- Hey.
Feel that.
What got me into music was a way to express myself
and put my feelings out there and write out my thoughts.
It was therapeutic
cause you know I grew up in a bit of a turbulent environment
and sometimes household was turbulent,
so music was my way to express how I was feeling
with nobody being able to tell me
what to do, I mean, so.
I grew up around music, man, so.
My aunt is my first, you know,
she introduced me to a whole lot of music.
I grew up around jazz and funk and soul and then rap.
Rap just happened to be the one that
more closely represented who I was
and how it was expressed.
But I grew up around all that, so,
music's always been around.
My grandma was a singer, so.
A lot of the details are unclear to me,
but I know she had a record.
I don't know the name of it or what the song was,
but I know she had a record.
- [Interviewer] Oh, that's cool.
- Cause she died when I was six.
- [Interviewer] Oh.
- When things got tough with my immediate family
financially, me and my brother would stay with my aunt
over by Woodlawn, and when my parents got everything
together we'd come back.
That type of thing.
Art was my first thing. - [Interviewer] Yeah.
- Drawing.
- [Interviewer] Oh cool. - And things like that.
Animals and art, but then, you know, in fifth grade
I started writing poetry, but I went to a foster home
in sixth grade and there was an older kid there that rapped,
and I was like, "Oh, I can do that."
And I started trying it and I liked it and also
around that time I ran into Tupac.
I was impressed with the fact that what he was saying
related to me and it was truthful and it was blunt
and it was honest, man.
So that's what I liked about Tupac's music.
And you could feel it, you could see what he was saying too.
So, that's what I liked about it.
I was like maybe 15, 16.
It was at Benson High School.
It was called a Tech Idol, like a talent show
that we had every year.
And me and my friends, I was in a group
at that time called Turf Bangas.
It was me, my homeboy Coréy, and my homegirl Antia
and we performed that day and we almost shut down
the Tech Idol cause of the reaction, man.
So it was crazy.
First performance and it went wild.
People rushed the stage, that type of thing.
So definitely it was a good first introduction.
I was nervous as hell the whole day.
- [Interviewer] Man. - But then, you know,
when the curtains opened, all that stuff went away.
It was different, man, going to Benson,
the economic level of people that went there
was a lot higher than what I was used to, so.
There was kids that had debit cards and kids who knew
they was getting Jordans on this day
and it was just different, it was super different.
I went there because I got into a lot of trouble
at my middle school, George.
And I felt like if I went to Roosevelt,
this school with a whole lot of people I already knew,
and I would've got in more trouble, so.
I got into Central Catholic on a football scholarship.
- [Interviewer] Oh really? That's awesome.
- But it was $6000 a year and they offered
to pay $3000 a year but that still was too much
for my parents, so I made the decision and said,
"Look, I'm just gonna go to Benson."
I got a schedule and everything to go to Central Catholic,
but then I went to Benson.
Concrete Dreams to me is basically the mind state of
you coming from an environment that isn't really conducive
to dreams and goals and things like that,
but also having the foresight to see beyond that
and go beyond that and still dream in these types
of environments cause I feel like that's what I come from.
I come from a lot of shit and I could have easily
went left and said, look, this is what's normal here.
I could just be doing this, but I've always had a vision
of doing more, more than what I come from and more than
what I see around me and that's what
Concrete Dreams is about.
My parents have always supported me in doing music
or anything cause they know if I put my mind to something
it's gonna be positive.
It's something that they, they know that about me.
Music is a family thing, once again.
They pushed whatever I wanted to do that was positive.
I got outta Benson and I wanted to go to Grambling
coming out of Benson and I played football all throughout
my life too, so that was my other thing that kind of ran--
- [Interviewer] Where'd you play?
- side by side
- I played defensive tackle and everything
on the offensive line pretty much.
I went to PCC for a little bit, but I was like,
ah, fuck this.
Music, I kept doing music, so.
I couldn't record at my high school anymore
cause I had graduated, so I started going up
to Roosevelt High School and that's where I met
Glenn Waco or Dracy.
He was a student there.
Him and Vinny went to Roosevelt at this time.
And I knew Vinny already, but I had met Dracy before Waco,
but he was younger than me by a good amount of years,
so I never really talked to him, but that's where I met him.
There's a studio at Roosevelt and Dracy pretty much
ran it, being the engineer.
So me and my homeboy Coréy,
we would just go up there and record.
And the following year I got a job there running the studio
is like through S.U.N. school and then,
from there we kept going.
