Yo, what it is.
It's Ja Rule and I'm about to see which one of these new melodic rappers gets my cosign.
I think from young, I had the melodic shit in me.
Down low, deep in my heart, I always wanted to be a singer.
I ain't going to bullshit you.
Sometimes when you're making records and you're trying to fit inside the pocket, it can get
tricky.
Sometimes it calls for artists to maybe stretch a word or omit a word.
And then it just became a flow, a style I was using, so it was kind of my thing.
Even though the records was melodic, they were still street. It was fun for the party.
It was fun for the barbecue.
It was fun for the hood.
It was fun for everybody.
The way I did it was like, "Shit.
I could do that.
I could do it if Rule do it."
I made everybody feel like they could sing too or they could croon or harmonize a little bit.
Yeah. I like this. The beat is hard. It’s just got a good vibe to it.
I like it, the melody is dope.
The video is the same shit.
Titties and ass. Some cars.
“Okay I pulled up!”
The hook is simple, but sometimes simple is better, you know what I’m saying?
The video is regular.
I don't want to say cliche hip-hop video, but it was cliche hip-hop video, you know.
I don't put that on the artist though.
I put that on the directors and the visual people who were behind that.
I like the video already.
It's making me feel like I want to know what the song is about.
I want to know why, why these scenes, why the straight-jacket?
Why the flowers in the beginning.
It makes you think.
Even if it don't mean shit, it gets you to ask the question.
The Kid LAROI?
It’s dope.
I really like it.
He reminds me of the Roddys and other guys that are out there, you know.
It's the auto tune that makes them all, kind of, have the similar sound.
If you listen to motherfucking Mariah Carey, you know, that's Mariah Carey, right?
You know what I'm saying?
You listen to Anita Baker, you know, that's Anita Baker.
So the auto tune puts them all in a box together.
So now it comes down to what they're saying, what the song's about, because that, I don't
know, that tune, that auto sound is just, it's the same on every record.
But you know, it's crazy...
Because he's white, he'll probably get more labeled as a pop artist than a rap artist.
I'm curious to see what he labels himself as, you know?
You got a 16, 17-year-old white kid from Australia wanting to be the next big hip-hop star that
is, in itself, a testament to the amazingness of hip-hop.
Aye.
It's the ladies' turn!
Let's go.
I like the fact that it's simple.
It gives her like the real Around The Way Girl feel, you know?
Like just one of the girls in the hood.
I like that vibe.
I like the video too. It’s cool.
Ooo!
That’s what I’m talking about!
It's always dope when you get a female-male vibe on the track.
Every artist that sings and raps, and can do both good?
It's the ability to be able to do whatever the fuck you want to do on a record.
If I want to get on a record and harmonize, if I want to get on a record and tear it the
fuck down, I can do all of that and then some.
That makes making records a lot more fun.
I'm always rooting for the ladies.
I love the female artist movement right now.
I love how they comin’ strong from Meg and Cardi and Abby and I love seeing them all
in the game.
And so as soon as I seen it with a female, I instantly got happy to see that the ladies
is out there moving and shaking too, with the fellas, so.
It's always good to be from the city too, you know, New York.
That's my background, that’s the home.
So it's dope.
I know about Lil Mosey.
My kids like Lil Mosey and shit.
You know, they just be playing this shit around the house and shit like that.
See, again, the video is cliche.
When all else in doubt, we don't know what to do to the record?
Okay, here's what we're going to do, fellas.
Get some girls, get the video girls, we get you guys a nice boat, some cars.
I've been sold this video three or four times myself.
Nah, but not mad at Mosey.
Cool little vibe.
I'm into the Spanish rap, reggaeton shit.
NORE’s my brother.
He put me up on the reggaeton early.
These guys are making me feel old.
A lot of these artists could be my kids.
My youngest son is 17.
And my oldest daughter, my oldest is 25.
It's making me feel like a hip-hop veteran, for sure. You know the crazy shit is though,
they on their own wave.
They don't give a fuck what our old ass heads have got to say and what we talkin' about.
It kind of feels like country rap.
I didn't think this was going to come out of him.
