DJ Mustard made headlines last week when video of a scuffle between Mistah F.A.B.'s crew and his own hit the web. The tension between the posses was rooted in F.A.B.'s belief that Mustard had not properly credited the Bay Area with informing his sound. In a new interview with HipHopDX, the DJ explained exactly what happened that night, as well as speaking on the direct influence of Lil Jon on his sound, and working with Lil Boosie (the man who popularized the term "ratchet", which Mustard and YG have coined as the name of their style.)
Read some excerpts from the interview below.
On the Mistah F.A.B. scuffle:
The internet can make it whatever they want to make into. LA to the Bay—it’s not like that. I have some real friends in the Bay Area. I got some family in the Bay Area. It was never that. He felt how he felt, I guess. He swung. I guess he didn’t know that all those people were with me. I only run with one security guard. So, it wasn’t the security. Everybody keeps saying it was the security, but you know, that’s how it goes sometimes. I done got into millions of fights. That was just one of the fights that people have seen because of who I am. When people's careers go down, they’ll do anything to get back up. You've gotta expect stuff like that and you've gotta tighten up your security and make sure nobody can get to you like that.”
On his disinterest in fighting:
What I look like fighting? I’ve a million-plus dollars. I’m a millionaire now so I ain’t really worried about fighting. I don’t wanna fight niggas when I see them. I ain’t tryna fight. I got a hundred niggas for that. That’s not what that was for. I didn’t come to the Bay to start nothing. I ain’t gonna start a fight or do nothing like that. That’s not what it’s about. It’s about getting your money, feeding your family. If you wanna holler like men, we can holler like men after that.
On learning about the Bay Area sound:
I met with my boy Dame, he works down there. He played me this beat. I never got why they were saying that. Why do they keep saying I sound like [The Bay]? He played me a song called “Dope Fiend Beat” by Too $hort and I was like, ‘Oh. OK.’ And Lil Jon got his style from that. I’m like, ‘I get it. I get what you mean, but at the same time it was like, that’s why I really push the Lil Jon thing, because I always listened to Lil Jon. That was my era. I was born in the 1990s. [Mistah F.A.B.] can’t blame me for not knowing where the Lil Jon sound came from.”
On working with Boosie:
Me and Boosie got some stuff going on. We already talked on the phone, so us hanging out was just to do some more music. He’s cool. He’s like a regular dude from the streets just like me and YG from the streets. We used to listen to him a lot. That’s where the Ratchet thing came from. It was real dope.
On YG getting recognition:
I’m just happy that everybody’s giving [YG] the credit that he’s always deserved because a lot of people was doing the same type of music he was doing and he wasn’t getting credit for it. I’m just happy he’s on top and he’s doing what he’s supposed to do and what we always thought we was gonna do, really.