Boosie Badazz
Photo credit: Elle Schneider
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ALI SHAHEED MUHAMMAD: Baton Rouge native, obstacle overcomer, stylistic pioneer, proud father, and inspiration to young artists everywhere, Lil Boosie, Boosie Badazz.
FRANNIE KELLEY: People call you "the people's rapper."
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Right.
FRANNIE: How do you feel about that?
BOOSIE BADAZZ: I think it come from my music being down to Earth and things like that. That's where I think me coming from my humbleness and things like that, where really my music is for the people. It's for my people.
FRANNIE: Right. It seems to me like that term is kind of – to have a people's rapper, you also have to have a rapper who's, like, not the people's rapper, right?
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Say it again.
FRANNIE: What I'm trying to say the people's rapper means somebody's who's acknowledged by the people as important, influential, necessary, and then there're also people who are prominent who aren't embraced by the people in the same way. Does that make sense?
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Oh, right. Right. I see what you saying.
FRANNIE: Yeah, somebody else decided how high they get kind of.
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Right. You basically saying I'm the people's champ, but I'm not the people's clone. That's what you trying to say?
FRANNIE: I'm trying to say that the people made you, not the business. The industry didn't make you.
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Right. The industry didn't make me. You're right.
FRANNIE: Do you feel like you're recognized for what you are? Do you feel like you are rewarded the way that you should be?
BOOSIE BADAZZ: I feel like I'm recognized and rewarded by the people who really know me and the people who love me. I feel like they feel I'm great at what I do. But I feel like the world as a whole, I'm still kind of underrated at what I do.
FRANNIE: Yeah, I agree.
BOOSIE BADAZZ: I still feel the underration, but the people who love me love me more than ever, so I'm happy with that.
FRANNIE: OK.
ALI SHAHEED MUHAMMAD: Can we go back a little bit? Cause there – obviously people in your backyard know your story, where you come from. You've probably mentioned it. But for some of the people from the Spotify world of things, and Microphone Check listeners specifically, might know the beginning, so for the – can you – let's go back to the beginning. Do you remember the first hip-hop song you ever heard?
BOOSIE BADAZZ: I don't know. I was raised in hip-hop my whole life, so my first groups was like N.W.A. Them was the first – my favorite group, cause I felt like they was talking the stuff that I was seeing. Geto Boys, things like that.
ALI: So that was the first that made the biggest impact on you?
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Yeah, they and 2pac.
ALI: And 2pac? What was it about rap music that ignited your soul?
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Because the rappers looked like the people on my corner who had the money, and growing up that's who we wanted to be like, the people on the corner who had all the money. So the rappers had everything they had, so we wanted to be like them. Rappers had swag. And when you a kid in the neighborhood growing up, that's what you see, so that's what you want to be.
ALI: How important is music to you?
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Music is real important to me, because that's how I got here. Music is what feed my family, is what got me successful. It's what I started with. I got other things I do besides music as far as making money, but music made the platform for everything.
ALI: What is it about music that became that thing for you?
BOOSIE BADAZZ: At first, I just used to like to do it. After a certain amount of years, it becomes business then. So right now, it's more of I like to make music for the business part. And be financially successful with it. Because the first years of your career, you don't be in contact with really what's going on business-wise.
ALI: That's what I want to get to, the beginning. Like, you started at an early age of 14.
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Yup, 14, 15.
ALI: So what was really in your mind at that point?
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Just be famous. Just make some songs and be the most famous person in my city.
ALI: I was going to say, cause being famous can mean a lot of different things. Like –
BOOSIE BADAZZ: I just wanted to be Baton Rouge famous.
ALI: Baton Rouge famous. Yeah.
BOOSIE BADAZZ: At first. Yeah. Then I got Baton Rouge famous, then I wanted to be bigger.
ALI: Can you go back to and explain to us who were the Concentration Camp?
BOOSIE BADAZZ: The Concentration Camp was me, C-Loc, Max Minelli, J-Von, and Young Bleed, but Young Bleed, he left the Concentration Camp. When I was coming in, he was going out.
ALI: What time was this?
BOOSIE BADAZZ: This was like '97, '98. And that's what made up the Concentration Camp. C-Loc was the CEO, and Max and Von was a group, and Young Bleed was the solo artist who was taking off. And Young Bleed left and did his thing with Master P, and I slid right on in.
ALI: OK, so what else was the backdrop – musically, what else happening in Baton Rouge at that time?
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Not much. It was C-Loc – I'm trying to think of some couple more rappers back then, but C-Loc,. Not no big time.
ALI: And still you felt that was your calling?
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Right, because they was the biggest in Baton Rouge. So I wanted to be – didn't I tell you I wanted to be the biggest in Baton Rouge?
ALI: Nah, I got you. I'm just trying to get a feel of that environment, from like '96, '97.
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Even when I was rapping on the corner, I was good. And I already knew if C-Loc, one of them, would've came to me, I was going to sign regardless.
ALI: So good battling, or good just spitting rhymes right around in your environment where you were?
BOOSIE BADAZZ: We don't battle rap down here.
ALI: Say what?
BOOSIE BADAZZ: We don't battle rap down here.
ALI: So what is it?
BOOSIE BADAZZ: You from up north, huh?
ALI: I am, but I don't mean it like that. So battle – OK.
BOOSIE BADAZZ: We don't battle rap. We just rap. We just rap about what we see. We don't battle rap. We just rap about what we see and what we go through.
ALI: That's called being in the cypher, which is not necessarily battle rapping. It's just being in an environment where you can express yourself.
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Yeah. You know, that's where it started on the corner, and you become the best in the neighborhood. Then you branch off into –
ALI: So who was better than you at that time?
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Nobody.
ALI: That's what I was trying to get to. I'm like, "Who was that person who that made you go, 'Hmmm.'"
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Yeah, I was pretty good. I had tablets. I was pretty good. My boys used to been telling me to go do it, but I just wasn't ready yet. But after my dad passed, that's when I was like, "I'm ready."
ALI: Do you remember the first, official, for real studio session? Like, you know you going to record, not like you going to make a demo, but you going to record.
BOOSIE BADAZZ: The first day I met C-Loc, he pulled up on me outside, and he told me, "Rap. I'm tired of hearing about you rap." And I rapped.
