We want to like Miami rapper Jacki-O. We dig her tattoos, her spitfire raps, and her scrappiness in her attempts to bounce back from a checkered past that includes a shoplifting charge and personal bankruptcy. And though she was once poised to become as famous as Trina, she lost her major-label deal in 2005.
Just as well, though, considering that label was the now-defunct TVT, which ex-signees Pitbull and Lil Jon publicly derided until its demise. And Jacki-O's been doing fine on the independent hustle, releasing a series of mixtapes and a 2009 full-length album, Lil Red Riding Hood, on her own label, Jack Move Entertainment.
Still, she may be going about the wrong way for drawing attention to her latest upcoming projects, a new mixtape named after notorious cocaine queen Griselda Blanco, and her second book, an autobiography. (The first book was a 2008 novel called Grown & Gangsta, which was well-received in urban fiction circles.)
In a recent interview with XXLmag.com, she decided to go in on DJ Khaled.
"I have a problem when the DJ feel like he more powerful than the artist and I think that's the stance that he takes when it come to this music and it's just ridiculous, so I do have a problem with him. It's not just me, but a lot of people do. Maybe they think it and don't say it but I choose to say it because I feel like it's an injustice and it's not right and it's not fair, so I'm callin' [Khaled] out on it... On air, he not even sayin' the hoods right, he saying the hoods wrong! His syllables is wrong when he shoutin' out the cities, and the hoods...it's crazy [you can tell that] he not from Miami... We accepted you in our city and you were chosen to rep our city and then you get in office and you flip the script, that's crazy!"
Hmmmm, let's see. Practically all of DJ Khaled's entire existence is devoted to shouting out the 305. His new album, Victory, includes appearances by everyone from South Florida stars like Pitbull, Rick Ross, and Ace Hood on down to street favorites like Ball Greezy, Ice Berg, and Gunplay.
In the end, it comes off as sour grapes, and we'll have to call this DJ Khaled: 1, Jacki-O: 0. However, we are still looking forward to her mixtape, Jacki-O as Griselda Blanco, which is due out soon but has no cemented release date yet.
