Westside Gunn reveals why he signed to Eminem’s “Shady Records” instead JAY-Z’s “Roc Nation”

Westside Gunn has recently sat down with Math Hoffa on the latest episode of My Expert Opinion where the Griselda rapper talked about how he made a decision to sign a contract between Eminem‘s Shady Records and JAY-Z’s Roc Nation.

“Why signing to Royce 5’9″ didn’t work out?… Royce was cool. That’s my ni–a. Still to this day. But at the same time, no disrespect to Royce, that’s my brother, being a hungry east-side Buffalo ni–a that’s trying to stop selling drugs, I got an opportunity to sign to f–king biggest artist of all time, it’s no-brainer. Because my options were Marshall or Hov. Paul Rosenberg had Shady and he had the management Goliath. So when I started going over there talking to Mike, I was going over there for Goliath. It was not even signing to Shady because I only wanted to be Griselda Records cause I was already me. This is after the FlyGod album.” said Westside Gunn.

Then he continued: “Shady, they had the movies. 8 Mile, Get Rich Or Die Tryin’. I’m thinking already ahead like ‘yo, Griselda story is…Ni–a, if they see this east-side Buffalo, we outta here,’ as long as I can get they can make this movie, it’s over, cause I know the story. I watched their stories but ni–a, I know this story. So, I’m just like, ‘let me finesse…’, like I said, Roc Nation had a the label and management and Paul had label and management. So, I’m like ‘I can sign and want to be managed by one. What the f–k am I thinking?’ I can be the first ni–a that could be signed to JAY-Z and then managed by Paul and Marshall, or I could sign to Marshall and be managed by JAY-Z. So, let me go with this movie route and all this s–t and still be backed by Hov. And that’s how I made my decision. And no disrespect to Royce but that could not happen that way doing that.”

You can watch the entire thing below:

Westside Gunn