Nipsey Hussle thinks his “debut” album, Victory Lap, is the best rap album of 2018, which is understandable. For one, it’s his album; if he didn’t believe in it there’d be a real problem. However, it’s also nominated for exactly that award for the 2019 Grammy Awards, which is why Billboard gave him a platform to explain his reasoning for believing so strongly in himself and his product.
However, despite the recognition he’s received for Victory Lap, Nipsey insists he had humbler goals in mind from the outset. “I wasn’t trying to make the album of the year,” he insists, “I was just trying to make something that would stand the test of time.” To do that, he says, he focused on “referencing classic moments in hip-hop.”
That’s why he thinks that his album holds up against the best of the year, despite the fact that “all the greats, all the up-and-coming artists, everybody dropped!” Even with all the stiff competition, however, he thinks that Victory Lap “was classic hip-hop right there. That’s what our genre sounds like [at its best],” because “if you really listen to the album with a fine comb and listen to the layers of production on the album, it’s deep. If you took the words off, you can appreciate the music. The production was just great music.”
Nipsey Hussle is a Warner Music artist. .
