Joey Bada$$ Is Chasing His ‘EGOT’ Dreams: ‘That’s Something I See in My Future’

Last year, Joey Bada$$ stampeded his way back into rap contention when he released his third studio album, 2000. 

Dubbed a sequel to his lauded 2012 mixtape 1999, the album showcased the now-28-year-old’s growth as a charismatic rhyme slinger. While his steely Brooklyn bravado outclassed the competition as proven in “One of Us” and “Make Me Feel,” Joey also unapologetically unpacked his trauma and grief (“Survivors Guilt” and “Head High”), making 2000 an indelible hip-hop gem last year. 

“I recently successfully grieved, if that makes sense,” Bada$$ says retrospectively. “I can’t tell you what it looks like for me now. I don’t even want to think about grieving anything or anyone right now, but my approach now at this age would be more direct and head-on. I buried things and would substitute grieving time with work and anything that would take my attention away from grieving a loved one or a situation. Now, I would try to do my best to deal with it.”

And though Joey enjoyed his 2022 wins — including rave reviews on the acting side for his roles on popular TV series Power Book III: Raising Kanan and Wu-Tang: An American Saga, he’s ready to take a sharp pivot musically. His first step was releasing “Fallin’,” a one-off single glazed with R&B sensibilities, last month. After flexing his rap muscles last year, Joey slows the tempo down on his new release, providing a slick offering about falling deeply in love. Though he’s clearly in his R&B bag, he does a great job keeping his rap base enthralled with a meaty verse, rapping “They say all is fair in love and war and I ‘fraid to risk it all/ F–k it, if I trip and fall, barely do I miss your call.”

Below, Joey speaks to Billboard about piecing together his third album 2000, almost making an entirely different album, his EGOT aspirations and more.

You’re already dropping new music after releasing an acclaimed album last year. Where’s the urgency coming from?

Well, it doesn’t feel like urgency on my end. It’s just hunger and excitement. It’s more activation. Prior to 2000, it was a five-year gap. So, 2000 has me feeling activated again. There was a lot of music that I made at the time … but to me it was never a dull moment. I was working on our craft the whole time. Now, I’m feeling activated again and feeling excited about making some music. I got so much music. Imagine taking five years off?

Last year, J.I.D said you were sitting on the album and keeping it hostage before releasing it.

Well, respectfully, that was a whole different album. I played him 50 different albums. It was more so a matter of me deciding what I actually wanted to do. What really happened was I put out All-Amerikkkan Badass, experiment with some new s–t, and still doing the s–t that comes naturally easy for me. But by the time I looked up, I’m like, “Oh s–t, five years went by and we lost two.” All this time had elapsed.

So I felt like it was only right that I had to feed my core [fanbase], because they kept me afloat. Even with so much time away, I was able to still do shows and pack them out. Like, my streaming was never down, so I felt like it was only right. I feel eager to tell people something new. All these experiments that I’ve been working on in that block of time. 

I read that while you were making 2000 you and almost made an album similar to K Dot’s Mr. Morale and The Big Steppers. How true is that? 

Yeah — so around that time I was working on an album called Survivor’s Guilt. It was more moving in that direction, [around] the title track of that. You know, after a while I just wasn’t solid about that music anymore. I don’t want you to think I’ve been sad this whole time. I want [fans] to see me grow, and where I’m actually at now. It just became a matter of me spiritually, how I didn’t align with that music anymore. So I pivoted from the more therapeutic introspective sound.

Which records were most therapeutic to you? 

Definitely “Survivor’s Guilt” and “Head High” for sure. “Survivor’s Guilt” was a moment — and I recorded that song [probably around] 2020 and had that for like three years. 

That was a lot of heavy s–t.

It wasn’t the session that was crazy, it was going through it that was crazy. And I wrote that in the midst of the pandemic. I just thought about the concept of being rich, and just the spoils of living a life of luxury, and where that takes a person. I just kinda expanded on this idea — and then it just became a song about me grieving the loss of my brother. I didn’t intend to write about that. I actually didn’t write it — it came from the heart. It was one of those things with me just rehearsing some lines in the shower, going over it in my head, and then I went downstairs and it was a piecing back-and-forth type of thing until I had this whole verse. 

