn’t pay HP, they all paid me. Looking back, I guess it was a little extravagant. Then I shut it down, as the president. Shot two videos and walked away from it. I did the right thing.” He also suggested some regrets about Kingdom: “Maybe it was too sophisticated. Maybe I fucked up.”
Jay also showed some regret at his repeated declarations of “retirements” and promised not to make any more promises. “I was watching Fade to Black on VH1, and I was cringing, because I kept saying, ‘It may be the last album’ — I’ve made two albums already!” he says, laughing. “When I put The Black Album out, I said I wasn’t going to say that anymore. I just stopped talking. Nobody believes it. Not even you.”
Since graduation was such a huge success and Kanye West has been a hot topic, Jay spoke about his little brother. he stated that he loved Kanye’s Jigga tribute “Big Brother,” but light-heartedly corrected ‘Ye’s version of what happened specifically that Hov made him buy tickets to a show at Madison Square Garden and that Jay stole West’s idea to record with Coldplay.
“Not everything on the song was true, but it was true in his mind,” said Jay. “He says ‘Carleen said I could buy two tickets.’ You would think he didn’t get any tickets. I gave him four, he wanted six. It was a charity event! And Coldplay — I introduced him to Coldplay, I gave him the number! But I thought it was a brilliant song. It brought us closer together.”
COMMENTS
FIRST BITCHES
it's true what Jay said bout MIMS hip hop is in a fucked up situation these days...
for some real hip hop listen to the entire GetBack by Little Brother here
--> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Getback (click the numbers next to the track titles)
cop it on 10/23
MAN QUIT DOWNLOADING ALBUMS, ban that shit, cop that LB LP on the 23rd quit fuckin around get hip hop back to where it used to be..
it's not a download fam you can hear it on youtube and Phonte leaked it himself, it's just for niggaz to listen to, Imma cop it on 10/23 I advise yall to do the same
- Jay also showed some regret at his repeated decelerations of “retirements” - good to know
How do you fuck up a word that was just spelled right for you?
"decelerations"...LOL!
I got Creole C.O. bitches
For my niggas who slipped and became prisoners
Treats taped to the visitors
You already know what the buisness is
uneccessary commissary boy we live this shit
niggas wanna bring the 80s back
Its okay with me thats where they made me at
exce
except i dont write on the wall
i write my name in the history books hustled in the hall
Naa i dont spin on my head
I spin my work in the pot so i can spend my bread....
you wanna qoute something i got one for you “I was watching Fade to Black on VH1, and I was cringing, words from a bitch ass nigga real niggas dont cry off a vh1 episode. now i bet its gonna people talking bout he cant cry or real niggas cry and before you use that line ima hit you with since when
fool he an't say cry he said cringing reread the sentence
Well bruh we established that so you can get off my dick I can't afford your dead weight
don't get no betta than this!
disagreelos1 — 17 minutes ago
you wanna qoute something i got one for you “I was watching Fade to Black on VH1, and I was cringing, words from a bitch ass nigga real niggas dont cry off a vh1 episode. now i bet its gonna people talking bout he cant cry or real niggas cry and before you use that line ima hit you with since when.
^ are you an idiot he said CRINGING not CRYING. you know what a cringe is .. hm you must not. Oh, and real niggas cry whenever they'd like that's why they're real and not some fake nigga with a facade they have to live up to. if you're real you do whatever YOU want regardless of it's crying or killing.
i told you somebody was gonna say real niggas cry i bet you be cring all the time dont you you probaly sit at the computer cring now beating off to a jay poster use you tears as lubercation trying to convince yourself what your doing is right and that its alright to cry next thing your gonna say is real niggas kiss other niggas your headed down the wrong path bruh change directions head for the cliff and right off before its to late.
cringe means to drawback when you look under the suface it means he was drawback those tears he lost
cringing =/= crying
you know you're fucked when you can't read a dictionary.
I wonder how Mim's feel. That'll be an interesting interview
I don't think jay was bad mouthing mims...Mims just knew that hip hop is fucked up right know...so fucked up that he can sell a mill and say nothing on a track...It was really a brilliant line by mims!!
mims is actually half bad and half good? if that makes sense he shows you what hip hop shouldnt be at the same time he shows you what has become of hip hop good shit^^
interesting
Thats y thats my n!99@ if he dont get no bigga. Imma let u know jay. kingdom come was too sophisticated. That new shit is gone be heat.
www.yuwie.com/cbassfloodbros
www.myspace.com/cbassfloodbros
if i was mims id b motivated 2 step my rap game up cus i no he aint thinkin bout battlin jay
I understand how Jay feels...Lyrics USED to be what made you a dope MC.
Now if you could come up with something "catchy" or sell yaself out... you get rich.
