Safaree Samuels came out the gate swinging with his song “Paradise” featuring Sean Kingston. The sun-soaked video was captured in Jamaica and shows SB living it up, popping champagne surrounded by a flock of beautiful women.
Following the release of his debut single, and collaborations with K. Michelle and Chanel West Coast, Safaree is gearing up for the release of his full length project Shoulda Been Did It. He told The Source that he is set on stepping out of the shadows and becoming an artist, however he will still be available to help others. He admitted that the untimely death of his favorite uncle has pushed him to show the world who Safaree the artist is.
Safaree is also diving in different business endeavors including his own coconut oil line and ‘Suck Yuh Mudda’ apparel. Though he is popularly known for starring on VH1’s Love and Hip Hop: Hollywood, he hinted that he might star in a total of 6 shows on VH1 if things work out in his favor.
Safaree got big things poppin’, but it’s impossible to have a conversation with him without bringing up his ex-girlfriend Nicki Minaj. SB bashed her for not sending her condolences following his uncle’s death, but he revealed that they haven’t been on speaking terms for four years. Safaree weighed in on her current relationship with Nas, but also confessed that he wants a “regular girlfriend” in the full interview below.
I’m excited to hear your new music that you have in store. How did you link up with Sean Kingston for the track paradise?
I’ve known him for a long time in L.A. You don’t want to raise kids. So it’s like Jamaican just always ended up linking each other no matter where in the world we are. So that’s how we ended up there and the funny thing is we were just like friends and we never even worked together.
I know a lot of your cast members. Well a few like Chanel West Coast and Hazel-E, they look to you to help them with their music. What’s the status on their songs?
Well I have a song called “New Bae” with Chanel West Coast which brings in a lot of like traffic and a lot of people is like no I’m not gonna like it just fall in love. You know usually when people say that it’s like the kind of approach you know with their eyebrows raised. And this is like a real good feedback and we shot a video or two to drop it a little bit.
Do you have an exact date. Are you still trying to work that out?
As a matter of fact I think it’s going to be geared towards the show because the episode that aired with me and her during the video that’s going to drop. I think that’s in like two weeks maybe.
Out of all the Love and Hip Hop artists who’ve been making music, Cardi B has been the most successful. Do you think that she set the tone for artists coming out of that show and has what it takes to continue her winning streak?
Yeah because she has a good work work ethic. You know she’s just a hard working person. She records a lot, shoots a lot of video. She already had a large following. People liked her and when people like you we rock with you because we want to support you.
Aside from paradise do you have any new featureless music on the way or a full length project?
Yeah I have a full length project on the way it’s called, Shoulda Been Did It.
That’s an interesting title.
That’s my philosophy with a lot of things in life. I feel like I waited too long and I just feel like I should have been did it.
So are you set on being an artist or are you going to stay more behind the scenes as a songwriter or producer?
I’m definitely set on being an artist but I’m still going to be song writing and producing. I helped K. Michelle out in her last song. So I’m definitely helping other people but what I’m really focusing on is . You know just outside of the music, it’s all about personality. People gravitate to me.
So before you’ve mentioned about Jamaicans always linking up and working together and its been popular for people who aren’t Jamaican to play around with the reggae sound, and Mr. Vegas has been very critical about Hip Hop artists exploiting reggae. What’s your take on that?
I prefer they put in like a real Dancehall artist or something without killing it.
So basically it will be more acceptable if they paid more homage to the original reggae roots is what you’re saying?
Exactly.
So we saw pictures of you at the 50th anniversary of the West Indian Day Parade looking good with a masquerade costume on.
Yeah it was my first time like doing it. Dressing up with a costume and all of that and I’m like oh, that was that was a lot of fun.
Did you put on any of your coconut oil while you went out on the parkway?
Of course I did. When I pulled it out it started a riot. Barricades was about to get knocked over. People were about to get trampled. It was crazy.
So you are known on Love and Hip Hop for having the most funniest reactions to every situation. Do you expect your facial expressions to be turned into the next meme?
No I didn’t even know my face be like that. I like to laugh, I laugh at everything. You know I like to really just try to make the best of all situations. I’m one of the people who try not to take myself seriously because it’s no point in walking around all the time like I got a chip on my shoulder all day.
What made you even joined the love and hip hop class and why not the New York franchise instead of Hollywood?
Well I’ve been living in Hollywood for the past 11 years, a lot of people don’t know that. I just felt like I wanted to do what I was doing and I knew going on the show was going to help that. I don’t need to fight exactly to get attention. I don’t get to be throwing drinks and acting crazy.
So what’s the status of that new show that you’re supposed to star on VH1, Scared Famous. What’s your role?
I’m excited for it to come up. It’s like Big Brother with a bunch of celebrities but we’re going through real scary crazy challenges. Honestly, it’s not because I’m apart of it but I think this is about to be one of the biggest shows on television.
I’m sorry to hear about your uncle Roper. Have you been holding up since then?
The funeral was Monday. You know I’m glad I was able to get that part out the way. And it’s definitely still like brand new and I’ve never had anyone close to me like murdered before. I’ve never even had anyone close to me die so I’ve never really experienced this type of pain and confusion. So you know it’s just something that I hate that it happened but I’m going to use it as motivation to just really do everything to make him proud because he was very proud of me. He always bragged that I was his nephew. He loved watching me on TV. And I also just wouldn’t put it out there that the crime still hasn’t been solved. So whoever did it is still out there out But I’ll put it in God’s hands and hoping that the police will find out who did it.
And just for clarification I’m not too sure about the full story that that happened here in the States or in Jamaica.
Right here, in California.
Did Nicki finally reach out to sent her condolences?
No. I didn’t expect her to. People always asking me, they think we’re cool but we haven’t spoken in four years.
Its been four years already?
Yeah. We haven’t spoken at all. We don’t have any communication, so no.
So you only see what’s going on through social media?
Basically yes.
And how do you feel about her and Nas?
It is what it is. If you want it to be real you just got to keep it real, and let it be for really home and not the public. So once you start doing all of that stuff to prove something is real that’s going to put stress on relationships and it just makes a relationship way harder and everything starts to look corny after a while. But when it’s private and don’t nobody know nothing and all they can do is speculate, then it’s like okay cool. You want to be in their business or we can’t because we don’t know sh*t.
I’m sure the ladies want to know, are you single? Dating? Or is it complicated right now?
I’m single. I wish I had a girlfriend especially because it’s getting cold too. I need someone to keep me warm. But people always try to say focus on you, and it’s like yeah I do be busy, I be filming a lot. I’m low key on five t.v. shows right now.
Five? I only knew about two. What are the other three?
I can’t talk about them yet but it’s five and something that happened last night, it could be a potential sixth. So it’s just like my schedule is really really crazy with that and recording videos and just really just promote my brand. It’s like I really want a regular girl I want a girl that I get up in the morning and go to work and she calls me on her lunch break and that’s when I get to speak to her and she’s like, ‘ok I got to go back to work now’.
Good luck on your quest to love and with all the new music and television shows in the works.
Thank you.
[This interview was edited to be adapted to an online version]
