Mark Braboy
News Editor
A rising star of the Mississippi hip-hop scene, Slimm Pusha, has had a spectacular 2013 with the release of “Davyid Blaine: Above the Below” and his first nationally televised appearance on MTV Jams. This month, Pusha releases a new album on iTunes entitled “Hennessi: A Very Special Combaq”. In this one on one interview with the budding artist, we talk about not only his album, but his new found success and being an independent artist representing Mississippi.
Mark Braboy: How has 2013 been for you?
Slimm Pusha: Man, 2013 was a very good year. Especially at the end of it, I think I’m more proud of that year than anything. Well actually the whole year man, I dropped a project “Dayvid Blaine” at the beginning of the year in February and kind of let it just play out for the whole entire year. I had a couple records played on Shade45 on Sway’s radio station, then I ended up in New York on MTV at the end of the year, so 2013 was pretty good.
Mark Braboy: How would you describe this point in your career?
Slimm Pusha: Well right now, I’m on the radar. I’m definitely on the national radar right now, so I happen to approach situations a little bit differently than I would in 2013. “Hennessi,” is just really influenced by the actual liquor Hennessy. It’s completely different than “Dayvid Blaine,” you know, “Davyid Blaine” I was a little bit more conscious with it and it was a little bit more mellow. “Hennessi” it just turns the volume up to the situation a little bit more.
Mark Braboy: You said that you came up with the title based on the actual liquor?
Slimm Pusha: Right. “Hennessi”, the whole concept of it is a million things you can think about and can’t talk about when you’re intoxicated, you don’t care about the backlash or feedback that you get from it. The whole time I was creating the project, I was actually drinking Hennessy. It’s really influenced by the intoxicating feeling off drinking that brown liquor.
Mark Braboy: Based on Birdman’s co-sign he gave you, would you be willing to sign to Cash Money sometime in the future?
Slimm Pusha: Pretty much, depending on what Baby is doing man. Baby is a real busy man and I know he signed a whole lot of artists who never really get off the ship. For the most part, if he’s talking right and like I said, we’ll be with a record label and if he can provide the right things I need right now, then yeah, I’d be down to do that.
Mark Braboy: Do you think there is a stigma against Mississippi artists?
Slimm Pusha: I’m not sure, but ever since the blues era—I guess once that era was done and over with they went into another form of music. I don’t know what it was or what happened in those times that made people not really want to deal with Mississippi, but Mississippi has to work a whole lot harder than any other state to get recognized…. So you’re going to have to work extremely hard to shine a light on Mississippi [because] it’s not well known for what you want it to be known for.
Mark Braboy: What advice would you give to up and coming artist coming out of Jackson State?
Slimm Pusha: First thing first, if you’re coming out of college and trying to go where I’ve gone, you need to make sure this is exactly what you want to do before you even resign. You need to know if this is exactly what you want to do, because it’s full of sacrifice. Any young artist that’s coming up, I always tell them to be prepared to sacrifice it all to get everything that you want. You’re not going to be able to sacrifice a little bit because you’re gonna get a little bit. If you sacrifice it all, you’re gonna get it all…
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