Safaree Talks Quitting Rap & Putting His All Into Nicki Minaj

Long before Safaree released his debut mixtape "It Is What It Is," the Flatbush, Brooklyn native was known simply as Scaff B around the way. In this exclusive interview, the rapper recalls being a "Hoodstar," and how it was a path he didn't want to follow at first that led him to stardom today.

"I had like 27 jobs," Safaree recalls. From working at McDonalds during his freshman year of high school to being a YMCA counselor, the "Burner" artist did it all while trying to get his group Hoodstars off the ground. The group- comprised of SB, Nicki "Maraj," Loustar and Seven Up- was created through the music group and production company Full Force, though it was short-lived (three years, to be exact). When it got in the way of having a real job. Safaree, who left the group first began being "the one who was always there" for Nicki Minaj's solo career, and the rest, of course, is history.

Though Nicki's name came up throughout the conversation, it wasn't until the topic of them working one-on-one together made Safaree inevitably uncomfortable. Playing with his fingers, he said when Nicki is in the studio, "she does her stuff, she does what she gotta do." The two dated for over a decade and met when Hoodstars was formed.

Watch above as he speaks more on their beginnings, spits a rhyme from Hip-Hop trio FU-Schnickens, and says how he and Nicki had "genuine fun" when the "internet didn't exist."