Talk to me a little bit about growing up in Atlanta. What neighborhood are you from?
I’m really from Thomasville. I was born and raised a little bit in Kirkwood, but really I’m a Thomasville baby. It’s a project called Thomasville Heights that grew me into the person I am today. Just running around there and in the streets of Atlanta. You know, I’m really from Atlanta – I know every part, every street around this motherfucker. [And] most folks don’t get love from their city, so it feels good to get the love from my own city.
What music were you listening to when you were growing up?
In the house, that’s where my old school samples come from. My dad used to play all the old school, Marvin Gaye, the Gladys Knights. And then my auntie, she used to play Monica, shit like that, so them samples always stuck with me, like, oh I could rap on that. It brought back that vibe when I used to ride in the car, listen to old songs. Back then you didn’t like it, but now as you get older you be like, damn, bring back memories and shit.
But the new, upcoming when I was like 13 though, I would listen to a lot of Rich Kidz, a lot of Travis Porter, a lot of goddamn, Waka Flocka. Basically Atlanta music.
How did you start rapping and what were your first songs like?
My first song… to be honest, I used to rap with my cousin, right? So my first song was on some BandLab shit. I thought I was Gucci Mane when I was young, so I used to just be talking about shit I never even knew about, like trapping, gotdamn, shooting shit, all that shit when I was 12, 13. Really I did not understand the music until I got like 16, 17. So my first song was really trash, but when I understood the music, I got better and better.
What did you start to understand better about the music?
How you can catch the beat, which melody to turn on, how to just turn it on and off, how to just ride and walk the beat. Like, a lot of motherfuckers don’t know how ot walk the beat. A lot of motherfuckers be offbeat, cuz I used to be offbeat a lot, y’know what I’m saying? I had to find my position in the beat, and that’s kind of hard for a lot of rappers to do.
Moral of the story, you gotta understand music, but you gotta find the beat man. And it was kind of hard for me to find a beat, to find any beat [that worked for me]. Now I can rap on any beat, cuz it’s like a mind thing really.