Like, if you seen him, you wouldn't think this is the type of music,
the vibe he would be on.
That's the beauty of music.
It's hood. Gutter. Pain.
Ain't nothing like being from the bottom and making it.
Nothing.
That's what this is giving me.
That pain, I'm from the bottom vibe.
Man, this one right here touched me different because
I know hip-hop saved that young man's life right there.
You understand?
He was in them streets moving and shaking, I could tell.
That's the beautiful picture that hip hop paints, that people don't like to hang up
in they house.
People want hip-hop to be this dirty, dark, nasty villain.
And I'm not going to sugarcoat it.
I'm going to be honest with you.
Hip-hop, we the gift and the curse because, yeah we do have the ears and the pulse of
the children.
I dropped out of high school because KRS-One said “I make about a G a week, fuck school.”
And I was selling drugs and I was making about a G a week, and I believed that was true.
But I also know what it does on the flip side of that, the lives it saves.
How many people hip-hop feeds and takes care of.
That young man right here, what's his name?
Rylo?
Yo man, he got his whole hood on his back, man.
Where he from?
Mobile, Alabama.
When was the last rapper that came out of Mobile, Alabama?
Being fearless, to be able to step out on that limb and do something that's out of your
box, it's tough sometimes.
And to see this young kid step outside, I'm sure, of what's his comfort zone, and make
music that may be a little different than what people around him are used to hearing
or used to vibing to, it's kudos to him.
I like the intro.
She reminds me a little bit of my niece, Coi Leray.
I just like her vibe.
She got a cool little vibe.
Yeah, I’m not mad at it.
Not mad at it.
Cool little summertime vibe.
A lot of young, young talent out there, man.
She's 17, so she has plenty of time to play with her flows, play with her style, do everything
she wants.
But, that record right there is a cool little vibe record.
The offbeat flow throws me off a little bit with the new artists.
Lil Wayne did it on one record on his new album, and I hate that record.
Because…
You know, Wayne is my brother, that's my partner.
Every time it comes, I try to get into it and he's offbeat, and I'm like, "What?
How? How do you bop to this?"
I'm a old school nigga.
I got to get my one, two on.
You know what I’m saying?
You know, I get it.
It's a new vibe, new style, new swag.
You know who used to do that on-beat, off-beat style, used to fuck with me?
My man Blackchild.
I used to be like, "Yo, Black, you offbeat."
He'd be like, "I know God!
Word to God.
I know I'm off-beat, nigga."
Like I said, I'm a little biased because I loved them all.
I happen to think that the melodic rappers, they get it.
Don, I thought was cool.
Video was cool.
The vibe was cool.
Hip-hop video kind of cliche a little bit, but it's still dope.
I really like The Kid LAROI.
Different vibe.
Don't know the message or what he was trying to say, but it makes you think and I like that.
Liked Abby a lot too.
She was real cool.
Had a real homegirl vibe.
I fucks with Lil Mosey and Lunay.
I might be a little biased because my kids love Lil Mosey.
Like Rylo's vibe.
The beats felt a little bit country to me, but his rhymes was everything.
BKTHERULA was cool too.
I'm not the biggest fan of the off-beat style, but her vibe was dope.
And I think she has a future in hip hop.
After watching all these new melodic rappers, the artist that gets my co-sign is…
I'ma have to go with Abby Jasmine.
I like Abby.
I like them all, but I'm going to go with Abby.
I thought her shit was just real melodic, real dope, real smooth, real fly, ‘round
the way girl, homegirl vibe.
She remind me of a chick from Harlem and shit.
Good vibe, good shit.
I'm one of the OGs that believes and loves the changing of each era, the passing of the
guards, so to speak.
I remember there was a time when people looked at what Ja Rule was doing and was like, "Yo,
dog, that ain't it."
And I'm like, "Nigga, yes the fuck it is."
So I get it and I understand that and yo, big ups to all these new kids out there, man,
making they hip-hop sound and making it theirs and doing what they want to do with it.
I own a tech company called Iconn and I created a platform for talent, for creators, creatives to monetize
their brand as well as their content