After an impressive but slept-on appearance on Killer Mike‘s I Pledge Allegiance to the Grind II last year, Atlanta’s Pill is witnessing his career take on the literal manifestation of the phrase he helped popularize and “go ham.” The demand for his second mixtape, “4075: The Refill” was so high that a server crashed, as people flooded his Web site for a free download. Meanwhile the phrase goin’ ham has reached critical mass, with even ESPN anchors referencing it during pregame reports.
A week to the day after “The Refill” was released, Pill talked with HipHopDX about translating his mixtape buzz into bigger and better things in 2010.
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“I want to let this tape do what it do, and when the people start demanding an album, then we’ll go ahead and put that out,”Pill says, adding that his lawyer is already being contacted by major labels. “The album is already complete, so it’s not like that’s not ready. You know how we do in the South. I could have about four albums done already.”
After beginning 2009 with the release of “4180: The Prescription,” Pill gained momentum off the strength of his own rhymes, a raw visual for “Trap Goin’ Ham” and his collaborations with fellow newcomer, Freddie Gibbs. And Pill says fans can expect more of all the above in 2010.
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“I gotta do a video with Freddie too,”Pill says of the Gary, Indiana native. “He put me on ‘Womb 2 The Tomb,’ and I got him on ‘Run Up To Me.’ So it’s only right that I do a video for that and show the same love back. So that’s already a shoe in.”
As far as the chances of a mixtape with Gibbs, Pill says he hasn’t ruled out the possibility of seeing a full-length effort with himself and the “Midwest Malcolm” sharing verses. But in the meantime, both artists are focused on making a stronger impact in the upcoming year.
“The shit you’re just hearing this year could be some shit a nigga did three years ago,”Pill says. “Just to keep it one hundred, there’s a few songs on there that I hadn’t recorded but they were written years ago. I keep the notebooks up to par. I’m a writer. I ain’t one of them freestyle only niggas. I freestyle too, but I’m a student of the game. That’s art in its truest form when you can write it down. So whenever the time is due in 2010, I’ll be dropping an album on that ass.”