Mm, that's a good question.
I'm thinking of it mentally.
I think my favorite one might be "Razor Tongue",
my personal favorite, "Razor Tongue" or "15 Cents".
I say "Razor Tongue" because it's just raw.
There wasn't a set subject matter, it was just venting,
at that time.
I wrote that over a span of probably like two years.
I wrote the first half of it first
and then the second half later.
- [Interviewer] Really? - Yeah.
- [Interviewer] Yeah, that's my favorite.
- I like the beat, I like the grimy, the grimy production.
It's by Brxtn Chase.
Yeah.
- [Interviewer] What's that about?
- I think it just speaks to being a black male in America
or a black person in America.
The struggles you go through just trying to survive,
man, and staying on the right path and not go to jail
for trying to survive, you know what I mean?
Just always sticking to what you're doing.
And also I feel like it opens up the conversation
of people who aren't black.
They can relate to it, they can find a way to relate to it
or have questions.
My whole point of my music is to make people think so
at the end of the day if you thinking,
that's what it's about.
- [Interviewer] How do you feel about your older material
now that you've--
(laughter)
- What do you mean by older material?
- [Interviewer] Like, just like--
- When I was younger?
- [Interviewer] Yeah, yeah.
- My older material, I could rap real good back then,
but like I wasn't talking about shit.
I was just doing what was trendy.
And I think all rappers start out that way.
Talking about things that are in,
until you find your identity.
And then you like, oh okay, I'm gonna do this.
So I kind of cringe to when I listen to my old shit.
It's not bad, but it's not, like, it doesn't touch people.
You know what I mean?
And that's what the whole point of music is to me.
If I could live off of it that'd be dope.
I do imagine myself living off it
and I think that will be the case,
but I also wanna be able to use music as a stepping stone
to do other things, to help people, you know what I mean,
like help the youth in inner city communities.
So I work for this program called Step Up
out of Roosevelt High School.
We work with at-risk youth.
I work with freshman, so I get assigned 15 freshman.
We do home visits, take them on mentoring trips,
come up with success plans for 'em, in and out of school,
we coordinate with teachers to help the kids,
all types of things.
So it's like an advisor or a counselor.
We do all that advising counseling the children.
Man, I could be riding on a bus and hear a conversation
and it'll spark a song.
Or I could be walking down the street and hear a word
or see a word and it could spark a song.
Or I could be watching TV, I don't watch a lot of TV,
but see something and it sparks a song.
Or be on social media and see a certain conversation
or see somebody say something and it sparks a concept,
so there's no one way of how of the process.
But usually if we doin' technically, I'll play the beat.
I'll go through beats, and if a beat sticks out,
I'll stay there with it, then I'll kind of rap to myself
to find a cadence and then I'll think of a concept.
Usually the first four bars will take me into an area
or what concept I wanna do.
And I just stick to that.
- [Interviewer] That's cool.
- Where as when I was younger, I would go hook first,
you know what I mean, I would listen to the hook part first
and come up with a hook, and then do the verses.
I don't do that as much anymore.
- [Interviewer] What about like a song like "No More"?
Did that come hook first or was that?
- That's a good question.
Did it come hook first (laughs)?
- [Interviewer] It's a good hook, man.
- No, that didn't come hook first.
It came verses first and then, I don't know.
I don't know how I got that hook.
I guess it just came to me.
You asking some good questions about, like,
the intricacies of the songs,
yeah. - [Interviewer] A little bit.
I mean, I'm a fan so, it's fun.
I get to ask you some questions.
- Yeah, I think, I think that hook came by just like,
I might've wrote the first verse and thought about
what I was talking about and then the hook came.
Favorite part of the process
out of performing,
writing,
or recording?
Recording. - [Interviewer] Recording.
- Recording cause I get to finally, all this shit
I've been practicing for all these hours writing
and going over 100 times.
I finally get to get it out and hear what it sounds like
over a beat cause before that I'm just imagining it.
So I would say the recording process.
- [Interviewer] That makes sense, yeah.
- And then I'd say performing
and then I'd say the writing process.
Sometimes the writing process is brutal.
I like it but I just like it the least.
- [Interviewer] Yeah, yeah.
That's interesting to hear you say, like the track like
"Razor Tongue" was over two years.
- Yeah.
- [Interviewer] You know, like - Yeah.