“When a guy says ‘I could make a million saying nothing’ on a track, you know you’ve reached a bad place,”
Let's See...some Sell Outs that have accomplished that are:
Soulja Boy
Chicken Noodle Soup people
Khia- my neck and back
You know what...fuck that... there's too many of them!
The game's just not what it used to be...which is why I listen to a LOT OF OLD Shit...and a few Mc's that bring difference to the game.
~Be Eazy!
somebody needs to stay in school...
all mims did was prove a point...hip hop is so fucked up you can sell a mill without saying nothing on a track, its true ,people don't listen to lyrics anymore...Jay is late mims already knew that shit!!!
coach carter a lame......hip hop aint like dat...if dat waz the fuckin case den niggaz wont b complanin bout the hip hop record sells...get yo facts up
what badnews?? you make virginia look stupid wit that comment....way off topic!!who complained about record sells?? Hip hop is not judged by record sells dumb ass!!!Don'
t come to jersey talking that spaced out outta town shit!!
why do these producers and rap niggas think they are owed mo respect when they work with white artist/rock? Who gives a fuck if timbaland work with durand durand? or if jay z work with coldplay and limp bisquIt. same with KANYE bitchin about he did a track with COLDPLAY! SO MUTHAFUCKIN WHAAAAAAAAT!!!!! I'm into hip hop not Coldplay, or Durnand? Who is these fucks? Wouldn't know them if I seen them. That's probably how their fan base (rock) feel about our music culture (hip hop) even though blacks started rock years ago....
some of the best rap/ hip hop calbos. came from rap and rock wdf are you talking about you dont have to be a fan to enjoy good music
i'll bite any nigga u throw at me head off...wit no beat...n sell mo records den yo favorite artist
yea i knew jay wasn't dissing mims because if he was that'll be bad cuase mims was "just" on sucker free talking about how use to steal his grandmas car just to listen to can't knock the hustle
but he was basically blamming the new game for mims comment not at all mims so be exspecting some wack ass jay v.s mims beef
i like jay he keeps it 100 takes a real muthafucka to admit he fuck up and he knows kingdom come wasnt right for its time im glad hes back cause i do listen to lyrics 1st im old school
Good Story
it's true what Jay said bout MIMS hip hop is in a fucked up situation these days...
for some real hip hop listen to the entire GetBack by Little Brother here
--> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Getback (click the numbers next to the track titles)
cop it on 10/23
IF IT WAS BEEF BETWEEN JIGGA AND MIMMS, IT SURE WOULD OF PUSH MIMMS CAREER UP THA HILL.(YA DIGG)
I HOPE MIMS WINS THO CUZ JAY-Z FUCKIN SUCKS AT LIFE!..I HATED THIS NIGGA FROM DAY ONE AND IM GOIN TO MAKE IT MY GOAL IN LIFE TO SHUT HIS ASS DOWN!...CHAMILLITARY MAN!
lmao wdf is wrong with you lame ass nigga you gonna make it ya goal in life you cant be that sad im going to help you though lol when jay's music comes on turn the station lol damn shame . and wdf jay look like beefin wit mimms lmao.
chamilitary haha when jay does worse than 247k records sold ill start believin you..
over 300 millions damn i guess i should start to suck at life if thats what it gets u let me find out tring gets you nowhere
Can't get no clearer than that! nigga jigga always makes sense
He says all this bullshit about how hip hop is going wrong but wouldnt let Budden release another album?...fuck outta here
How is it Jay's fault that Joe didn't come out with another album and got dropped? If I remember correctly Joe was with Def Jam years b4 Jay was the president. Maybe Joe should take some responsibility for his career.
dis is true i mean if wayne
is gd hip-hop aint correct
is it me or is kanye crazy. he wanted six tickets and jay gave him four. damn either kanye is crazy or he just a damn lier to make it out to look like what he did. and jay introduced him to coldplay. and how did this become about lilwayne. he wasnt nowhere in the title. he my favorite rapper but i aint about to rid e his dick. i got my own and maby ya'll need to get one.
Cringe = what i do when i see someone get kicked in the nuts
oh, and hov haters.... i got some dirt on my shoulder.... could you brush it off for me?
a nigga reppin LA is on chamilionars nuts that some funny shit, im from texas and niggas down here dont give 2 shits about his ass no more..... maybe yo dirt stupid ass was jokin and we takin it too serious .....i doubt it you probly just aint got the brains that god gave a billy goat.
Sucks at life damn nigga i wish i could suck at life and be worth 800mil, own a basketball team, fuck one of the badest females to touch a mic. why do people come to sites where Jay-z is the topic if they dont like jay-z. nigga keep yo bitch ass away, go to a mims message board or somthin or where you the only one on there and got tired of typing to yoself about how chamillionare and mims are the best rappers. Ass said in the great boondocks i have some instructions for yo ass: "NIGGA get yo black ass outa here"LMAO