ALI: So you just ready for it.
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Yeah, I was ready. I went inside and got my notebook, came outside, rapped. He said, "Get in the car." I said, "Where we going?" He said, "To the studio." And that was my first time.
ALI: What did that feel like?
BOOSIE BADAZZ: I ain't really know how to ride the beats good like that. I had the raps, but I ain't really have my rhythm yet on riding the beats. But after a couple weeks, like a month or two, I had the beats where I can put my raps on any beat. First my raps just be going certain beats. But as I got in the studio and learning how to do my thing, that's when I got –
ALI: That's what most people experience, and if you not – I mean, I don't know how many musicians are out there in the audience – raise your hand if you are – and you may know what that is, but the very first time you go into the studio and you're rapping, sometimes you're not –
BOOSIE BADAZZ: You're not crisp yet. Because you're used to the same beat rapping off it. That's why most people in jail can't make music on the streets, because they get used to the same beat tapping.
ALI: It's not an easy thing.
BOOSIE BADAZZ: But music is different as an artist.
FRANNIE: Did you make music with C-Murder when you guys were together?
BOOSIE BADAZZ: I can't say that. He's still in jail.
FRANNIE: But you guys – you shared a cell for a while, right?
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Yeah, yeah. We put out a CD.
FRANNIE: Yeah. But, like, you can't – you're saying you won't tell me the mechanics of your recording?
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Yeah, I can't tell the mechanics of it, cause he might get in trouble. I can't do that.
FRANNIE: OK. Would you write together? How did you make that work though?
BOOSIE BADAZZ: I still –
FRANNIE: You can't write things down?
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Nah, I can't really explain how we did it, but we did it, and I take full responsibility for it.
FRANNIE: OK. Did you guys commiserate about your careers?
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Well, when we did time together, when you do two, three years around somebody, he become like your brother. So C-Murder was like my brother. He was like my big brother in there, cause he was a model inmate. He liked to read books and chill out and stuff, and I wasn't the model inmate. So basically he used to always talk to me –
FRANNIE: Yeah, I was wondering if he –
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Yeah, he was a big brother.
FRANNIE: – helped you think about writing, helped you think about business, shared.
BOOSIE BADAZZ: We didn't talk much about business. I'm not gon' lie. We didn't talk much about business in there. We basically talked about getting back to our families before we could talk about business. So basically me and him just really, we worked together. We worked every day together. We slept together. Basically I just – I just make people happy in the dorm. I play a lot. I'm kind of childish. So I threw water on people a lot and stuff, and that would make him laugh. That's my boy. I miss him too.
FRANNIE: Yeah. Is there anybody else that you would want to work with, somebody that you had that almost familial relationship?
BOOSIE BADAZZ: That I would like to work with? As far as music?
FRANNIE: Mhmm.
BOOSIE BADAZZ: I don't know. I can't really say. It would have to be somebody on the a-listers, like Justin Bieber or somebody. I like money.
FRANNIE: You have a familial relationship with Justin Bieber?
BOOSIE BADAZZ: I could make a relationship with anybody. I'm a people person. I'm cool with all the rappers. I don't have problems with people. I'm just a cool person. I don't have problems.
FRANNIE: So I wanted to ask you about your family life, you as a father. How do you raise your kids? How do you raise your sons, specifically?
BOOSIE BADAZZ: I raise my sons a little faster than most kids might raise they son.
FRANNIE: OK. Why do you do that?
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Cause I don't want the streets to teach them before I teach them. The streets teach them early. So most of the things that streets'll teach a boy, I teach my son before the streets teach him. Because that's how I just how I raise my boys. I try to make them solid. I try to make them – I'm hard on them too. I'm hard on them. I discipline them. But I teach them a little growner than other ones. I will say that.
ALI: What level of expectation do you have for them, as a father, that you might've missed as a son?
BOOSIE BADAZZ: I don't really set expectations for them. I just try to do what I gotta do and make them have a different childhood than what I had. But whatever they do, if they gon' do it, I'm on they tail. I'm trying to make them be the best at what they do. I don't like to go out and get embarrassed. I like my kids to be winners. Whatever they do, they gotta get trainers. They gotta be right. Because I want them to win. If you grow up winning in life, you gon' want to win forever.
FRANNIE: So raising daughters is kind of like a whole other ballgame.
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Oh, it's crazy. I don't like raising daughters.
FRANNIE: Why? Makes you nervous?
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Because it's too much. A son is way easier than a daughter.
FRANNIE: I've heard that.
BOOSIE BADAZZ: It's way easier to talk to them than a daughter. But God don't make mistakes so I gotta deal with it. And I got teenage daughters. So.
FRANNIE: How do you teach your daughters that they are valuable and important?
BOOSIE BADAZZ: I showed them they're valuable all through their life. I take them places that – so my daughter's not going to be impressed with what your son has. Cause she been already – that's what I do. They been already – they done seen a lot of stuff, so you can't melt my daughter by taking her to California or buying her stuff. I want my daughter just like a man for – whatever she do, she just gon' like them for that person. She ain't gon' like him for the stuff.
FRANNIE: Right. Has there ever been a time when you've – has there ever been a time when your family said I wish you hadn't talked about that on a song?
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Always. My mama, always.
FRANNIE: Like what? Which song?
BOOSIE BADAZZ: "Why did you say that? People don't need to know all that." But that's what make my music!
FRANNIE: So that's what you tell her? You're like, "That's mine."
BOOSIE BADAZZ: I'm just – she know I'ma say it, but she just gon' come and say, "Why you be saying all this stuff? People don't need to know what happen." But that's me as an artist. I make my music based on what I'm going through. If somebody made me mad that day, I can't make a happy song. You see what I'm saying?
FRANNIE: Yeah. So if she made you mad that day.
BOOSIE BADAZZ: If I'm coming from the club, I'ma make a club song. I do it on my emotions. I don't just go in there and say, "I'm going to make this kind of song." I gotta be kind of feeling that type of way.
FRANNIE: Do you think that has hurt you commercially?
BOOSIE BADAZZ: I'm just not commercial. They try to make me commercial, my labels. They give me commercial records. But I'm just not commercial. It's hard for them to turn me commercial. Even my commercial records, "Wipe Me Down," all that stuff still didn't – I'm still Boosie. People didn't expect – after the commercial stuff, people didn't expect more commercial stuff. They expected the real Boosie.
