Gillie Da Kid recently revealed he has no plans of returning to his career as a rapper. The 39-year-old took it a step further and said there is an age limit on rap as a whole.
“F**king right there’s an age limit to rap,” Gillie told Wallo and 03 Greedo during the Friday (May 12) episode of Million Dollaz Worth Of Game. “If you ain’t poppin’ by a certain age, let that s**t go. Motherf**kers be like all the time, ‘Yo, Gil, your platform crazy. This the perfect time, drop something now.’ Shut the f**k up, man. F**k is you talkin’ about? Do I look like a n***a that’s holding onto yesterday, n***a, or do I look like a n***a that’s elevating and escalating, n***a?”
The Philadelphian media personality scoffed at the idea of dropping “another debut album” at 46 years old, saying that it is for those whose only skill is rapping. “F**k all that. I got bigger and better s**t that I’m gon’ climb and try to climb and get to,” he continued. “I’m not no ni**a that’s trying to live no ‘Throwback Thursday,’ man. If you ain’t got no traction at all by a certain age and you still doing this s**t. Loser!” Check out the full episode below.
Earlier this year, a handful of rap’s esteemed lyricists weighed in on the subject of ageism within Hip-Hop with Dave East, Big K.R.I.T., and other artists sharing their perspectives on the relevancy and viability of artists rapping at an advanced age.
Dave East, who’s collaborated on a full-length project with 48-year-old The LOX member Styles P and has worked with Nas, who is 49, says ageism in Hip-Hop has more to do with an artist’s ability to stay creatively fresh than the metric itself.
“I feel like you get yourself old,” the Book of David rapper said. “I think Hip Hop is something you can stay young in. It’s not like basketball.”
Big K.R.I.T., another artist who’s considered an old soul, noted how genres like rock and pop view and treat their legacy acts in comparison to the younger guard and consumers in the culture. “It’s weird ’cause it is, but it’s not supposed to be,” the 36-year-old said of the specter of ageism. “Hip Hop is a youngin’ genre that we know of right now, so I think about blues and soul, and you talk about them bands they never really dissed the OGs, they never really talked down. They talked about the inspiration.”