What made you realize that it was time to change your artist name?
It wasn’t meant to be marketable. It was meant to be more helpful in the community. More of a resource. So I can be available to those who don’t have access. Those growing up in the system like me. Let’s say your child comes home and asks you to sign a permission slip to hear a rapper speaking at the child’s school. Then you see that the rapper is named Corner Boy P. Me? Even though I mean well, I wouldn’t want my son to talk to a nigga named Corner Boy. Ain’t nothing a corner boy can teach to my kids.
So the Corner Boy name was putting me in a box. Even with my music catalog. I can do all types of music, but under Corner Boy, they only expected trap, trap, trap. It’s a growth thing. I was growing up, I’m a man now. My son is a boy. I have to lead by example. It wouldn’t look right if I’m trying to raise a man while calling myself a boy.
You mentioned how you grew up in the system, due to your mother’s struggling with the disease of addiction. Do you ever feel bad that you’ve rapped about selling drugs?
Fuck no! Nah, because that was how I was raised. That was a part of my culture, part of my neighborhood. I didn’t discover it. I’ll never feel that type of way about how I chose to make my money.
Along with the benefits is there a struggle involved with building your personal brand while signed to such a well-known artist’s label?
Yeah. Mia X told me a long time ago that it would always be hard coming up under a CEO that’s an artist. It is what it is. I ain’t tripping. I’ve been all over the world.
What’re the most memorable places you’ve been to?
San Diego. Anywhere in California. It’s so clean in California. When you go there you question how there’s any gang culture. It’s so nice, there’s no trash on the ground. All the houses look nice.
Detroit is memorable as well, but it’s a whole different ballgame. Detroit needs redevelopment bad. I take small things from everywhere I go. From being there, experiencing it. Most people think we like the west coast because of the weed, but coming from New Orleans we appreciate how clean it is.
What’s the wildest shit you’ve seen on tour?
The wildest? The fucking police harassing us for marijuana at the venue we were paid to perform at. The promoters aren’t doing their job if they allow that. You know who you booked. Our music talks about marijuana. Our day to day lifestyle involves it. Why would you book us at a place with strict rules, and police enforcing them? We’ve had the police come on the tour bus. Why would you even have us there? That’s wild to me.
On the Jet Life tours, we don’t even need security. Everybody is cool. It’s a good vibe. It’s a good time. I don’t call people fans. I call them family. We’ve been to the same cities so many times. I’ve watched some people grow up.
Are you still pushing the Fendi P 3 EP or are you going to start releasing material from your upcoming album?
I dropped the Fendi P 3 EP in July and I’ve been consistently dropping stuff off of that. I’m mainly focused on that right now. My album Corner Boy vs. Fendi is coming out at the top of the year. That’s what I’m working on. I try to make each project better than the last one. As an artist that’s pretty hard to do.
Is your Gold VVS movie still coming out?
It’s crazy that you ask that. It’s coming out, I have the soundtrack. I have actual music. I’m trying to speak the movie into existence. I don’t just don’t want to put out each song with a video. The beats have a cinematic 90’s hip-hop feel. I want to put out a short film. My guy Hawk, we’ve got the visuals. We just got to put them together like a movie. That’s a little different than a video. From three minutes to forty-five minutes. This will be our first time doing that. We’ll get it though, it’s coming.
You seem to be a fashionable young man, what are you feeling right now?
I like BAPE & Jet Life shit. I’m hood rich, so I’ll put on a Hanes white tee & be straight. I don’t like a lot of shit that other people are wearing. My go to is Nike Tech. I don’t like shit that’s out of the reach of the average person. I just keep it fly.
You were a basketball player. What are your all time favorite shoes to ball in?
I’m going to play in some Barkley’s. Not the one’s with the strap. The ones they made a Posite version. Or some Jordan’s. I’m from the era where we ball in our fly shit.
What was your career like?
I played until the 11th grade. I could have continued but I chose a different lifestyle. I was real good, but once I got to high school niggas was tall as fuck. We were playing teams who had point guards that were taller than our center. I played AAU and all that. When I was 12 I would ball with the grown-ups. I was pretty nice.
You make some thought provoking music. Are you intentionally trying to get deep with it?
If it wasn’t this era of music I would be at the top of the game. The music business is a gift and a curse with this internet shit. It’s more about popularity and gimmicks, then it is about game and knowledge. I’ve been through it and dealt with shit. Niggas tell you shit that they ain’t never do. They probably don’t even know anyone who’s done it. They seen some shit on TV and they’re making up a whole lifestyle about it.
What was it like having Lil Wayne feature on one of your songs?
I feel like Lil Wayne is the greatest emcee. He’s the best. I used to argue with people about that. They could say Jay-Z, whoever. I would say Wayne, Wayne, Wayne. When I first recorded the song I was on tour. I don’t fuck off on my off days. I go to the studio. I was just doing a mixtape.
After I played the record for my team they said that we have to get somebody on it. Somebody like Young Thug. I told them if I had my choice, I’m going to pick Lil Wayne. At the time it seems like either of them is out of my reach. I’ve seen Lil Wayne before, spoke to him. I used to have a car wash so I’d washed his car before. We have similar partners, but I didn’t know him like that. Not enough to hop on the phone and tell him I need a verse.
A month later I’m in the studio working on a song. My guy Mousa comes in and tells me to pause that shit. I’m going to want to hear this. When he played it and I heard that lighter flick you couldn’t tell me nothing. Now can’t nobody fuck with me. I had felt like that before when I got a record from Styles P. But when I got that record from Wayne I felt like that was my stamp. That was my certification as an artist.
Who had the best verse?
I had the best verse! Nah I can’t front. I started the record. It was my concept. All he had to do was come follow the blueprint. He ate that shit though.
Listen, the way I feel about a feature, it’s supposed to have the best verse. If Wayne killed me on the song then her did his job. If he gave me a verse that I could have done better than, than it’s a wasted feature. I’m always going to feel like I had the best verse, but that nigga ran that motherfucker. I could have redid my verse or even added a third one, but I ain’t no bitch ass nigga. That bitch was solid. I got my point across. Then Wayne came and did what he did that I couldn’t do. It was a win-win for me. I love him for that, forever.
Growing up did you like Cash Money or No Limit better?
You can’t pick with them two. They’re too different. I put it like this. I went to No Limit High School. Then I went to Cash Money University. I needed both of them. How could you not love both? I wish that they had toured together and made more music together. I understand why though, and that’s cool too. You can’t pick one.
Why did you stop drinking Lean?
The people who make it wanted us to stop. They stopped making the kind I liked. I was a part of the Lean era when it was a beautiful thing. It was wonderful. It was only fifteen to twenty dollars. Then it went up to a hundred dollars, two hundred dollars for a cold drink. A cold drink is a soda, a 20 oz. It cost a hundred and better to put one ounce of Lean in that bitch. As fast as you drink that soft drink then there goes your drug. So you got to spend another hundred. I was a real drinker. I used to drink 4-5 ounces a day. Every day. My high used to cost me $100, now it costs me $500 a day. Then I got to get the weed to go with it. I’m going to get the best weed. That’s another $300-350. It doesn’t make sense financially. Then they stopped making it. Now you got off brand people making it. Different versions of it. I fell in love with that one version. I ain’t chasing no other shit. If you ain’t going to make it no more then I ain’t on it no more. Fuck it. I’ll go back and smoke more weed. I’m getting two ounces now. I’m not drinking none of that backyard shit that niggas is making. Mixing gasoline and embalming fluid. That’s how you die for real.
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