FRANNIE: Back to the –
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Yeah.
FRANNIE: Yeah. I mean, that doesn't – it's incredibly rare, right, the way that you have made your career happen. Am I being historically accurate when I say that? I can't think of somebody else who's done what you have done and come from here also.
ALI: Consistently. You're consistent with your music.
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Yeah, I make pretty good music. I feel I make pretty good music. You listen to my music?
FRANNIE: I do.
BOOSIE BADAZZ: OK. It's pretty good. I make pretty good music.
FRANNIE: Yeah. I had the Thug Passion –
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Thug Passion.
FRANNIE: Got it off DatPiff and burned it onto a CD. I found it the other day when I was cleaning out my stuff. So – there's going to be a Q&A, just so you guys know. You're going to get your chance. Don't even worry. But – I mean, I don't know. It seems to me like you make choices to stay not commercial, right? You wouldn't want to make that music. It doesn't come naturally to you anyway.
BOOSIE BADAZZ: I'm not going to say that. I'm not going to say that. By me being who I am, I still have a lot of doors shut on me in the music business.
FRANNIE: Yes.
BOOSIE BADAZZ: And a lot of people –
FRANNIE: That is where I'm going with this question.
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Yeah, because people run from realness. I'm the rapper who gon' talk about you in a song. You don't want to hear – a lot of people don't want to hear nobody saying, "Watch your friend in the backseat." A lot of people don't want to hear me talking about stuff – I speak about what's really going on. I don't want to hear the truth sometimes. So I'm just speaking the real and sometime that touches people and either you gon' sit there and take it or run away from it.
FRANNIE: Right. Yeah, I mean –
BOOSIE BADAZZ: So that's what keeps me borderline.
FRANNIE: That's what I was kind of talking about at the beginning too, is that also might be what keeps you from being widely acknowledged as one of the greatest of all time.
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Right.
FRANNIE: Because you do this specific thing.
BOOSIE BADAZZ: It's not a specific thing.
FRANNIE: OK.
BOOSIE BADAZZ: It's a lot of things that add up to things that make people close the door on me. It's past things. It's bigger than just me making – it's not that I make a certain type of music.
FRANNIE: Right. That is not what I mean.
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Nah.
FRANNIE: What I mean is that you make your music.
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Right, right.
FRANNIE: And so I think an example of that also when you have a paid a cost to a certain extent is with "Fuck The Police." Right?
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Yeah, that song has stuck with me.
FRANNIE: Do you regret making it?
BOOSIE BADAZZ: At the time, I didn't. At the time, I felt everywhere –
FRANNIE: What was going on that day?
BOOSIE BADAZZ: The day before that I had got stopped by some police, and they had took some razor blades and cut out my Bentley backseat. And they had took, like, $6,000 out my pocket and threw it over the Interstate.
FRANNIE: What?
BOOSIE BADAZZ: So I had went made this song. I wish I wouldn't've did it now, because it haunted me in other cities. Other people –
FRANNIE: People wouldn't want to let you play?
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Baton Rouge – people besides Baton Rouge took it worser than that, so I regret making it, but not when I made it. And if that went down again, I would make it again.
FRANNIE: Right. And the way that people used it also during protests.
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Right, right. Yeah, but I meant it. It was – I meant it –
FRANNIE: You didn't make it for somebody else to use it. You just made it.
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Yeah. But I did regret it in the end, because it follows me a lot of places.
FRANNIE: And yet you also made – you made "Hands Up" too, which is –
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Yeah. I made "Hands Up" also. It's basically what's going on, you know? I got my hands up. Why you shooting me? Yeah, I made that.
ALI: On the other side of that though, cause I understand it following you in ways that you just want to be beyond that experience, but it continues to – I guess until that kind of bullshit ceases, it continues to perpetuate itself, so your song becomes sort of like the anthem.
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Never-ending.
ALI: I mean, maybe never-ending, but more like an anthem for someone else who's going to go through it ten years, 15 years, tomorrow.
BOOSIE BADAZZ: What's the question?
ALI: Does that – in knowing that, does that then give you some sort of levity?
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Nah, I don't want no leverage off that, off the police song. I ain't looking for no clout off it. It's kind of funny when they be playing it at the rallies, and I be like, "I told y'all." It been going on. They just didn't have cameras then.
ALI: No doubt.
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Cameras everywhere. You can't do it what you was doing in '08 and '09. You can't do it no more.
ALI: When I said levity, not necessarily off of that song, but just knowing that that there may be someone else younger who just went through it and they need to something to go to, to listen to, does that make you –
BOOSIE BADAZZ: It's not positive listening to that song.
ALI: Nah. I understand.
BOOSIE BADAZZ: I'm not gon' say it's positive listening to that song, because when you listen to it, you get angry, cause I was angry.
ALI: Yeah.
BOOSIE BADAZZ: You saying, "F the police." What's positive gon' be about that? You can listen to it, but I don't think they should play it at the rallies, because it could make you mad. It's not – it was designed make people fight in the club. It was one of those records. When I made it, I was like – cause I did it off another beat, and it wasn't right. Then I was like, "We gon' make this f the police song. When I play this, it gon' tear the club up." So it's not positive! I don't do it – it's not positive.
ALI: I think sometimes – it's just my personal opinion, cause I know I myself also have a limitation, or more like a governor of deciphering like, "Yeah, we should probably rethink this and rethink this again." I'm talking about me in the studio, knowing the stories and the reasons why certain artists will make the music that they make, and I'm like, "You sure you want to do that?" But then in face of certain songs or certain life situations, it really requires maybe going that hard to turn things around.
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Right. I see what you saying. It could be a positive thing also.
ALI: Yeah.
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Cause I'm speaking up for the people, telling them – but at the same time, by you saying, "F the police," you can't win against the police.
ALI: Nah, I know that. That's a definitely strong– especially here in America, that's a united front that they, even themselves knowing what goes on, are unwilling to accept that sometimes you have to say that. So I understand how strong their unification is with one another, their fraternity. I understand how strong that is. I just love the way you're really are honest, purely honest, in your music though.
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Yeah, I tell it.
ALI: I think one of the most brilliant songs is "I Testify."
