Waka Flocka Flame has weighed in on TakeOff’s dying, urging rappers to maneuver smarter and keep out of the hood as soon as they obtain success.
The Flockaveli rapper appeared as the newest visitor on Shannon Sharpe’s Membership Shay Shay podcast, the place he mirrored on his evolution from Brick Squad bruiser to shrewd businessman.
Across the 35-minute mark, Sharpe requested Flocka in regards to the tragic development of rap murders in recent times, reeling off names like Pop Smoke, PnB Rock, Hassle and TakeOff — the latter of whom was killed by stray bullets exterior a Houston bowling alley in November.
“I can’t inform you why, and I by no means need to converse on no one’s dying, however I may inform you this: when God blesses you, it’s important to change your methods, it’s important to evolve — it’s important to,” Flocka provided. “I may simply say flawed place, flawed time for these guys.”
“So, in different phrases, when you ascend to a sure stage, you gotta depart that alone,” Sharpe added, mentioning the truth that TakeOff’s dying stemmed from a cube sport involving Quavo and different males that turned violent.
“Oh yeah, I don’t roll cube,” Waka interjected. “With all respect, why would I roll cube with any person that ain’t in my tax bracket? It’s liable that some shit may occur.”
Whereas Sharpe admitted that he, too, is responsible of going again to the hood to “present you that I don’t assume I’m higher than you,” Waka mentioned he’s by no means felt the necessity to show himself to anybody however himself.
“Boy, I ain’t by no means been that n-gga,” he scoffed. “I watch folks die on a regular basis like that — that’s why I ain’t by no means been him … I ain’t acquired nothing to show to y’all.”
Earlier within the interview, Waka Flocka Flame defined why he stopped going again to his previous neighborhood, crediting the late comic and civil rights activist Dick Gregory for altering his mindset.
“My entire shit developing was to make it out the hood,” he mentioned. “I’m not a kind of n-ggas who go be a billionaire and go sit within the hood and roll cube and smoke weed; I need to purchase the block, I would like our title on the block. However what made me truly cease hanging within the hood was Dick Gregory.
Waka Flocka Flame Regrets Bringing ‘Harmful’ Life-style Into Hip Hop
“I watched this clip, Dick Gregory was like, ‘N-gga, why you purchase this Rolls-Royce? To trip by way of the hood, to point out you the richest muthafucka? That I can’t purchase one?’ And it’s loopy as a result of that’s why I purchased it. I used to be younger like, ‘N-gga, we getting cash on the Southside! I’m finna pull a Phantom out right here!’ However I used to be ignorant.”
He added: “I may have purchased this rental in downtown Atlanta that I trip by on a regular basis immediately, and it’s fucking 5 instances the worth. Egg on my face, proper? So once I noticed Dick Gregory [say] that, I truly acquired out that automobile. I ended up getting an Escalade, and I’ve been driving an Escalade ever since 2011.”
Waka went on to clarify that he achieved his life targets at simply 23 years previous because of his music profession taking off, however rapidly realized how little he knew about sustaining — and rising — that success.
“I used to be sitting so excessive on high of my mountain, I simply saved smelling one thing. It smelled like manure. I used to be standing on high of Shit Mountain,” he mirrored. “I didn’t don’t have any enterprise, I didn’t don’t have any monetary literacy, I didn’t have an insurance coverage coverage, I didn’t know what belief accounts was, shell corporations, I didn’t know methods to purchase tangible companies. I didn’t know nothing!
“So I used to be like, ‘How am I this well-known man and I’m the massive homie and y’all respect me, however I can’t even inform you methods to open up a checking account?’ I didn’t even know methods to open up a checking account, Sharpe! My mom ain’t have time to show me that; she was too busy paying payments and ensuring we alive.”
He added: “It felt so good studying that. Often, if I need to run cash up, I’d should go within the streets. Now, y’all acquired good credit score, some holding corporations. I may go get me a mortgage. I may get a mortgage proper now for $10 million, $20 million, $100 million. It’s simply perspective and marketing strategy.
“So while you begin studying issues like that, why would you be be a edge monster? I don’t care how gangsta you might be; my boy, should you begin studying this actual enterprise, man, you ain’t thugging! I’m not going nowhere the place all the percentages are towards me. It’s stupidity. That’s what made me cease. I used to be on high of Shit Mountain and I wished to construct Mount Everest.”
