By Odeisel

Waka Flocka Flame is on fire right now with his latest single, “Go Hard In The Paint.” While his style is not the most lyrical, he had succeeded in garnering a huge amount of support from all sectors of the map. He drops mixtape after mixtape and people have drawn their conclusions of him as a man, but what do they really know? We’re often aware of the alter egos that exist between rappers and their on stage personas. How much of the music is Juaquin Malthers? How much is Waka Flocka?

With his mother as manager and often troubled Gucci Mane as his label head, Waka readies himself for the coming album and all the things that come with that fame. We had a chance to sit with him and to try and get inside his head about who he really is. Here’s the result.

Planet Ill: I think it’s fair to say your music is aggressive, no?

Waka Flocka Flame: I think it’s fair not to say my music is aggressive.

Planet Ill: How would you describe your music then?

Waka Flocka Flame: I would describe my music as Waka Flocka Flame

Planet Ill: You had a few instances of loss in your life earlier. How does that translate into your music? Or does it?

Waka Flocka Flame: I think it translates into different emotions in my life, but I don’t think it makes or affects the music.

Planet Ill: You were from New York until about the 5^th grade, yes? How much New York did you take with you down South?

Waka Flocka Flame: The whole New York. I took the whole New York with me.

Planet Ill: How different was it making that transition? How did you find those worlds different?

Waka Flocka Flame: That shit was crazy. Way different.  Slow. It wasn’t like slow folks, it’s just everybody here move quick. It’s like New York is poppin’ at 8 o’clock, 7 o’clock in the morning. Non-stop. BEEP BEEP! [mimics honking horns and traffic] We don’t got that.

Planet Ill: Was it difficult blending in?

Waka Flocka Flame: Yeah the girls love you. The guys don’t. Teachers loved your accent back then. But you know how it’s rocking. Same difference everywhere, “Oh he from [New York]! Ahhh!” You just gotta get in where you fit in. I’m a chameleon, though. I can go anywhere. I adapt quick. I could be in Afghanistan, I’m fitting to get me a cape and wrap my head up. I just can adapt.

Planet Ill: When you adapt, how much of yourself is really apparent and how much is just fitting in with your surroundings?

Waka Flocka Flame: All of it is adapting. There’s no fitting in. Fitting in is fake, that’s for suckers. I’m jumping in. It’s where I’m at, that’s what I’m doing, and that’s why I’m about to get in to.

Planet Ill: You work with your mom…

Waka Flocka Flame: Love her.

Planet Ill: How do you separate the business from the mommy-ness?

Waka Flocka Flame: Easy ‘cause she’s a mother of Juaquin Malthers. And she’s a manager of Waka Flocka Flame. Those are two people. I’m Waka Flocka Flame, he don’t butt into Joaquin’s life. I don’t let Joaquin try to be Wacka Flocka.

Planet Ill: Did you ever have an instance where those roles got confused? Maybe you did something on stage or you did something in the business and your mom was like, “You know better than that!”?

Waka Flocka Flame: Yeah before I got shot. “You doing too much!” I found myself doing like slick…being disrespectful to my mother. I’d just be saying too much shit on the phone that a normal n***a don’t say to his mother. I feel like God was letting me know I’m getting beside myself.

Planet Ill: How much garbage has the business brought into your life that wasn’t there before?

Waka Flocka Flame: Double. Double the garbage man. Double the garbage. More headaches, more stress. Double the fakeness. Deeper fakeness. Deep emotional [exasperated].

Planet Ill: I’m sure people ask you stupid shit all the time. What’s the dumbest shit someone ever asked you in an interview?

Waka Flocka Flame: Hmm. What’s the dumbest fucking thing? Do you like Kat Stackz

Planet Ill: Before coming down here, they asked us to read your bio, and interviews, etc. and nobody’s ever asking you any real shit. Silly shit.  Not that you care, maybe you don’t, but how do you get them to see that perhaps Waka is, like you said, a persona of Juaquin and a person and for them to ask you something that a real person would answer?

