Veteran Jet Life lyricist Fendi P has come a long way from his days as a serial street entrepreneur rocking $350 BAPE hoodies.
As he uncorks a bottle of the new, Rick Ross-approved Belaire Bleu champagne and nonchalantly plops down on the custom plaid seats of his 1971 Ford Ranger restorative-mod truck, Fendi P explained to HipHopDX that he has five projects scheduled to be released in 2022.
The first of the bunch, his upcoming Cornerboy Vs. Fendi album, which fittingly arrives on April 20, elaborates on his transition from a hustler dripped in BAPE, into the Jet Life mastermind he has become throughout the last decade.
“Well, I felt like I outgrew Cornerboy, like as a whole, ” Fendi P said. “As far as like, the way I was once living, where I was hanging, you know my day-to-day, you know what I’m saying? Fendi is more like Cornerboy on 10. Still the same shit, just different. I ain’t gotta be posted up in the hood all day long. I got other shit going on that allows me to have other shit going on. So I ain’t gotta just be in this one bracket.”
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Fendi P continued, further detailing the lifestyle and professional differences associated with his former Cornerboy moniker, utilizing his 2019 Carerra Red album and 2021 Trappin’ Jazz projects as points of reference for the versatility each of his rap alter egos encompass.
“And then I felt like outside of that as an artist, they can’t box me in, feel me,” he said. “Like I’m able to stand out more as an artist. Able to give Trapin’ Jazz. I’m able to do Carerra Red. But my next album is Cornerboy Vs. Fendi just because I like that hype shit — Cornerboy, to me, is more hype. More like some rich ratchet shit. Fendi is laid back, player, smooth. Champagne in the middle of the day type shit. Cornerboy is all Dickie’s fit — we would’ve been all on the block in front of the store. There’s a different type of atmosphere, you know?”
Though he officially underwent his stage name change in 2018 upon the release of Late Nights, Early Morning, both the rich ratchet vibes of Cornerboy and the smooth champagne-sipping aura of Fendi P are present on the Jet Life MC’s latest single “Tank Dawg.”
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#DXCLUSIVE: Fendi P Dares To "Dance With The Devil" In New Video
In the Chawk Films-directed video, Fendi P comfortably meanders between his personas as he goes fully militant in a head-to-toe BAPE camouflage print fit while commanding a real tank, and thumbing through bills in a stash house that appears to be flush floor to ceiling with cash.
In addition to honoring New Orleans’ own No Limit Records, a few of Fendi P’s bars from “Tank Dawg,” further pay homage to his years-long love affair with BAPE as he raps, “Try to tell ’em/I just gotta show em/Just rebuilt the motor/BAPE camo on camera/Bout it Bout it/A No Limit soldier.”
Fendi P says the connection between his appreciation for BAPE, Master P’s No Limit Records, and his Cornerboy archetype dates back to the early 2000s when he says Curren$y and Lil Wayne were among the artists who put him on to the Japanese streetwear brand founded by designer and producer NIGO.
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“Spitta [Curren$y] and Lil Wayne were the first people, to me, that put it on my radar outside of Pusha T and Pharrell,” Fendi P recalls. “So when I saw it, I was fucking with it. Cause like I’m a Juvenile fan. Camouflage, No Limit camouflage. So this was easy. When I first got introduced to it, it was so expensive. I’m hustling, like, you know, dope boy. I’m like, ‘Damn they want $350 for the hoody,’ I was like, man, I’m gonna go get some other shit.”
In a sense, Fendi P explained how his transformation from Cornerboy into the latter was actually somewhat kickstarted by what has now become his addiction to the brand A Bathing Ape.
“So when I first got put on it, I wasn’t rocking it like that until I got my money up,” he said. “Went, the designer route, realized that, ‘Fuck designer cool, but that ain’t really hitting on nothing’. The BAPE shit is more like — it fit me. Expensive ratchet shit. Like I go wear this hoody all week, boom. I could rock up in it for three, four days. Boom. And it’s still fly. But I’m still getting to it. But now, I really be in Jet Life apparel.”
Aside from Trappin’ Jazz, Fendi P’s upcoming Cornerboy Vs. Fendi album will serve as the follow-up to his 13-track The Art Of Finessing 2 project released last year, which is home to his “Rich Friends” collaboration with Wiz Khalifa.
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Watch the full video for “Tank Dawg” below.
