After the shooting, but before the black eye. After the arrest. After the comments about lyrics, but before he was fodder for TMZ. I sat down with Waka Flocka Flames. I wanted to meet this person. This is the one that everybody had been talking about, even though I personally had not heard much of his music at that time. My friend’s daughters from Alabama had heard it though. Credit them for making me more interested in this guy. Now my boy’s daughters are clamoring to intern for me because they want to meet Waka too. Interesting, this Waka Flocka Flame guy is. He’s got haters like a tenured, rich rapper, but the adoration of a segment of Hip-Hop that’s not so interested in lyrical prowess. Through it all, Waka seems content in the idea that hate trumps indifference any day.
AllHipHop.com:
Well, first of all, good to meet you.Waka Flocka: Good to meet you too, likewise.
AllHipHop.com: You’re definitely a big talk-of-the-town type of individual these days. First of all, the whole shooting thing put you on everybody’s radar beyond the underground scene. Can you talk about your progress beyond that? How you’ve come to this point, being so popular.
Waka Flocka: I don’t even know. I just stayed in my mind, went hard, and s**t popped.
AllHipHop.com: How would you describe your style of music?
Waka Flocka: Hmm, different…Yeah, it’s different.
AllHipHop.com:
What’s your creative process? What do you put into it, as far as what you put down on paper, and eventually what gets to the people?Waka Flocka: I really just go off how I feel. However I feel, that’s how I go. I never ever just create the concept. It’s hard to create the concept and run with it, because you keep your mind boxed in. So I really just, go with the flow.
AllHipHop.com: How’d you get down with Gucci?
Waka Flocka: Through the management. My manager, that’s my Momma, my real Momma. So I had met him. I got down cause I hung with him, felt him out, he’s a good person. So why not rock with him?
AllHipHop.com: Okay, so you weren’t like friends from back in the day or nothing like that?
Waka Flocka: Nah.
AllHipHop.com: Okay so how long have you and Gucci known each other?
Waka Flocka: It’s been some years, probably about 5 years.
AllHipHop.com: Do you guys bounce off each other creatively? Are you in the studio together?
Waka Flocka: Gucci bounce off Gucci. I don’t know how he makes that music. Homie can probably make about 12 songs in a day, and still want to go out and party. It’s in him. I don’t know what I feed off. I, sometimes, gotta be in the mood to rap. I’m never in the mood to rap everyday. I might be in the mood the next day to do some business. I’m more like a brainiac person. That’s why I be thinking about what I do.
AllHipHop.com: You think too much?
Waka Flocka: Yeah, sometimes I over-think stuff.
AllHipHop.com: You catch a lot of flack, how do you feel about that?
Waka Flocka: I like it.
AllHipHop.com: You do?
Waka Flocka:
I love it, if there ain’t none [no hate] you ain’t doing good. I don’t want folk patting me on my back, because it’ll make me feel comfortable mentally, and I don’t want to feel comfortable. I want to feel like I’m disowned. Somehow they gotta love me. So the haters, they gotta catch up, I hope they catch up.AllHipHop.com: It’s funny because when I was with my best friend from Alabama, his daughters were talking about you the whole time. What’s interesting is that they’re teenagers, so I was getting a whole different perspective on your movement, and how people feel in general aside from a hate standpoint.
Waka Flocka: See, I really rap for folk from my generation, because when people come out young, they always come out with the girly stuff, or the flashy “I’m rich” type stuff. Why ain’t nobody talking about the aggressive stuff? Folks aggressive where I’m at, but we hungry. I tried to go get the jobs, that don’t work. Them folks ain’t hiring…they ain’t doing nothing. They talking about some cutting taxes, give some job money! So I rap aggressive. AllHipHop.com: Is it true that you’re really from New York?
Waka Flocka: Yeah, I’m from Queens, Northside.
AllHipHop.com: How long were you here?
Waka Flocka: Until like fifth grade.
AllHipHop.com:
And you moved? Your mom moved you down there?Waka Flocka: Nah, I was getting into too much [trouble] in New York. I was moving too fast. They told me just move to Georgia to play basketball.
AllHipHop.com: Did you excel in that?
Waka Flocka: Yeah, I just went down there to play basketball and that ended.
AllHipHop.com: How’s having your Mom as your manager?
Waka Flocka: That’s like my sister anyways. When I grew up she was like my Momma, my sister and my Daddy. So it’s just natural.
AllHipHop.com:
Okay, okay, alright. Everybody wants to know how you got your name from the people I talked to. Waka Flocka: My boy Gucci he said “Wacka Flacka Fling” like “Aye bruh these joints threw their shooters up”…some crazy s**t like that. And everybody probably thought he was saying “Wacka Flacka Flame,” so s** t I just went with it.AllHipHop.com: Do you feel like your style of rap, and what you rap about were a result of your conditions and your economic conditions?
Waka Flocka: Yeah, that’s how I feel. Like a person who is just sick and tired of just going through the hell they’re going through. I use music to relieve my anger, so I don’t physically contact a person. I’m always mad at somebody, because folk always do lying s### all the time. I rather go in the booth and expose your ass before I put my hands on you and do some damage into you. There’s a lot of people who feel like me. A lot of people mad right now, and folks still coming out with that “Yeah I’m in the club popping bottles!” Man, you don’t need to pop no bottles to get drunk honestly. You can take like two, three double shots and you in the zone…I’m more on reality talk. Part 2 Coming Tomorrow
