Just days before American rapper Takeoff tragically died of a gunshot wound, he chatted to an Aussie radio station alongside his uncle and co-artist Quavo.
Takeoff made up one-third of Migos, a popular hip-hop group from Lawrenceville, Georgia and the trio had just released their studio album Only Built for Infinity Links last month.
The hip hop world was rocked by the death of Takeoff on Tuesday morning at the age of 28. The late rapper had been attending a dice game at the aforementioned bowling alley when an altercation occurred and shots were fired.
As per Page Six, who obtained records by the Harrison County Institute of Forensic Sciences, the late Migos rapper died of “penetrating gunshot wounds of head and torso into the arm.” According to the report, the cause of death was declared a homicide.
Just days before Takeoff’s untimely death, he and Quavo spoke with Kian and Yaz on CADA. During the chat, the men talked about their new album and their upcoming planned projects. You can listen to the interview in it’s entirety below, or read the full transcript.
We’re talking to Quavo and Takeoff. Welcome to the show, Boys. What’s happening fellas? What’s happening there? How are you doing?
Love Hip Hop?
Get the latest Hip Hop news, features, updates and giveaways straight to your inbox Learn more
Yeah, we’re doing good.
We’re doing real good, man.
First and foremost, I mean this album, 18 songs only built for [album] Infinity Links. It’s just amazing, man. Did you guys know that this album was gonna be as hot as it?
I already knew it was gonna be a smash-ass man. Put in the hard work. You know what I’m saying?
We put in hard work, a lot of hard work.
So the crazy thing about it is, 18 songs, when you guys released the track list, You don’t, you don’t hear that these days?
No. You don’t hear 18 songs in an album.
And I know obviously, you guys would’ve had to cut out a lot of, um, a lot of tracks that just didn’t make it. Did you plan for it to be this big or were you guys planning to have like 10 songs on album and you were like, No, no, no. We gotta, we gotta keep these songs on there.
Nah, man, we, we knew we had to come, You know what I’m saying? We. We, uh, you know what I’m saying? They been home before a minute, you know what I’m saying?
Mm-hmm. , we left em starving for a minute, so we had to give them a great meal. So we really wanted to do more than that, but we know 18 now. You got such a short attention span, you know, So we gave them enough, but you know enough that we, you know what I’m saying? We was outta the kitchen so long, so we had to give them a little bit amount.
I love that. That’s dope. I love that man. And boy, we love it over here in Australia. We recently found out that it’s uncle nephew, relation between the both of you?
Yeah.
Is that legit?
Yeah. Yeah, for sure.
You’re family, So three years is what separates you. How was it Takeoff growing up with your uncle, knowing he had your back the whole time?
I mean, hey man, it really felt like my brother, you know what I’m saying? I mean, you know, he was right there by my side. You know what I mean?
I wanted to find out when the duo was created, Quavo and Takeoff. Did you ever think of like, you know, other names other than just Quavo and Takeoff?
Maybe just Ew. I saw one of the songs in brackets had EW on it. Nah, that was. Originally was going to be, that was just like the moment that we wanted to create for that, uh, song hotel lobby. And um, yeah. But it’s always been a duo since we been growing up. It like just growing up, it just always been me and him just, just moving around and then us just.
Making music and making noise around the house and you know, just doing all kind of recording. And we got songs, years and years and years in our old laptop, old videos that we’ll probably release later that y’all gonna see, it’s gonna trip y’all out. That we was just always trying to. Rap and make it, Nah, Uncle Fu just come from, you know what I’m saying?
Him being uncle and me being few, It ain’t even really like no thought of name that we just gonna say, you know what I’m saying? Yeah. Like, Oh, Uncle Fu there ain’t even really no creative process. It just, that’s what it is. So yeah. Keeping it, keeping it simple and was so real quick. Yeah. I mean the relationship between uncle and, and, and few.
I mean, you give him an as whooping if he, if he’s outta line, Quavo, is that what goes on being the uncle?
Yeah. I ain’t get, Ain’t nobody give no. Nah, that’ll be an even fight. That one I wanna ask on the Joyer thing as well, Obviously, obviously myself and Keenan. We’re a duo, but Keenan’s name always comes first and everything.
When we look at Spotify and we look at the headlines. It’s always Quavo and then Takeoff. Right? How did you guys come to that agreement?
Because me and him were butting heads for a very long time. So who comes first? Yeah. Yeah, I guess cuz I’m older and Q I’m saying no, just I’m, that’s the, that cues before T and Alphabet, you know what I mean?
I like that. And that’s the same with us. Yeah. That’s Ks before y and, and I’m older as. That’s literally how we came to the agreement. Thank you. Thank you for solidifying that boys. I appreciate that.
