It's a good day for Nipsey Hussle fans, with the rapper's new Crenshaw mixtape dropping very soon. Although the L.A. rapper says he's finished his Victory Lap project-- which seems to be an album now-- fans will be receiving the free Crenshaw project first. We got to chill with Nipsey before he did his SKEE Live appearance on DJ Skee's show, and in our exclusive interview the rapper talks about what happened with Victory Lap and why Crenshaw is dropping first.
Neighborhood Nipsey is releasing Crenshaw to build some buzz and get his name back in the streets before he'll release the Victory Lap album, not an uncommon move when it comes to rappers. Nipsey reveals how Crenshaw consists of a lot of leftover tracks from the final Marathon project, tracks which happened to have a cohesive theme and represent the rapper's home, hence the title.
"I recorded a lot of songs for the Victory Lap project, and I got a certain vision I'm going for with the project, and I just did a lot of work and I think I got what I was looking for with the Victory Lap album, and I still got a lot of great records," Nipsey explained. "So I'm like, I don't wanna sit on the songs, and I listened to the playlist and it kinda sounded like Crenshaw, it sounded like the environment, like my upbringing. So I went in and did a couple more records, put a couple skits and just really themed it, and I'm like I'ma give them the mixtape first just to excite the streets again and remind people what the sound is, give 'em an idea of what the album might sound like. And really kinda like, create the question in their mind, 'if this is the mixtape, what is gunna be on the album?'"
As for Victory Lap, Nipsey says you can expect it soon after Crenshaw, although there's no set date yet. "We lookin at like top of year, 2014, for the Victory Lap project, but I don't wanna say a date. But it's not gunna be a long after Crenshaw though, not at all."
During our interview with the West Coast native, he happened to reveal a little bit of personal trivia, the meaning of his real name, something which he only discovered for himself recently.
"I just found out what my name means, it means 'God will rise,'" the rapper said. "I found out through one of my homegirls, she just asked me what my name means and I couldn't tell her. Not my rap name, my real name. My real name is Ermias, it's from East Africa. So I didn't really know what I meant, and she googled it and she's like your name means, 'God will rise' and I thought that was dope."
Peep our full interview with Nipsey Hussle below, and make sure to cop his mixtape here!
Edit: The mixtape is here! Download/listen below.