Waka Flocka Flame: You know something bruh? You can’t do it. Cause a real person gone ask some real shit. And a confused person gone ask some dumb shit. Some basic shit. So for you to come with me with some real questions, you on some real shit, you really want to learn a person. You not just trying to get some ratings or some views. You’re passionate about what you do, so you ask passionate questions. You give me dumb shit, basic questions I’mma give you a basic, two word answer.

Planet Ill: You’re still under Gucci Mane, correct? How difficult is it to work under that situation, knowing that at any time, he could be in or out of jail?

Waka Flocka Flame: That ain’t hard cause that’s stuff Gucci had in the past. In the future I don’t expect him to be going to jail, that that right there ain’t even a factor. It’s just like a downplay like you expect a n***a to fail. That’s supposed to be your buddy; you supposed to expect him to win and succeed in life. That’s how I look at it.

Planet Ill: “Go Hard In The Paint” does exactly that. You shot the video out in L.A.. T Rogers is in the video. How was it connecting on that level [with Rogers]?

Waka Flocka Flame: It was gangster like. A lot of people think I did it to be like the ultimate gangbanger shit to go meet T Rogers, but T Rogers really schooled me on some real shit. I didn’t know what he was gone be on, I couldn’t even think right. That man’s brain is like talking to Einstein or somebody. He’s so smart. He’ll just break all your clothes down; your whole demeanor break that shit down. You like, “Oh shit I didn’t even look at it like that!” I fuck with him. I fuck with the big dog.

Planet Ill: How important was it for you to get that kind of co-signage in the video?

Waka Flocka Flame: I don’t think it was too…I didn’t do it to get cosigned. I did it to meet people from a different walk of life. But it just got publicized like, “Oh Waka wanna meet the Bloods!” Nah, bruh I just did it to meet anybody that rep from a different region, we go where they at, they go where ya’ll at and it’s peace. It’s nothing. I go in a different “gang” hood and do a video. I already did it.  But I don’t do it to prove points, I do it to meet people and see how people think. The experience with T Rogers was good. I ain’t talk to him since then. For a month after that, since then. Just to hear him, I’m gonna call him tomorrow just to hear him snap, cause that n***a is so smart. If you don’t know him you probably wouldn’t understand.

Planet Ill: You travel from hood to hood. And obviously there are certain commonalities that go through each one. What are some of the differences that occur when you travel up top, down South and out West?

Waka Flocka Flame: When I come down South, we got more hospitality. Like, “Yo what’s up how ya’ll doing?” I fuck with you, you fuck with me. When I go to New York, it’s more aggressive, like “What’s up n***a? What’s up bruh, what’s up homie, how you doing?” Businesswise, “How you doing sir, I work for___” Like it’s more aggressive. California is more aggressive but it’s like give you the opportunity. Like, “I’m laid back, I can get on that shit if you want me to. Give me the opportunity, I can show you something.”

Planet Ill: What have you learned in this business that wasn’t apparent to you before?

Waka Flocka Flame: That you’re like a prostitute that doesn’t have to have sex. That’s what I learned.

Planet Ill: If there was anything you could change about being in this business what would you change?

Waka Flocka Flame: I would like to change a couple of people in a couple of high places and put a couple of real people in them high places. So we could have a lot of opportunity shit going on.

Planet Ill: What is the ugliest thing that fame has shown you?

Waka Flocka Flame: Arrogance. Fame will show you a lot of arrogancy. I don’t even know if that’s a word, but arrogance. Like too much arrogance like, “Oh I’m the shit!” Back high like this. You think you Moses, you can walk on water. Like, “Don’t touch me, I don’t want to take no pictures.” Wow, you feel like that my G?

I could be eating a full course meal, if somebody say Wak you want to take a picture? Let’s do it, click. That’s how I’m rocking I’mma always do that. If I’m eating and 30 people want to take a picture, I’mma take a picture with them 30 but if 30 more come, yo I gotta finish my food. Then they’ll respect that, like aight cool.

Planet Ill: Is there anything you would like to say that you haven’t gotten a chance to get out about Flock, that maybe people wouldn’t ask you or you don’t get the chance to share?

Waka Flocka Flame: People never ask me like, “Ay Wak, you ever went to church?” Yeah I went to church when I was like an usher in the church. I went to choir in the church. And I went to church every Sunday.

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