If you've been following Skeme, you probably noticed that somewhere down the line he's clawed his way to the top of the upcoming-West-Coast-rapper hierarchy. This inevitably means that people are starting to take notice and industry heads are turning. So, it came as a bit of a shock when Skeme turned down Top Dawg Entertainment's (TGE) offer to join their ranks. If you don't know, their ranks include Kendrick Lamar, Schoolboy Q, and Ab-Soul.
He sat down and talked to TheNEHipHop to talk about it. Of this decision, as HHDX excerpts, Skeme said:
"Those is the homies and that's always going to be the same but the angle I came at it was I've been working for a long time at trying to be somebody on my own two and that was the end all be all of that, just wanted to be able to stand out and do my own thing. [It was] never was a knock to the homies, it was just them is my guys over there. I've listened to what [Top Dawg] had to say, who is a big homie to me for sure and I was like I need to sit down and take a little more time with myself as far as who I want to be in the game. Myself, my brother and a couple of them other guys around me was like, 'We could just do this shit dolo and let's do it.' And that's where we was at with it."
It makes a little more sense, considering Skeme has been quite vocal about trying to get his own label off the ground. But considering the pedigree of rappers aligned with Top Dawg, it must have been a very tempting offer and a very hard decision to make. Still, Skeme seems resolute.
Watch the full interview, below.