Nah, it’s always, it don’t matter. It don’t matter. Like you seen it all over the years with the album covers and how we play around on music and who do hooks and it don’t matter, bro.
It doesn’t just have fun. It don’t matter who bring, don’t matter who. Bring that chicken home, man. Just go out and go get the kill and bring that shit to the table. We gonna all eat it. Break it.
Yeah, you know what? I agree with that. And I was gonna mention as well, when you look at a lot of jewelers in hip-hop that have, um, you know, from the nineties, uh, two thousands and then you know, further on to now, usually when it comes to a duo, there’s always a favorite and there’s always one person that’s picked over the other.
When it comes to you boys, you can’t, you can’t pick. Yeah, that’s right. It’s so equal. It’s like, it’s either both of you or none of you. And that’s, and that’s what’s what’s great about it. I mean, yeah.
But yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We do. Good man. But. Just not to take away from nobody. Do I feel like everybody, if, if you on a do or a group, you just sometimes just miss that you know, factor. So it’s always just that one, two punch. We just feel like, you know, you need, you need your left hand and your right hand in a, in a boxing mat.
If you shoot the left, you gotta shoot the right just as hard. Or you could set somebody up with left and, and, and, and haymaker ’em and knock him out with the right. It’s just all about how you wanna just set it up and, and yeah. Sure. You know what I’m saying?
So like that Quavo, I was on your TikTok the other day and I saw that, um, a freshly cooked steak came out of, came out of a golden box. While you were sitting down, everyone was singing, giving you this steak… How much did you spend on that steak, for your boy?
I don’t know, man. I think what the steak was, I don’t know. I know it. If it some things like a $10,000 steak album, I think I’m thinking might have been a thousand steak celebrating. We was celebrating for the album. Now you, I mean, why not? You know what I mean? We did good. So I got, I got gold steak and it come out with like a little, they do like a little introduction and do like a little, you know what I’m saying?
Like a little. A little song and they tell you what song you wanna play. So it was like a little cool thing. Yeah. Shout out to Miami. What’s that? What’s that? ? Nah, Poppy steak. Poppy steak man. Shout out to the thousand dollars steaks over there. Poppy’s steak. Shout. We’re gonna have to get a loan and go down to Poppy’s steak.
The price gotta go up now cause we just shouted them out. So Yeah, of course, it probably. That’s it. Maybe, we’ll, maybe we’ll get a free one cuz they shout it out on the show, so you never know.
How do you take your steak, by the way that came out medium rare, right?
No. Hell no. What? What do you I don’t like No pink. No pink. You’re overcooked. I don’t like no pink. Nah, I gotta, I gotta, I gotta say that’s a, that’s, Listen, listen, it’s gotta be media right now. Oh. But you gotta, It’s not, it’s not If you know how to season. Yeah, I guess I should do, you know how to, It’s how we, we order our steaks seasoned. Well, mm, well done, well done my body and use, but, but we tell them to leave the juices.
There’s one controversy that we face here in Australia and it’s a lot of people who like using ketchup on steak. Now I’m against that. I feel like you’re ruining a steak with ketchup. Would you ever order ketchup with your steak?
No. I can’t even see how that tastes. . That’s, that’s bad, huh? I thought, Are we talking about meatloaf right now? Meatloaf. We ain’t talking about no meatloaf. Nah, nah. No meatloaf. We’ll stay away from that strings.
Now listen you guys, I saw a video as well you once rapped a children’s book live on now you just flicked through the pages as you were rapping. Um, are we gonna see anything like that from you guys? Cause it was dope the way you did it. Are we gonna see any children hip hop stuff from you guys in the future, or Nah.
Yeah, we in the works right now.
We got some stuff going on with the animation side for the kids. You know, we love the kids. Yo, love the kids, take love the kids. We do it all for the kids.
We got our crew over here called The Wiggles. Maybe. I mean, when, if you guys ever do come back down, we could try and link you up with the Wiggles and get, get something banging over there?
Shout out to the Wiggles man. Wiggles and the Migos man. Wiggle. Let’s get it .
I DJ and I tour with a lot of artists that come down and I open up the show for. Quavo Takeoff when you guys are back in Australia. I’m gonna try and get on that tour. I’m gonna personally say the boys wanted me on there and then, and then I’ll, I’ll come to watch your guys rock out some stadiums.
Gonna make it happen, man.
What’s the most important thing about this song [Hotel Lobby] you want the Aussies to hear right now?
Oh, you know what? Do get the lobby jumper. When we say the lobby, the lobby is the club. The lobby is the house. The lobby is the room.
Where you at? The lobby is the couch. You standing on the lobby, crank that motherfucker up, turn it up, run it back again. Take this shit to the moon. Let’s go.
For more on this topic, follow the Hip Hop Observer.
