Armani White chatted with Billboard on the red carpet of Billboard's 2023 R&B/Hip-Hop Power Players & Live.
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00:00 - I'm hanging out with my man Armani White, dude.
00:02 Why you came in dripping so hard like this?
00:04 - This my sweetness fit from RollerBounce.
00:06 Remember Sweetness?
00:07 - Oh yeah!
00:08 - What?
00:08 - Man, that's it.
00:09 - Boy, you're killing it, man.
00:10 First of all, I just noticed in the bracelet,
00:12 I just came from a Taylor Swift concert,
00:13 so I'm like, they be passing them out.
00:14 - They be passing these out?
00:15 - They pass them out.
00:16 So where's your friendship bracelet from?
00:17 - I make 'em.
00:18 - Oh, really?
00:19 - I just be making these in the crib now.
00:20 I might just start giving 'em out now.
00:22 - You gotta do it.
00:23 You gotta show up to Taylor's show,
00:23 be like, look what I got.
00:24 Listen to my music.
00:25 - I'm gonna have a man before she breaks the fleece.
00:29 - We were talking about how Billie Eilish just DM'd you
00:31 and you were excited.
00:33 Fast forward, wait, you were just on stage with her.
00:35 - On stage with Billie Eilish.
00:36 - So tell me all about it.
00:37 - Billie's my dog, man.
00:38 Billie, we was supposed to play Uno,
00:40 and I think we just wasn't gonna have enough time,
00:42 so she was like, yo, but, crazy idea,
00:44 what if you just come out on stage with me?
00:46 I'm like, of course I'm gonna come out on stage with you.
00:48 You know what I'm saying?
00:49 So yeah, Billie my homie.
00:51 We got that kinda, she just,
00:52 yeah, it's her world, we living in it.
00:54 - I'm glad you finally got to do that.
00:55 And you're here at our event,
00:56 performing at R&B Hip Hop Live.
00:58 So tell me how is it gonna feel
00:59 to perform in front of your peers?
01:00 Does that make it a different crowd for you?
01:02 - Nah, man, sometimes you gotta let 'em know
01:04 who the big dog is.
01:05 (laughs)
01:06 Nah, man, we gonna go up there and have fun
01:07 like we always doing.
01:09 Sometimes we gotta show 'em how skillful we are with it,
01:12 but we just having fun.
01:13 - And the music, man, I was at Sound Shake,
01:15 like, hearing you vibe, everything's so good.
01:17 How's it been feeling to put out that feel-good music
01:19 when there's so much going on in the culture right now?
01:22 - I think we just, I don't know,
01:23 we got the Midas touch right now.
01:25 We can't miss, you know what I'm saying?
01:26 We got some really good music that we put out.
01:28 We got even better music that we 'bout to put out,
01:30 so it just feel good.
01:31 It's a good feeling.
01:32 - And we're celebrating hip hop's 50th anniversary,
01:35 so what's a core hip hop memory for you?
01:37 - Core hip hop memory is,
01:38 "Dot, dot, big T-shirt, Billie Eilish."
01:40 (laughs)
01:41 - Hey, he's not wrong.
01:43 - That's a cultural moment on all sides at this point.
01:46 - And I feel like a little Big Willie, too.
01:48 - Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure, for sure.
01:50 I mean, for me, other than that,
01:52 the core hip hop moments for me was early Will Smith.
01:55 I was definitely having the CDs,
01:57 the Black Thought, The Roots in Philly,
01:59 Eminem, you know what I'm saying?
02:01 That was one of my first,
02:02 Marshall Mathers EP was one of my first CDs.
02:04 Eminem show that I bought with my own money.
02:06 My mom got me the clean version,
02:07 I had to go find a dirty one.
02:08 - Oh, yeah, we've been talking about that.
02:10 - Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, like BET Uncut.
02:11 I mean, I was wild. - BET Uncut!
02:13 Oh my God, that show used to come on so late at night,
02:16 we'd have a stress out.
02:16 And when do you see hip hop in 50 years?
02:19 - Man, I think it's gonna dominate.
02:21 I think in 50 and 50 more years,
02:22 we're gonna have our hip hop hall of fame,
02:24 you know what I'm saying?
02:25 We're gonna be inducting people.
02:26 I'm gonna be in there, you know,
02:27 big silver teeth shining and all that.
02:29 - There we go, man, well, thanks for talking to us.
02:31 - For sure, always good.
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