Noisey writer Drew Millard had harsh words for rapper Troy Ave in a recent article. “To say that Troy Ave is an opportunistic, out-of-touch bozo who does not actually represent the hopes, dreams, and realities of New York rap fans is to state the obvious,” Millard wrote. “Troy Ave is nothing more than the next in a line of Mainos, Papooses, Uncle Murdas, Vados, and Saigons: sacrificial lambs who must fall flat on their faces and die in order to further prove that New York is not the center of the hip-hop universe.” Troy Ave was asked about Millard’s words in a recent interview with Hot 97’s Angie Martinez, and the Brooklyn, N.Y., native said that the words had no effect on him. “I ain’t acknowledge him before and he’s not going to get any acknowledgements from me after just for a little bit of hate,” Troy Ave says. “That’s nothing. Nothing you doin’ affects me. What I do in my world and everybody that has something to say about it is people who weren’t supporting anyway. It’s the weirdos. That’s what I’m sayin.’ They don’t want the streets to win because when the streets win it’s not safe for people like them. Fact, though. “Maino and Murda was puttin’ on for the city,” Troy Ave says. “At points in time, they was all holdin’ it down so you can’t just take away what they did. And at the same time, you can’t compare me. I’m doin’ something different, man. I’ma show and prove. Fact, though. I ain’t never disappoint the people.” Troy Ave believes his best is yet to come, despite whatever naysayers have to throw at him. “I’mma flourish,” he says. “I flourish in the moment. I always flourish in the moment. The same guy he wrote a wonderful piece about me bigging me up and going crazy, ‘I love Troy Ave.’ Then I don’t know what happened. I probably took one of his chicks or a girl he loves. Then he got upset.”