BOOSIE BADAZZ: "I Testify."
ALI: I think the brilliance in it – cause, for me –
BOOSIE BADAZZ: "You know why the kids never lose weight? Cause they on them damn iPod."
ALI: Yeah.
BOOSIE BADAZZ: "They don't let them run and play like they used to do back in the day, so they never lose weight when they try hard." It's real.
ALI: I think it's just brilliant, man, especially the way you end it off, in the sense that – OK. I can preface it with this. One of El Chapo's lieutenants who was helping move things around – there's a point. There's a purpose and a point to this, me bringing this up. Right now, there's a case against El Chapo, and one of his lieutenants straight out – his argument in defense was that the government had an agreement with – the DEA had an agreement that they can move around. The government said, "We understand how you are doing things illegally, and it's OK."
Now that he's on trial, they're saying, "Well, you cannot talk about that. You can't" – they're trying to limit that. So they rigged it so that he can operate and move around, and then when they're trying to prosecute, they're now saying – there's no fairness and openness and complete saying what it really is. So when I hear "Testify," to me, that's almost like you just setting it up. Like, "Yo, this is really what it is." And I think it's witty to just say, "I testify," cause now it's like, "I'm flipping it on them."
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Yeah, it's basically me saying what I see through my eyes on the music. That's what it basically was saying. I was speaking from everything I see what's going on. And it was the truth.
ALI: How – and towards the end of it – do you go through sort of a transition of starting off where it becomes maybe therapeutic? Or you're angry and towards the end you get to a point of feeling completed?
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Nah. When I'm –
ALI: Like, when you get to the end of the song.
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Sometime the end of the song don't be – cause sometime I might do the first verse – I don't never do three verses at one time. Because I don't want sound the same on each verse. So I do a verse, and come back and do that verse. But songs like that, I'm just thinking about all the negative that I see with my eyes and what I feel is wrong, and I just put it on the record. And that was just one of those special records. That's one of my favorite off the BooPac album.
FRANNIE: So I have a story that – you gave an interview, and you said that you were really scared when you were about to have a surgery. The doctor came into you, it was when you had kidney cancer, and he said, "Don't even worry about it. You know how many concerts you do? That's how many of this surgery I've done." And that made you feel better.
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Yeah, that made me feel better, cause he was like, "I do 300 surgeries a year," and I was like – yeah.
FRANNIE: So do you think of yourself as a professional or an artist?
BOOSIE BADAZZ: A professional!
FRANNIE: Interesting.
BOOSIE BADAZZ: I'm bigger than just an artist, baby. I sell – yeah. I sell clothes. I sell cologne. I sell chips. I sell crypto. I got crypto, all kind of stuff. Real estate.
FRANNIE: I mean, a lot of people – everything that you've said so far in the interview, you are a true artist. Like, you make what you feel like you must make. You are not dissuaded by whatever cost may happen because of it. What you just said! You put on the microphone what you see through your eyes. But you don't consider yourself an artist?
BOOSIE BADAZZ: I consider myself an artist. I didn't say I wasn't an artist. You say, am I an artist or a professional?
FRANNIE: I understand. A professional first.
BOOSIE BADAZZ: I'm a professional first.
FRANNIE: Got it. OK.
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Cause most artists ain't professional. I'm a professional first, but I'm an artist as far musically.
FRANNIE: How you –
BOOSIE BADAZZ: I make music. I make all – I just made a blues album!
FRANNIE: I know. I heard it.
BOOSIE BADAZZ: I do all kind of music.
FRANNIE: I know.
ALI: Can we talk about – what were you thinking about when you – Boosie Blues Cafe. Like, you really just shifted the paradigm.
BOOSIE BADAZZ: I was raised on music. I was raised on blues music. My mama used to throw suppers. You know what suppers is?
ALI: No.
BOOSIE BADAZZ: It's when you sell plates and you play music on the weekends, and sell plates. So I was raised around blues music a lot. And then I saw Snoop Dogg doing a gospel album, so I was like, "Shit. I could do a blues album."
ALI: Did you go in it real seriously, whole-heartedly, or was it just like, "You know what? I'm just enjoying this moment?"
BOOSIE BADAZZ: At first, it was a game. Until I started making it, and everybody was like, "It's pretty good." Then I called a couple blues guys over there who professionals, and they was like, "You pretty good." So I put it out.
ALI: Dope.
FRANNIE: So back to a little bit about you being a professional. So you've said that when you went away, you spent some time thinking about your business, and then when you came home, you made sure that you got it in order.
BOOSIE BADAZZ: I learned the business when I went away. Yeah, I read music books. I read books for days. I learned –
FRANNIE: So you studied. You were like, "I need to get this together."
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Yeah.
FRANNIE: So what did you do? What changes did you make? What did you stop doing? What did you start doing, right when you came home?
BOOSIE BADAZZ: When I came home – what did I stop doing or start doing? When I came home, I basically had to redo my contract. I told them, "I want this or out. I want out."
FRANNIE: You restructured your whole contract?
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Yeah. I got – cause I was hot.
FRANNIE: That's really – yeah, it's smart. People don't do it.
BOOSIE BADAZZ: I was coming home. I was hot.
FRANNIE: You had the leverage right then.
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Yeah, I had the leverage, and I used it up a lot. And I basically just smartened up. I knew what to do. I knew what to do from prison.
FRANNIE: Can you say specifically – you were like, "I'm not doing this anymore. Take this out of my contract."
BOOSIE BADAZZ: It wasn't more so of that. It was just more so: I want more money. That's basically what it was. And with that kind of money, people want talk to you.
FRANNIE: And you knew you would get it. You deserved it.
BOOSIE BADAZZ: When people giving you this kind of money, they want talk to you. So I had to be more of a businessman. People don't like to put this kind of money in – people want give this money to you.
FRANNIE: No middlemen, you mean?
BOOSIE BADAZZ: No middlemen.
ALI: Were you retaining ownership at that point?
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Ownership of what?
ALI: You. Your music.
BOOSIE BADAZZ: I wouldn't say I was maintaining ownership, because I eat both ways. I'm an artist with Atlantic, and I'm a CEO with Bad Azz Music Syndicate. So I eat both ways. I eat right here, eat right here. Put my artists out. You know, I got Young Bleu. He at a hundred million streams right now on the "Miss It" record. So we just keep on working, keep on getting to it.
