Lil Durk has been known to be a close affiliate to Chief Keef's Glory Boys, but last week he made a similar move to Keef, signing up with yet another crew. Durk officially signed with French Montana under his Coke Boys imprint, and while the Chicago rapper is excited about his new prospects, he's looking to build his hype with mixtape before dropping his debut album.
Durk spoke to XXL about being one of the main voices of Chicago's music scene, modeling his come-up after Future, the process of signing with French, and his upcoming mixtape Signed To The Streets.
Read some excerpts from the interview below.
Tell me about the mixtape.
Lil Durk: It’s called Signed To The Streets and it’s hosted by DJ Drama. It’s gonna drop in the middle of June and I got a lot of crazy songs on there, a lot of features. I like to keep it real. I like real rap. Sometimes I play around with the futuristic and all that but I like real rap, something you can relate to.
What do you mean by “real rap”?
What people are going through today, what I’m going through, what I’m living. People can relate to other people and how they living. I’m not talking about no jumping in Ferraris.
will be your fourth mixtape. After it comes out, what’s the next step?
Just keep putting out music. Like how Future did it, he kept putting out mixtapes and building his buzz, and that’s what I’m going to do. I ain’t really thinking about no album right now because why would you put out an album when you’re not nationwide? Why even think about an album?
When you and some of the GBE guys shout out Chicago you call it Chiraq. What’s that about?
You know how Iraq is, so we just put it together. What’s going on in Chicago is the same thing that’s going on in Iraq.
Do you see yourself as one of the main representers of the Chi’s hip-hop scene?
Yea, most definitely. I get a lot of respect and response with everything I do so I know that they watching, and if I wasn’t important in Chicago, they wouldn’t be watching.
So it seems like you’ve distanced yourself a little from the other GBE guys and have grown more as your own artist and brand. What’s your relationship with them like now?
Everybody’s family, self made. [But] you gotta build your own face at the end. You going to have to put your own money in your pocket. I’m my own boss, I don’t wait on anybody, so I decided to do me. Get my own money and live it up.
You just got signed to Coke Boys. Congrats. What’s your relationship with French Montana?
That’s my homie, he’s like a big brother to me. He talks to me every day, I call him every day and talk about everything music-wise.
How did you two meet?
Actually we was just politicking through Twitter, then I came up here to get some Slowbucks gear. I started working with Slowbucks, then they introduced me to him.
What advice has French given you?
To stay at it and keep your style, and don’t try to follow other people’s footsteps.
How did he convince you to sign with him?
He called me and motivated me. He told me, like, “I’m not forcing you, but when you ready to move just holla at me.” The music and the stuff I’m doing is good, but sometimes you feel like you’re at a standstill and you just need that representative. Like you got to get embraced by somebody, ’cause at the end of the day it’s all about publicity. You’re going to need it, I don’t care who you are.
Watch Durk's video for "Dis Ain't What You Want", which will appear on Signed To The Streets, below.
