YO GOTTI SPEAKS ON WORKING WITH T.I. & LIL WAYNE ON NEW ALBUM IN XXL INTERVIEW

YO GOTTI

Yo Gotti’s reign as the King of Memphis is kicking into high gear, and with his recent performance at the city’s prestigious Orpheum Theater marking the first time a hip-hop artist has graced the venue’s stage, he’s now packed out just about every place in town.
With a new record deal with L.A. Reid’s Epic Records signed last March, new artists arriving on his CMG (Cocaine Muzik Group) imprint, and an album in the works, XXL spoke to Yo Gotti about his recent collaborations, working with Wale and Cash Money, and why he’s trying to be the Lebron James of this music business.

Congratulations on your Orpheum show.

Appreciate it, appreciate the love. It sold out, first hip-hop show there. It was history, you know what I mean. We had a good turnout, lot of special guests came out, from Jeezy to Jadakiss, Travis Porter, Ca$h Out. It was pretty big for our city. Yeah. There was a lot of history in there—that was the first show we performed “Act Right” [with Young Jeezy] live at.

That’s off your album that you’re working on?

Yeah, that’s coming out in October, we’re aiming for October with that. The album already crazy so far. I think it’s gonna be a classic, definitely one of my best albums yet. I been working with artists like Young Jeezy, T.I., Lil Wayne, Jadakiss, and a whole bunch of producers, too. I worked with Sean Kingston on the album. So many producers; some new producers too, up and comers, along with producers that I like to work with. I’m just trying to just capture—I look at my album as a movie, you know, I’m gonna give you my life in music form. So I want it to be musical, but then I want to be able to go to the club and have a feel-good [aspect] to it, where you can party and it puts you in a good mood. I want to be able to to take you through it through stages. Then I’m gonna give you some real life shit where you may relate so close to home that you feel some kinda way about it.

With Wayne, T.I. and Jeezy, are you getting the South together?

I just like to work with artists who I feel like I have good working relationships with so that it’s natural, we do so many records that it’s natural.