ALI: What would you say to the maybe 16-, 19-year-old that's just trying to get started into it, but they really don't know anything other than they really good at rapping?
BOOSIE BADAZZ: You gotta make a hit record.
ALI: What does that mean though?
BOOSIE BADAZZ: A hit record like "Miss It." The records that's on the radio playing every day, you gotta make one of those records. Because if you in the street, if you rapping for five, six years, you probably gon' get killed. It gon' take too long. You just keep making regular music, gangster music. You gon' get killed in ten years. So it's best you make a hit. You make a hit out the gate, you gon' be on shows getting 15, ten thousand.
Everybody can make gangster music and just rap, so you gotta go for the – you can't be in the studio just making a song. No! You gotta make the one! You can't be in the studio and keep on making songs. Nobody don't care about them damn songs. You gotta make the hit record, and the hit record makes you skip everybody. It gon' make you skip everybody. Then when you put out your album, you prove yourself. So you gotta make the hit record. You can't be just putting all this music out –
ALI: Dreaming.
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Yeah. They only gon' know that hit record. Then you prove yourself.
FRANNIE: So part of what you're saying is that the reason you can't just sort of be around and be in the same place for five, six years, you do become visible in a place.
BOOSIE BADAZZ: You become visible, and you develop enemies.
FRANNIE: Right. You become a target in some ways.
BOOSIE BADAZZ: And if you're making that music that's mediocre and it's not taking off, you can't leave your city, cause you don't have enough money to leave your city. You make one hit record –
FRANNIE: You're gone.
BOOSIE BADAZZ: – you're gone.
FRANNIE: But so – so you became visible in your hometown, and then you had to go, partly because –
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Nah, nah. I became visible and didn't want to go. I was thinking different. I was thinking messed up. I been visible. It's just, I felt like – I was young minded. Like, "I'm not going nowhere. I'm gon' live and die in Baton Rouge."
FRANNIE: You wanted to be –
BOOSIE BADAZZ: "Ain't nobody gon' run me. Whoopty-Whoo" That's when you think messed up. A lot of people think like that now. But in your own city, that's when it gon' happen to you. But I wasn't thinking like – and it happened to me! I got took off the streets.
FRANNIE: So my question is do you ever wished that you just lived a regular, quiet, everyday life?
BOOSIE BADAZZ: No, I wouldn't be who I am right now. Oh, you talking about after this? If I lived a quiet life?
FRANNIE: Yeah, to just like –
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Quiet don't make me no money. If I be quiet, what I'ma do? If I don't rap, if I don't – what I'ma do?
FRANNIE: If you had another way to make money, would you leave all the attention, police attention, people, behind?
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Yes, yes, yes.
FRANNIE: You would leave it behind?
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Yes! If I made an app for 30 million or something, I would leave it – yes! It's dangerous. We go into clubs every night. You know, a rapper is the most dangerous job ever. It's nothing more dangerous than being a rapper. So I would be gone! Yeah. If I hit the lottery, it's over. It's over. I still play the lottery every day.
FRANNIE: That's professional talk right there. So you wouldn't – you don't want your kids to go into your line of work?
BOOSIE BADAZZ: My kids already in my line of work. Yeah, my kids already in my line of work. My daughter rapping and my son rapping.
FRANNIE: OK. How do you teach them to protect themselves?
BOOSIE BADAZZ: I gotta protect them. That's up to me. They're teenagers. All they gotta do is make music and – it's up to me as a father to protect them. But I kind of like them in my field. I don't like it because I don't have no hiccups with people messing with my kids, but I know where to put them at in this field. I know who to call. I'ma support anything they do though, but I don't mind them rapping.
ALI: You said to DJ Vlad in one of your interviews, you was taught to – hold on. Let me get the quote right. "They put it in your hands, that we sell crack to our family members." They put it in your head. So were you speaking about just the way of life in the communities?
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Nah, I was speaking about my life. Where we grow up at, if your auntie or uncle a crackhead, you sell crack to them, because they gon' go get it from somebody else. It's just a way of life. You probably don't look at it like that, but we don't even look at it like it's wrong until we get this age and be like, "Man, I used to do what I used to do to my family members?" But back then, it's about a dollar, so yeah, I said it, and I did it.
ALI: What does it take to break the cycle of that?
BOOSIE BADAZZ: You gotta show kids – you gotta separate them from that. That's what we saw coming out the house everyday. If I see this coming up outside the house everyday, what I'ma want to do?
ALI: Do that.
BOOSIE BADAZZ: If my kids come outside an estate and see all this stuff, they're not going to want a two-bedroom house. So it's what we show our kids and how we raise our kids, is what they're going to want out of life. That's how I look at it.
ALI: Yeah. You feel you broke the cycle?
BOOSIE BADAZZ: I'm breaking the cycle.
ALI: You breaking the cycle.
BOOSIE BADAZZ: I'm breaking the cycle. My kids gon' have to do the same thing I did with them. But I feel like I'm breaking the cycle.
ALI: And what about the community, your family members, maybe not just your offspring, but just the people that's around you? Do you think that what you've gone through and the way that you're moving now is helping to break the cycle? Cause –
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Really I gotta focus on my kids and my nephews. I can't go too much outside to focus on everybody else. I ain't got enough to money to bring everybody from Baton Rouge.
ALI: Nah, I feel that. But do you –
BOOSIE BADAZZ: If I could, I would try.
ALI: Do you think that your music in a sense helps to break the cycle?
BOOSIE BADAZZ: I just feel like – I ain't gon' say it's breaking cycles, but it's giving hope. A lot of people think they can be Lil Boosies out there, from my struggle and me coming up. I done gave a lot of people want to be rappers. And that's my motivation. I like to motivate. I like to stunt a little bit sometimes, to motivate people to be like, "If he did it, I could do it." Cause I want people to be rappers instead of drug dealers. You can't go to jail for selling this. So I want people to be rappers. Shit.
FRANNIE: I want to talk about Boosie Bash. So where did the idea for that come from?
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Boosie Bash?
FRANNIE: Yeah.
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Me and TJ, we put it together. I told him I wanted to do something big for my city every year. And he was like, "Who all are you gon' get to come?" I'm like, "Everybody." So we did it last year, and it was just successful, just completely successful. That's all I'ma say.
