Twitter can put a rapper’s business into the public eye in a matter of seconds. These days hip-hop cats are more likely to fire off at each other on social media over private meetings. Look what happened between Soulja Boy and Riff Raff in the last 24 hours. The two wild boys seemed to be on good terms over the past year. They’ve recorded songs and videos together and the former G’s to Gents contestant repped SODMG pretty damn hard (pause). It wasn’t until Raff went public about his new record deal with lowkey-producer-turned-household-name Diplo that Soulja Boy began a series of Twitter disses against his former “artist.” We were shocked to see this very public fall out occur. Late last night, after a photo shoot, we hopped on the phone with Maddecent’s newest signee for the full story.
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VIBE: Obviously, the world Twitter world went crazy yesterday when they saw you and Soulja Boy going at it. What happened, bro?
Riff Raff: Well actually, I thought everything was cool because like it’s been three, four months since Diplo hit me up and we were talking about [collaborations and a signing], and today it was just revealed that we sealed the deal. I haven’t been putting SODMG with my name in the past five months. I took it off my Twitter and my YouTube, stuff like that, but me and Soulja Boy would still randomly talk to on the phone, or whatever. I was just in Vegas, and everything was cool, and I was ‘Hey, I’m doing this stuff with Diplo, but I could still do shit with you too,’ so you know everything was supposed to be still cool. So that was just was at the Electric Daisy Festival, and we were talking and we were supposed to meet, and he said to come through, we can knock something out, work on some videos, all this shit.
So I called him and he’s not answering. My manager and my other man, who’s done multiple videos for him, said ‘Hey Soulja Boy unfollowed you on Twitter.’ And I was like ‘Nah, I just spoke to him, everything is cool. Everything is cool.’ And then I hadn’t heard anything from him [for the rest of the day]. So all of a sudden today I get a phone call from my people at FUSE TV asking me about this whole Soulja Boy thing and they’re telling me that he’s putting me on blast on Twitter, and I’m like ‘No way.’ So I go on there to check, and I’m like ‘Okay…let me see where this is going, because the last time I talked to you…everything was cool.’ You weren’t upset about the Diplo situation. Everything was fine. So I started thinking, maybe someone said something and pissed him off or somebody hacked his account, whatever!
There were multiple, multiple things, slandering me, saying I’m a coke head, and I’m like ‘This is some animosity. What’s he so angry about?’ He didn’t even get that mad when Lil’ B had stopped–when Lil’ B had stopped pushing SODMG and he didn’t even get mad about that, so I’m thinking he’s playing a game now, and he’s treating me like I ain’t fully in the game yet. There was a lack of promotion with Soulja Boy [involving certain projects with him], and that’s just like with anything, if you have a job or anything, if somebody’s not treating you properly, whether you in a relationship, or anywhere in life, if they’re not treating you right, you gonna go find it somewhere else, or go with your other options where there is more money, it’s as simple as that. And I understand that, so I was giving him the benefit of the doubt, but he was coming at him with animosity, I’m like ‘Damn! Soulja Boy, why you mad at me?’ You never did anything to me, I never did anything to you, but I would never expose you not doing anything for me, but now that you’re saying [all this online, now] I will say something like ‘Yeah, you right!’ You gonna tell people that you never did anything for me? You damn right! [Soulja] never did anything for me. Like how would you feel if an MVP franchise type player ended up on your “label?” You can only judge how good you’re going get treated by how that person has treated other people or their main player, especially by the main player. That’ll be like LeBron James going around in big labels, with Versace on everyday, driving around in big cars, getting picked up in helicopters, that makes you go, “Damn! I wanna be on that team! They’re popular over there!”
So if he’s saying that I’m this and I’m that, I didn’t do this, he was never in SODMG, and I’m claiming him–I haven’t been claiming you or SODMG for the last three to four months, so what are you talking about? So I was like fuck it because I don’t want to be promoting somebody who’s bad-mouthing me. I dropped multiple videos. I dropped so many videos. I would drop a video, and he [would act like he didn’t even care]. On that episode–my manager shot it for me–that episode where he was giving me the chain, I mean even Tyler, the Creator] was in there–he didn’t even include my name as a link on the YouTube.
Why did Soulja Boy say that the chain was fake? That part I didn’t get because we all saw in the video that he gave it to you, and today he was saying it was fake…
Exactly. On his YouTube page, he has erased every last video that had me in it.
That’s crazy. So Riff Raff, is there honestly something that happened to cause him to flip out?
