In a recent interview with Noisey, it’s easy to see Pusha T has easily slid in his new Presidential role of G.O.O.D music. The VA native candid – but carefully – talks new music, Drake v Meek Mill beef, the evolution of hip-hop and Future.
Check out excerpts below:
There’s been a lot of discussion this year about lyrical hip-hop versus turn up music and the whole, uh, ghostwriting thing. As someone who just watched it all develop from the sidelines, what did you think?
Me, personally, I have sort of… given up hope in regards to my—well, I don’t wanna say I’ve given up hope. I’m gonna say that I don’t put my rap principles on everybody. It’s funny to me because I’m an MC that’s been put under scrutiny my whole career for my content. “Oh it’s so drug-riddled.” Like we created coke rap genre. Like, you know, G-Rap didn’t even exist! [Laughs.] But we’ve given Pusha T the coke rap genre.
Man, the times have totally changed. The times are changing, and I’m watching, and I’m watching these guys have these issues and these debates, it’s just, I don’t know. I don’t know what to actually think of it. I just feel like the principles of 2002 aren’t the principles of 2015. You know? I listen to both, I listen to both Meek music, I listen to Drake music, both, you know. I don’t know, I just watched how people handled it, and I watched how the media handled it, and I just have to say that—you don’t crucify people who didn’t lie to you. And I sort of feel like people tried to crucify Meek, but he didn’t lie. You crucify people that lie to you; you don’t crucify the person that doesn’t lie to you, so. I think that is an example of where people are in the world, who the critics are, and so on and so forth.
When I think of turn up music, I go back to 2012 when I did a record with Future called “Pain.” And I put it out, and I got panned because people were like—why are you dealing with Future, what is wrong with you, Pusha T, are you crazy?! They were going crazy. Fast forward, every backpacker, every hipster, every critic has his cup of lean. And they understand every word Future says, verbatim. That is the curse of being early. You gotta be early. Man, but that’s the only thing I know how to do. I’m not gonna not be early. I’m not waiting for people to catch up, I don’t care. I’m the ultimate blogger.
It goes back to what you were saying—the principles of 2002 aren’t the same as the principles of 2015.
Yeah. You’ll get washed if you think that way. And, and, you gotta remember, all of my favorites, all my favorite artists, all of ‘em—yeah. All of the greats, all of my real greats from yesteryear, they all died because they didn’t embrace, and they couldn’t adapt, and they stayed in their bubble.
How important is the term “authenticity” to you in music?
Well, I’m not gonna let it be my issue. But I mean, yeah, I came up on rap that I feel like—I believed my rappers, you know what I’m saying? [Laughs.] So I believed my rappers. I just sorta think that that’s the allure of being a fan of the music and a fan of the artist. I never was into it. I mean, I look at it like, boom, I heard the Biggie version of “Queen Bitch” for Lil Kim, that, you know, that’s aight, cool, I’ll live with that, that’s it. [Laughs] Like I wasn’t hearing references for my favorite rappers.
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