Waka Flocka Flame sat down before his Saturday night performance to talk about professional blunt rolling, Nancy Grace, and the truth of life.
In the basement of the Templeton-Blackburn Memorial Auditorium, Waka Flocka Flame lifted his shirt to reveal a fresh tattoo on his back of a man shooting the devil in the face.
“I’mma finnish it though, I’ll make the bullet go out and shoot the devil in the head,” he said.
The Post sat down with Waka Flocka before his Saturday evening show. The performance was part of Sibs Weekend and presented by the Black Student Cultural Programming Board. Read more coverage of the sold-out show here.
See a Storify of his party down Mill here.
The Post: So that tattoo’s not finished yet?
Waka Flocka Flame: Oh, f--k no, I knew I had a show so I didn’t want to go too hard.
P: The healing process is pretty painful.
W: I ain’t gonna lie, that shit hurts, but you want that shit so bad you don’t give a f--k.
P: So how’s your search for a professional blunt roller going (Waka had posted a humorous ad on Instagram in September)?
W: My search is going fine, I think on 4/20 in New York, Webster Hall, I might find my blunt roller.
P: How many people have applied?
W: (laughs) Over 5,000.
P: Any that stood out?
W: A couple. This one guy – he like made a whole football field of weed, f--kin’ gold things. I seen a motherf--er that makes transformers out of it, I’ve seen all kinds of shit.
P: What are your criteria for a professional blunt roller?
W: No cold sores, no skimpy blunts. I wouldn’t care if you rolled a f--ked up blunt, know what I’m saying? It’s how you smoke it at the end of the day.
P: What’s the weirdest thing you’ve seen someone do at one of your shows?
W: I don’t know, weird is normal at my shit. Nothing stands out. At my show you don’t gotta come fresh and ballin’, know what I’m sayin? We come to party, get drunk, get f--ked up and have a good time. My party ain’t about the new Lebrons, the new Kevin Garnetts, whatever. Like who gives a f--k? We came here to get f--ked up.
P: So there are no outsiders at a Waka show?
W: Nah. I haven’t seen a hater at my show in three years.
P: Did you hear about the kid who accidentally shot his friend while acting out the lyrics to your song “Bustin’ at ‘Em?”
W: Yeah, that’s sad. That’s no excuse but that’s sad.
P: Do you feel rap is unfairly portrayed in the mainstream media?
W: I do and I don’t. Because if you put red ball on your nose and makeup on your face and somebody calls you a clown, and you say you not but you look like one.
P: Did you see 2 Chainz on Nancy Grace?
W: I liked it. I actually loved it. It was like a whole new respect for him. Because she always tries to shit on people. He like literally put the toadstool on her face.
P: If you could be reborn as any person in history, whom would you choose?
W: James Dean.
P: Why?
W: James Dean man? It’s James Dean!
P: What’s the first thing you do when you get out of bed in the morning?
W: I take a piss. I take a long piss. My breath probably stinks because I take midnight snacks, midnight snacks give you terrible morning breath. I just wake up, brush my teeth and kiss my wife.
P: You call yourself the mix-tape prince, how do you manage to put out so much content in a short amount of time?
W: I don’t know man. I feel like my people don’t even wanna hear mix-tapes anymore. I gave them so many mix-tapes – they wanna hear albums.
P: It’s all about the albums?
W: It’s all about albums in life.
P: Speaking of albums, why has Flockaveli 2 been delayed so much?
W: That shit’s supposed to have been out since 2013. When I was supposed to put it out I had personal matters, like best friend passing, little brother passing. Just a lot of fake shit around me as an artist, as a young man I wasn’t ready for it. A lot of challenges. Basically, I wasn’t a person that grew up and wanted to be a rapper, so I was like “Man this shit ain’t for me, f--k it.” I gave it up.
Then at the beginning of 2013 I started doing EDM. I had a choice: Finish Flockaveli 2 or go on tour overseas. I’m like, “That’s 40 f--kin’ shows overseas,” and I’d get like 35, 40 grand, 50 at most shows. F--k, I’m outta here.
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P: You’d get to see the world.
