YG’s 5 Craziest Moments Of His Career

YG has come a long way. After steadily grinding in the mixtape circuit, dropping regional classics like 4Fingaz and Just Re’d Up, the Pu$haz Ink leader has all the momentum going into his major label debut album My Krazy Life, out today (March 18). His Def Jam debut has been highly anticipated since his 2013 single “My Hitta,” featuring Jeezy and Rich Homie Quan, sold a million copies and amplified his buzz. With a formal remix by Meek Mill, Lil Wayne and Nicki Minaj, YG is already fitting right in as the West Coast’s next biggest star.

My Krazy Life is a conceptual album driven by a narrative of his former gangster past. The streets of Los Angeles are portrayed through the tracks and skits, paying homage to legendary West Coast albums like Dr. Dre’s The Chronic and Snoop Dogg’s Doggystyle. A closer listen reveals that YG has lived a pretty active lifestyle and isn’t shy to reveal every detail of it.

Besides dropping his first major label album, YG has other crowning achievements he’s proud of. To find them out, we hopped on the phone with the 24-year-old Compton rapper to discuss the craziest moments in his music career, from snagging his first acting role to gracing the cover as an XXL Freshman. —Eric Diep

Previously: Stream YG’s New Album My Krazy Life
YG Pays Homage To West Coast Masterpieces On My Krazy Life

Landing his first acting gig in We The Party:

YG: It was a good experience because I feel like movies are going to be a big part of my career. So for me to go and be in a movie early on in my career, I know how to come at shit now. It wasn’t hard acting—not that movie, because I was basically playing somebody that was already like myself. I played a character, his name is C.C., he was like 19, 20 years old in high school. Still held back. He was in the streets—you feel me? And he was a rapper.

Being in a movie set me up early. It was just like I am coming in the game doing movie roles. But what I think about my album is, I see a movie. So the movie shit is important. All this shit is a movie, taking pictures and shit. And My Krazy Life is just a soundtrack to a movie.

Putting out his debut album, My Krazy Life:

YG: It’s my debut album you feel me? It’s my opportunity to show the world that I am better than singles and shit. ‘Cause a lot of motherfuckers think I am a singles artist. They got shit fucked up. Period. It’s gonna be more people and give more people on the West Coast opportunity. It’s gonna get people that look up to me, it’s gonna inspire them to do what they supposed to do. Follow they dreams and make shit happen. Niggas seen me come from the bottom and I made it. That can do good by people. See that type of shit and see me still come to the hood and hanging out regular. ‘Cause I worked from there to here.

Coming up from nothing to something:

YG: I had a mixtape before “Toot It And Boot It” called 4Fingaz. That’s the shit that started me off in L.A. That popped, then the “Toot It And Boot It” record. My grind from day one is what got me here. ‘Cause my day one grind was, fuck a handout, I ain’t asking nobody for shit, I am doing this shit for my own. And my mindset wasn’t like that because I was on some selfish shit. My mindset was like that because that’s what it was. I didn’t have anybody to run to and ask for help and all this shit.

That shit started to fall in place as I was grinding and shit. Recording my own music, pressing my own CDs. Buying blank CDs from Target. Going and pass them out at all the functions. At all the parks and the fucking high schools. That’s how I started in the city before I even got in the game. That grind was what got me here, 'cause to this day, whenever I drop my mixtape, I’m passing them out in the streets and shit.

Being selected as a 2011 XXL Freshman:

YG: The cover was good because it gave me a worldwide look when I needed it. That was right before my mixtape dropped. The Just Re’d Up mixtape, the one that really got my buzz and motherfuckers talking about me. I had that before that, so that was a good look. That was a statement. And it’s saying like everybody gonna salute XXL Freshman cover, they end up doing their thing years later. My nigga, you got me and Kendrick Lamar on that motherfucker. Hard. Me reppin’ what he reppin’ how he reppin’. He reppin’ his shit A1. I’m reppin’ my shit A1.

On his recent success:

YG: I am just at a point to where it is album time. My Krazy Life time. That’s where I am at with it. I feel like niggas is gonna be like whoever is successful. It is partly a YG thing because of how I do my shit, but I feel like niggas is gonna follow the same footsteps as successful people, period. That’s all that is.