BK The Great
Veteran
You had a memorable streak of guest verses in 2018. It felt similar to the way people talked about some of those mid-2000s Lil Wayne runs.
I don’t think it’s at that level, but I had fun. Last year, I set an intention to say yes way more than I say no. Say yes to features. Step outside of my comfort zone. And it’s still going. I’m trying to level up this year on the features. Last year was like a preview. I don’t want to be done with rap years from now and look back like, Damn, I didn’t even work with nobody. I don’t want to have no regrets. The year that I’m going to have is all coming from a place of when this shyt is all said and done, I want to know that I left no stone unturned. I fukking did everything I wanted to do. Even shyt I didn’t want to do but ended up being glad that I did it in the end. The BET Awards performance—I did not want to do that at all but it turned out really good. I was happy that I did it. I was kind of dreading it.
Why do you think your mentality has shifted in that way?
Just getting older, bro. Music’s been the only thing I’ve been doing for so long. Even before I had a deal, my focus was, how can I get on? Sometimes I love this shyt; Sometimes it’s like, Damn, am I ever going to be able to do anything else if I keep fukking being addicted to this shyt? So, thoughts of that. Just planning the rest of my life. There’s going to come a day when I’m not in this seat. I’m not even in the seat I was in four years ago. So while I’m here, am I doing everything that I could be doing with my life and with my opportunities?
Do you feel that people look at you like a big brother in hip-hop?
Hell yeah.
When did you notice that?
Maybe Forest Hills Drive, when I took YG [and] Big Sean on tour. I was touring in amphitheaters—it’s big if you make it to amphitheaters. I found myself a lot of times just listening to artists, asking them the right questions to try to help them find answers for themselves, or give my two cents. I found myself doing that a lot. I look at myself—no bullshyt—as like the middle child, meaning, I’m a big brother to these [younger] dudes and a little brother to these [older] dudes. I still have OGs in the game that are legends, people I still look up to who have been where I am at, who have been at this level for mad long and are still relevant. I don’t think there’s ever been a time in rap where there was three relevant generations like this. It’s stretched. [Jay-Z] had a lot to do with that. So, yes, I feel like an OG to a lot of young rappers. In a good way. I also feel like a little brother to some of these older dudes.
After Mac Miller died, you tweeted an invite for any of your peers to reach out to you if they need to vent about anything they may be going through. What made you want to do that?
Because it’s not a lot of people that can relate to being in this situation. Even if you’re a young-and-upcoming SoundCloud rapper, you just got a song that kind of went viral and you’ve got your first little bit of money from a record deal or your first publishing deal, everything’s amazing for however long that goes. Six months. Then shyt starts cooling off and you’re only fukking 19, 20 years old. You feel it cooling down subconsciously and now you’re worried that you’ll never get it back to that level again. I’m just talking about one hypothetical situation. None of his friends can relate to what he’s going through.
To everybody in the world, he’s so lucky and so blessed. And in his mind, he’s fukking terrified. He’s scared that he’s about to be irrelevant. Scared the little bit of money that he thought was so much ain’t going to last. Or, he don’t know how to handle his homeboys around him who are just along for the ride. Who’s he going to talk to about that? Every person in the game has a unique set of circumstances that probably very few people can relate to.
That was just me realizing that and letting it be known, I’m deadass serious, hit my phone. I’ve done that with people where they just spill they fukking hearts out. I’ll listen and ask the right questions and give any guidance where I can. It’s just understanding, bro. People in the game, people in general, we don’t do that for each other.
In some ways, you’ve come to represent hip-hop’s empathy. You embraced XXXTentacion and have shown support for 6ix9ine and Kodak Black on songs, despite their criminal pasts. And you’ve faced some backlash for that. Does that response from the public make you want to be less empathetic—at least publicly?
I don’t know what it does to me, man. It makes me sad. It’s not just sad, ’cause I even understand that. I understand outrage. So I don’t know. If anything, it kind of makes me want to be even more empathetic to people that the world considers to be undesirable. Because we live in a world where everybody wants to be so quick to cancel somebody. But at the same time, people condemn the criminal justice system, which is entirely the cancellation system. To me, both of those ideas are fukked up, like, “We’re throwing you away.” Both of those mentalities miss the mark, which is, people need to be healed. You’re looking to punish me—and don’t get it twisted, what I did was a punishable offense—but where are you talking about healing me? Where are you going to show me some compassion and some fukking love?
And I get it, there’s some people out there that do things that a person can’t fathom loving anybody that can do that. But nobody becomes that way overnight. Nobody is born that way. That shyt is a product of unfortunate circumstances and mishaps in the person’s life, too many to count. shyt that they may not even remember that, in my opinion, causes someone to be as sick as they would be to be a fukking murderer, to be dumb enough to just take a life.
nikka, I know many murderers. I still speak to them. These dudes have committed the ultimate crime in God’s eyes, or whatever, where they’ve taken a life. These people I still speak to, love and have compassion for. I see how in their life that happened, how you became a murderer. Maybe some of them don’t even know, don’t even have a chance to process why they become the monsters that they are.
