Waka Flocka Flame has revealed his beat selection throughout his music career made up for his lyrics that he felt weren't up to par.
During a recent conversation with HipHopDX, the 37-year-old reflected on his legacy and explained that although he wasn't the greatest rapper on the mic, he made sure the beats he rapped on helped him tremendously. According to Waka, the instrumentals gave him an opening to hit listeners with a burst of energy.
"I told people, I said, 'shit, I can't rap, I'm a fucked up rapper,'" he said about the early days of his rap career. "But I said, guess what? When it comes to feeling, I'm gonna crush y'all. Because I know the feeling."
He continued, "I probably did over 3,000 shows in my career. There was never a Waka show that people seen that wasn't the same as the last time, energy-wise."
Waka spoke these same sentiments back in 2020 during an episode of Complex's Everyday Struggle. The Atlanta native claimed that he started rapping to be rich and ended up calling himself a "wack rapper."
"At that point in my life, I was being real on my dead brother," said Waka. "Why was I rapping? I'm rich, I wanted to be rich. So, from that time to right now, I wanted to figure out how can I become a billionaire and a multi-millionaire off of business. Because I did it with rap. I was a wack rapper, like I knew I was wack but I was real. My realness overcame my wackness."
During an interview with Rap-Up TV, Waka explained that he made those comments to get people talking about him being an influential artist. According to the "No Hands" rapper, the comment was a sarcastic one, especially when he claimed he changed hip-hop's sound with his brand of music.
"It was more reverse psychology," Flocka said. "It was more so of this generation and the people that got power and feel that way—You know I be seeing make these little lists that say 'Influential people of the decade.' And I be sitting here like, 'Yo, hip-hop never sounded like this before me. Who's more influential than that? Okay, cool I'm a wack rapper I guess.' Let me say I'mma wack just so y'all can actually hear people say 'No this guy's actually the GOAT—one of the GOATs—I'm not saying I'm the GOAT. I actually be sitting next to them by default."
