Civil Interview Part 2: Yo Gotti Opens Up On #BlackLivesMatter, Current Southern Rap, & Hopes For A Kanye Collab
by Staff Editor
You have other ventures outside of music that add to your hustle game, such as your restaurant/lounge, Prive. How is that going?
Yo Gotti: Prive is doing good. I also do real estate and a couple different things. I’m just a hustler.
How do you juggle all of that and still dedicate time to get in the studio and fly out tracks like wildfire?
Yo Gotti: I ain’t going to lie. At times it’s hard because sometimes I barely get sleep. I ain’t just dealing with typical rapper problems. The typical rapper may have an issue with the label, or a producer with a clearance, but I’m hearing that on top of issues with the restaurant or the real estate properties. It’s about being able to handle all of this sh*t like right off your feet. A lot of times, you don’t have time to sit back because the problem could be growing. It takes a special mother*cker to handle all of that.
What are your thoughts on the artists coming out of the South right now? You seem to have a good relationship with majority of them.
Yo Gotti: We really don’t have problems in the media front [laughs]. Everybody has some time of problem, but we don’t do that. Getting more on my executive sh*t, I learned a lot. I don’t really engage n*ggas music no more to say if I like it or not. I just respect it. If you got something that’s winning, it may not be for me. I may not listen to it ever, but I respect it if you and your family are winning off of it. I learned that off of my executive moves. I don’t have to necessarily like what the next mother*cka doing to respect it.
What’s different about the Southern hip-hop culture and vibe now as compared to when you first came into the game?
Yo Gotti: Oh, it’s way better. When I first came in the game, I remember coming to New York and I would hear no music from the South. I remember hearing a Project Pat record on New York radio, and I wasn’t even down with them. I was happy as sh*t just to hear the song on the radio in New York, being from Memphis. The South gets so much more love now.
How do you feel about the state of Memphis hip-hop? It’s such a different spectrum of the South, as is Atlanta, Houston, Miami, etc.
Yo Gotti: I think it’s growing. I think the artists are getting doper. I think they understand the game. I think it’s most definitely getting better.
You did a freestyle on Hot 97 over Eazy-E’s “Boyz N The Hood,” and you do have a lot of close ties with West Coast artists. How have you been inspired by Eazy, as well as N.W.A.?
Yo Gotti: Man, N.W.A. is probably the first gangsta sh*t I ever seen in music! When I was a youngin’, seeing n*ggas doing videos the way they was doing it, they seemed like true gangsters to me. I had to go see the movie because I wanted to see what was really happening, and if the stories were true, or what wasn’t. It’s still a movie, so there’s only so much you can put in one movie. It’s 5 or 6 guys who have lived a lifetime experience that are worth 5 or 6 more movies.
How do you feel about music biopics being more heavily hip-hop influenced, and backed by major film studios?
Yo Gotti: Yeah, I think they should do them. I’ve seen an interview with Master P saying that he is going to do one. I think that should be done. People like J from Rap-A-Lot, the Cash Money’s, and more because these people put a real stamp in the game with the sh*t that they’ve done. I think a lot of people would be interested to know how it started from the ground up.