The video that had me, him and Tyler, which he gave me the chain, had like close to 2 million plays, and he erased that video and my name wasn’t even on the title, he didn’t put my name in the title. I have no idea. He wasn’t doing anything for me, he wasn’t helping me. He would randomly tweet me, and sometimes he would tweet me to get on the phone to deal with shit, but then he would…
My manager did plenty of videos for him and those were my people [helping him out], and then he wants to go and unfollow me and him on Twitter. I can’t read this dude’s mind. I’m not going to talk down or slander him even though he did that to me, but that’s fine, I don’t care. All care about is how [I’m doing] in my world. With the Diplo situation, that did it for me. I’m not hurting anybody. If he wants to say I didn’t help him, that’s cool, fine.
How did you initially meet Soulja Boy and get down with SODMG?
I’ve always been a fan of his, and shit like that, from way back, I’ve always liked his music. It’s cool if he’s mad, I don’t care, but we linked up through Twitter and I think it was a couple of years ago, and then we was just like…I don’t know…we just exchanged Twitters back and forth and then one day, we followed back and forth, and it was like–and I was still new to this shit–‘Yeah, what’s up with SODMG, [I want to be in it]”, and he was like “Cool”. And you can see it in that video where he’s like ‘And here’s the newest, welcome my newest artist’
Yeah! Soulja Boy made it seem like you guys met in real life! Were you guys actually hanging out in real life at that point?
At the very, very beginning, no, I was in Baltimore, but when I came to California, I think it was actually January 1 of this year, and we actually started kicking it, but we ever really super hung out, but we recorded a few songs, and that Versace song.
Was Soulja Boy somebody you considered your friend, or was it more so just business?
Well, I was always a low-key [acquaintance, I guess,] because people would always–like I said, you gotta look at other people’s situations with them, is anybody else running around with them signing deals? Is anybody else shining? But I’m not the type of person to say that somebody owe me something. I’m the type of person that with my experiences, you keep promoting me; I’ll keep promoting you, pushing you. I could make the money on my own. So our friendship never got into a…I mean I don’t want to speak for anybody else’s relationship, but he never did anything for me. If he felt like he did something for me, then fine, whatever, thank you, whatever it is you did, that’s cool. I’m not going to say this, I’m not going to say that. I’m not going to bring up his personal, or false information, talking about doing cocaine and stuff. That’s his problem if he wants to take it there. I’m not tripping. We never got into a full friendship like that. I was around him. But I’m just that kind of person; I’m like that with everybody. Whatever. It’s all good.
So all those times you were with him, the vibe was cool? There didn’t seem to be any animosity. You guys would smoke, hang out, record music together, it was a cool vibe at least?
Yeah no, like there was never no animosity. Like I said, a few days ago we had just spoke about it, at midnight, in Vegas at Daisy, we had a meeting, him, me and Max, and said everything was cool. And I was like, “You know I could still push you and push SODMG, but I’m over here doing this thing with Diplo because that’s what’s making the money, but I could still bump with you too, like I’m not tripping”. The fact that he’s burning bridges…I’m not mad about it, because at the end of the day, it is all business.
It was just so shocking to see him so pissed off.
I have no idea. Because when Lil’ B stopping pushing SODMG and stopped promoting them, and I haven’t seen him do anything with SODMG in the last four months, so for him to bring that up today? He’s bringing that upon himself. I sometimes had [more views online] than him.
How did you meet Diplo?
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How did you meet Diplo?
That was over a year ago, but me and Diplo had meet [each other before] and we had just started talking and agreed upon so many things, and we just became friends at first [we weren’t even talking about music yet]. It’s always better when somebody comes at you with something. The Diplo situation just played better and once he heard that I actually hadn’t signed anything with Soulja Boy and the things he said we were going to do but didn’t work out, [Diplo] was like ‘Oh shit!’
It seems like Diplo really sees something special in you. He saw some talent in you.
Yeah, of course, I mean. An intelligent mind… we just happened to have met each other by nature. He saw the things I was trying to do, and it was through friends, so it was on a personal level because we became friends. We got some drinks, hung out, worked in the studio, did some fun, dumb ass shit. There was a trust. He’s not sketchy to me. With Soulja Boy there was signing paperwork, “I’ll get you a chain,” we got a huge red carpet, talks of TMZ being there…
So Diplo really signed you for $3 million? I was looking at your Twitter bio and it said you got a $3 million deal…
Yeah, yeah [but there’s more to it than that, for sure]. It’s a part of a budget. It’s more about feeling secure. I’ve seen the beats he’s made. It’s not a competition; it’s more like a Dr. Dre and Eminem thing. If someone sees you as a competition, [it may not work].
