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If No. ID’s your mentor, obviously you working with a lil something, which is the case for singer/songwriter Elijah Blake. He rose to fame after penning Usher’s  No. 1 hit CLIMAX and now the former Blockbuster workers has an impressive musical resume  that includes  Rick Ross’ “God Forgives I Don’t” record “Presidential” as well as work with Keyshia Cole and his own hit Vendetta produced by fellow Roc Nation label mate J.Cole.

We chopped it up for a bit about what No ID taught him, why he was surprised CLIMAX was successful and what made his accountant almost cuss his ass out.

When CLIMAX took off, were you surprised?

“I didn’t think people were going to get it.

Really? Why?

As a singer/songwriter I’m always going to do songs I love and that the world might not necessarily love. So with that song, I just felt we did something progressive, but its gonna go over people’s heads. So the fact that world got it, it gave me faith in the critics. It inspired me. It gave me a whole new energy.

Okay. So what did you do with your first big check?

The first thing I did was I paid my momma’s rent for a year. That’s what I did for her, but for me,  I went and bought a Porsche. I can’t front. [LAUGHS]  I didn’t drive until I was like, 20 years old. So when I got my car and I said if I didn’t drive all these years, I’m gonna be driving in style. My accountant was like ‘You’re crazy!’ and I said ‘You’re crazy if you think I’m not gonna go buy this car.’

What’s the best piece of advice someone in the industry has given you?

No ID taught me to never settle. Never settle for good. Never settle for better. Settle for greatness. You know sometimes we do something and we fix it a little and we say we’ll go with that. No. Is that great? Is that it? I’ve learned that in my own music and when I write songs for other people. It’s such a blessing.

Do you have any crazy groupie stories? 

I can’t say because this person still pays attention to what goes on [LAUGHS] I’m not going to put this person on blast because they’re going to see this interview.

Okay last question, what’s with the Twitter handle? Why is it @sirelijahblake?

Oh man, because some idiot who never Tweets already has Elijah Blake so I just put a sir in front of it. That’s all.

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September 5, 2013  
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