care about anything, so I fig-
ured that embodied it perfectly.
He snapped on the record, and
I don’t think it could have came
out any better.
What has been the crowd’s
reaction to when you’ve
performed “Rockstar” this
early on after its release? Ah,
well I fell. [Laughs] You know,
it’s been very good. Everybody
gets turnt up. I like to break a
lot of stuff on stage. I already
broke my stage. There’s a
bunch of tables and chairs
on stage and I already broke
them all, so I need to go get
some new ones, but it’s a lot
of fun. It’s a lot of high energy
and then we just knock out all
the hits. We have a lot of fun,
man. My shows have been
going really great and I’ve been
having a great time. I couldn’t
ask for any better fans, man.
relate to and that my fans can
relate to at the same time.
iconz
How much confidence do you
have right now in yourself
and your career after the
success that you’ve been able
to attain? There’s confidence.
There’s also the fear of putting
out a bad song and everybody
getting a lot hate from it. You
know, I guess it’s kind of a thin
line between being confident
in your music and who you are
and not taking advantage of
it and not going to far with it
and still knowing that there’s
fans out there that are still
waiting for new music and
fans that are waiting for you to
really push the boundaries of
what modern music is. I just
really want to keep putting out
music.
How did “Rockstar” come
together? I was in New York,
and we were at Quad Studios.
Some kid came in, and I guess
he was in the session next
door and he was like, “Hey?
Can I play you some beats?”
I’m like, “I guess so.” You know,
I’m a nice guy, I like music. I’ll
listen to your beats. He played
the beat and it was incredible.
His name is Tank. He’s a
really young guy, and a really
talented producer. So we did
that, and Joey Bada$$ was
in there. We were just vibing
on it and the melody was sick.
We just cut like a little scratch
vocal and we took it back to
LA. I finished my part and sent
it off to [21] Savage -- and
there it is.
What made 21 Savage the
perfect piece for that puzzle? I
feel like he has a lot of attitude.
You know, he’s really got his
own lane and he really doesn’t
You’ve proven to have an
eclectic taste in music. You’ve
covered tracks by Green
Day, Kanye West and Frank
Sinatra. How have you been
able to maintain your love
and taste for music and not
just hip-hop? I feel like it’s
really just like when I was
younger. You know, my dad
put me on everything. From
metal to hip-hop, and my mom
put me on country. I think it’s
just important to remember
that music in my brain is not
one genre and I don’t think
it should be put into genres.
I think you should listen to
what you like and who cares
what genre it is. If you like it,
then rock with it. I think that’s
important and that’s one of
my biggest goals by the end of
my music career, to have push
the boundaries and help blur
the lines of what the genres of
today are.
A couple of months back, you
were able to hang out with
Allen Iverson. How was that
experience? Yeah man. It was
iconz magazine
nuts. My manager goes, “Hey,
you wanna meet Allen?” I’m
like, “Hell yeah I wanna meet
Allen.” So we just went up to
some house up in the Hills
-- we had a couple glasses of
champagne and we just kicked
it for a little bit. It was a dream
come true, just to see that he
actually liked the song. He said
his kids loved it and everybody
loves it, so that meant the
world to me that I had his
blessings. You know A.I. used
to rap. You should have asked
him for a quick verse for a
remix. [Laughs] He said he
wanted Jadakiss on the remix,
so we’d have to work on that.
Would it be you, him, and
Jada? I don’t know. I gotta
see if he’s down with it first.
We’ll figure it out, though. He
had some bars, man. Him
and Jada used to go back
and forth in the Reebok
commercials. Those were
hard. Those were some of
the dopest commercials of
all-time.
What’s the update on
Beerpongs & Bentleys? I think
it’s going to be better than
Stoney. I think it’s going to be
more eclectic than Stoney. I
think it’s going to be a big
record with a lot of unique
music, that a lot of people
would expect. There’s a lot of
dope stuff.