Victory Lap, the debut album from Nipsey Hussle, hit retailers last week. It features Kendrick Lamar, Puff Daddy, YG and CeeLo Green, and finds the Crenshaw urban legend offering a ghetto gospel that is sure to motivate the hustlers. For his most recent visit to The Breakfast Club, not only did Neighborhood Nip speak on the new project, he also discussed wanting Puff Daddy on “Rap Niggas,” his issues with what was pegged as a collaborative sneaker with Reebok, and working on a documentary about Dr. Sebi.
On lyric referencing “weirdo rappers:” “I felt pressure a little bit from where the game is at and that ain’t no diss to nobody specific. It ain’t in the direction of what we grew up on in terms of having to be a man or woman of respect. Even from the drug stuff – that was never glorified in rap culture. We could almost live by Scarface or JAY-Z or 2Pac lyrics. If we ain’t have no principles or a man around we could live by their lyrics and come out as a solid individual. That’s what I meant just as far as returning to that ”
On working with Puff Daddy: “Diddy chose “Young Niggas.” I tried to get him on “Rap Niggas.” I was referencing the “Hate Me Now” video and what his presence in that record with Nas brought to it. I’m like this is the record. This is “Rap Niggas.” I want you to put the mink on in the video. We gonna make a movie and he told me the whole story behind that. He was like, ‘I bust a 40 million-dollar check a week before we did that video. That’s the energy you saw in that video. I went and spent all this dough on a chain and we got tigers, because I got the biggest check I’ve ever gotten in my life.’ So he was like, ‘We’re probably not going to recreate that energy’ [laughs]. But when I played the rest of the songs for him he heard “Young Niggas” and he chose that record. He just went in the booth and started gassing. But even still on “Rap Niggas,” he gave me some real production advice in that record. When I played it for him it was different then what y’all heard. He pulled up “Natural Born Killers” by Ice Cube and Dr. Dre and said “This is what y’all trying to do on this record. Maximize it. Make it sound like this.” And we went back in the studio and I played it for my producers and we turned it up.
On “unauthorized” sneaker with Reebok: “I don’t want to go too far into details with the other thing, because it’s something that we’re going to pursue, but it wasn’t authorized. They put Rich Rollin on the shoe. That’s some gang shit. You don’t put no Rich Rollin on no shoe. You have to pay thousands of people. It’s niggas doing life in jail that fall under that structure. You have to be careful with that. I’m not even taking a check for nothin that says Rich Rollin. I would’ve told the designers to stay clear of that.”
On documentary on Dr. Sebi: “I’m working on doing a documentary about the trial in 1985 when Dr. Sebi went to trial against New York, because he put in the newspaper that he cured AIDS. He beat the case and the next day he went to federal court and beat that case, on record. And nobody talks about it.”
On not using drugs or drinking soda: “Me personally, I don’t use no drugs. I might drink some wine right now. That don’t mean I haven’t in the past. But right now it’s more important to be focused.”
“I was drinking lean. I was pouring up. I didn’t know how unhealthy that shit was. And part of that is also the amount of soda you drink. You got to think if you wake up and drink a soda at 8am and drink soda for the rest of the day – bro I’m a skinny nigga. I had a pot belly. That shit don’t look right on a skinny nigga. But just overall feeling unhealthy – I don’t like the way that feels. And it shows, so I was like I’m off of all of that shit.”
On Cardi B: “I like Cardi B. Cardi B did a verse for me. That’s a fact. Anybody that don’t like Cardi is a hater. I used to watch her IG clips and be laughing like this girl is crazy, but her personality is golden. But right is right and wrong is wrong. That’s what I grew up on.”
“I respect her come up. She came from the gutter. About saying disrespectful things on IG – I’m going to always be like that ain’t the move. Thats ain’t what you’re supposed to do.”
More of Nipsey Hussle’s sit-down with The Breakfast Club can be viewed above.