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Top Dawg is my blood relative.
We grew up in the same area with Jay Rock.
But Jay Rock was young; we didnt really meet him until later on.
Certain principles stick with you.
Hows working with family?Its always been good.
Top was always the cool cousin, you know what I mean?
He always had the money, cars, the whole thing.
So as a kid, you looked up to that because you wanted to be cool like that.
It translated over to our working relationship.
I would always go over to him and talk to him about what Im doing.
At a point, he was like, You should just come over and work with me.
Well do this thing together.
Its always been great chemistry, great team atmosphere, especially being family.
You really know this person, and he really know me, so it works out.
Has the arrangement changed since Dave Free left?I pretty much move the same way.
We just fill in the voids if somebody leaves.
Its a machine at this point.
So if one part leaves, you just fill it in with another piece.
You basically preside over everything.
Everything has its own department.
You have music, you haveA&R, and you have the administrative side.
Every artist has their own ecosystem, and you verify everything is running properly.
Thats the simplest I can put it.
It changes from day to day.
You have different relationships with different artists.
You cant do one-size-fits-all.
You gotta tailor things to the artists needs.
You do something that a lot of label executives dont.
You make yourself available, to a certain point, to feedback on social media.
You take heat when the crowd wants things its not getting.
A few years back, whenI asked Pusha T about running G.O.O.D.
Music, he made it sound like a defensive position.
I learned when YouStream was popping.
Even though Im president of the company, its the same thing.
And its weird because why would we hold an album back?
We cant make money if we hold an album back.
That doesnt really register with certain people when they want something so bad, which I get it too.
But isnt there something to it?
You might need to reach out to someone to shoot a video or clear a sample.
But like you mentioned, its samples, its positioning.
Its not even having a song done sometimes.
You could be waiting on a feature.
Its just so many things that go into it.
Until then, fans are playing position, same as you.
Its a sense of entitlement that comes with it.
The artists relationship with fans sometimes gets skewed a bit to where certain people feel that theyre owed.
I posed the question the other day onTwitter.
I asked, What do you feel artists owe you?
One person responded, Friendship.
Once the artist creates the work and you buy the work, thats what youre owed.
That has to be first and foremost.
Then you mesh together, see what works, and see what dont work.
It takes time, though.
Its the same thing Im going through working on aroomfullofmirrors.
So it takes a lot of time and patience.
Ive seen some people reminisce about the2018 Championship Tour.
What Im hearing is that were not getting one for a while.I dont know.
TDE never made an official label compilation the wayDreamville, G.O.O.D.
Music, MMG, and Young Money have.
Did you ever discuss it?We spoke about doing it a few times.
Everything has to be aligned and work out the right way.
We dont want to do something just for the sake of doing it.
It really has to make sense with us and with the artists.
It really has to make sense.
So going back to holding up albums, it looks like there aredifferentimpressionsabout SZAs new record.
In the past, she has told fans to ask you about it.
Last month, you said its in the pipeline but still a little ways off.
Is everyone on the same page?We know exactly when its coming out.
But on the internet, you only get a certain amount of characters.
You did post astatement, but then you deleted it.
Is she happy with the situation?
Thats what people want to know.Is she happy?
Last album, triple platinum.
Im not sure exactly what youre asking.
Do you feel like shes happy?
To someone not involved in your day-to-day, it looks staticky between you two.
Is she happy withwhat,exactly?
What happens is people put a story into their own narrative and create a situation thats not really there.
Im not going to say theres never been contention.
Theres always contention, especially when youre dealing with creative.
Difference in opinions, it happens, but that doesnt mean somebody is unhappy or anything.
It couldve been a conversation in the moment.
Then a lot of speculation happens.
We have to remember that context is important and you never get the full story through tweets.
Thats why I asked.
Im curious how you feel about the response toMr.
Morale.I think it was polarizing.
I think thats what good art does: It creates conversation, it gets people going back and forth.
So I think it did what it was supposed to do.
Was there a sense that it would be polarizing before it came out?No.
It wasnt really no conversations on that.
The psychoanalysis of the human, the complexities, the dualities, the difference of opinions.
I think he accomplished what he wanted to accomplish.
At this point, hes a legend.
Hes top five MCs to me.
Hes had a crazy career so far.
Whatever he wants to do is up to him.
I have no opinion.
Like, Do your thing.
You were usually more involved with his albums, right?Yeah.
Early on, for sure.
This was my intention: I want to see what you bring.
I wanted to be surprised with everybody else.
He dont need my guidance and my coaching like he did when we were younger.
But you couldve heard it early.
We was just there for whatever he needed, just trying to be helpful.
That was the main thing.
Everybody knew he was going through things.
Sometimes its bigger than music.
Somebody invading your privacy like that is wild.
So we just wanted to see to it he had his head on straight and was doing okay.
That was the main concern.
Everything else is nonsense.
I dont think weve heard too much.Yeah.
He was going to be quiet anyway.
But hes been good.
I saw him maybe three days ago at the studio.
He was in good spirits recording and laughing and joking as usual.
He understands the artist; he understands what an artist goes through.
It was about Isaiah Rashad, and that just happened to be one of the topics.
They discussed a lot of things.
I love to write and record and do that.
And then to do it with such genuine people is amazing.
Its a great feeling.
It just came at a perfect time, too.
I had a bit of extra free time.
I called everybody to the studio.
We were vibing and decided to make a record, and the record came out dope.
The chemistry was crazy, so we kept going.
Thats where we are now with aroomfullofmirrors.
Whats up with your album?Man, my album is actually done.
It has been done for a while.
But I wear a couple different hats.
Theres other people coming, and I want to help them and do this whole thing.
So I havent had time to focus on exactly when Im going to release it.
But as of now, Im completely locked in.
Im trying to have that out ASAP because its just sitting and waiting.
Whats on the horizon that you’re free to tell me about?Sheesh.
I didnt think I would get much out of you.Its not really a secret.
SZAs coming very, very soon.
We pretty much have the album done.
We just droppedthe record with her and Doechii.
Barack Obama had Doechii on hissummer playlist.Yeah.
Thats a good look.
But its the same old thing, man.
Theres no real mystery to it.
So a superstar has left the label after repeat classic albums and a Pulitzer.
These are big shoes to fill.
I think its about just continuing to move forward and cater to the artist.
Its about the artists vision and what they want to do and where they want to go.
Our job is to help facilitate and enhance it.
And thats what weve been doing.
Thats what we going to continue to do.
You have to check with them.
Im sure theyd rather answer that.
Did you ever have an opportunity to sign Baby Keem?I personally never had that conversation.
Im not sure if Kendrick and Top spoke about it, but I never had that conversation.
What wasthat stuff with DJ Vladabout?You know what it was?
I didnt like what Vlad said about why I would rap when Im the president of the label.
To me, he was trying to pigeonhole me to just doing one thing.
We so multitalented and smart in so many areas.
We dont have to be held to one thing.
We can do whatever it is we want to do.
I just wanted to double-check that was understood, which is why I responded.
Youve maintained a killer roster of artists and producers for over a decade.
How do you find new music?Personally, I dont look.
I wait and see what sticks out and what comes to me.
How does it find you?
Do people hit you up?
Are there playlists and shows you follow?People hit me up all the time.
Its never, like,All right, let me find a new artist.