- [Interviewer] Cause when you hear it, it just flows
and it's just like, oh it's just like this three minute
thing you know, but like, yeah,
two years of back and forth on it.
- Yeah.
- [Interviewer] That's crazy.
Who do you like collaborating with, like--
- In the city?
- [Interviewer] Yeah, when you get in the studio
I'm sure you got people who, you know,
producing the beats and then you've got people mixing it.
- In the studio, I tend to be in there by myself.
- [Interviewer] Oh yeah?
- Myself and the engineer.
Right now I go through Zeb, Zebulon Dak,
over at Momentum Studios.
So usually it's just me and him.
I'm not the type of person that likes to have a whole lot
of people in the studio.
I don't see the purpose of it.
So, yeah.
That's how I tend to do it.
Most of the time I have it memorized,
the music that I wrote, but I definitely try shit out.
Or if I do have somebody else in there, they'll say
"Hey man, maybe you can try it this way."
If it works, I'll do it, but for the most part
it's me and the engineer.
I'll try new shit.
If I listen to it, if he plays it back, and I'm like,
I can do something there, I'll redo it.
I tend to keep it tight.
I don't work with a whole lot of different people,
man, unless it make sense.
So I've worked with Rasheed Jamal, Glenn Waco, Gifted Gab,
- [Interviewer] Vinny.
With Vinny DeWayne, Drae Slapz.
I work with a lot of different producers,
that's what I do do, but as far as rappers, no,
because a lot of my music is personal,
so it wouldn't make sense to have somebody else
put their stamp on something that's personal.
If it makes sense, yeah, but if not, nah.
I'm hoping to work with singers and stuff like that.
I mean locally, I met Mic Crenshaw, I've admired him.
That was one of the first people I've heard, I seen rap,
you know what I mean?
But growing up, I didn't grow up listening
to local music at all, probably.
I heard of people, I've always heard of Cool Nutz.
He's an inspiration.
Who else?
- [Interviewer] Run into like, you ever like,
bumped into Snoop or anything?
- Nah, nah, nah, man.
My inspirations like Tupac is my biggest one.
I can't meet him obviously.
Scarface is another one.
- [Interviewer] Yeah.
- Another inspiration is Nas.
Tupac, Scarface, Nas, DMX.
It'd be dope to meet him.
DMX is one of my favorites.
Kanye West.
I like more of the old Kanye West stuff,
but still Kanye West is an inspiration.
- [Interviewer] Yeah, it's always interesting
to see what he's doing.
- Yeah, I feel like anybody's who come from what they,
who's come from a hard background and found a way
to rise up and live out their dreams, man,
I pull for that, so.
I'm inspired by Kendrick Lamar and J Cole as well too.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, cause I look at those guys as like,
whenever I have writer's block I look at those guys
and that's how I get out of writer's block.
I hear something they do, I listen to something they did
and try to write something better.
That's just what it is, yeah.
- [Interviewer] Do you feel like it's kind of competitive?
Is there sport element of it too?
- There's a sport element of hip-hop.
There always will be, but when I'm writing songs
and making music and how I carry myself,
it's not about that.
I feel like I'm trying to be better than my last self,
you know what I mean?
And I write music with concepts and things.
My music is to touch people, you know?
Battling and all that shit is cool, but
I feel like that's not my purpose or my music.
I'm trying to inspire people.
- [Interviewer] Yeah.
I don't listen to people and like pick up what they do,
I guess. - [Interviewer] Right, yeah.
- A lot of my music, I play the beat, and then I just
start writing and it come out that way.
Honestly, that's what it is.
- [Interviewer] That's awesome.
- I just write off instinct, really honestly.
I think it's why a lot of people tell me
I don't sound like nobody else.
I'm not into copying anybody or
subconsciously copying anybody.
I just write.
- [Interviewer] Do you think you'll
try different things out as you--
- Definitely.
I already know what I'm gonna do after this one.
- [Interviewer] Yeah?
Yeah, I wanna do a CD with live instruments.
That's what I grew up around, with jazz and all of that.
That's why a lot of my beats have that influence in 'em.
I like beats with feeling in 'em.
I don't like beats, trap is okay,
but I can't do that shit all the time.
I can rap over that shit easy, but--
- [Interviewer] You have live band on stage, too.
It's just that, epic. Yeah.
- Something I've noticed with live bands though,
the hard part is that, sometimes the instruments
overpower the voice.
- [Interviewer] That does happen a lot, yeah, yeah.
