YG on Past Record Deal: 'White People in Them Offices Stole From Me and It Was My Karma 'Cause I Used to Rob Sh*t'

Fresh off the release of the 4Hunnid compilation 'Gang Affiliated,' YG sat down for a new interview and opened up about navigating the industry.

March 10, 2021

Fresh off the release of the 4Hunnid compilation Gang Affliated, YG sat down for a No Jumper interview and opened up about his label troubles.

Accompanied by his 4Hunnid artists Day Sulan, Mitch, and D3, the Compton rapper revealed one of his previous record deals saw him make little in the way of money. In fact, he has accused executives of stealing directly from him, although he stopped short of saying who was guilty of such theft.

"When my shit started moving, like, my record deal was fucked up for 10 years straight," YG told host Adam 22 at the 25-minute point above. "I just got out of that shit some months ago. My shit was all bad. I never owned none of my music I put out from, fuckin', my last album back. I ain't own nothing, so I just got out of that. But like, the fact that I was in some fucked up deal, you know what I'm saying, that made me start thinking about other shit."

YG has briefly spoken about his label issues in the past, and specifically sent on a tweet about the situation in February 2020. “Dear young artist, make sure not to sign to a wack ass record label,” he tweeted. Just a year earlier, he indicated his sixth album would be his last with Def Jam. “After this album drop…I got 1 more album left,” he wrote.

YG didn’t elaborate on what his problems were with his record contract in the new conversation, but since Stay Dangerous each of his records have been released through his imprint 4Hunnid and Def Jam. He has also been signed to CTE World in the past, and has a distribution deal with Epic Records for 4Hunnid.

"I'm like, 'I ain't making no money with none of my music, I gotta do other shit.' So it turned me into this little, whatever you want to call me, like business n***a that got a brand," he continued, while discussing how he experienced some difficulty finding the motivation to work on music while in that contract. "It was fucked up. But I did a lot of, like, stealing and robbing and shit when I was young, so I look at it like that was my karma. Like them motherfuckin' white people in them offices stole from me, and it was my karma 'cause I used to rob shit a lot."

He added that in some ways the experience taught him how it feels to get stolen from, which he thanked god for. Elsewhere during the chat, YG spoke about 4Hunnid’s relationship with former signee Kamaiyah, with him explaining she wanted to leave her deal. Watch the full interview with No Jumper above.