Morray has recalled the moment he realized he still has more work to do to reach the level of his idols Drake and Lil Wayne, and the lessons he’s learned from the experience.
During a conversation with HipHopDX, the North Carolina rapper spoke about dropping his single “Momma’s Love” in May without any promotion, and being forced to have a tough conversation with himself when the song didn’t perform as well as he hoped.
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“I put out a song, ‘Momma’s Love.’ Just a song to put out. Rappers throw out singles all the time,” he said. “And I wanted to see what a single would do with no promotion. Who am I? And that’s how you do the test. No promotion or nothing, throw it out there and see what the fuck happens.
“It didn’t turn out the way I thought it was gonna turn out, and that let me know like, ‘You got so much fucking work to do.’ If you can throw out a single and it don’t get traction because you didn’t do promotion, then you’re not who you think you are.”
Morray spoke more about wanting to follow in Drake and Lil Wayne’s footsteps, and his desire to be known for more than hits like “Quicksand” and his J. Cole collaboration, “My Life.”
“Drake could drop a song right now and nobody know, or fucking Lil Wayne could drop a song right now, don’t tell nobody, next day it got a million views,” he said. “I can’t do that. So why the fuck are you so comfortable, n-gga? Why are you so stagnant? Why are you so happy sitting the fuck down when you can’t do what the fuck them n-ggas you look up to can do? You ain’t done, bruh!
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“And that’s why I had to tell myself, ‘You ain’t started, you ain’t doing this shit for real. You got one hit, n-gga. You got ‘Quicksand,’ you got ‘My Life,’ you got this. There’s so much more to you than those songs. There’s so much more than you’re gonna get. Don’t fucking stay here and think that’s enough. I’m better than all that shit y’all seen already, and I’m gonna show you.”
He added: “When this album come out and these videos come out, you gonna see that Morray is better than what the fuck you already love, so I need more love.”
Morray also talked about the steps he and his team needed to take to succeed following the underwhelming performance of “Momma’s Love.”
“That’s putting everything together, that’s coming up with a plan,” he explained. “That’s getting my team, that’s settle in, that’s be a man. Understand the good is gon’ come with the bad, understand that, n-gga, you gotta make hard decisions and somebody above you gotta accept them if they can.
“And you gotta accept if they can’t. That’s the hardest thing I think I can deal with, understanding that I don’t run shit the way I want to, that it’s teamwork. Even if I am the boss, it doesn’t matter, it’s a team effort. I love teamwork, it helps you win.”
The Street Sermons star revealed the biggest decision is his life was choosing himself and helping others, which in turn has helped him find happiness.
“I think the biggest decision I made in life was choosing myself,” he said. “I’m a Scorpio, we get a bad rep or we got one rep, but I love helping people. I love being there for somebody else that I will negate myself. I got happy when I finally realized, stop negating yourself, stop telling yourself you’re number two, when you’re your star player.”
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He added: “Once I became my star player, I became happy. I love being my star player and I got a whole bunch of role players that feel like stars themselves, and I love it. We outside! They all stars, they become stars. And we all think like stars, then we’re all stars.”
