According to Brooklyn rapper Troy Ave, he was the first independent artist from his borough to have his music bootlegged. Troy Ave shared that particular piece of information during an interview with Conspiracy Worldwide Radio.
The radio show’s host brought up Brownsville, Brooklyn rapper Ka, who sold vinyl and CD copies of his The Night’s Gambit album outside of the former Fat Beats store in July, and asked Troy Ave if he would ever consider such a move.
The Brooklyn wordsmith went on to reveal that when it concerns selling his music directly to fans, he was the first artist in New York to sell his music hand-to-hand and referred to himself as a “legend” for doing so.
Shortly after speaking on his hit-the-pavement approach to selling records, he commented on being the first independent artist in his area to be bootlegged.
“I’m the first one over there in New York to sell my music hand-to-hand and all that out the truck,” Troy said. “You know what I mean? I been doing that…Ask Ka about Troy Ave. I’m a legend out here for doing that. He’ll let you know. Yeah, I been doing that first. I’m the first artist that’s not signed from Brooklyn to get bootlegged like back when they had all the bootlegs. The bootleg CDS [were] heavy. I’m the first one to get bootlegged. So, that’s a big deal.”
With Troy Ave offering a money back guarantee on his newly-released project, New York City: The Album, and fellow artist Nipsey Hussle offering his new mixtape for $100, Troy was asked to share his thoughts on Nipsey’s marketing move.
“I like what Nipsey Hussle did,” he said. “That was a smart idea. With me though, I gave my album away free and I have it on iTunes. Cause my slogan is ‘power to the people.’ So, it’s however you want to get it…There’s some people that even downloaded it for free and then they came back, ‘Yo, I had to buy it. It was too crazy.’ So, you do what you want to do. I ain’t out here hurting. I’m getting money doing my own thing, so I ain’t worried about no record sales money.”
Shortly following the release of New York City: The Album on November 4, Troy Ave criticized a number of his fellow emcees during an interview on Hot 97. He went on to call both Kendrick Lamar and Kanye West “weirdo rappers.”
“Yeah, Kanye’s a weirdo,” Troy said. “It’s a lot of rappers that’s weirdos…I like a lot of Kendrick Lamar’s records, too. It’s a lot of weirdo rappers that’s out—It’s mad weirdo rappers. Y’all don’t understand it.”