FRANNIE: You did it here at Southern.
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Yes. Minidome. We back this year.
FRANNIE: Why is it important to you to do it at Southern?
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Because Southern is a part of my home. My mama went to Southern. My brother went to Southern. All my aunties. Everybody went to Southern.
FRANNIE: I wish I could come. You say I can't come?
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Yes, you can. You can.
FRANNIE: Thank you. Well, I would really like to open up this conversation to Southern.
MOJO: Hello, my name is Mojo, and I have a question.
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Mojo.
MOJO: Yeah! How you doing, Boosie? You do not remember this, but I used to be an intern at Trill Entertainment in the early 2000s, so you were right. Y'all do live a dangerous lifestyle. And after I went to that first concert, I was like, "I'ma stay in the office." We were at Delta Grand.
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Oh yeah. Yeah, yeah.
MOJO: But I want to know, those Trill Entertainment days, what were the best times for you?
BOOSIE BADAZZ: I think my best times was my Concentration Camp days, when I first heard myself on the radio. Them was the best times. Them was when I couldn't stop smiling, and I'd call my mama and everybody. So I think my first time I really started – like, my Youngest Of Da Camp CD, when people started really seeing me in the mall and be like, "Hey, Boosie," I think that was the best time, my first jump off.
ODESSA: My name is Odessa. How did you get your nickname or your street name?
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Boosie?
ODESSA: Mhmm.
BOOSIE BADAZZ: I got Boosie because my mama, she used to love Bootsy Collins. Bootsy Collins used to play with George Clinton in the Funkadelic, and she was a little Bootsy Collins groupie. So when I was in the stomach, they be saying she had a Lil Bootsy down there. When I came out, it just stuck with me, Boosie. But it come from music though.
JALEN: My name is Jalen. I just wanted to know how would you – what would your advice be to combat the violence in Baton Rouge? I just lost cousin to gun violence over the Christmas break, so I want to get your input on what the younger generation could do to, I guess, stop all the violence.
BOOSIE BADAZZ: They need to put more activities in Baton Rouge. That's what wrong. I feel like everybody just – they come outside. All they got – they ain't got nothing to do. Back in the '80s and '90s, they had more programs in Baton Rouge. They need more activities for the kids and stuff like that. If you give them something to do, all the other stuff gon' get blocked out. So I just feel like they ain't got enough activities for the kids in Baton Rouge.
AYO: Yo, what up, Boosie. This Ayo. Look, I see you shining. Hold your water, baby. Hold your water. I see you going dumb. Look, I see you shining. Look. I just want to know where you get your jewelry from cause – look. I ain't gon' lie to you. You look like a galaxy up there. Look. Right now – look. I'm not at a point in my career where I can just go to certain jewelers. I'm going to the kiosk in the mall, and I just want to know how can I shine like you, brother? That's all I want to know.
FRANNIE: That's a really good question.
BOOSIE BADAZZ: I don't know, man. You gotta ask God for a blessing. I don't know.
ALI: You know what? I have a question for you. Do you consider yourself a gangster rapper?
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Yeah, I make gangster music.
ALI: Why is it important – cause you mention heroes like Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks, and most gangster rappers don't do that. Why is it important for you to mention –
BOOSIE BADAZZ: To mention to black history?
ALI: Yeah.
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Just – you would have to understand Boosie as an artist. I always make deep music like that. My music different. It's different. It's different. It's just different. And I touch on a lot of bases, and I like black history. Social studies my favorite subject. I like black history. I like digging deep. It's just real music. Touch people.
ALI: I understand your music, and I just think – yeah, I wanted to make note of that, because there are a lot of rappers out there who are kind of moving people, but they not moving people.
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Right, right, right.
ALI: And they're not really offering – they're offering stories, but they're not offering anything in those stories.
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Nah, ain't no rappers telling stories. I don't hear them.
ALI: So that particular point I think is really important, especially I wanted to know why – you said you gotta understand Boosie, to understand that.
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Yeah. It's just – I'm always be in my own lane. That's how I feel. Because I'm not going to talk about things that I didn't see. I'm not reaching like most rappers. Most rappers are just reaching. They talk about they girls and all this before they talk about they kids. Most rapper just be reaching. They don't be doing all this stuff. They never shot a gun before. Most rappers are just reaching, and it's up to the fans to know who reaching. And I be wanting fans to love me for me, not just my music. That's why I just – I'm a people's person. I know by me I can make people happy. I just like making people happy.
ALI: Do you do that – for just that's what's on your mind, or you feel like you're planting a seed?
BOOSIE BADAZZ: It make me feel better. It make me feel better, making other people happy. I don't get happy when I get gifts. I get happy when I give to people and they be happy. I feel more happiness when I give to people instead of when I get. Am I making any sense? You understand?
ALI: One hundred percent.
DAIJA: I got a question. First of all, I want to say wazzam, Boosie, we got to –
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Where you at? Hold on.
DAIJA: Right here! Right here. But yeah, my name is Daija. I'm a 23-year-old mass communications from New Orleans, Louisiana. I was born November 14 like you –
BOOSIE BADAZZ: OK, OK.
DAIJA: – so I'm a natural badass, born that way. But I want to say – I want to ask you what keeps you hungry to be Boosie, but humble to be Torrance. I hear you saying, "I'm a professional. I'm an artist. I do this. I was born this way. I'm Boosie." But you still – you just said, "I want people to love me for me," and that's Torrance. How do you keep the two going and still going hard? You show the world, like you said. So how do you –
BOOSIE BADAZZ: So Boosie BadAzz is more of the clown. Boosie BadAzz the hot temper, say stuff. I mean everything I say, but sometime I go off. That's Boosie BadAzz. Boosie BadAzz is the – is Boosie BadAzz. But Torrence Hatch is the daddy. That's me being a daddy. That's me clowning every day. That's me. So I don't want to say they're two different people, but Boosie BadAzz – I work on Torrence Hatch more than Boosie BadAzz. I'ma say that.
FRANNIE: And you – I think what she's saying is you never get confused about who is who.
BOOSIE BADAZZ: No. I'm not confused about who I am. I just know when to be Boosie BadAzz, and I know when to be Torrence Hatch.
