Sha Money XL Says He Begged Bobby Shmurda To Leave New York

Brooklyn shaped his career — and then destroyed it.

Rapper Bobby Shmurda — who took inspiration from his crime-riddled East Flatbush neighborhood to produce a wave of honest, viral hit songs — had the chance to escape the borough months before he was arrested for allegedly leading a violent, drug-dealing gang.

But he never wanted to leave.

In a new GQ profile about the incarcerated rapper, an executive at Epic Records says he begged the "Shmoney Dance" artist to relocate to Los Angeles or Miami to focus on his burgeoning hip-hop career.

But Shmurda, best known for coining the "Shmoney Dance" — a hit with big names like Taylor Swift and Jay Z — always seemed to lose his motivation when he left the Big Apple.

"He didn't work, so it was almost like a waste," Sha Money XL, an A&R scout at Epic, told GQ. "When he went to New York, he worked. So I had to go back to New York to record with him there. But I kept telling him: 'Yo, you need to get out the city. Change it up.' And he fought me."

Several of Shmurda's friends were getting in trouble with the law at the time and, according to GQ, police began targeting GS9 — the gang Shmurda has been connected with.

But that didn't stop Shmurda, whose real name is Ackquille Pollard, from associating himself with his friends, despite his newfound fame.

"Bobby was like, 'I don't understand why you won't let me hang out with my friends,'" Donny "Dizzy" Flores, an associate of Shmurda's uncle, told the magazine. "It was a constant battle. Constant."

Shmurda's music turned out to be something of a prophecy. He rapped about drugs, guns and murder — the same things he was arrested for in December 2014.

Two of Shmurda's friends were sentenced to 98 years to life and 53 years to life, respectively, for their connections to GS9 last week. Shmurda's trial begins in September.

But Sha Money had bigger plans for the 21-year-old artist.

"This was something that didn't sound like anything," he told GQ. "They're coming in with their own lingo-I'm hearing new words I ain't never heard in the streets. And they had a swag with 'em that was like: Okay, this is a new era."

"They were looking like the New York that I know," he continued. "A lot of artists don't capture New York no more, but here's someone in the streets of Brooklyn, in their neighborhood, giving you that raw look, how it really looks."

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