Even if I [initially] knew what [XXXTentacion] did, I wouldn’t have cut him off, like, “Hey, man, why are you putting your hands on women or why the fukk did you do these sick things to this girl?” I would’ve asked a series of questions that hopefully would’ve sparked something in his mind. It would’ve been towards the direction of healing. It wouldn’t have been in the direction of punishment, judgment, cancellation. Because he deserves healing. Especially the girl that he did all that shyt to—she absolutely needs healing. It’s like, I’m just going to discard you and throw you in the trash and forget about you? That’s what they doing in the prison system. That’s what we’re actually fighting to stop. We’re trying to fight the fact that prisons offer no rehabilitation and that people come out even worse off than they went in.
That’s the problem with cancel culture: It deems someone all good or all bad, which isn’t true of anyone.
Yes, forever. You can’t grow from it. I’m down for accountability culture. I’m cool with that. Even for myself. Everyone needs to be accountable. I don’t mind if someone got something to say about me or what I said or did. That’s all good. But cancel culture? I don’t cancel nobody.
J.I.D recently said that Dreamville and Top Dawg Entertainment are in a friendly competition. Is that label’s success any motivation for you?
One hundred percent. They murder the game, honestly. They really set a high bar for a label’s success. We look up to what they did, what Top [Dawg] did. Hell yeah. But of course, we want our time, too. That’s what this year is about, the beginning of that. We’ve been bubbling, we damn-near been underground. We signed Bas in January 2014. That was only five years ago. That was our underground period, and we coming out of that right now…We wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for [Bas’] Too High to Riot, [Cozz’s] Cozz & Effect, [Omen’s] Elephant Eyes, Ari [Lennox’s] Pho, Lute’s West1996 Pt.2, [J.I.D’s] The Never Story, EarthGang’s Rags. All of these keep laying the foundation. At a certain point it’s going to be the straw that broke the camel’s back. This [rap camp] was a major first step in being pushed to the mainstream. Now, all the clips is loaded with music. It’s not even fair.
What does the rest of 2019 look like for you and for Dreamville?
A lot of music, period. Me personally, I’m working on a few things. I’m trying to focus on them one at a time, but sometimes they spill over. I don’t know if they all going to come out in 2019, but I’m working. I just plan on being more active. More features. More music. Whether it’s an album or loosies. I plan on having a really good year. That’s what I’m looking forward to. This will probably be my most fun year.
I don’t think it’s at that level, but I had fun. Last year, I set an intention to say yes way more than I say no. Say yes to features. Step outside of my comfort zone. And it’s still going. I’m trying to level up this year on the features. Last year was like a preview. I don’t want to be done with rap years from now and look back like, Damn, I didn’t even work with nobody. I don’t want to have no regrets. The year that I’m going to have is all coming from a place of when this shyt is all said and done, I want to know that I left no stone unturned. I fukking did everything I wanted to do. Even shyt I didn’t want to do but ended up being glad that I did it in the end. The BET Awards performance—I did not want to do that at all but it turned out really good. I was happy that I did it. I was kind of dreading it.
Why do you think your mentality has shifted in that way?
Just getting older, bro. Music’s been the only thing I’ve been doing for so long. Even before I had a deal, my focus was, how can I get on? Sometimes I love this shyt; Sometimes it’s like, Damn, am I ever going to be able to do anything else if I keep fukking being addicted to this shyt? So, thoughts of that. Just planning the rest of my life. There’s going to come a day when I’m not in this seat. I’m not even in the seat I was in four years ago. So while I’m here, am I doing everything that I could be doing with my life and with my opportunities?
Do you feel that people look at you like a big brother in hip-hop?
Hell yeah.
When did you notice that?
Maybe Forest Hills Drive, when I took YG [and] Big Sean on tour. I was touring in amphitheaters—it’s big if you make it to amphitheaters. I found myself a lot of times just listening to artists, asking them the right questions to try to help them find answers for themselves, or give my two cents. I found myself doing that a lot. I look at myself—no bullshyt—as like the middle child, meaning, I’m a big brother to these [younger] dudes and a little brother to these [older] dudes. I still have OGs in the game that are legends, people I still look up to who have been where I am at, who have been at this level for mad long and are still relevant. I don’t think there’s ever been a time in rap where there was three relevant generations like this. It’s stretched. [Jay-Z] had a lot to do with that. So, yes, I feel like an OG to a lot of young rappers. In a good way. I also feel like a little brother to some of these older dudes.
After Mac Miller died, you tweeted an invite for any of your peers to reach out to you if they need to vent about anything they may be going through. What made you want to do that?
