Waka Flocka Flame on Changing the Sound of Hip-Hop & Friendly Competition

Two years after stomping his way into the game with 2010’s belligerent debut, Flockaveli—which produced successful singles in “Oh Let’s Do It,” “Hard in the Paint,” and the certified platinum, “No Hands”—Brick Squad general Waka Flocka Flame is looking to once and for all prove his freshman effort was no fluke. Waka's sophomore disc, Triple F Life: Friends, Fans, and Family is set to hit stores June 12th. If the album's two lead singles “Round of Applause” fearuing Drake and the recently released, “I Don’t Really Care”  with Trey Songz, are any indication, Triple F Life is poised for another solid LP. XXLMag.com recently sat down with Waka to speak on Flockaveli changing the sound of hip-hop, why competing on tracks is lame and partnering with PETA, among other things.—Ralph Bristout (@XXLRalph)

XXLMag.com: Coming off the success of Flockaveli, how did you approach crafting this new LP?

Waka Flocka: My album Flockaveli had a lot of controversy. A lot of people [were] sayin' that [the album wasn’t] what it was supposed to be. I dissected Flockaveli. I put it out and waited out another year. I skipped a year without droppin' another album ’cause I wanted to see who [out there was] really chasin' my sound and I feel like Flockaveli really changed the sound of hip-hop. A lot of people went against it, but if you go against it, your music was goin' to just drift off, but if you [went] with the sound, it [would] pick it up to a different sound. So coming' off Flockaveli, I think that was a good introduction. So I ain't wanna hurry up and bounce back and go wood, so I had to get my mind back right and get off my high hat. I ain't wanna be rappin’ like I’m feelin' myself, so I still had to get back hungry. So I put myself back on that stage. Everyday I wake up I think like a broke nigga. That’s my mentality. Like I’m broke, I’m hungry everyday. That’s my mentality and that’s how it is. I love it though.

Coming off of Lock Out with French Montana and other tapes, how do you go about creating tracks for a mixtape and for an album?

Honestly, ain't no different from a mixtape track to an album track, 'cause it’s a lot of mixtape tracks I should put on my album. I treat every tape I put out like an album, so professionally I got two albums, but to me, I got like 10 of them. I [just] try to go hard every time even if it’s a feature that someone up the street paid me for. So I’m gonna treat it like an album verse every time.

What was it like creating Lock Out with your boy French Montana?

Honestly, like when I’m on songs with rappers, I tend not to compete with [them]. I think that shit is lame as hell honestly. I can’t compete with nobody ’cause when I compete with a person, it’s like slick hatin'. On the same token like if I’m fuckin' with somebody, we just goin' hard together. Our chemistry gotta feed off of each other. Lock Out tape, that shit was crazy. French my nigga. Plus he needed some light shed on him. By that tape doing that, look at my nigga’s situation. So I feel grateful for that. Wale, Roscoe Dash, Machine Gun Kelly, it’s just [about] helpin' everybody. If I got some light, 'cause I feel like they my generation, why not shed some light on them.

You also did that “Wild Boy” joint with MGK, how did that collaboration happen?

Honestly, I just went to one of his shows at S.O.B.’s. I just went to his show because people kept tellin' me, “Yo it’s this kid name MGK, he hard as shit” and I seen his YouTube shit [so I was like], “Yo let’s check out his performance.” His shit was just hard. After that we [both] went to the studio and he was like, “I got this record called “Wild Boy,” I heard it and [immediately] jumped right on it. Movie.

That video looked like a movie too.

Oh yeah, hella fun. It was cra—zy.

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The title to the album is Triple F Life: Friends, Fans, and Family what made you decide to name it that?

Because that’s what I live by [ever] since I started rappin'. The lifestyle I once lived, I could never go back there. If I can sum it up, it’s about friends, fans and family. Even when I make music for my friends, I make music for my fans and I make music for my family. But my family is more personal shit, more emotional shit. My friends, that shit is like flexin’, goin' to the club, shit we like listenin' to. Your fans, they love you for party and wild shit. So it’s all just mixin' all three of them together and makin' a good album.

You mentioned friends. Who are some people in the game that you’d consider friends?