- I'm a fan of hearing the words
of what they trying to say, but if the instruments are
too loud, it's like.
I feel like anybody who's heard my music in the city,
for the most part, back me and they support what I'm doing.
And they share my music.
Any form of support, whether you like my music,
share it, come to a show, buy my music, tell somebody
else about my music, that's cool to me.
I feel like I've a good following in Portland right now.
And I feel like I'm doing
as far as festivals and all that shit,
I'm doing almost every one that you can do in Portland,
as far as hip-hop, so, yeah.
Throughout life, you know, kind of been ignored by
the majority in Portland because, yes, I am black.
So when I get on stage it's the opportunity for me
to make people hear me and that's what happens.
- [Interviewer] That's great.
- And I feel like this like-minded white people
who believe what I believe as well.
I believe when they come to a show, people that know
about my music, they know what they gonna get out of it.
I feel like they not just gonna get music.
I talk to the crowd as well in between and
it's about keeping the crowd engaged, so, yeah.
I don't feel a certain way about,
I'm not mad at that, you know.
I mean, I was born here for a reason.
Just because the city is all white, for the most part,
doesn't mean that I can't be successful here.
- [Interviewer] Oh, absolutely.
- Music is universal, man.
Hip-hop is the biggest form of music in the world, so
at the end of the day I kinda do what I want to do.
To me I try to put myself in front of a new crowd
all the time, so I don't care what color the crowd is
or anything like that.
I would like if more black people showed up,
but I know a lot of people have lives
and a lot of my shows are during the week.
People have work, people got this.
I'm not, don't go out to be selfish like that and say,
ah (mumbles).
I've thought that before but then you gotta,
there's critical thinking involved, man,
everybody can't make your shows.
Everybody didn't hear about your show.
Everybody don't have the money to do that, that night.
So it's like, it is what it is.
It don't bother me man.
To me, I feel like this is fertile training ground.
Feel like it's fertile training ground.
If you can rock a crowd here,
I feel like you can rock a crowd anywhere.
You got people that the more lyrical story-telling rap
that comes out of St. Johns.
You've got more of the artsy rap, you know what I mean,
that's more like a brightened sound and like,
not necessarily super lyrical, but it's interesting enough.
- [Interviewer] With Aminé and The Last Artful, Dodgr
- That's more like the pop rap, you know what I mean.
And that's dope too.
You got what other types of rap you got?
There's just so many different sounds in Portland,
you know what I mean, from Mikey Fountaine to Illmaculate,
there's so many (laughs).
- [Interviewer] Yeah, yeah.
- You can go to shows and get different sounds.
I'm independent.
- [Interviewer] That's awesome.
- So I gotta pay for all my shit by myself.
(laughter)
- Trying to find ways to get other people
to pay for this shit.
I think people will but that's one of my things
I gotta overcome is like, it's hard for me
to ask for help.
That's a lifelong thing for me, so.
- [Interviewer] Yeah.
What I want is gonna happen I just gotta pace it.
I don't wanna ever look at any other artist,
anybody else and say, "Man, I wish I had that right now."
It's like, it's gonna happen when it happens.
I mean like, I'm not stressing it.
My path has progressed naturally.
I like my shit to be organic.
I don't like to overreach for things,
especially if I feel like I'm going outside of myself,
trying to do it.
Relocation?
- [Interviewer] Yeah, like what--
- Like do you have to move to be successful?
- [Interviewer] Yeah.
- I feel like every artist should get outside of the city
they live in and get their music across the nation
or across the world.
I mean, traveling, I feel like is part of being an artist,
hip-hop artist.
I feel like you can have a foundation in a certain city,
but I feel like you can't just stay stagnant
and be in one city,
unless you have like the coldest marketing team
on the earth.
- [Interviewer] Yeah. - I mean,
but you gotta travel, you gotta meet people,
you gotta network with people.
I think that's in life, with anything you want
to be successful with.
Five years down the line I'd like to be living
off of my music and touring independently
or if there's a deal that makes sense I'd do it.
And saving my money and owning a house
and marrying my girlfriend and yeah, living life,
having my career then having my family life.
- [Interviewer] Why are you so straight-forward
and awesome about it, like this shit--
- Cause I come from a lot. - [Interviewer] You don't let
it get to your head (laughs).
I come from a lot of shit that I don't want for myself
or my future family later so it's pretty clear to me.
I don't care about a lot of fancy shit and all that, so.
As long as I can support the people I love
with what I'm doing, I'm good.
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