Because it’s not a lot of people that can relate to being in this situation. Even if you’re a young-and-upcoming SoundCloud rapper, you just got a song that kind of went viral and you’ve got your first little bit of money from a record deal or your first publishing deal, everything’s amazing for however long that goes. Six months. Then shyt starts cooling off and you’re only fukking 19, 20 years old. You feel it cooling down subconsciously and now you’re worried that you’ll never get it back to that level again. I’m just talking about one hypothetical situation. None of his friends can relate to what he’s going through.
To everybody in the world, he’s so lucky and so blessed. And in his mind, he’s fukking terrified. He’s scared that he’s about to be irrelevant. Scared the little bit of money that he thought was so much ain’t going to last. Or, he don’t know how to handle his homeboys around him who are just along for the ride. Who’s he going to talk to about that? Every person in the game has a unique set of circumstances that probably very few people can relate to.
That was just me realizing that and letting it be known, I’m deadass serious, hit my phone. I’ve done that with people where they just spill they fukking hearts out. I’ll listen and ask the right questions and give any guidance where I can. It’s just understanding, bro. People in the game, people in general, we don’t do that for each other.
In some ways, you’ve come to represent hip-hop’s empathy. You embraced XXXTentacion and have shown support for 6ix9ine and Kodak Black on songs, despite their criminal pasts. And you’ve faced some backlash for that. Does that response from the public make you want to be less empathetic—at least publicly?
I don’t know what it does to me, man. It makes me sad. It’s not just sad, ’cause I even understand that. I understand outrage. So I don’t know. If anything, it kind of makes me want to be even more empathetic to people that the world considers to be undesirable. Because we live in a world where everybody wants to be so quick to cancel somebody. But at the same time, people condemn the criminal justice system, which is entirely the cancellation system. To me, both of those ideas are fukked up, like, “We’re throwing you away.” Both of those mentalities miss the mark, which is, people need to be healed. You’re looking to punish me—and don’t get it twisted, what I did was a punishable offense—but where are you talking about healing me? Where are you going to show me some compassion and some fukking love?
And I get it, there’s some people out there that do things that a person can’t fathom loving anybody that can do that. But nobody becomes that way overnight. Nobody is born that way. That shyt is a product of unfortunate circumstances and mishaps in the person’s life, too many to count. shyt that they may not even remember that, in my opinion, causes someone to be as sick as they would be to be a fukking murderer, to be dumb enough to just take a life.
nikka, I know many murderers. I still speak to them. These dudes have committed the ultimate crime in God’s eyes, or whatever, where they’ve taken a life. These people I still speak to, love and have compassion for. I see how in their life that happened, how you became a murderer. Maybe some of them don’t even know, don’t even have a chance to process why they become the monsters that they are.
Even if I [initially] knew what [XXXTentacion] did, I wouldn’t have cut him off, like, “Hey, man, why are you putting your hands on women or why the fukk did you do these sick things to this girl?” I would’ve asked a series of questions that hopefully would’ve sparked something in his mind. It would’ve been towards the direction of healing. It wouldn’t have been in the direction of punishment, judgment, cancellation. Because he deserves healing. Especially the girl that he did all that shyt to—she absolutely needs healing. It’s like, I’m just going to discard you and throw you in the trash and forget about you? That’s what they doing in the prison system. That’s what we’re actually fighting to stop. We’re trying to fight the fact that prisons offer no rehabilitation and that people come out even worse off than they went in.
That’s the problem with cancel culture: It deems someone all good or all bad, which isn’t true of anyone.
Yes, forever. You can’t grow from it. I’m down for accountability culture. I’m cool with that. Even for myself. Everyone needs to be accountable. I don’t mind if someone got something to say about me or what I said or did. That’s all good. But cancel culture? I don’t cancel nobody.
J.I.D recently said that Dreamville and Top Dawg Entertainment are in a friendly competition. Is that label’s success any motivation for you?
One hundred percent. They murder the game, honestly. They really set a high bar for a label’s success. We look up to what they did, what Top [Dawg] did. Hell yeah. But of course, we want our time, too. That’s what this year is about, the beginning of that. We’ve been bubbling, we damn-near been underground. We signed Bas in January 2014. That was only five years ago. That was our underground period, and we coming out of that right now…We wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for [Bas’] Too High to Riot, [Cozz’s] Cozz & Effect, [Omen’s] Elephant Eyes, Ari [Lennox’s] Pho, Lute’s West1996 Pt.2, [J.I.D’s] The Never Story, EarthGang’s Rags. All of these keep laying the foundation. At a certain point it’s going to be the straw that broke the camel’s back. This [rap camp] was a major first step in being pushed to the mainstream. Now, all the clips is loaded with music. It’s not even fair.
What does the rest of 2019 look like for you and for Dreamville?
A lot of music, period. Me personally, I’m working on a few things. I’m trying to focus on them one at a time, but sometimes they spill over. I don’t know if they all going to come out in 2019, but I’m working. I just plan on being more active. More features. More music. Whether it’s an album or loosies. I plan on having a really good year. That’s what I’m looking forward to. This will probably be my most fun year.
