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What more can I say, I just love this kid!

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INTERVIEW VIA MTV.COM

‘I’m just stressing myself out trying to do something amazing,’ Joey BadA$$ tells Mixtape Daily of his upcoming debut mixtape 1999.
By Rob Markman (@RobMarkman)

Fire Starter: Joey BadA$$
As a youngster, Brooklyn MC Joey BadA$$ was baffled by Nas’ 1994 classic Illmatic. The iconic album cover featured a childhood photo of the then 20-year-old God’s Son. “I seen him as a kid and I thought he was a kid rapping, I was just confused,” Joey told Mixtape Daily. After all, how can a kid that young deliver such impactful and insightful records like “Life’s a Bitch” and “The World Is Yours”?

Somewhere along the way, Joey’s initial confusion must have led to some sort of inspiration, because at 17 years old, he has already delivered a single that seems to surpass the subject matter of other spitters in his age bracket. The militant-minded “Survival Tactics,” borrows its instrumental from the 1998 Styles of Beyond song of the same name. Joey impressively starts out spitting, “N—as don’t want war, I’ma Martian with an army of Spartans/ Sparring with a knife in a missile fight.”

The track’s gritty video shows Joey and his partner-in-rhyme Capital STEEZ marching from their grimey Brooklyn hood to Wall Street while wearing animal masks and army jackets. On March 21, MTV News featured Joey on the Get in the Game segment of “RapFix Live.” After previewing a portion of the “Survival Tactics” video, members of Odd Future agreed that Joey “can rap,” even if a disruptive Tyler, the Creator downplayed the quality of the visuals. Expecting some pushback from the renegade group, Joey came out of the gate hurling insults at OF producer Left Brain, and Left Brain fired back. The incident was billed as beef on media websites and message boards, but Joey writes it off merely as playful banter. “I felt like that was set up,” Joey told MTV News. “I felt like y’all tried to set us up for beef.”

Still, it has been all love for Joey, who is currently in his junior year at Edward R. Murrow High School in Brooklyn. Joey BadA$$ says that he’s been rapping since the womb and credits his parents’ affinity for hip-hop with shaping his musical tastes. “I was 2 years old and I knew the whole Biggie ‘Hypnotize’ song,” he boasted.

Influenced by the likes of the Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac, Joey began to take rapping seriously as he got older. Now he is the stand-out among his Progressive Era crew, a collective of 18 rappers, producers, graphic designers and studio engineers. The young man’s buzz even caught the attention of Mac Miller, who featured Joey on “America,” a track off of his recently released Macadelic mixtape.

All this and Joey hasn’t even dropped his first mixtape, though he estimates that 1999 will come shortly. The recent attention has him ready to step up. “Now I feel like I gotta give them something greater,” he said. “I’m just stressing myself out trying to do something amazing.”

Check out this gorgeous film that my friend Stephane Ashpool from Paris initiated! I love how certain things like basketball are universal despite race, language, religion, sex and age.

*STEPHANE ASHPOOL & VASHTIE (October 2007, Amsterdam – in front of Patta)

Pigalle Paris _ Nike Stadium / ‘BARBES BASKETBALL’ from PIGALLE PARIS on Vimeo.

Pigalle Paris has set up the ‘AMATEUR BASKETBALL’ project. The aim of which is to support basketball teams having a strong sporting and social background.

For their first initiative Pigalle Paris has chosen their local team Goutte d’Or Basket Ball, from nearby Barbès, to remake their outfits. This team which hasn’t stopped moving up in the rankings now has first class sports equipment as well as a well defined graphic identity.

Stephane Ashpool ( Pain O chokolat / Pigalle ) who initiated the project, has collaborated with the Dutch film maker Paul Geusbroek ( Cake Film ) on a video made in Barbès which documents the unique energy of this multiracial neighbourhood.

For the initial project Pigalle Paris has been powered by Nike Stadium Paris and Nike Bowery New York.

Big Thanks : Team Barbes, Jessica Boukris, Julien Cahn, Heron Preston, Massaer N’diaye, Christopher Isenberg, Piero Preitano, Nicolas Choyé.

Director: Paul Geusebroek
Cinematographer: Menno Mans
Creative Consultant: Stéphane Ashpool
Procuder: Marc Madeleyn @ Cake Amsterdam
Editor: Rigel Kilston
Sounddesign: Niels de Otter @ Audentity (NL)
Coloring: Joppo @ De Grot (NL)

pigalleparis.fr/
nikestadiums.com/
cakefilm.nl/

Special thanks to John Geiger who asked me to do this episode with him.

Sookie, sookie now. I can’t wait to share the full video with you guys, as well as the behind the scenes stuff of course.