YG Explains Why He Passed on the "Rack City" Beat
The West Coast's recent takeover has been well-documented, from celebrated albums like Kendrick Lamar's good kid, m.A.A.d city to smash hits like Tyga's "Rack City." YG, another Compton native, has helped usher in the New West's sound to the mainstream with his parts on club favorites like "Toot It and Boot It," "Up," "Function," "Patty Cake," and more. Today, the Def Jam signee dropped his latest mixtape, Just Re'd Up 2. With features from Young Jeezy, Wiz Khalifa, Nipsey Hussle, Dom Kennedy, Juicy J, TyDolla$ign and Young Scooter and DJ Mustard handling the majority of the production, the 2011 XXL Freshman is sure to have more bangers on his hands. Time to re-up. —Adam Fleischer
XXL: Why’s did you do a sequel to Just Re'd Up?
YG: Because Just Re’d Up came out bangin’. Everybody was fuckin’ with it and shit. Then I came out with 400 Hunnid Dregreez mixtape, which was on some different shit, a whole bunch of turned-up shit and street shit. The tape did good, but the fans were sayin’ that they wanted the more turned-up shit, so I’m like, Aight, I’ll give it to ’em on the next one.
What was it like laying down the joint with with Jeezy and Wiz?
We was in the studio together for that one. It sound like some West Coast shit, you feel me? Cardo on the beat, Jeezy did the hook for me and then Wiz hopped on it. It sounds like a summertime anthem. That shit bangin’. I’ma push that one as soon as we shoot the video and all that, top of next month.
DJ Ill Will and DJ Mustard are hosting this tape again. What's your relationship like with them?
Ill Will been rocking with me since before “Toot It and Boot It” started crackin’. He been fuckin’ with me since like ’09. He’s been supporting. And then Mustard, he did my first mixtape I even put out. And since then, we was homies, he was DJing all my local shows and shit started poppin’, and he was there. In 2011, he moved into my house, and that’s when we made the Just Re’d Up mixtape and he made the “Rack City” beat and all that shit. Me and him, we homies before anything.
Did you have “Rack City” before Tyga?
Yeah. He made the beat for me.
Did you ever regret passing on it because it became such a smash?
Nah. When I heard the beat, the beat was bangin’, but after Tyga had sent it back, I knew I wasn’t finna come up with no shit like how he came up with the “Rack City” shit. That shit was meant to be.
What’s your relationship like with Def Jam at this point?
They supporting the shit now. At first, it was kinda hard, ’cause I was a new artist with a new sound, and they was on the East Coast, so they wasn’t familiar with it. With Tyga doing “Rack City” and all that shit, it helped out the sound. And then 2 Chainz “I’m Different” helped out the sound. So now they believe in the shit. Stuff is starting to move. When I put out with mixtape, we gonna see what’s happening. I fuck with them, though. I see them support.
What else you got coming up?
I just hopped on Young Scooter’s shit. I did some shit with T-Pain. I’m workin’. I be doing verses all the time. I think I’ma be on [Meek Mill's] Dreamchasers 3. I’ma be on Nipsey’s tape Victory Lap off top.
I’ve been waiting on that.
Yeah. My nigga been playin’ up. But his shit gonna go. With Nip, he be pushing his shit back, but when it come out, a nigga be respected, ’cause he really be going in on shit. That’s one thing about Nip. He take his time with his verses. He take his time. That’s something I’ve been doing, because he been doing it. I see a difference. I could write a verse in five, 10 minutes. But if you spend longer on a verse, an hour or two hours, the shit gonna be way harder. That’s what he be doing.
And you’ve been doing that now, too?
A little bit. On certain songs. “I’m 4rm Bomptom,” I did the first verse like nothin’. So I was like, the second verse gotta be hard, too. It took me like a week to write that muthafucka with the back and forth. Like, “Hell nah, hell nah.”
In general you usually hear a beat and then start writing?
Most of the time, I build my shit from scratch. I have a hook and then Mustard make a beat to the shit. When it’s like that, the verse come faster than a muthafucka. But if I walk in on a beat, a nigga just go in.