FRANNIE: Right, right. You can separate the public persona.
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Yeah. Boosie BadAzz is on the stage. When I get home, and in my bed and with my kids, I'm Torrence Hatch.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: How you doing, brother Boosie?
BOOSIE BADAZZ: What's up, brother?
AUDIENCE MEMBER: I heard you mention that invested in cryptocurrency.
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Right.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: I want to commend you, cause I remember when – I saw an article, when you posted it, about investing in Ethereum and Bitcoin. My first question is when did you start investing? And –
BOOSIE BADAZZ: I got in a year and a half ago, almost two years.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Alright. And would you continue – well, I'm hoping you continue to push it in the community, and I hope you get everybody in here some exposure. And would you continue pushing investing in that?
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Right, right. Cause crypto's going to take over the world, man. Cash and all that stuff is going to be dead. So if you ain't on cryptocurrency, you can get on it. It's a new world order when it come to crypto. They got conventions they have in Dallas. They hold conventions every six, seven months, and all you gotta do is come to the convention and get schooled on game. You gon' be able to pay your bills, everything, from crypto. Your travel. Everything is going to be done through crypto in the next five, six years. 50 Cent just did an album, and you had to pay crypto to get it. So if you ain't on crypto, y'all need to do – y'all in school. Hey, you need to get on it, because I'm on it.
TRAY: How you doing, Boosie. My name is Tray Skidmore, a graduate of Southern University.
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Why you still here?
TRAY: No, I work for Southern University.
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Oh, alright. I'm just clowning, man.
TRAY: But what I want to know is – I don't know if many people know, but you are a type 1 diabetic.
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Right.
TRAY: And as a type 1 diabetic, how do you manage your diabetes with everything that's going on?
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Oh, man. It's so hard.
TRAY: I don't think they know.
BOOSIE BADAZZ: It's so hard. I be in these airports. I be having to eat this airport food. I gotta eat. I'm doing better, but I'm still struggling with diabetes. It's hard, especially with what I do. It's hard. It's hard. I hate it. I hate it, but I still gotta try to work out. I still gotta – then they want you to eat – like, it's a headache. I just wish they'd just gon' come up with the cure. Trump, stop playing. C'mon, bro. Just give it them, man. We need it. We tired. Yeah, I feel like they got a cure for it. But as far as how I handle this, it's a day-to-day struggle. I ain't gon' lie.
ALICE: Hey, Mr. Boosie, sir. How are you?
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Mr. Boosie Fade? What you say?
ALICE: I said "Mr. Boosie sir."
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Oh, OK.
ALICE: My name is Alice Claire. I'm from Memphis, Tennessee. But I've always loved your music growing up, everything, and one of my favorite songs that most people don't know about is "Room 535." And I wanted to know when you made that song – I know what you were going through, but when you were in the studio, what exactly was going through your head?
BOOSIE BADAZZ: My dad. When I made that song I was thinking about my dad. Well, I had just came out the same room that he was in when he died, cause I was sick with DKA, with diabetes, so they had kept me. And mama was like, "This was the same room your daddy died in." And I started writing that song in the bed. I started writing the song in the bed, and that's how it happened.
KAYA: Hello. My name is Kaya. My question to you would be, do you feel that you give back to Baton Rouge or Louisiana as a whole to the best of your ability with the platform you've been given?
BOOSIE BADAZZ: I feel I do. When something going on, I'm usually here for the city. But I feel like at the same time I don't spread it as much as I should, because I got a life too. Back in the days, I feel like I was doing so much and I wasn't getting rewarded for it. I did stuff every year for this city. The people know. I did stuff every year for this city. But when I got to prison, a lot of people didn't – they had kids write me telling me thank you, but a couple kids told me they had to write and sneak me a note.
So I feel like I do what I gotta do for Baton Rouge, but I could do more, but I need help. I want to build my own school out here, and I'm trying to build my own school out here. So that's on my bucket list. I'ma have me a school. So I'm trying to build my own school out here, because I deserve to be acknowledged in Baton Rouge. Like, if anybody do, I deserve to be acknowledged. Even though I don't ask for that. I did a whole Boosie Bash and nobody even interviewed us.
FRANNIE: What?
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Nobody interviewed us.
ALI: That's crazy.
FRANNIE: That doesn't make any sense to me.
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Yeah. No violence. Not one fight. Seven thousand people. So somebody must be still mad at me. I don't know. I'm just saying. But I love my city.
FRANNIE: Nah, I mean, there's a problem with media. There's a problem with the way people cover hip-hop music. Why? Why are you laughing at that?
BOOSIE BADAZZ: You funny. You funny.
TAMAYA: What's up, Boosie?
BOOSIE BADAZZ: What's up?
TAMAYA: I'm Tamaya. First time – I'm a freshman. I'm right here!
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Where you at?
TAMAYA: Right here!
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Oh, alright. Alright.
TAMAYA: OK. This is one of my favorite songs, so I want to know what your reason for the song "Black Heaven?" What was you going through? What was you thinking about when you made that song?
BOOSIE BADAZZ: When I made that song, I was putting together the album. When you putting together the album, you try to hit all areas of a subject. I would – I know you probably never put together an album, but you sit at the table with all the people and you say, "Do we have a song for the girls? Do we have a song for this and that?" So "Black Heaven" was the last record I made, and I heard it, and I was like, "I gotta put something real deep on here." And that was song. When I made it, that was the song. I sent it to a couple people. I forgot who I sent it to first, but Keyshia Cole ended up doing for me. And it came out a great song. That's one of my favorite songs too.
RODNEY: Hello. Hello. What's happening with you, Boosie?
BOOSIE BADAZZ: What's up, baby?
RODNEY: What up? My name Rodney, and I wanted to ask you you know the producer Playboy XO?
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Playboy XO?
RODNEY: The dude who produced for NBA Youngboy. "Playboy in this bitch, but he ain't playing though."
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Oh, in Florida?
RODNEY: Yeah, he's in Miami, but he back now. I wanted to ask you, like, you know who that is, right?
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Yeah, I don't know him, but I know the dude who made beats in Florida.
RODNEY: Nah, I seen you in a picture with him on Instagram.
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Oh, OK.
