In an exclusive conversation with BET.com, Jadakiss has revealed his road map for 2012, including a new mixtape and the release of his long awaited fourth album Top Five Dead Or Alive. We caught up with the raspy-voiced MC at the NBA All-Star weekend late last month— an event he said he looks forward to every year.
"The rap game is similar to professional sports in that it's usually not for long," Kiss explained. "To stick around and have a 12, 15-year career is a blessing from the man on the most high."
The veteran wordsmith said that although work continues on his next album, the first thing people will hear from him is a new still-untitled mixtape...which will sound like an album.
"The mixtape is the appetizer. It's really like an album, though, but I'm not gonna put it in stores or anything like that," he said. "I'm gonna give it to the people so they can see where I'm at."
For inspiration on the new tape, Jadakiss said he looked to none other than the Teflon Don himself, Rick Ross.
"I got a lot of the format from Rich Forever," Kiss said, referencing Ross's hit mixtape from earlier this year. "I really like the way he did that. That's a powerful mixtape that's gonna go down in time."
Kiss said his own mixtape would be in a similar vein, with big features and album-quality songs that could make their way into circulation on radio and in nightclubs.
As for the album, Jada said he has three finished songs so far.
"I'm gonna go finish it after I put this mixtape out," he said. "That way I don't have to look at my followers on Twitter telling me they want something."
Though the name of his highly anticipated album makes a pretty bold claim, Kiss said that he personally doesn't feel he has anything to prove.
"I really don't feel that I have anything to prove because I've been told I was nice by everyone who I think is nice," Kiss reasoned. "From Biggie [Notorious B.I.G.], to Eminem, Nas, Hov [Jay-Z]... whoever they could name as the most critically acclaimed has shown me much respect. So I'm good off that."
In addition to his solo projects, Jadakiss recently confirmed that his seminal hip hop group The LOX—with Styles P and Sheek Louch — are close to signing a new record deal to release new material.
Jada's last release was I Love You (A Dedication to My Fans), a commercial mixtape released by Def Jam in May 2011.

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