BroBible: So I have it on good authority that you had Brooklyn Hip Hop Festival ROCKIN the other weekend. During your performance you told the crowd that you went to Hawaii to record My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy with Kanye West for a weekend, ended up staying out there for a month, came home, and immediately signed with G.O.O.D Music. What was your time out there like?
Pusha T: Oh man, well you know it was pretty wild for me. I mean, just imagine, I get a call from Rick Ross and he tells me to come to Hawaii. I’ve never been to Hawaii and he’s just like, “Come out here and be a part of Kanye West’s new album.” Kanye then gets on the phone and tells me, “There’s a lot of records out here; get on anything you like… just come get on the record.” So I fly out there and I was just supposed to stay for a weekend; I had no clothes, nothing major and I ended up staying for one month. It was just ridiculous man. I had my way with that whole album; I had the opportunity to be on any Kanye West record I wanted to be on. From my point of view, that’s one of his best albums production wise and so on and so forth; I was in a playland of beats.
Yeah, I can imagine it’s somewhat like being a kid in a candy store. You got on So Appalled with Swizz Beatz and….
Exactly, and yeah I got on So Appalled, I got on Runaway. I also tried to get on Lost In The World and I think there was a couple more I tried to get on. And ya know, during the day everyone would go and play basketball and eventually I just stopped playing basketball and I would just go and rap on every beat I loved.
Well I can kinda imagine you had a fairly healthy selection of beats to choose from. I can’t even imagine the stuff that was made out there that never even left the studio.
Oh man trust me it was crazy, we made a lot of good stuff out there.
Going back to Brooklyn Hip Hop Festival one more time for just a second, after finding out I was getting the chance to speak with you I went and watched the full live recording of your set. You do a lot of throwbacks in your set, you do a lot of stuff that you did with The Clipse…what are some of your favorite throwback jams your love to perform live? What do you find is one of your favorite things to perform live?
Oh man, old throwback Clipse stuff, Imma tell you what, Hell Hath No Fury is my FAVORITE album I’ve ever been on.
We can absolutely see why. Do you find that your live performance and the delivery in your live performance to be one of your biggest strengths as an artist or do you believe you have more value studio-wise or creatively/lyrically/sonically; like what do you find to be one of your biggest strengths?
I think my live performance is pretty good! Mainly because the energy is there and people can tell that I care about what I’m saying, like, I really try to articulate every word and get that sentiment across. For me, the energy is like when I see the crowd and how they react to what it is that I’m saying on an album or I write a line and I see the crowd member is about to rap that same line like, “Wow they must be thinking the same thing; I mean, we’ve been through the same thing”
You had the New Era #WEARYOURALLEGIANCE Event right after Brooklyn Hip Hop Festival sponsored by New Era with Schoolboy Q, can you tell us about that?
Yeah man, we had an incredible event at the Boiler Room in NYC, sponsored by New Era and it was a bunch of fans and passionate hip-hop artists in a hot-ass space just rockin out to some Pusha T music; it was a real good time.
New Era has a rich and storied history in sports and culture, along with enabling creative self-expression and collaboration. As part of the #WEARYOURALLEGIANCE campaign, New Era is partnering with Boiler Room to celebrate and showcase some of the best artists on the stage at a time when some of the best athletes are on the field.
Next month New Era will be giving fans a chance to showcase how they wear their allegiance across all its digital channels, along with chances to win prizes including, exclusive caps, apparel, discounts on products, tickets to events and their very own custom cap wall. For more info on the #WEARYOURALLEGIANCE campaign, check out New Era.
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Who is in the room for your dream studio session?
Um…. dream studio session? Man…
It’s entirely possible you may have already been there seeing as though you worked on MBDTF and I’m assuming were in the room for the making of Yeezus.
Let me think, ummm. I don’t know man…. I feel like me, ‘Ye and Pharrell… that’s an incredible session right there.
Has that happened yet?
Not yet, not yet but I believe it will!
We hope so! I’m thinking that maybe you three should just sit down and do a whole project yourselves like “Watch The Other Throne” or something like that. Just saying.
That would be INCREDIBLE.
How does it feel to be on the list of people who can say their track has been sampled by Kanye West? Hearing the vocal sample from Blocka on Guilt Trip, that song wouldn’t be the same song without that record’s energy.
Yea man, ya know we’ve been working in that whole creative space together is great. It’s a bit much to see how everything comes out and to see how it goes from where it starts to where ti ends. It always like a surprise because the songs never sound like they start. Ever. that’s how come I miss records like Paris like that would be my beat but because it doesn’t sound like the final product I have to use my imagination a little more. Ya know, and so it’s always like a surprise being in the studio with him.
What are your thoughts overall on Yeezus?
The Yeezus album to me? That’s Kanye telling everybody, “Do not even mention me in the same category as any of my 'peers’.” It’s hillarious, I love it. I love the arrogance, I love the energy, I love how he’s like clearing the pallete of music and seperating himself from every other artist in hip-hop that you may have called “his peer” at one point. No one will take those risks, no one will and that’s just the truth of the matter.
It kinda takes someone like Kanye West to do that, I think. He’s always so outside the box but close enough to where people kinda get it, but on this one he just put the blinders on left everyone else behind and just made whatever he wanted to.
We just want to give a huge thank you to Pusha T for taking the time to talk to us and keep your eyes peeled for My Name Is My Name dropping later this summer!
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