Since dropping his self-titled debut album last summer, Rich Boy’s campaign for Southern dominance has been suspiciously quiet. But the Mobile, Alabama rapper returns this week with Bigger Than The Mayor, his new mixtape featuring appearances from Shawty Lo, Gucci Mane, Jacki-O, Trae, Lloyd and 8Ball. Here, the skinniest rapper alive breaks his silence by discussing his latest work, his relationship with super-producer Polow Da Don and his secret plans for his sophomore album.
How has the life of Rich Boy changed since you dropped your debut?
Well, you know, it’s more of a music life—more fans and that type of lifestyle. But I’m enjoying it. I enjoy the work. I’m happy that I have work to do. A lot of people wish they had this work to do.
You’ve been off the radar a bit since last summer but you’re back with your new mixtape Bigger Than The Mayor. What’s the meaning behind the title?
Actually, I had left a classroom talking to some students, some young kids in a middle school, and I left there thinking, ‘Man, when I was that age, I didn’t even know who the mayor was. But I knew who somebody like MC Hammer was.’ Artists nowadays are actually bigger than the mayor. They might not be more important but they are bigger than the mayor.
Is it true that you self-produced the whole tape?
Naw, I produced most of it but I also co-produced a lot of them with my friend Super Villain. Zaytovan, the guy who produced a lot of Gucci Mane’s stuff, did a couple of them, too. But that was it. We put the whole album together.
Polow Da Don got a lot of credit for the success of your first album. Was that why you chose to do more of the heavy lifting yourself on this - to prove you could make quality music without him?
It’s actually like I had to because Polow has been working on a lot of different things and I’ve been working on a lot of things. We just got so busy that we barely have the time to sit down together. It became a situation where I had to step up to the plate and do it myself.
There are rumors of a sophomore album starting to hit the ‘net. Can you speak on that?
Yes, it’s called Buried Alive (Zone 4/Interscope). We’re halfway done with it and my first single is gonna drop this summer after we give the mixtape some time to float around. Most definitely, this album is going to be a classic. Every beat is emotional, every verse is emotional and it’s a really passionate album. As far as getting into the music, every song is done from the heart.
Lyrically, are you still rapping about socially important issues like on your first album?
Yeah, that’s the difference between my album and mixtape. My mixtape, I came in, had fun with it and you can tell the mixtape was built for people that buy mixtapes, for people that like to ride in their cars and smoke and do whatever they do. But my album is more together as far as how I would like to see the world and how I see the problems in the world. The mixtape is a reflection of the lifestyle we live where I’m from and how we get down on an everyday basis, but my album is the reflection of how I would like to see the world. The mixtape is the cover for the book, but the album is the inside of the book and the extra content.
So, basically, from the mixtape to the album, we can still expect you to surprise us and stand apart from other Southern rappers?
All I can say is I really don’t even want to put myself in no one else’s category. And that’s all I can be. I really can’t take the credit for what everybody else is doing. I don’t want to be put in the boat with nobody. I just want to be me—I’m a standalone guy.
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