December 05, 2000
Waka Flocka Flame has said that getting shot in a robbery before the release of his debut album Flockaveli was the best thing to happen to him.
During his appearance on Club Shay Shay which premiered on Monday (January 2), Waka Flocka admitted that the car wash shooting in January 2010 needed to happen because his life was going down a frightening path.
At the time, Waka was still moving around the streets with his crew despite making millions of dollars as a rapper. According to Waka, a part of himself died that day of the shooting.
“Yeah I still go to the car wash, I know what happened, definitely, 100 percent,” Flocka told host Shannon Sharpe. “I thank God for that too. That was a blessing because that weekend, I was making like a quarter million. I was going to buy some bricks and some pounds. That’s God that stopped me. I thank God because I was arrogant as fuck.”
He continued: “It turned me dark. It turned me dark all the way. I just feel like I just wanted to just be there, beat that muthafucker up, turn hoods up and organize shit. I was bad, I thank God for that and that Waka died that day too.”
Waka continued to explain that he was a much different person during that time as he would’ve never fought for the chain that was taken from him now. He also reflected on having multiple chances to get revenge on the shooter but held off due to how big he was getting after the incident.
“The guy that shot me, I never wanted to kill him either. I had every opportunity in the world to do it. But why kill him? He made me. I’m a fucking millionaire,” Waka said before saying he never wanted an apology. “I deserved that bullet, man. I’m telling you I deserved that muthafucker. The shit I know today, I can’t be mad at nobody cause it helped create who I am today.”
Waka Flocka Flame released his debut album Flockaveli nine months after he was shot in January 2010. It debuted at No. 6 on the Billboard 200, with first-week sales of 37,000 copies in the United States led by several fan-favorite singles such as “Hard in da Paint,” “No Hands,” “Grove St. Party” and more.
As boisterous as his debut was, Waka Flocka regrets kicking off a new wave of violence with his brand of aggressive trap music. During a conversation with DJ Akademiks for his Off The Record Podcast, the Georgia native said he’s guilty of “bringing the lifestyle” into the genre.
“I was bringing the lifestyle into rap; I wasn’t supposed to do that,” Waka said. “Put it like this, I got electric wire – I’m from where electricity hang at, right? But then I finally found out I can swim in water without getting shocked. So I started swimming, ‘Oh this shit is cool, it’s happy!’ But one day I drop a plug in that muthafucka and everybody get electrocuted. So is swimming dangerous, or is what you did made me dangerous? Meaning, that people are bringing danger into a lifestyle that pulled them out of danger. So it makes it dangerous.
“So you can’t tiptoe in one and walk in the other. You gotta put two legs, two arms and ya head forward. You can’t do this and this. I can’t do it. I can’t just trust a n-gga trying to play balance street or music. Ain’t no balance, either your street or your music. That’s it.”