Ace Hood Talks Diddy Dream, "My Brand Is Going To Be Like A Bad Boy Label"

[Young King CJ]

DJ Khaled protege Ace Hood recently spoke on his rap career and revealed his aim to one day reach the same success as hip-hop mogul Diddy.

Predicting his status five years from 2009, Hood revealed where he would like to see his career go.

"I'm going to be so rich," he explained in an interview. "My brand is going to be like a Bad Boy label. We're going to be one of the biggest mobs in the game. We going to have everything on smash. I might just build another community in another island or something. Show you whatt We The Best is! Nah, but for real, 5 years from now, I just hope to be successful. One day, I could have artists of my own being able to buy their own million dollar cribs, and have things of their own. Have their own Bentleys and Phantoms. I just wanna have Ace Hood bumping in every city, like a New York. I could just have an Ace Hood poster or an Ace Hood clothing line. Just have a brand for myself. I just want people to see Ace Hood as the rapper, the dude with the clothing line, all while the money is counting up. That's how we gonna get it."

Dipset's Juelz Santana recently discussed past record label powerhouses and his desire to reach the level of success for his Skull Gang crew as Bad Boy and Roc-A-Fellas has had.

"That was the whole plot," Santana said in an interview. "For everybody, for all of us to have, how can I put it? Roc-A-Fella, Bad Boy and Death Row, we all bosses in our own right. We got the swag, we got the energy. That's what I feel the whole idea of it is. To get us to the point where everybody's team is solidified and all the bosses are still comfortable with each other and we can all come to the table. Roc-A-Fella, Death Row and Bad Boy, imagine what the tour would have been like."

Speaking at the Core DJ's conference in Atlanta earlier this year, Diddy stressed Bad Boy's relevance within the music industry.

"Bad Boy is important," he explained in a video. "We have not sold out and all this stuff, we trying to do these types of records over here and those, we make Bad Boy records. And that's preserving your brand, and the thing that's bigger than Bad Boy is we are the last label standing. No disrespect to the other labels, but there is no Roc-A-Fella. There is no Ruff Ryders, there is no Death Row. So if this label doesn't make it, this is the last of the labels and that means nobody else can come out with a label. Then it just turns into production deals."

In addition to Hood's Ruthless being released last week, the rapper will also face sales competition from Maino and R&B singer Jeremih.

Based on one-day estimates, rising Def Jam/IDJ R&B star Jeremih sees his self-titled debut with 45-50k, thanks to the strength of the multi-format smash, "Birthday Sex." Atlantic Brooklyn rapper Maino's debut, If Tomorrow Comes..., will bow with between 18-23k, while Def Jam/IDJ Florida hip-hop newcomer Ace Hood's sophomore album Ruthless appears headed for the same sales territory.