Boosie Badazz says his public clash with Rod Wave comes down to business, credit and respect. The Baton Rouge rapper said he feels slighted over the younger artist’s repeated use of his and Webbie’s music, claiming he was left without writer credits after the two had discussed terms.
“I feel kind of played,” he said, adding that “they didn’t even put me as the writer credits” on the record in question.
The dispute, as Boosie tells it, goes beyond a single song. He said Rod Wave has drawn on the duo’s catalog many times, and that the money attached to writer shares under standard industry contracts is minimal. “That’s pennies,” he said of the typical writer split. “Show some respect. Show some love.”
Boosie said the two had been negotiating a payment. When it was suggested the offer was 100 grand, he pushed back. “I thought we agreed at 150,” he said.
He claimed that a day later, Rod Wave went online with a post signaling he would not be paying anyone, which Boosie took as a sign the gesture was never genuine.
Still, he insisted the feud does not consume him. “It ain’t like I wake up thinking about him,” he said, describing the situation as a back and forth that simply never died down.
The beef has reached Rod Wave’s fans in personal ways. Boosie recalled a young girl approaching him in tears at an airport, pleading with him to stop.
“Boosie, leave him alone. You’re making me not like you,” she told him, according to his account. I said, ‘Okay, baby,'” he recalled.
That moment appears to have stuck with him. “I always want the younger generation to win,” he said, explaining that he sees himself as a source of motivation for young artists. But he drew a firm line on disrespect toward veterans. “I’m a real OG with this,” he added.
Boosie also addressed Lil Durk’s legal situation, a subject the duo touches on in their new music. He admitted he never had the chance to sit down and mentor Durk, recalling only a past visit when Durk came to his house to record. He was speaking, he said, on what he was seeing from the outside.
What he saw angered him, particularly the sight of someone Durk had supported taking the stand against him. “I was pissed,” he said. “I’ve been through that.” Boosie argued that the system exploits people who cooperate. “That’s how them people use you up,” he said.
He closed on a note of faith, saying that “your mouth is a powerful thing” and explaining why he avoids talking about death in his music. “I’m trying to live bro,” he said.
The conversation unfolded alongside the celebration of Boosie and Webbie’s reunion, their first joint project in 20 years.
Boosie said the reunion started at a show, where Webbie told him it was time, and the two went straight into the studio. “It was easy,” he said, describing how quickly the records came together.
Boosie is not shy about the duo’s standing. He maintained that he and Webbie are the best duo in hip-hop. “I will argue with anybody about that,” he said. “I feel like we don’t get the credit we deserve.”
He dismissed comparisons based on sales numbers, noting the pair rose during a different era. “We came up in the burning CD era,” he explained. “Most of the people who ever heard Boosie and Webbie, they first saw it on a burned CD.”
For Boosie, the true measure is live performance and longevity. He pointed to strongholds across the South and Midwest, from the Carolinas to Mississippi and St. Louis, and said a stage would settle any debate. Put any rival duo up against them, he said, “and you will see the difference.”
