Ace Hood is No More Mr Nice Guy

We caught up with rapper Ace Hood on a fly visit through London to talk about Angela Simmons, YMCMB’s latest woes and a possible joint project with dancehall artist, Movado.

Prime Planet: You have a fairly new track called ‘We Don’t Fuck With You’, which came out after Big Sean’s ‘I Don’t Fuck With You’. Was that track inspired by Big Sean, or just pure coincidence?

Ace Hood: No, not at all… Purely coincidence… Not inspired by Big Sean at all. I had that record for a while… quite a while. Way before he actually dropped his.

Ace Hood ft. Rich Homie Quan – ‘We Don’t’

PP: Your more recent video for ‘No More Mr. Nice Guy’ is very simple, but effective. I love the drones and the bit where the gun goes off…

AH: You like that… dope, right?

PP: I love it. How much input do you have with your videos, because they are very well done, but they always have that gritty element to them?

AH: I have all input. When I went to the director I just told him that I wanted to shoot a video in my hood, but wanted it to be [obviously] a massive video and that’s exactly what we did. I was just out there for an hour. So what you’re all seeing is, I was out there for no longer than an hour or so, and I was in and out. He [the director] took little B roles detailing certain things. It was really simple.

Ace Hood – ‘No More Mr. Nice Guy’

PP: Are you still signed to YMCMB?

AH: Yes.

PP: What is happening over there at the moment, because people are leaving or wanting to leave, people are complaining about not getting paid, Lil Wayne and Birdman appear to have fallen out… they were literally father and son… Nobody wants to see that happening.

AH: You know… these are family issues. They are family issues that they are dealing with. I too hate to see Wayne and them dealing with it like that, but things happen… sometimes you outgrow certain situations, but whatever it is, I wish them the best. I pray they work it out. I grew up on the whole Cash Money era, so I would like to see them work it out [obviously]. That’s 20, 30 plus years. That’s in blood. It’s deep… deeper than rap.

PP: Are they working things out, Wayne and Birdman, are they talking?

AH: I would hope so. I can’t… you know, I’m not Wayne, so I can’t… You know… that’s all that I can say.

PP: How do you feel about people calling you underrated, how do you feel about that title?

AH: Erm… I feel like I’m great. It makes me feel great. It kind of lets me know my potential. When people state the fact that I’m underrated, it just shows you that I’m nowhere near my peak. It shows that people see me as top five in the game or as one of the elite, which I am. There ain’t no talking about it and there ain’t no explaining, it’s just about showing it and continuing to give the people the great music that I’ve been giving, and giving more of it.

PP: With ‘Hustle Hard’ being so early on in your career and with people considering it to be a classic hip hop anthem, is there pressure to release a ‘Hustle Hard’ every time you release a track?

AH: No, but I do like to make it my business to keep it along the lines of some type of substance. ‘Hustle Hard’ is full of substance. That’s why people relate to it so well, because we all can relate to wanting to get our Mum a house or your son, or daughter, needing shoes. So I do like to keep it relatable to my core fans. I don’t stress myself with trying to create a whole new ‘Hustle Hard’. A hit is a hit. I was in a totally different place in my life when I crated ‘Hustle Hard’ I can’t re-live that.

Ace Hood – ‘Hustle Hard’

PP: How comes you are always posting pictures of Angela Simmons on Instagram?

AH: [Smiles, avoids eye contact, silence]

PN And you mention her on the (amazing) ‘Truffle Butter’ freestyle that you did…

AH: [Smiles, avoids eye contact] She’s beautiful.

PP: Have you met her before?

AH: [Smiles, avoids eye contact] Have I met her before? Yeah, I’ve met her before.

PP: Have you met her before alone?

AH: [laughs, avoids eye contact]

PP: Is she your girlfriend?

AH: [laughs, avoids eye contact] Let’s just say she’s a beautiful girl… I like what she represents. I like her character…

PP: Would you like her to be your girlfriend?