In our exclusive interview with ATL’s finest, HHW found out that King Kong ain’t got nothin’ on Gorilla Zoe – not even a name!

Where have you been, Zoe?
Gorilla Zoe: Well, after workin’ my album Don’t Feed Da Animals (it went #1), I got off the road and started workin’ on some mixtape s—, then I found out that Bad Boy was goin’ to Interscope. So not knowin’ how that was gon’ go, I spent the next two months buildin’ a studio in the house. I’m a hustler, so no matter what anybody else do, I make sure I do what I do. I invested a lot of money and time into buildin’ that studio. I’ll say about January 2010, I got the word that Atlantic wasn’t gonna release me and let me go to Interscope. They released everybody off the label except me. That was something new to me, so I said, “S—, I’ma do what I do!”

What was your plan?
I was like, “S—, I’m gon’ put out these mixtapes.” So I did 28 mixtapes in twenty eight days, just to give people some music and really show mutha——- that nobody really f—–‘ wit me with this s—. I do this! I tell these mutha——-, “Y’all mutha——- make an album every year, but I can make one every day.” I proved a point and I got that s— off my chest. After that I started pickin’ up a lotta shows. For the next five months, after I did them mixtapes, I was out there on the road, straight-up off of mixtapes and nothin’ else.

What were the labels doing?
After those five months we did the deal, somewhere around August. So the deal was official, like, four months ago – all the paperwork, the money and everything. I’ve been workin’ on the album, KING KONG, ever since then. They said they wanted somethin’ to put out, so I did the I AM Atlanta 3 (mixtape). We just put that online and, s—, I just been workin’ since then.

When did you find out about the Bad Boy/Atlantic split?
I found out about the whole situation two months after it happened.

How do you feel about all this political maneuvering with your career?
First of all, I wanna say that I’m blessed to have come from where we come from; knowin’ that you coulda not been doin’ s—, is like the best light you can look at it in. So I thank God first, and I thank everybody for the opportunity. Second of all, they dropped everybody else that was on the (Bad Boy/BLOCK/Atlantic) label. But I still look at it on some personal s—, like this is some bulls—. People was like, “What’s Gorilla Zoe doin’?” They really don’t know that you can’t move until they handle certain s—. The only thing I could do was what I did – throw some (music) out to the radio, throw some (music) for the streets; Shoot some videos and put’em on WorldStarHipHop.com and YouTube. WorldStar been f—–‘ wit’me heavy, and the mixtape scene been f—–‘ wit’me heavy.

What did you learn from that situation?
At that point in time I thought I should just stay in my own lane and just rap. After that, I realized I had to take my career into my own hands.

What’s on your agenda now?
Basically, KING KONG – it’s official! It is droppin’ March 18th, 2011, and I put my foot in this b—-! Respect to Puff, because he opened a lotta doors and feeds a lotta families, and respect to Block for givin’ me a shot.

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