Meet Maserati Met, Donald Sterling’s Rapper Friend With Plenty More To Expose

It’s been almost one week since new confessions from a taped conversation with Donald Sterling surfaced. Sterling’s rapper friend/business associate, Maserati Met, made headlines on CNN and Access Hollywood, where he explained and defended his decisions to leak a phone call that painted a different picture of the L.A. Clippers owner. The conversation with Maserati, which was recorded approximately five days after Sterling got heat for his racist comments, touched on a lot of different topics, including his relationship with V. Stiviano and their intimate moments.

But how is Maserati connected to Sterling? The 30-year-old Las Vegas native runs a legitimate escort service, and Sterling is part of his clientele. There are more sides to Maserati than what’s out in public view. He’s known to chase different hustles to get his money up, recently signing on to be a cast member in the next series of Love & Hip-Hop. He’s also an aspiring solo artist who hopes to break out nationally in Atlanta, aligning himself with 2 Chainz and Cap-1 to release his forthcoming album later this year. The first single, “All I Know,” is a street-oriented banger that details his drug-dealing past and features Cap.

After a whirlwind week that placed Maserati Met in a large spotlight, XXL hopped on the phone to discuss his beginnings in getting into hip-hop, the heat he got for allegedly snitching on Sterling, and what he’s got to prove to be accepted in the rap game.—Eric Diep

XXL: Where are you originally from?
Maserati Met: I'm from Las Vegas, Nevada. Born in California, in Inglewood. As I child, I moved to Las Vegas. You know, stamp from Vegas, I’ve been there for too long.

And then you moved to Atlanta after Vegas?
I moved to Atlanta. My brother Cap-1—that’s my brother, Cap-1. I just came out here. He be rocking with 2 Chainz. He’s getting ready to kind of take off, so I just came to Atlanta [to] really support that. Also, putting in work and stuff into my album, too. I’m just rocking with the whole Caviar Dreams movement.

How did you link up with Cap?
We already family, so it was already an incident where, kind of like, shit, come to Atlanta. You know what I am saying? My city, really in Vegas, it’s really hard to break as an artist. I mean, I got a big name out there as far as an independent artist. They see the money and all that good stuff—you on. That’s definitely out there. But at the end of the day, the artists...the radio stations don’t support it. Nobody supports the local people. Even Mally Mall, that’s a friend of mine, Jamal, he’s big out there. And he’s huge. Even Floyd Mayweather’s label is huge. That’s the city though, they just play the Top 40 shit because it is a tourist city.

How long have you been out in Atlanta grinding?
I’ve been out here for a year. The thing is, I really want to do what I can with the music. I really want [people] to have all my shit. You get criticized real quick if the shit is not right. The shit’s gotta be right. So I just been waiting to really put my project together right and the videos. Now, I am getting ready to drop because of all this shit is coming my way. I mean, I got Love & Hip-Hop: California. I’m getting ready to do that. Not even with the Sterling thing, this the Love & Hip-Hop: California I’ve got ready. We are getting ready to start shooting for that. So I’m putting the music together [to] really hit the world. Really, the first video I'ma drop in about a week.

Tell me about your upcoming track, "All I Know."
“All I Know” featuring Cap. It’s like a hood, trap [song]. I think it is a summer anthem record. I let everybody listen to it, from Cap to 2 Chainz, that I let people hear the record that I rock with. And they like, "The record solid." You run with these people and you get in with these people, you want to make sure before you throw some shit out there that you getting a solid stamp. I got a stamp, so, I mean, that’s the first one to drop. The record is a big record I believe. It’s a real big record. It’s a street record.

What's going on with your album, All Eyes On Mazi?
I am either gonna go with Maserati Dreams or All Eyes On Mazi. I think I am gonna lean on All Eyes On Mazi, just 'cause it is more controversy with what is going on. So—go with that. I'ma drop the rest of the tape on DVD in there. I am going to throw the rest of the tape on my album. On a DVD, the shit about to hit. The tape is going on a DVD and that’s gonna hit. I'ma probably have that ready; I’m trying to finish the album up in two weeks.

What motivated you to start doing hip-hop? You are known for having an escort service, but how’d did you get into it?
The thing is. I’ve been in a group already. If you look online, my group, we’ve been putting out shit all over the Internet. So, I’ve always been in the group too. The group is called Pirana Gang. So we’ve been doing this shit since we was in high school. Middle school, high school. We just basically at this point all went our separate ways. I moved. We just started pushing [our solo music]. One of our members just signed to Jim Jones. The other member is basically independent. At this point, I am in Atlanta just rocking with my fam and promoting my shit.

In Vegas, they out the business, the business was just taking it on a corporate level. I made sure I was smarter with everything that I did. A lot of people could be pimping on three, four girls, and then all of sudden girls get caught and [are] going to jail. When you worried about getting caught and going to jail, I mean, I got kids, so I don’t like risks. Basically, I took it to a business level legally. They employees and you have to sign forms. They do anything besides the work they supposed to do, that’s on them. I’m protected. That’s how I operate on the level. Shit, why aren’t we doing this shit legal? Why aren’t we doing it like this? Let’s get a license, an LLC, get bonds. They signing waivers. They go in a room and doing whatever. They talk about, you want a blowjob, or whatever, that ain’t my business. It’s not on me. I am covered or something. That’s them. You supposed to go there and just dance. This is a business.