RODNEY: He a fire producer. He be producing for NBA Youngboy. I was on the phone with him yesterday for 46 minutes. I'm ambitious. I'm talented. Look, if I want it, I'ma get it. So I wanted to ask you – I'm telling you, I'm a fire producer. I'm asking you, as a producer, what you feel like I should be doing to get to the next step?
BOOSIE BADAZZ: You need to be getting at all the big rappers.
RODNEY: For sure.
BOOSIE BADAZZ: And giving them beats.
RODNEY: Yeah.
BOOSIE BADAZZ: You can't charge nobody for no beats. You ain't known, so you gotta go to them big dudes and say, "Man, I got 20 beats for you. You can have them." That's what you gotta do to get in the game. Because if you go to somebody saying, "I got beats. I'm selling them. I want this," but you ain't got no name, you just ruined it. You gotta be alright. You gotta be alright to get in this industry with just being producer. You gotta give your beats away until somebody get on your beats who make a name for you. So all that trying to sell beats and – no, you gotta give them away, bruh.
AUDIENCE MEMBER 2: What's happening, Boosie?
BOOSIE BADAZZ: What's happening?
AUDIENCE MEMBER 2: I got a little simple question. I just wanted to know what inspired you to wear the Boosie fade?
BOOSIE BADAZZ: See, really a lot of people don't know this. I was 5 years old. I fell off a moped. So I got a scar right here, and if I cut it low, you going to see a scar on top of the hair. So yeah, you gon' see the scar on top of the hair. So I had to put hair right here and shape it up to hide it. And that's how it became –
SYMPHONY: Hi, my name is Symphony, and I wanted to know what was one of your favorite songs. What is one of your favorite songs?
BOOSIE BADAZZ: My mama's songs be my favorite songs.
FRANNIE: Yeah.
BOOSIE BADAZZ: I like my mama's songs, because they be some of the realest songs. I like my mama's songs.
FRANNIE: I played them for my mom before. She really likes them.
BOOSIE BADAZZ: OK. [00:58:44 ?]
CHRISTIAN: Alright. My name Christian. My question is, basically since music is different now, trying to get known, trying to get seen, what's your advice to somebody basically that's maybe starting off as a single rapper, what would be your advice, seeing as everything's different than when you started?
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Like I said, make that hit record, and you need to create what you hearing. If you make that hit record, it's over with, man. You gon' skip everybody. But if you don't, you just gon' float along, and I don't know how long you gon' float in a city like this. So you gotta really focus on making a hit record. You can't keep spending your money on studio time just to make OK songs. You just wasting money.
COLIN JOHNSON: What's up, Boosie? My name is Colin Johnson. I'm a junior history major from New Orleans. So you said that you really enjoy history, right?
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Right.
COLIN JOHNSON: So why do you feel like history in our community is relative to us – why do you feel like you would want to put that out into the world and help us understand that? What about history itself makes that much more intriguing for you to put it in your music to sell it to millions of people?
BOOSIE BADAZZ: I was just saying as far as that record. I'm not just making music to attack that certain thing. What I do as an artist, that's what I'm able to do, I'm capable to do, as far as delivering that kind of message. Everybody can't do that. So I'm just – when I go that deep, I'm just being me as an artist, bro. I'm just digging in, being me as an artist, and that what keep me around. That what keep me around.
ALI: What were you thinking – not what were you thinking. What were you feeling when you made the song "Everything?"
BOOSIE BADAZZ: I was feeling – when I made that record, I was feeling – I was feeling underrated when I made that record. Cause I went deep in that record. I went – the first three things I said in that record, that was one of the main three things that affected me in my life, one of the top three things. So when I made that record, man, I was – I was just feeling great but not great.
ALI: Yeah.
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Yeah, that's how I was feeling. I was feeling like I was great but not great. So I had to let them know that like, "Look what I done been through. How can you not say I'm great when I done been through this?" That's where the "Everything" record come from. I was in my feelings.
ALI: So when you finish that record, you finished the verse; you packed up, whatever. You went home. You listen to it again. What was you feeling?
BOOSIE BADAZZ: I was in my feelings. Like, some records when I get in my feelings, I play them records back-to-back in the car. I play them first four lines back-to-back in the car, the first four. So like I said, I was feeling great but not great.
ALI: Yeah. What was that? Do he like what?
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Do I like Cardi B? Cardi B married, man. Next question.
AUDIENCE MEMBER 4: Her music!
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Oh, her music! Oh, my bad. Oh yeah, I love her music. Yeah, Cardi got hits. I love Cardi music. Yeah.
AUDIENCE MEMBER 5: I just want to know what kind of girls you like?
BOOSIE BADAZZ: What kind of girls I like? For real I like girls that give me a challenge. Yeah, I like them to lick they lips too, but I like girls to give me a challenge. I like to talk and try to run some game. I like a challenge. I'm used to girls just, you know – so I like to call you and talk to you and get to know you and stuff like that.
ALI: My last question: why is the creator is so important to you and to express –
BOOSIE BADAZZ: The creator?
ALI: The creator. And to express your emotions in music about the creator.
BOOSIE BADAZZ: It's important to me because I can't get anybody else to write my music, because my music is so real they gon' be lying. Because they gon' be – I just can't get people to write my music. I'm not against people who do. Cause if somebody write me a number one hit, I want it.
ALI: No, no. I don't mean like that. I mean –
BOOSIE BADAZZ: What you mean? Like what?
ALI: – the creator, God. You talk about God a lot.
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Oh, you talking about God! I thought you were talking me creating the music.
ALI: Nah. God. God. Cause you mention – I say the creator.
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Oh, I believe in God. God responsible for everything. You think I'd be here without God? I'm always giving God his –
ALI: I'm just asking the question.
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Yeah, I always give God his credit, because without God, I'm not here right now.
ALI: Yes, sir.
BOOSIE BADAZZ: God be – God loves me. He loves me.
ALI: A lot of rappers are afraid of that.
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Not me. I'm not all rappers.
ALI: I know you not.
BOOSIE BADAZZ: Always give God his thanks.
ALI: Indeed.
BOOSIE BADAZZ: I got – my jewelry, everything.
ALI: Yeah. Yo, thank you.
FRANNIE: Thank you guys so much for having us.
ALI: Thank you for having. Boosie, yo, thank you for your music, brother.
