Credit: Twitter
When conversations arise about the Who’s Who in the New York Hip Hop scene, Statik Selektah’s name definitely rings a bell. In a recent interview, the Boston native opens up about the State of Hip Hop. He explains why Joey Badass is among one of New York’s Hip Hop saviors in our time.
“Joey’s my little brother. I really try to protect his brand, and I take a lot of pride in what we do together. We’re on tour 200 days a year.”
Statik Selektah recalls the first time working with the Brooklyn Emcee..
“I knew he was going to make noise, but it really got out of control. Even to this day, Joey hasn’t dropped an album yet! And we’re touring that much; he’s played in front of 100,000 people. We do crazy shows. So after that he was like, “Can I come through more often?” and I let him come through.”
“Even to this day, Joey hasn’t dropped an album yet! And we’re touring that much; he’s played in front of 100,000 people. We do crazy shows. So after that he was like, “Can I come through more often?” and I let him come through. STEEZ—rest in peace—used to come through. The whole Pro Era used to come kick it. “Like Water” was recorded right there in the closet.”
Statik Selektah also spoke on why he feels New York rappers are out of touch with the culture;
“All the great hopes of New York ended up making bullshit wannabe trap records. “Everybody tried to make 50 Cent’s “In Da Club” 100 times, and it never worked. The only person who got close was Fat Joe with “Lean Back.” And with the copycat nature of the music industry you can imagine it becomes difficult to carve out a genuine sound”..
Then the Massachusetts transplant went on to give a few examples, saying…
“Any time someone tries to make a song for the club, in New York at least, it doesn’t work. Look at Papoose and Red Café. They’re my friends, but they fucked up a lot of the buzz that they had going. They could’ve made those New York records and won with them, but everybody wants to put whoever is hot right now on the verse and put them on the hook. They followed that bullshit industry formula and it didn’t work for any of them”.
“There are so many bums doing it to. There are so many “real” Hip Hop shows, and it’s all dusty 45-year-old dudes trying to sell you their mixtapes. It’s like there’s no line between doing it for fun and doing it for real. There’s no respect for it. I know very few people that do Hip Hop for fun, that freestyle for their boys and that stuff. Growing up, I used to do graffiti, I used to breakdance. I used to break out boxes in front of my house like it was ’85, and kids used to look at me crazy. That’s all we would do was Hip Hop. “Let’s go after school and scratch!” We literally were living the whole entire culture, and I think that’s missing now”.
Statik Selektah’s new project What Goes Around is out and he releases a new video to accompany the first single Carry On feat Joey Badass and Freddie Gibbs.
Check out the video below:
[youtube clipid=”NEGp5XRl8v0″ autoplay=”0″]
