.@joeyBADASS: Had no idea who Malia Obama was when she posted photo wearing my t-shirt

 In an interview with Bloomberg's Pimm Fox, recording artist Joey Bada$$ explains how he started making music, found a manager and whether or not he feels like he is 'riding a wave.'

Joey Bada$$ told the "Taking Stock" host what he thought of Malia Obama's selfie wearing his Pro Era t-shirt, "It was amazing. So I was in Australia and I just pretty much woke up one morning. And I looked at my phone and I seen a whole bunch of my friends posting this picture of this girl in this Pro Era shirt. Am I'm like what's so special about this? I didn't know who she was. I was like what's so special about this? And then as I started reading the comments and the captions then I was like, oh. And I wasted no time. I just reposted it."

 **CREDIT: BLOOMBERG TELEVISION INTERVIEW WITH PIMM FOX**

Highlights:

On how he got started:

"Okay. So it pretty all started -- I've been into music my whole life, but not until I got to high school was when I realized that, okay, I really want to pursue this as a solo artist, because during my whole life I would meet friends who were sharing the same musical interests as I did, and we'd be like, okay, we want to do this together, so so. But when I got to high school I split up with all my friends in middle school, so we decided we have to take different paths. And I actually got into my school for screen theater.

"So I decided to pursue acting, but on the road to pursuing that when I got to that high school, Edward R. Murrow, I met a whole bunch of other musical artists who now is part of my musical collective and everything. And they've basically just re-inspired me to just chase the dream again. So it started with me just creating a YouTube account for myself and then just trying to make a platform, something where I could just host anything that I make. And so one day I just had this idea. And I was like this is what's going to make me like just be discovered by like whoever who may -- may like you known concerned or whatever, so that basically the idea was I would create this video of me just freestyling rap and whatever was my best at the time.

"And I sent it to Worldstar Hip Hop. And Worldstar Hip Hop at the time to me was like one of the biggest outlets of just like musical like anything that has to do with hip hop music outreach. So I decided to try to get into them. So it never made it to Worldstar. I sent it to them about nine, ten times.

"So what I ended up doing was just uploading it to my YouTube account, but I kind of faked everybody out because I -- like the way I put the title I put 15-year-old freestyles for Worldstar Hip Hop. So immediately when everybody goes to this video it was the gaff that it was featured on this like the number one hip-hop site."

On how he got manager:

"So my manager today, which his name is Jonny Shipes, he came across the video way before he was my manager. He came across the video and then on the video I left my contact information.

"So one day he hit me up on Twitter before I was going to school. I was making my way out the door and I just seen this tweet. So I did a little research on him real quick. I was actually late that day. My mom wasn't too happy. I did a little quick research on him and I realized and found out he was official. He was an official guy. And then so he sent me an email and everything. And I was like, ma, do you know…?"

On Malia Obama's selfie wearing his Pro Era t-shirt:

"It was amazing. So I was in Australia and I just pretty much woke up one morning. And I looked at my phone and I seen a whole bunch of my friends posting this picture of this girl in this Pro Era shirt. Am I'm like what's so special about this? I didn't know who she was. I was like what's so special about this? And then as I started reading the comments and the captions then I was like, oh. And I wasted no time. I just reposted it."

On whether he feels like he is riding a wave:

"I want to say I wouldn't use that term riding the wave, but I'm definitely walking my path. The path that I'm supposed to do."

On his new album B4.DA.$$:

"Well the whole concept behind the record, "B4.DA.$$," is basically it describes my drive and my grind. And what my mission with this project is to basically put everyone in the same mind state, which is the before the money mind state, And what that means to me is, is there a moment in your life when you realize that like you have to say go, you have something that really want to do. And before you actually obtain it is that work that you put to getting it, so it's about always staying inside of that mind state, always grinding to get to that.