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Success has looked different for you than what we might have wanted for someone coming up with rap-prodigy prestige.
For a long time, I didnt know if I wanted to be a rapper.
When I was in fifth grade, I was voted most likely to be president.
It doesnt surprise me nearly 15 years later that theres all this success in interdisciplinary fields.
Rap is just a medium that I use to communicate my gifts and my message to the world.
And this is my second university residency.
This is about showing people we can be limitless no matter where we come from.
What would you say your duties entail?
Its as simple as that.
The Gordon Institute was kind enough to let us use their space.
That was the last time I was on campus.
How do you feel about the current moment in discourse about safe spaces for people of color?
I get to share my perspective.
I get to give the students hope.
Last year on campus was intense, but this year people are disappearing.
A student is suing to keep from being deported.
Hip-hop is a crossroads of free expression, of the political.
How do you feel your role has changed here?I dont think that its changing at all.
I think this aligns with who Ive always been.
Ive always been outspoken on social injustices.
It doesnt take Joey Bada$$ to say that whats going on is fucked up right now.
Outside your role with Columbia, youve been working onPower Book III: Raising Kanan.
Talk to me aboutletting people believe your character, Unique, died last season.
It sounded like you were being written off the show due to clashing commitments.
I had to do a run at the same time.
Initially it was farewell to Unique.
I wouldve loved to continue, or to do the opposite of Kanye and leave while Im hot.
But I remember going to get my head casted and just being like,Oh hell nah.
Im not ready to say good-bye to this role.
I called Sasha Penn and said What can we do?
He said, Joey, dont play with me.
I was dead serious.
He said wed figure it out.
I couldnt tell the public anything.
The scheduling conflict was real.
But I already knew I was coming back when I said it.
You also recently dropped three new songs and have people on both coasts dissing you.Oh yeah.
Its been … fun.
I dont know if Rulers Back is doing everything people think it is.
None of it isreal problems.
If anything, Im flattered because I caused it.
They get to have a moment off of my moment.
I think its good for the sport of hip-hop.
This was more about a call to action to New York.
It was never no West Coast hate.
I got way too many allies on the West to just be like, Yo, eff the West.
He pulled one of thefunnier plays in beef history.For me, its all fun.
To be honest, I didnt think Rulers Back was going to get that pop in of response.
I genuinely assumed that people would be like,Oh yeah, this is Joey.
We know where hes coming from.
We know thats a Jay-Z flip.We know he got all the West Coast allies.Hes not dissing.
So thats kind of how the Cole jab came about.
But again, its all sport, man.
What sparked the thought that created the songs?I just followed my impulse.
I was tired of that.
Like, I just want to rap.
I aint tell nobody.
I just put it up.
That was the beauty of it.
You were talking about a call to action for New York.
Are you a sexy drill-music guy?I love the sexy drill stuff.
I love Cash Cobain and Chow Lee.
I take it in doses but I definitely vibe out to it.
Theres talks of me and Cash Cobain working together.
You might see that in the future.
Youre still seen as this boom-bap protector figure.
How do you feel about that?I know, its weird.
I think thats why I show up a lot in these multidisciplinary areas.
Im constantly having to show people that they dont know me.
People think of me in this pop in of box.
But even musically I feel like I have so much more to show.
Its partially my fault.
Sometimes I get caught up in,This is what they want from me.
Thats what Rulers Back, Sorry Not Sorry, and Pardon Me were about.
But I have a whole album Ive been working on for the last two years thats completely different.
Rulers Back was kind of a departure from the sound Ive been working on.
Let me get loose real quick.
If 1 Train was being made in 2025, who would you cast?J.I.D and Denzel Curry.
Last year, Eric Adams christened Joey Bada$$ Day.
Ive never spoken to anyone who gets one of these.
What do you get?
How does it work?
Do you keep the day forever?Honestly, I have no idea.
When I showed up to that event, I didnt even know I was getting honored.
They surprised me with that.
Im at my desk right now with the proclamation right here.
December 20 is Joey Bada$$ Day.
My birthday is January 20.
If I got to choose, I wouldve made it my birthday.
This year Im going to have to call Eric Adams like, Yo, what we doing?
Wild time for that one onmayoral primary pollingalone.Indeed.
He wasnt at the event, respectfully.
My man is in Zero Bond cooling, getting sturdy.
