Yeah, without a doubt. That comes with being richer than I’ve ever been. Real language.
When I see you gardening like Don Corleone or something, it makes me wonder, does retirement cross your mind?
Not for real. If I wasn’t making music that was better than the majority of everything that’s out, maybe I would consider it, but… You know, I’m a unique person. And I let the streets dictate [when it’s time for me to retire]. But I’m a hell of an individual, and my hustle is still unmatched. All I need is two or three more years, I’ll have the most money, without a doubt, around this shit. What? N-gga, this Rozay. You crazy?
Your albums always have experiments—putting unexpected collaborators together or taking rappers out of the element we’re most used to hearing them in. The one that jumped out to me the most on Richer Than I’ve Ever Been was putting Future, a trap artist, on a warmer, more soulful beat from Bink [“Warm Words in a Cold World”].
Why not? And what made the record really special to me is how Future switched his flow up, turned down his harmonizing and turned up his bars in that chop flow. When you’re on album 11, you can’t just go to [the things you’re already] secure with, you have to be creative. That’s what being an artist is about.
What are some other things that you did on this album that you feel proud about creatively?
Oh man, making sure I went and got some of the most talented youngsters from Florida with the record I have [“Can’t Be Broke”] featuring Yungeen ACE record and Major Nine. I feel that record is going to really resonate in a special way. And giving those youngsters the opportunity was big. Also, me going to find who the streets were saying was the hottest spitter right now, which was Benny the Butcher. Okay, let’s put him right next to me [on “Rapper Estates”], I don’t even want no hook between us. Let’s give it to them straight up and down.
A big point of contention these days is when big, blockbuster, A-list albums drop that have dozens of features but none from female rappers, since there are so many really talented and buzzing ladies out right now. So it was nice to see you make such a hard record with Dreamdoll on “Wiggle.”
I really believe that’s going to be a hit record. She deserves it. She earned this position, it wasn’t no favor. She’s really spitting bars. Her tone was so dope. She went right in the studio, handled that business. I said, “Yo, her future bright.”
Are you feeling any other female spitters out right now?
Just coming right off the dome, let’s say for instance, on that [theoretical] “Wiggle” remix, it’s a good chance I may reach out to Megan [Thee Stallion].
Reaching album number 11 is no small feat.
Eleven is a beautiful thing for where I come from. It’s amazing. It’s phenomenal. It’s almost indescribable for the type of music that I’ve made, the collaborations that we have made, the shit that’s on the horizon. I have been able to be a part of some of the most incredible shit in hip hop. I collaborated with the greatest ones except Big, Tupac. But the shit me and Nas did, me and Kanye did, me and Jay-Z did, me and Lil Wayne did, me and Khaled did, the shit me and Drake could continue to possibly do, as well as coming up on my eleventh album, and n-ggas still buying verses from me like I’m fucking SpottemGottem, a new n-gga or something. You feel me?
