Curtis’ XXL piece has him speaking on everything from music to his future to the “old 50…”
Does it make it harder for you to get inspired?
You know what? It makes it a difficult process of building a album. ’Cause when I hear somebody else shit is hot, I go, Oooh, I got to top that. That’s the competitive nature of hip-hop. You can’t take what’s in the DNA of the artist out. You’ll see, at different points, when I’m not active, you’ll see there’s still competition going on quietly between artist to artist. Or they’ll listen and go, I’ma kill it. If you take your time building a project that you feel is an impact on the time period—’cause that’s what it is—it’s important; music marks time. Then your peers that are in cycle are doing exactly what you’re doing. You know what I mean? So there’s no way that you can’t be competitive with what they’re doing, on some level.So who are you competing against?
Well, for me, I’m still up against what I’ve done. So in order to top it, I know it’s a difficult task. You know, I see the bloggers. My audience hasn’t grown with me. They keep saying, “Aw, man, I want the old 50!” ’Cause those people, it would take them on a safari. I was bringing them close enough to the animals, without being able to get hurt. I was taking them into my neighborhood, where you can very well get your ass killed.
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