A little over a month ago, reports swirled that G-Unit‘s DJ Whoo Kid was set to retire from mixtape-making [click here to read…]. After two celebrated mixtapes already in 2008 – Elephant In The Sand [click here to listen…] and Return Of The Bodysnatchers Volume 1 [click here to listen…], Whoo Kid told HipHopDX that the words were simply an attitude he was feeling at the time, and he’s not quite done yet.
After laughing at the word “retire,” Whoo Kid told DX, “I was just talking shit with [the journalist]. You know when you’re fed up with the same thing over and over? I grew up in the Run-DMC era, the Rakim era, where the music was everything. It just felt like there was a soul to the music. Now, everything is just to get done, to feed the public, to feed the ringtones…it just sounds so ignorant. The dancing…we look like monkeys; that’s just my opinion.I was just at that fed-up mode where I don’t even know what to think.”
Perhaps like Saigon‘s own storied Myspace blog entry proclaiming retirement, press reacted too soon.
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The Queens-based deejay and G-Unit Radio host used his longtime collaborator and partner 50 Cent as an example of realness remaining in rap. “50, to me, is a movement where he went through situations. He is who he is today [because of] situations. It’s not like he made shit up, and he followed a book. Whether he got shot up, this and that, he molded into who he is. Now, everybody has a rap 101 book and is doing bullshit.” Whoo Kid even pointed to another star sacrificing personality for image. “Even a Kanye West, where he’s a weirdo, dressing crazy; his music is off the hook, but he has to dress fuckin’ crazy. There’s always some kind of gimmick.” He continued, “Nas, I love his lyrics and shit, but sometimes I don’t even know what he’s saying anymore. It’s like he’s going all over the place.”
Of the overall decision to continue, Whoo Kid admits it’s a longer-term decision. “I’m analyzing where Hip Hop is going in the next couple years. I’m analyzing myself. I’m planning on creating three businesses, and then I’m just gonna chill. I’m not gonna be no old deejay. I’m not trying to be 40 years old and still deejaying.” He sums up, “It’s not like I’m retiring. I probably said ‘retire’ to make a lot of these mixtape deejays happy [laughs]…Nah, it’s just a feeling I had.“
After the two aforementioned mixtapes, Whoo Kid revealed plans for his next, a collaboration with DJ Drama. “It should be our big bang before [G-Unit] goes overseas. Be on the look out. We’re talking to Lil Wayne now; he’s cool with us. A lot of shit is going on, and I’m trying to take it as fast as I can.”
