It’s been a huge year for the Brooklyn rapper Desiigner, coming from seemingly nowhere to hitting the top spot on the Billboard chart, signing to Kanye West’s GOOD Music in February, and enjoying increasing fame and attention across the globe. Breaking into the mainstream with the hugely popular Panda, he was initially considered something of a carbon copy of Atlanta rapper Future, including the famous Panda lyric “I got broads in Atlanta” (perhaps famous because it’s one of the only decipherable lines on the song.)
Now, in a funny turn of events, Desiigner has now admitted that the song isn’t entirely accurate.
In an interview with Billboard he admitted that he’d never actually been to Atlanta, simply to the airport, and that these ‘broads in Atlanta’ was one person he met on Facebook.
“We never met in person, she just said she was from ATL, so I was like, ‘All right — I got broads in Atlanta.’ It’s real life, you feel me? I put real-life shit in my songs.”
Well that makes sense. Right? One girl, two girls, real life, Facebook it’s all the same thing. Right? Hip-hop’s core has always been about truth, integrity and individuality, so even though this verse isn’t a huge deal, there is still a lack of trust between the artist and the listener.
Instances of this happening in hip-hop’s early days would have had Desiigner branded as a ‘studio gangster’, someone who doesn’t really live the life they claim to be living. But with the genre evolving so much in the past 20 years and with the new mainstream rap focussing less on biting and authenticity, this is something that the average everyday listener probably won’t care about, something that Desiigner will easily shake off, continuing to dab another day.
Image: The Fader