I didn’t even know how much bars it was, because I was just spitting from the spirit — from my heart — and it was magical. I remember following that experience, for the first time I went to get a reading from a psychic. And one of the things she told me — which was crazy to me — I told her about the spirits that are following me and my angels, and at the end of the session she asked me if I wrote a song about him. I feel like I finally mended my heart with that song, when it came to that situation with my brother and how I felt about it. 

How do you find that balance in being away, but also finding the urgency to be present and release music constantly?

I’m still trying to figure it out. You talking about, “Why you so ready already?” I’m tryna stay consistent. It’s a balance. I feel like that was successful for me, especially when I started in the blog era in the early 2010s. Like that was good, that was cool — drop a tape, take some years and come with another joint. Yeah, people were waiting for that. But the climate of the game’s so different. Like, now it’s about numbers on the board. It’s like, “Let’s go to the gym and put some shots up and whatever sticks, sticks.” I’m taking so much time to record quality s–t, so I’m able to put it on rapid-fire if that makes sense. 

Do you look at features differently now versus when you were coming up?

Well when I was coming up, features got way more … people wouldn’t care if the dude wasn’t Jay-Z to get on a record like mine. But now I look at it as an opportunity to keep the ball rolling. Also, when we was young, we had people hit my phone [while] we at the studio. If people sending me records, it’s like, “OK, cool. Let’s get to it and send it right back out.” It still feels like work, but I’m more engaged and I’m more in it, too … I’m trying to get to that 2000s Lil Wayne. It’s just all hunger and excitement right now. I’m outside.

You’ve worked with Larry June twice this past year. What makes him a unique artist to work with? 

One, June got incredible consistency. Two, like myself, June has a street core. That’s somebody that has hustled and he continues to send that message. [starts rapping June’s song] “That’s a solid plan.” He’s so simple that it’s hard as f–k. There’s s–t that you’re gonna be replaying. These are the types of messages you want to have buried into your self-consciousness. I feel like June has figured out how to speak to them, and he’s constantly giving you that concept. I’m even at that point in my career I’m thinking, “Who could I make a collaboration album with?” And he’s somebody that’s on my radar [for that]. 

Do you still want a Grammy?

I don’t. I’d appreciate one. I just look at it as something that’s recognition. When I was younger, I felt it was an accolade that I needed to validate myself. I’m actually very firm on the idea we [as Black people] need [our own] Grammys. We need to take it back. We had The Source Awards and s–t like that — because it really comes down to misrepresentation. That’s something that we’ve been dealing with for a long time — and, unfortunately, we’re going to have to continue to deal with it until we take the wheel. It would be cool. I got a spot in my house where it’d look real nice. 

I heard you were interested in playing Big L in a biopic. Is that something you’re still trying to do?

I’ve definitely been approached about that. I didn’t say I’d want to play him. I think the question somebody had asked me was, “Who was somebody I like?” And I feel like Big L is somebody — because coming up, I always got good comparisons with him. Honestly, I don’t want to play a rapper. Even with Wu-Tang, it was a hesitation for me — but I did it, really because I have such admiration for RZA. But I want to stay clear of things that are actually too similar to who I actually am. 

Seeing BMF and Ghost, where does Raising Kanan rank?

It’s the best show. I think BMF is a great story, but I think we got more talent at Raising Kanan. We got an Oscar winner and a Tony winner who spearheads the show. They got Oscars at BMF? 

I know you said you don’t care about Grammys, but you starred in Two Distant Strangers, which won the Oscar for best live action short. Has the thought of EGOT crossed your mind?

Absolutely. Before I even got the Oscar, it’s funny, because that was gonna be one of my album titles at one point. It was gonna be The EGOT. That’s definitely something that I see in my future that I feel that I will manifest. 

When I got the Oscar, the next day I was sitting on my couch and there was a whole bunch going on and I just needed to meditate. I could get a Grammy too! I wasn’t striving for a f–king Oscar — it just came.

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