Lil Waah says that gained a new perspective on his music while in Detroit with DMX last year. 

“He put me on front street [at] the concert,” Lil Waah says during an exclusive interview with HipHopDX. “I performed, but I was rapping fast. Then X told me [backstage], “Don’t do this. You’ve gotta talk while you’re rapping so they can hear you because if you’re just rapping you can just rap to a whole beat…You have to speak it.’ He told me to relax, too.” 

The 12-year-old son of Ruff Ryders executive Joaquin “Waah” Dean, Lil Waah is working on his Swizz Beatz-hosted Play Time Is Over mixtape and has released the singles “Pop A Wheelie” and “On My Arm.”

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The latter was inspired by an actual girl and provided Lil Waah with an opportunity to write, something he says she cherishes.

“That’s how I express my inner peace, my inner self,” says Lil Waah, who appeared on Ruff Ryders’ 2011 Past, Present, Future album. “That’s how I show myself.”

In addition to Play Time Is Over, Lil Waah says that he’s working on an album, projects he says he hopes will differentiate him from other artists.

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“I’m trying to get a buzz out of it so I can be out there and show myself cuz I’m different from all these other guys,” he says. “I’m trying to bring something new to the table. I’m trying to do rapping, singing. I’m not trying to do one thing. I’m trying to do a lot of stuff, dancing, making beats, producing, deejying, piano.”

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