It is often hard to quantify all that Bobby Shmurda is. But Ackquille Jean Pollard, Bobby’s government, is a bit of a different story. It is almost like Bobby and Ackquille are working hand-in-hand to make it in the rough and tumble game of entertainment and Hip-Hop. The only thing is: it is not a game.

Bobby Shmurda has seen it all, from the streets of Brooklyn to the highest heights of rap success to the valleys of prison. At one time, he was charged with running a criminal enterprise and did the time. In fact, he took a specific plea deal that gave himself more time in prison in order for his friend Rowdy Rebel to get less. Bobby is different.

Now, he has regained his footage and sought greener pastures as an independent artist. This is not the same kid that was dancing in the streets to “Hot N#gga,” a $20 moonshot that managed to hit the top of the charts. This is a smarter, wiser and more experienced Bobby, bish. And yet, you already know, somethings never change. Get familiar.

Chuck Creekmur: Yo, are you the King of New York?

Bobby Shmurda: I’m saying I’m going to let the people talk about it. King of New York got to be a gorilla, got to be King Kong, right? King Kong has to be a gorilla, right? Then we’re going to see who going to gorilla this summer that sh#t.

Slops: So we got some sh#t lined up for the summer?

Bobby Shmurda: So at the end of the summer, I need them to announce who went gorilla over the summer. All the New York people go out and just shoot out, and we’ll see who gone gorilla this summer. 

Slops: So you got some sh#t lined up already?

Bobby Shmurda: I got a lot of sh#t lined up. But you know, it’s a lot of conversations going on now that I’m independent. I feel single now. I’m single. All the girls want me now like, “Oh you want me too now? Oh do you want to call now too? Oh you calling now too?”

Chuck Creekmur: Who’s calling?

Bobby Shmurda: There’s a couple people calling. I’m staying independent though but you know… I don’t like to say that because when I say independent I’m like giving it away. “He’s staying independent but he going to f#ck with somebody, who it going to be?” Ain’t nobody know who he’s going to be. I might be out West, I might be down South, or I might stay in New York. Who knows.

Slops: What happened with Epic?

Bobby Shmurda: Well, I’m on papers. I can’t really talk too much about that sh#t. I signed, what’s that s### called?

Chuck Creekmur: An NDA?

Bobby Shmurda: Confidential sh#t. So if I talk about it, they can sue my black ass. I was just making sure.

Slops: But was the split amicable? Was it cool? Cool times or…

Chuck Creekmur: …They let you go?

Bobby Shmurda: They let me go. I got to pay a little tab but I’m good.

Chuck Creekmur: Okay. So they tied you up. You said a little tab.

Bobby Shmurda: Not a little tab, but I’m good. I’m out. 

Chuck Creekmur: So independent is a different type of hustle, but you already got the name, that’s number one. That’s really what you need.

Bobby Shmurda: I got the game.

Chuck Creekmur: The game. You got the name and the game. 

Bobby Shmurda: I think you need the game. That’s what people don’t talk about. I think motherf#ckers need the game. Ni##as don’t tell artists coming up the game. Because there’s a whole game that the labels do and everybody do that they don’t tell the game. And now that I go meet with these major labels and I talk to them, the way I talk with them is different. They look at me like, “Bobby you’re the only artist that’s coming in here talking like that. Everybody else, they’re not coming in here sending their lawyers or their managers, talking about this and that.”

Half the artists don’t even know what the thing is. DSP is or whatever the f##k this is, that is. What’s this? Where to be at? Marketing, or this and that. A lot of ni##as they be like that.

When I came home, I start asking ni##as around my age (questions). I’m like, “Yo bro, you know I…” And he’s looking at me like, “Man them people handle all that sh#t. I say, “Oh hell no, I can’t be around here. I say I can’t be around here, they tripping. Them people tripping.”

Chuck Creekmur: So you learned a lot from… But you-

Bobby Shmurda: I learned a lot, but also I went through a lot too. Because you know that spoils a lot of people in the industry. A lot of people are used to making decisions for artists like, “Shut up and be an artist.” I’m like, n##a who the f#ck you talking to? You talking to these ni##as like that but not me – you better ask somebody. The psych ward been coming to the elementary since 1997. Don’t play me ni##a. It’s going to be lit like a b##ch. That’s what it be though, so I know how that s### go.

You got 100 motherf##kers in a room. You slap 99 of them motherfu##ers but the one motherfu##er think, who the f##k you think you are. Right or wrong?

Chuck Creekmur: Right. Yeah.

Bobby Shmurda: But I’m like, ni##a you slapping these ni##as. These n##### just don’t know how to get slapped. Hold on now ni##a. Hold on. You feel me? But that’s what it be. 

Chuck Creekmur: I remember that one time you was dancing on the tables and all that, and at that point it seemed like you were one of the people you just talked about. Is that true and you just have learned, or was it like that from the beginning?

Bobby Shmurda: When I was dancing on them tables, I danced on cars. I used to just shoot the streets up in my slippers. I’m just a wild motherfu##er. Anything I do, I do anywhere. In jail, I danced on tables in jail. Everywhere: I’m always dancing on top of sh#t. Ever since I was a kid. I’m jumping table to table, I’m just that type of person.

But now, when I was getting that deal, everything I was saying back in 2014… I was telling them not to do, they was doing. 

Chuck Creekmur: Yeah.

Bobby Shmurda: Now, it’s vocabulary I had to learn. I had to learn what perpetuity means, I had to learn what a whole bunch of stuff means.

Slops: Forever!

Bobby Shmurda: I’ve been waiting for motherfu##ers to say some sh#t, I just play stupid. I’ll take my shoe off and when you motherfu##ers stop playing, fling my shoe at him. I’m playing, but you know you got to keep everything professional.

Bobby Shmurda: When I was dancing that time, I was really running from the streets. I was so blinded, I was just running from the streets and honestly, when I was 19, I didn’t give a f##k about the industry. I don’t give a f##k about celebrities. I could see celebrities walk right past me… When I was in the block, at that time if you had came and told me about a celebrity – say the biggest celebrity name. F##king Queen of England, I don’t give a f##k who. I didn’t even know who the president was at that time. Gangster, you know what I’m saying? I was one of those n##as.

ALSO READ: EXCLUSIVE: Bobby Shmurda Teaching Dance Lessons This Summer

Bobby Shmurda: You come tell me about some dumb sh#t on the block like “N####, I’m on the block.” You come tell me about some, whoever (rapper) just dropped or some sh#t, I probably just slap the sh#t out of you. “The f##k’s wrong with you ni##a? We got drugs going on, guns, (what the) f##k is this dumb ni##a talking about? We out here on it like that around them times in the hood. You can’t come around us talking about some dumb s###, talking about some gossip.” We’d slap the sh#t out of you like no tomorrow. 

More To Come From Our Talk With Bobby Shmurda