My family. I’m gonna tell you why I can’t [really] say my friends. My family is the people that came with me on Earth when I was born. My friends? It’s hard to say who’s your friend ’cause I grew up with a group of niggas all my life and them niggas turned sour on me like out the blue. So you can’t call nobody your friend no more. I call niggas associates [or] good partners. It's family, ain’t no friends. Friends is a kid’s title. That’s a little boy title, “My friend.” I can honestly say, though, that my friends are niggas that been there for me day one, still stuck here through thick and thin. I got friends I met three years ago that’s more solid friends that I had around me damn near all of my life. I could meet someone tomorrow they could be the best friend, then next year you can just fall out. Your friends, they got expiration dates. That’s what I call them. I got friends with expiration dates and I got solid friends.

Now you closed Flockaveli with the controversial track, “Fuck This Industry.” Are you carrying that sort-of rebellious mood over to this new album? Or is it more celebratory?

This shit just like Flockaveli. Same shit. Fuck this industry. I don’t care nothin' about no industry. I don’t care about no interviews, magazine covers, no fuckin' TV shows. I’m not thinkin' about none of that. Only thing I’m thinkin' about is making good music, stayin' on tour, feedin' fans, signin' autographs, takin' pictures. That’s what it’s all its about.

What’s one of your favorite songs off the album?

The mood I’m in right now, “You Ain’t About That Life.” [However] “Power of the Pen” is my favorite song right now.

What’s that record about?

[That record] is just like expressing different shit that I got from the power of my pen. Just from words on the paper or words on the record it changes people’s opinion about you. The power of the pen could change your life [by] just expressions on a paper.

Are there any unlikely collabos on the album?

Yeah, I got a record with B.o.B. called “Fist Pump.”

Tell me about that one. Sounds interesting.

That record I got with B.o.B called “Fist Pump,” I mixed pop, rock and rap together. Sounds, not vocals. You know how Pop beats [sound], them shits just sound crazy. [With] Rock that shit sound retarded and hip-hop is base. So, I got my producer Southside and B.o.B got his producer and him, so they all went in on the beat. I just had to make a victory song ’cause I feel like I made it over the mark. First they told me I’m only good for one song, then two songs, then three songs, then four songs, now five and six. So I feel like “Fist Pump” is the ultimate victory song. You know people be on [their] “Jersey Shore” shit, everybody fist pump. I went to a club [a while back and] everybody was fist pumping. I was like ‘Oh shit I need to make a song like that before someone beat me to the punch,’ but I never knew who I could get. So I met B.o.B.,I been knew him, and was like, ‘Perfect. He need this urban crowd, I need some of that market, plus that’s my nigga. He needs some light shed, just like I need some light shed.’ I had hella fun making it.

Now a lot has happened since you last dropped an album. For instance you went on to partner with PETA. How did that partnership take place?

The campaign I did with PETA was “Ink Over Mink.” I never been a mink person period. I hate minks. I hate furs. That shit is wack to me. I ain't gon’ lie, as a kid I stand by that. You can tell that by my “Oh Let’s Do It (Remix)” video. [Puff and Rick Ross] had minks on, [they even] had a mink for me, but I wouldn’t put that shit on and that was way before PETA. So, it’s no publicity stunt. Niggas aint give me no money. I ain't get no cash for it. It’s just somethin' I stood by. Plus, I like dogs— my my new PETA ad is for dogs. That’s just what I stand for as a man. I’m not thinkin' about if I go back to the ’hood and somebody is gonna be like “Yo that shit is wack.” Fuck you at the end of the day, ’cause when I’m broke, you’re not gonna feed me a bread crumb. If this how I feel, why not express how the fuck I feel? That’s just how it is. And I’m all for it man.

Not many rappers are lined up for PETA so that was definitely a big step to take. Speaking of animals, did you get a chance to look at the new XXL Freshman issue?

Yeah, I seen it.

What did you think of French’s Bear Hoody?

That nigga a flashy dude. He gonna fuck around and have a white polar bear made. That nigga is just wild.

A couple weeks ago you went to Paris Fashion Week, how was that experience? Kanye and everyone else were over there.

It’s was crazy. Like, first of all, I never been to Paris, so I was like a damn tourist. So I’m in Paris, eating food and dining and this nigga Common is outside the hotel. I’m like, “What is this guy doing out here?” How the fuck you bump into Common, Mos Def, Pusha T, [pretty much] everybody’s in Paris. I just went out there to chill. Like, ’Ye, I don’t look at the nigga like, “ Oh this is Kanye!” I wasn’t [even] supposed to perform. That was just some shit I did, put some hip-hop in that party. Just to turn it up. Big Sean was out there too. [The whole experience] was just crazy.