The self-proclaimed Nupac of hip hop, Troy Ave sat down with Power 106 Los Angeles. He said the media misunderstood what he said when he admitted that he pondered joining TDE after his release from jail. Instead, most news coverage made it seem like he falsely claimed Top Dawg was on the verge of signing him.
"I never said that. I said I was sitting in jail, going through hell [...] then Kendrick Lamar reached out to Rob Markman," Dope Boy Troy said in the radio interview. He maintains he heard through his people that K. Dot expressed his support to him in his darkest time.
"I never spoke to nobody at TDE," he added, thankful that Cornrow Kenny, a perfect stranger, showed him love. That's when he started pondering his next move. "I'm sitting down thinking, 'You know what, there's too much hate in New York.'"
He said he felt he wasn't getting the recognition he deserved, adding he made it cool to be from New York again. That's when he got the idea to move out west. He called his then manager Hovain from jail and asked him to pull some strings.
"I like what TDE is doing," he recalled telling him, "Reach out and see wassup. See if we can do something over there."
He said his people weren't able to broker a deal though. For their part, TDE tweeted last week that they never had any intention of signing Nupac and never even spoke to his team.
Check out the interview with Power 106 in the clip below. The TDE story starts around the 10:06 minute mark.