W: Yeah I’d get to see the world, and who knows if I’m gonna live to see another hour. As long as I’ve seen the world before my eyes closed, I wanted to learn the truth about life. So I traveled so much in that year, my f--kin’ album couldn’t get done. I tried going to studios in Europe and people weren’t speaking English, weren’t communicating, a lot of my friends didn’t have passports, it was just f--kin’ hectic. I was 14 hours ahead of time, it was just f--k’ed up.
I say that to say this: I wanted to start learning house and dubstep. I start doing festivals, I went to a Wireless festival, I start learning trap and EDM, like “What the f--k is this?” And that’s back when they had like Bricksquad Anthem, that was my first record. Mayhem, a DJ from Atlanta, he played that – the shit went nuts. Like “What the f--k is this music?” They were like “Yo this is trap and EDM.”
I did that trap and EDM shit for like that whole year, then in 2014 I came to America and met Steve Aoki.
P: And you had the tour with him?
W: And voilà
P: You said you were trying to find the truth of life – did you find it yet?
W: I found it.
P: What was it?
W: Mind your business and live your life. Shit man, life is about living. It’s not about talking and worrying about whose lifestyle is whose and what color you are, and why society don’t like you – who gives a f--k?
At the end of the day, time heals everything. To me a lot of shit is not gonna be important no more. I feel like we’re going back to like the hippy days. I really feel like it. Weed is about to be legal, racism is at its ultimate lowest right now – f--k, the cops are racist so you know it’s over. People that were racist, they all die and they’re all over.
So in a minute everyone’s gonna grow up loving the same shit. We’re really gonna start being one person. See, white dudes f--kin’ black girls, black guys f--kin’ white girls. So at the end of the day, America’s just gonna be a group of mixed-breed motherf--kers. I’m a people’s person.
I’m never politically correct – I just tell the truth.
P: Are there any collaborations you’ve always wanted to do with another artist but never got the chance?
W: There’s only two artists I really wanna work with, rap-wise. Probably Nas and Kanye, that’s it.
P: Kanye and Waka, that’d be a good mix.
W: That’d be amazing.
P: You think that would ever happen?
W: It’s gonna happen. How you know it didn’t happen already?
P: I guess I don’t.
W: He’s the best rapper out.
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P: Do you have a favorite tattoo?
W: On my neck, it says “Dreams come true” and “survive hard times.”
P: What was your first tattoo?
W: My fingers – “Hit Squad” (Waka puts his hands together to display the tattoos on his knuckles)
P: How old were you when you got that?
W: 16 or 17. My mom was mad as f--k. I got it with a paperclip.
P: I feel like that would hurt a lot worse.
W: What the f--k, it was torture.
P: You got it though.
W: I wanted it that bad. Anything I want in life I can withstand the pain because I want it that bad.
P: You said you didn’t want to be a rapper when you were a kid. What did you want to do?
W: Basketball. Basketball and like streets and shit. Basketball is just fun, basketball to me is like rapping on the stage. You’re just in control man. You’re you.
P: I heard you were playing basketball here earlier, how’d you do?
W: Good – I threw up afterwards. I went hard.
P: If you could choose anyone to play you in a movie about your life, who would you pick?
W: I want somebody new. I want the new Tom Cruise, the new Denzel Washington. I want the new guy.
P: Do you have a favorite movie?
W: Menace to Society and American Pie. Menace to Society is about how black motherf--kers grow up. And American Pie – shit is funny as a motherf--ker.
"People wouldn’t f--k with certain people because they didn’t understand them. Once you understand a person you’re like 'Yo, we got the same intentions.' "
P: Do you think most people in America are blind to how people grow up in bad areas like that?
W: Let me tell you about people. A lot of people say race on race – only reason this person don’t f--k with that person is because you don’t understand their lifestyle. I learned that by going overseas. People wouldn’t f--k with certain people because they didn’t understand them. Once you understand a person you’re like “Yo, we got the same intentions.”
P: What goes through your mind when you’re on stage?
W: “Turn the f--k up Waka”
P: Do you live by that?
W: Of course, of course. Pipe up. All I know is pipe up. Nobody want no boring person.
P: Is it hard to be so energetic at every single show?
W: Nah I’ve been like this all my life. Literally, since a baby.
P: You think you’ll ever wear out?
W: Never. I can’t. It’s just in me. I can’t sit down, I never took vacations. If I took a vacation I’d end it in two days.
@sean_wolfe23