What made you transition from making raps to owning an escort service?
I’m always living that life. I’m already in a fuckin’ Ferrari. Foreign cars, so the females are just throwing themselves at you. When you are already around that and partying every night. Then you have kids and shit like that, you start to think, "Well, that thing crazy." I ain’t going back to selling drugs. I ain’t going back to fuckin’ 4-5 hoes in one house. I’m not willing to put myself in jail. Let’s go out and make this a business and literally run a multi-million dollar company.

What do you want to get out of your career as a rapper?
First off, I want to just make sure people see that I’m putting out these records. I am getting crazy reviews on every single. And then I want to put it out there, too, that the Donald Sterling thing isn’t a... A lot of people saying you shouldn’t have said that. Snitch dropped on him. Okay, he doesn't fall in the street code. People telling me they are like squares. They been telling me anyway. Man, these are corporate people telling me. As far as the hood, street shit, he falls as a white racist dude. He doesn’t care about black people, so I'ma do anything I can to make him look like a piece of shit. It ain’t like...snitching and all that shit is, I am caring about somebody, and I don’t get in trouble. That’s how that falls into play. This is like, a dude is racist, and basically, he looked at me like a fucking field worker after all these years.

Damn.
You know what I am saying? What do I gotta do? Throw him under the bus? I don’t give a shit. I’ve been getting good feedback on the streets. "Nah, fuck that dude. I’d do it, too." As far as people who are not living the street life, it is not fucking up the code. There’s no code with a racist dude. An ego racist dude. There’s no fucking code with a racist dude. I got this dude on tape.

You are saying you got heat from people because you leaked a conversation and they thought you were snitching?
I don’t see [it] as me leaking a conversation. I looked at it as, "Oh, let’s get this fucker back." 'Cause he’s lying on the Internet. Not only is he lying on the Internet, he’s trashing black people and disrespecting Magic Johnson—a person that I grew up fucking [respecting]. "Ah damn, that’s Magic Johnson." As a kid. And you get on and say all that shit. You didn’t really—you know what I am saying? And then you fucking do all that weird shit. Okay, at this point, fuck this dude. You know what I am saying? That’s why I did it. I’m on it like, "We gonna expose his ass."

Was your relationship with Donald Sterling strictly business or were you actually friends?
Man, it was a client of mine. It was a client. It was business. At the end of the day, you build a relationship when you going down. As we going to California, we are going to the games. You know, we living in them big ass Beverly Hills. We come from Vegas and we living the life. Even though I have all those baddest bitches—drink up. You know what I am saying? At the end of the day, man, that’s all these people are. Billionaire warriors. Let’s get party favors.

You said publicly that you didn't accept any money when you put the leak out...
The thing is this. This is how I looked at it. We put the tape out on the dude because initially, my entertainment attorney, you know, off top, worked out deals with people. You gotta put more of the music out there. It was kind of an issue where you filter in the music right there and we’ll leak a few snippets or some shit like that. It wasn’t like we want $600,000. Now, I am getting offers for this shit.

That’s the thing. I knew it was gonna happen, 'cause I got an hour and six minutes of this shit. Now, people blowing up the phone and they want to buy it. Now, especially like, "Okay, this dude is lying. Whoever the fuck this dude is." Now that the shit has hit the fan, it’s like the whole world, they wanting an interview. They want to fucking buy the tape and all that good shit. You know what I am saying? I am not really in it on certain cases and doing all that shit. I got other shit coming out with the music. And just really supporting my cousin Cap and doing the Love & Hip-Hop shit. That’s bigger shit to me, man. He said some crazy shit now. I'ma give you an exclusive one. He’s just thrashing Obama. That’s an exclusive between me and you. He was. Super. I dropped that, boy, that’d just stir the world up.

You could make a lot of money if you put this out, or it could damage you reputation. What are you battling against morally?
That’s the thing—I don’t know. I think Sterling people might reach out to us. Take care of us and shut the fuck up. So we might go with the shut the fuck up and don’t ask nothing. I think they are getting out there and reaching to us. We’re gonna see how it pan out, but at the end of the day, it's business with anything that I do. You shouldn’t have said what you said. You on there talking like you love black people and you thrashing my president and shit. C’mon, bro.

Now that you have this spotlight on you, how are you going to move past this incident?
Always be known as the dude that taped Donald Sterling? I am not gonna have that stamp. The reason we are gonna have that stamp is because we gonna spend as much money as we can in marketing this album I am working on to where people are like, "That’s him." But at the end of day, if the music sucked, I’ll be in a badass position right now. ‘Cause if the music sucked, people will be like, "Okay, your music sucked, but you got a little spotlight off this Donald Sterling shit." Between the features I got and the people I got and everybody I fuck with and the support I am getting from Atlanta, the shit gonna turn. And I got the Love & Hip-Hop shit that we doing, a lot of shit just gonna start not being about this. I’m not gonna be stamped like that.

Previously: Donald Sterling’s Rapper Friend Maserati Goes On CNN
Everything We Know About Donald Sterling’s Rapper Friend Maserati Met