Cassidy On His Impact: "I Made It More Competitive"

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LL Cool J and Cassidy Visit BET's "106 and Park" - April 12, 2006
Cassidy during LL Cool J and Cassidy Visit BET's "106 and Park" - April 12, 2006 at 106 and Park in New York City, New York, United States. (Photo by Johnny Nunez/WireImage)
Cassidy says that he made hip-hop more competitive and lyrical.

Cassidy says that he made hip-hop more competitive and lyrical. He discussed his impact on the culture during an interview on The Bootleg Kev Podcast while reflecting on the studio session for “6 Minutes." The New York rapper also argued that his 2005 hit single, “I’m a Hustla," inspired tons of other songs at the time, including 50 Cent’s “I Get Money.”

“I was in New York, and Wayne came through,” Cassidy began. “I was in the studio with Fab a lot back then; so Fab came through the studio. Like, we really locked in. We wasn’t really like sending records or nothing like that. We really locked in and made it happen. I was the one that put that record together. It wasn’t like a label thing or something like that.”

Cassidy Performing In NYC

Fuse And Hot 97 Present Full Frontal Hip-Hop Fashions In New York
NEW YORK - MARCH 2: Hip-Hop artist Cassidy (R) performs at Fuse and Hot 97's Full Frontal Hip-Hop fashion showcase at Webster Hall March 2, 2004 in New York City. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Getty Images)

He continued: “I knew Wayne was rapping at the time and I knew that Fab was rapping at the time so if all of us came and went crazy like that, no hook, it don’t even gotta be about no hook, tryna make a hit record, I know we can do that. That’s easy. But, just talking about spitting, and I knew that would make a mark, so that’s why I wanted to put that record together. I think ever since I came out, I just changed the trajectory of how shit was going. I made it more competitive, made you have to be more lyrical, made you have to have more punchlines and lyrics, and piece up more syllables just to sound like you was spittin’. Because before, you ain’t have nothin’ else to compare it to, but when you can listen to me doing it like this, if you supposed to be lyrical, you gotta be doing it to a certain level. So around that time I came out, you started to see a lot of people change.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Cassidy discussed collaborating with R. Kelly while admitting he regrets not getting to know him better. He also recalled a wild story about DMX showing him a scorpion.

Cassidy On "The Bootleg Kev Podcast"

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About The Author
Cole Blake is a current staff writer at HotNewHipHop based out of New York City. He began writing for the site as an intern back in 2018 while finishing his B.A. in Journalism at St. John’s University. In the time since, he’s covered a number of breaking stories for HNHH. These include the ongoing YSL RICO trial, the allegations surrounding Diddy, and much more. His work also extends outside of hip-hop, having written extensively about a myriad of topics including politics, sports, and pop culture. He’s attended several music festivals to provide coverage for the site as well, such as Rolling Loud and Governors Ball.