Yeah, like he’s produced work for Beyoncé…
Yeah, from Justin Bieber to Usher. So when you’ve got all these artists, it’s like gateway to success. He’s got all these connections I could’ve never got myself. People could be like ‘He’s got this crazy white boy, things are going to get crazy…!”, but it’s all tied in because it’s all these [affiliations] I could never get myself. Like, if it was just me talking firsthand in a court house, just got convicted of a crime, you can’t just be a criminal talking, but if you got the best lawyer, people may understand a little better. It’s like having Johnny Cochran.
Even before him, you were already building our own movement on Twitter and YouTube. You were building your own things…
That’s why I don’t understand this whole Soulja Boy thing because he never did anything for me. He wasn’t promoting me, so I don’t know why he could just go around saying whatever.
Do you think somebody told him something? Something got in to his head?
I have no idea. I may have people so many in his ear, telling him this and that, and everything else. That ‘s the thing: I can’t speak on his behalf. I really don’t care. It really doesn’t matter. I don’t know who said what but it’s already too little, too late, I’ve already been doing some other things, so I can’t even speak on SODMG. He never attempted to be or promote anything I’ve been. It’s been my managers. He doesn’t owe me anything. Today was like the final straw, burning the bridge. I’m not mad at him. I’m not tripping. I’ll still do something with him.
Now what’s really up with that chain he gave you? Is that chain really yours? What happened to it?
That’s the thing. Now that he’s brought it up. Yeah he did take it. Took it back. Kept it. Whatever you want to say. The fact that he said the chain was fake is news to me, since I didn’t buy the chain. You [Soulja Boy] bought the chain, so that just makes you look bad. For anybody that come around the label, or SODMG, if somebody does something for you and take sit back, [that’s tells you something]. You don’t want to be a part of that? That just makes the next person think twice about coming around. That should make somebody else question the next time they come around because I’ve got plenty of chains. If you’ve seen firsthand all the shit I can do, but if you’re doing that shit to somebody like me? Who are you signing over there?
You got people like Action Bronson and Alchemist hollering at you to do records. That says something.
Yeah, those are my homies. Those are the real homies. For [Soulja Boy] to come at me like that is crazy. I just try to stay far away from stuff like that as much as possible.
Yeah, man, fuck all that. But on a more positive note, I think if you and Alchemist did a track together that would be crazy. He’s such a legendary producer.
I’ve done a freestyle that Alchemist [should release]. He might drop it. We got a few more songs coming out…and my whole YouTube page…has come close to 17 million plays in the last month, since my old account got shut down for explicit content that was about 11 million, and all the videos that Soulja Boy had taken down of me and him was like another 4-5 million. It’s all good and we’re like keeping it in the family, started a new Twitter. Doing my logo thing. All the bad shit that’s happened to me…it’s like all the bad shit is getting cut off in my life, and the good shit is building up.
Definitely. You think you’ll be putting out a solo mixtape before the summer’s over?
Oh yeah, I got new mixtapes coming out, one with Hologram Panda. That’s Dan Breeze, and me that one’s coming out, you can ask people about it! People can’t step to me and say it’s not true, because it is true. The Dan Breeze, the Hologram Panda. I also got mixtapes with Dame Grease and Harry Fraud on the way.
Also, today you released a crazy video. That Versace video…
Oh, that “Versace Python Freestyle”? That’s nothing! We did that in like five minutes. We released another video yesterday; I dropped like three videos in the last fifteen hours, since last night. I guess they were getting mad [that] I was dropping videos and not promoting them. The whole world started like shifting and reversing and then Soulja Boy is gonna get mad.
That video made so much noise. Were you really sniffing yay in that video or was that something else? What was that Oxy? Meth? What was that shit?
Umm… yea man it was some rice. You got to bring [the house down] sometimes. Left and right. I don’t know why people got so mad about it. People can drink alcohol all day, smoke weed all day, and its cool but as soon as I do a little rice, people start tripping. People start calling me Charlie Sheen Jr., and stuff.
HAHA! But how far are on you on the album?
That’s an on-going process. We got over…I don’t even want to say how many songs we got, but at least 15 to 20 just being processed. It’s not about just dropping an album. I want to drop like the best songs and then have the right, proper features whether it is Usher, Justin Bieber, [or] whatever. Whatever is on my album, it probably won’t come out till like January, but I want it to be like a perfect album where every song is like a single.
Anything else you want to get out before we wrap it up?
Uh, nothing much else man, just keeping it positive. I try not to slander nobody, talk down to nobody. I got too much shit to be doing that to anybody. That’s about it.
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