Nothing comes easy, especially in the saturated market of rappers, singers or weirdo combinations of both — even when the concept of proximity appears to be an ally.
Dee-1 had to learn the hard way that his New Orleans birthright didn’t automatically make him a contender in the eyes of a pair of his Hip Hop heroes. He actually had to put in work to earn their respect.
During a recent Los Angeles promo run for his critically acclaimed studio debut, Slingshot David, HipHopDX had the positive-forward rapper sit in as guest on the #LitnessTest and after one of the submissions was clearly deemed to be amateurish, the 28-year-old Dee-1 shared a couple of (now) hilarious experiences he endured with a couple of the original Hot Boys.
“When I first started rapping, I wasn’t the person you heard today,” the N’awlins MC openly admitted. “B.G. threw one of my CDs out the window before.
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“We was at the House of Blues in New Orleans … T.I. had a concert at the House of Blues. B.G. rock with T.I.! B.G. a real dude; B.G. was standing in the crowd with everybody! Out front on Decatur Street in the French Quarters, afterwards I was like, ‘Man, this my shot!’ I’ma go holla at B.G.!
“I was like, ‘What’s up brother? Yo, I’m Dee-1, y’know, yadda yadda yaddda’ and gave him the mixtape. So, I gave him the mixtape and he was looking at it and I could tell from jump street he really ain’t want to listen to it. So he went and got in his whip and when I seen him pull off, I literally saw my CD flying out the window! Literally! And what I did? I did what any real dude would do. I said, ‘Man, I paid for that!’ And I went and picked it up and said I was gonna give this to somebody that’s going to appreciate my mixtape!’
Turk, You’re Up: Dee-1’s new album features the song “Wanna Be a Hot Boy,” a fitting record seeing that he’s had encounters with most of them, most notably Lil Wayne.
When asked why seeing such first-hand rejection didn’t break his spirit, Dee-1 spoke like any trooper who managed to make it to a major label after years on the independent circuit would. He boasted of perseverance, which inadvertently led to him remembering a run-in with Juvenile.
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“You gotta have thick skin, dog,” he continued. “And when you know your purpose for why you in this game … I didn’t get in this game for B.G.’s approval, so that’s just a bump in the road. But at the end of the day, it’s cool because I’m gonna make the people who didn’t like me come back ’round and turn them into fans. That’s when you really great when you can turn a hater into a fan.
“I tried to do a song with Juvenile. We actually did it. It’s called ‘The Man in My City.’ First time I went and brought the song to Juve, I drove to his crib in New Orleans, sitting down just [like me and you], Juve chiefing; he smoking or whatever. I played the song for Juve … my favorite rapper to ever come from New Orleans … Juvenile looked me in my eye and said, ‘That’s wack. I can’t get on that.’ No joking in his tone! Like dead serious. I just drove 45 minutes to get to this man’s crib and he said that’s wack. He was like, ‘Bring me something better and I’ll rock with you.’ Dog! I took that to heart. I went home — same beat as the [original] and I came back 24 hours later with a brand new hook, a whole new concept and a new verse done to the song. When he heard the new song, I saw them gold teeth start shining; he started smiling boy! He was like, ‘I like this!’ Juve had my verse in about two hours; the verse was done.”
The year was 2012 and the song wound up getting placed on Dee-1’s joint mixtape with Mannie Fresh, The Focus Tape.
Fast forward to the present day, Dee-1 is prepping for a nationwide tour to support his newly released album and recently just made headlines for blessing Sway in the Morning‘s “5 Fingers of Death Freestyle” in its return back to the original format.
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Watch it below.
