It seems like The Diplomats can’t be stopped these days. With releases from front man Cam’Ron and Jim Jones already on store shelves, Juelz Santana is set to release his sophomore effort, What the Game’s Been Missing.
This time around, Santana is taking his destiny into his own hands. He recently invested in his career by constructing his own recording studio. The studio allows Santana more freedom and control over his project.
“When you have your own place to make music, it becomes that much more of a priority,” he said of the studio. “When you can dictate everything about your project that way, you start to really feel the music, feel every beat, every line. It becomes a part of you in a way that just doesn’t happen when you’re on someone else’s dime and someone else’s schedule.”
While most artists suffer the “sophomore jinx”, the Dips youngest in charge is determined to make this album much better than the first. In addition to the studio, Santana also took further control by directing his own video.
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“On my first album, I feel like I let a lot of things just go. This time around though, I felt like it was all on me,” Juelz continues. “That’s why I built my own studio. That’s why I directed my own video. They always say, you wait your whole life to make that first album and pour your whole life into it. But I feel like this one, man, this is my baby.”
What the Game’s Been Missing is more than just the title of his new CD. Juelz has a few ideas of his own on what’s lacking in the state of hip-hop these days.
“Leadership,” he says of hip-hop’s missing link. “Everybody is following everyone else, nobody is willing to be their own man, to be creative. It goes against what hip-hop is all about. The Dipset Movement is about forging our own path, people can go ahead and follow us.”
What the Game’s Been Missing (Diplomats / Def Jam) hits store shelves November 22.
