(AllHipHop News) Lil Durk is no longer part of the Def Jam roster. The current independent artist dropped his most recent project, Just Cause Y’all Waited, last month.
The commercial mixtape includes the track “Cross Roads” where Durk raps, “I’m so deep in Chicago, whoever thought I’d see France? If I ain’t have beef I think they’d be treatin’ me like Chance.” Billboard asked the 25-year-old about those particular lines.
“Just how we came up. We came up with the violence within the area of Chicago that was super bad and we were a part of. That’s when it came to stopping shows, they didn’t want us on the radio,” replied Durk. “It was hard for us to maneuver. I got the talent and every time you’d scream Chicago they’d say ‘Durk, Durk.’ But then the politics would be holding us back. That’s why I said it. His daddy in politics and my daddy in the feds.”
“Cross Roads” was inspired by the classic Bone Thugs-N-Harmony record “Tha Crossroads.” The single peaked at #1 on the Hot 100 chart in 1996.
“This when I didn’t know how to put the quality in my music so the ad libs would be loud and the tunes would be strong as hell too. Bone Thugs-N-Harmony came through the gate with it, my influence came from them,” said Durk. “I used to watch their videos as a child and be like, ‘I’m not trying to go where the f### they’re at.’ I saw the ‘Cross Roads’ video and Uncle Charles died in the yard, it was different.”
