How did you spend the Fourth of July?

I was in Washington DC performing at the DC United Stadium which is where the soccer team there plays. I performed with T.I., Young Jeezy, B.O.B and T-Pain. I was performing on a sprained ankle so basically I was just limping around town on crutches, and so yeah, that’s how I spent my Fourth of July. I got to see the fireworks, DC is known for having the best fireworks on the Fourth of July.

Obviously ‘Dedication to My Ex’ opened you up to a whole new audience – particularly here in the UK, did you always know that song was the one, that it had something or was it a surprise for you?

I always knew it had something because of the way that it made me feel, I never knew it was ‘the one’ – or the two or the three. My creative mind said ‘This is something’ but my rational mind that has developed over time, through mistakes said, ‘you never know how people feel or what they’re going through or how they’ll react.’ You just gotta go with how you feel, and hope that they feel the same way.

What can fans expect from your upcoming live performances, like your appearance at the Wireless Festival?

For a motherf**ker to give his all, they can expect to see me with my diddy-bop, my limp…my gangsta limp (laughs). Once the adrenaline goes you don’t feel it, you don’t feel the pain but afterwards it comes back like – like taking a bad trip on a drug, like that fall at the end? Not that I take drugs, I just hear about them through my friends.

 

You’ve appeared on the hooks of some real big hits recently, who was the most fun to record with?

I really liked working with Wale, I feel he is really talented and I had the chance to work with him on his recent album on a track called ‘Sabotage’ which I really, really enjoy. But we did a lot of mixtape work before this Ambition album came out. I worked with Tyga on his early mixtapes, I just talked to him last night and the phone and I told him how excited I was to see his success come to fruition, all the hard work and endless hours he has put in. Going from a guy with a bunch of tattoos that nobody knew about to now being one of the premiere young MC’s in the game. I really enjoy with working with whoever is next, who is going to be the shit one day.

Who are you hoping to get in the studio with?

Snoop. Me and Snoop did a remix for ‘Shake It For Daddy’ that never came out but I’m hoping to work with him again because he’s out here and we’ve been talking so hopefully we get to meet up before we fly back. There’s this young cat from my hometown Atlanta called Future, I really f**k with his music and I f**k with him as a person so I’m hoping I can get him on some of my stuff, I did something for him already but we’re trying to come up with something for me now.

After being the “underdog” for so long, in 2012 it seems that you’re one of more elevated members of the Murder Inc. alumni – there must be some lasting satisfaction from knowing that?

The satisfaction lies in waking up this morning, knowing that my family is healthy, knowing I’m healthy, knowing that I’ve got good people around me and knowing that I have God-given talent that nobody can take from me, that nobody gave me in the first place. I think regardless of who it is, it feels good to know that I have a catalogue and I have lasting power when so many come and go. I think Andy Warhol once said in his era, ‘in the future I believe everyone will have 15 minutes of fame’ but I think I’ve able to stretch mine out to maybe 20, 25 (laughs) and that’s a blessing. I just stay thankful, I’d rather be on the underdog tip – if that’s what you wanna call it – but we influenced a lot of these young cats with our music when we first came out and just never realised it because we were so young and so high at the time (laughs)

Read the Entire Interview over at Tale Tela