COLOSSIUM MAGAZINE : YOU ’ VE BEEN TRENDING THESE PAST WEEKS . BALL J : Nah , I ’ ve been trending for so many years . CSM : YES , YOU HAVE BEEN INDEED ; AS A PRODUCER BUT NOW YOU ’ RE TRENDING AS A RAPPER WITH BARS . BLJ : That ’ s good , I suppose . CSM : LET ’ S TALK ABOUT YOUR ‘ BEEF ’ WITH SARKODIE . WHAT DID HE DO SO BADLY TO YOU ; YOU HAD TO DROP BARS ON HIM ? BLJ : I think the question we have to consider is ‘ what did I do to Sark for him to drop bars on me too ?’ What tells you I was talking to Sark because I never mentioned his name in the song ? CSM : LISTENING TO ‘ SUB ZERO ’ BY SARKODIE AND YOURS ( LULLABY ), IT ’ S NOT HARD TO TELL THERE ’ S A RIFT BETWEEN YOU TWO . BLJ : This is what happened . It all started on Twitter . Someone posted a freestyle of mine on Twitter with a caption saying “ this is why Ghanaian rappers are scared of me ( Ball J )”; that was his view . I ’ m not really engaging on Twitter so I had a friend later telling me that I was trending on Twitter . I decided to have a look and all I saw were backlash from fans of Sarkodie . Then hours later Shatta Wale came into the scene with a tweet saying “ Ball J keep doing what you ’ re doing , you ’ re good at Hip Hop ” and Twitter when haywire .
There were back & forths between fans of Shatta Wale and Sarkodie , these went on for days straight . Finally Sarkodie posted a video with subliminal shots at me hahaha so I decided to come with my version of that song which ignited the feud again which I think was interesting considering the fact that we were on lockdown . The next 24hrs we were on ‘ Mortal Kombat ’ mode , Sarkodie had released Sub Zero . Now Sub Zero comes in and I felt Sarkodie wanted me to go harder … CSM : … AND YOU DID BLJ : Yeah , I had to . I didn ’ t have to waste time . I didn ’ t have time to pen down lines . If I had to pen down something then it has to be something serious . CSM : ARE YOU SAYING LULLABY IS A FREESTYLE ? BLJ : Yeah it is . I did it in 20 minutes . But I took my time a little bit and I had to hold on to it till evening to drop it because we intended to call it Lullaby . We released it at 12 midnight . This is what happened , the fans listened to it and judged , if you come back I will just come harder . Here ’ s the thing , Lullaby isn ’ t just for Sarkodie but for anyone who comes after me . I do have some special lines for people who know themselves . You throw a jab at me and I multiply it by zero – that ’ s zero . CSM : THOSE WERE SOME
JABS . YOUR ENTIRE SONG ITSELF IS FULL OF JABS ; MULTIPLYING HIS SHOTS BY ZERO ? BLJ : Most definitely . Lyrically I was just going out with my bars . I had to come out within 24hrs with a great response and I think I did it perfectly with Lullaby . CSM : WHEN I FIRST HEARD THE SONG , I WAS CONFUSED ; I WASN ’ T SURE IF IT WAS YOU ON THE SONG . BLJ : You didn ’ t know I rap ? CSM : I HAVE KNOWN YOU TO BE A PRODUCER . BLJ : I have always been rapping since my Skillions days but I had to go behind the scenes with production , something I really enjoy doing . CSM : DID FORTUNE KNOW BEFOREHAND THAT YOU WERE GOING TO USE HIS BEAT FOR THIS ? BLJ : No , he didn ’ t . The only problem was that he went out there to betray me because of his relationship with Sarkodie . I know he was trying to save his business with him . Imagine Sarkodie wasn ’ t the caliber of artiste he is , would he do that ? To say I wasted the beat is disrespectful in my opinion . I actually took the beat from him about a year ago ; he actually gave me 3 beats . CSM : BUT WHY FORTUNE ’ S BEAT IN PARTICULAR ? BLJ : I chose that beat a year ago for the kind of song I did .
31 | Colossium . July 2020