Roddy Ricch returned today (June 4) with a new single, “Late at Night.” The Compton native has dropped off a few loosies this year after catapulting to rap stardom in 2019 with the release of his debut album, Please Excuse Me For Being Antisocial.
Speaking with Power 106 on Thursday (June 3), Ricch revealed that it was an interaction with JAY-Z that inspired him to get back into the studio after his loss at the 2021 Grammys. The 22-year-old was nominated for six awards, but walked away with none.
In the interview, Ricch explained that he went to the awards ceremony not expecting to win, recalling that Hov lost all eight of his nominations at the 2018 Grammys.
“Everybody was just like, ‘Why you saying that? Why is it so negative?’” he said. “I don’t know. I just had a feeling like I ain’t really worried about it. So, I end up going and I ain’t win, but I wasn’t mad. I ain’t going into it expecting nothing. I’m already a winner. I don’t do it for money, so it’s like, I’m not just gon’ rap for no reason.”
“When I lost all that, I was like, ‘I put a lot of time [into] music, you know? Damn,’” he continued. “I just sat back. I was talking to my ni**as. I’m like, ‘Man, I’ma chill back. I’ma kick back on the music for a little while.’”
However, Ricch ran into JAY at the ceremony, which gave him the inspiration he needed.
“I had seen JAY at the Grammys and he didn’t say, ‘What’s up?’ The first time I met him he was like, ‘What’s up young man?’ So I just expected that,” Ricch explained. “And the first thing he asked me was, ‘When you dropping music?’ At the time, it didn’t really hit me, but later on I just thought of the power of that. I manifested, just talking about how they did him one year and [how] it happened to me. And the same guy this happened to ended up asking me when I’ma put out more music. So, it just kinda led me to think for a while like, ‘Damn, I gotta keep doing this.’ Even though I done went No. 1 for 11 weeks, No. 1 for seven weeks, that’s stuff that we don’t really see too often.”
“After that I kind of wanted to back up, but he really gave me that inspiration like, ‘You gotta keep going. You gotta just see it through. When you got something to talk about, say it, put it out and keep it going,’” he added. “So, I just wanna publicly appreciate JAY-Z for that. Like I said, it helped me keep going. It be real life that keep me going with this. It don’t really be like, ‘I’ma just do this feature for this.’ If something really happen to me, that’s what really keep me going in this shit ’cause honestly, I won already bro.”
“Late At Night,” which is co-produced by Mustard and GYLTTRYP, also arrived with a video on Friday. Watch Ricch’s interview on Power 106 below.