Quando Rondo admitted that he actually isn’t that fond of his debut album, QPac, which dropped in January. He explained that the album was mostly just what his label, Atlantic Records, wanted him to put out, and that he didn’t, in fact, even contribute that much of the writing.
“I’m not even going to lie to you, I didn’t really like QPac,” the rapper told HipHopDX. “That project was based on money because the label put so much money into that sh*t for no reason. Half of the songs I didn’t even write and I’m just being honest but don’t get me wrong. A lot of rappers won’t say that but I don’t give a f*ck because, at the end of the day, I’m a Crip. This is who I am. What am I going to fake for?”
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He goes on to name some of the songs he didn’t write, but recorded anyway because he was getting paid. “I feel like QPac didn’t really do what I wanted it to do because that sh*t wasn’t really me,” he explains. “Don’t get me wrong I wrote verses but like, that ‘Collect Calls’ sh*t, that was not my hook. I didn’t want to do that sh*t but I got paid to do it. I got like $75,000 to do that sh*t. The song ‘Bad Vibe’ I got with A Boogie and 2 Chainz, I didn’t write that hook either.”
It all came down to a lack of creative license and control from his label for Quando. “How do you invest in me if you took your money and did something that you guys wanted to do?” he stressed. “You are doing stuff for yourself and using me as a source. There’s nothing wrong with that because you’re not supposed to be around people for no reason, but I feel like the only way I’ll get a big song is if I have a real meeting with the label and use my ideas. Look how far I made it doing me!” A fair point.
