Pusha T Talks Duality Of Street Metaphors & Bonds With Timbaland & Pharrell

Exclusive: Pusha T reveals why he values touring over record sales, why he's taking so long to record with Timbaland and why he doesn't gauge his success by commercial sales.

It’s entirely possible 2014 is the year of the follow-up. There’s more than a few solo efforts that premiered last year to critical acclaim that are getting the sophomore treatment, and thus, are subject to the sophomore jinx. Of course there’s Kendrick Lamar’s good kid, m.A.A.d. city, A$AP Rocky’s Long.Live.A$AP, and French Montana’sExcuse My French, but all of those guys are relative new jacks compared to “King Push.” Appropriately, King Pushis both a moniker for the beloved VA rapper and the name of the hotly anticipated follow-up to 2013’s My Name Is My Name, and as usual, the stakes have been ratcheted up a full league higher for the second solo effort than they were for the first.

Fair or unfair, we judge artists by the veracity of their second solo presentation. Did they stick to their signature sound or did they improve upon it? Did they take any chances? It proves that the first great album wasn’t a fluke, and although Push was one half of the VA supergroup the Clipse, two great solo records puts you in line to be in a different conversation with different Rap company altogether.

So in an age where brand integrity trumps artistry, Pusha T has stayed strangely authentic while winning over the wider listening public through sheer force of Rap will. It’s been fascinating to watch as he opens up to high fashion while spitting the most ruthless and multi-varied rhymes of his career. And he just continues to expand his sound through songs like “Blocka” and “Nosetalgia into “40 Acres,” which featured The-Dream and a more somber and emotional King Push ready to show there’s levels involved in taking the throne. As such, Pusha has a few king-sized thoughts in mind for the next chapter to the story of one of the most interesting Rap careers of our generation.

Pusha T Calls Nottz, Pharrell & Timbaland Legends Of Virginia

HipHopDX: The last time we spoke, you stated you were in the studio with Pharrell, so how’s King Push coming along?

Pusha T: Really good, man. I’m sort of taking my time with King Push. You know, the title is sort of a proclamation to where I feel I am lyrically in the game. So, it just needs to live up to that. And I’m just making sure that it lives up to that. So, being in the studio with Pharrell’s been good. I just left ‘Ye for about a week... a whole bunch of other guys, man. I got Reefa and Needlz, Nottz. I got some good guys, man. I got some good things in the works. And just trying to get it right. No I.D., he’s been helping me out. But, like I said, man just really trying to carve it out the right way.

DX: Speaking of Nottz, “Nosetalgia" with Kendrick Lamar was one of My Name Is My Name’s best records. How did that record with Nottz come about?

Pusha T: Um, man, I just really try to reach out to the legends of VA. And he’s a legend to me. You know, I have worked with Neptunes out of Virginia. And when we came in it was exclusively working with my team. But, I tell people all the time, the Neptunes lived three minutes to the left of me, and Timbaland lived three minutes to the right of me. As a child, I knew Tim first and things like that. So there are so many people who I wanted to work with that I never got a chance to really work with due to the fact that I was exclusively with the Neptunes at the time. So, as I’ve been working on my solo mission, I’ve been reaching out to guys like Nottz and anybody else who got the heat from around the way.

DX: It’s interesting you bring up Timbaland, because you haven’t done a solo record with him. Why hasn’t that happened yet?

Pusha T: I record in his studio, right now to this day. It just hasn’t happened, and it’s a certain expectation level too. So it’s not something that I want to rush, or just take a Timbo beat because it’s a Timbo beat—like, it’s Pusha T and Timbaland. Like, it’s a Virginia thing. I got something to kind of prove to the area. That’s my underlying motivation, and it has to be that level of right. So, we haven’t really… We talk about it all the time. I mean, he just played his album for me the other night, actually. Incredible. But, you know man, my Virginia connects. It’s weird because it’s like friendship with a lot of people. And it’s not like… Half the time we don’t even talk about music. You know, we be talkin’ about other stuff. It’ll happen when it happens, but we still all link all the time for nothin’.