Pitchfork: What was Bay Space tradition to you rising up?
1100 Himself: Huge T-shirts, white Air Forces, Blue Jays hats and shit.
Have been you a fan of the native scene?
I used to be simply listening to regardless of the fuck older individuals was playin’ round me. We ain’t had no entry to alter to music, so it was simply no matter they was playin’.
What have been they listening to?
Shit. A variety of Lil Wayne. A variety of Lil Boosie. My cousins can be on, like, Ludacris and T-Ache, and my older brother let me use his iPod and that motherfucker had the whole lot from David Banner to Akon. I preferred after they performed Younger Cash, particularly Lil Twist and Lil Chuckee ’trigger they was younger like me. I used to dwell with my grandma, and he or she used to love stuff with lots of saxophones, and shit like R. Kelly and Anthony Hamilton. I believe that’s the place I get my ear from.
How did that affect what you began listening to?
I preferred what was nice to the ear. That’s how I began gravitating to the Tyler, the Creators, the Earl Sweathshirts, the Joey Bada$$es. I used to love how Tyler used to simply be talkin’ on shit on, like, Bastard. He was so natural, and other people was likin’ him genuinely being himself. And this was earlier than cancel tradition was common, so he may get away with saying some skeptical shit.
What have been they bumping in your highschool?
They was listening to hella shit. I went to Oakland Tech so there was simply all kinds of individuals. However everybody was on Lil Yee from San Francisco heavy at the moment. There was cut-off date I used to love DB tha Basic loads, additionally P-Lo. It was a very good time. We had an identification again then; you’d hear some music and comprehend it’s some Bay Space shit.
Is it not like that anymore?
Motherfuckers is getting misplaced on what different individuals is doing. They see the success of different cities and simply strive to try this. However we don’t have their unity, we are saying we wish it for ourselves however we are able to’t.
That feels so out of character as a result of the Bay Space has such a wealthy historical past of with the ability to maintain its personal rap scene while not having to tug from out of city.
Yeah, I imply nonetheless we acquired lots of expertise and other people take from us on a regular basis, however we don’t have all the correct labels anymore. We solely have Empire and Thizzler [on the Roof]. Empire is cool, however, for those who from the Bay Space, there’s already 3,000 individuals on Empire and [a] bunch of them is greater than you. How are you gonna get the correct push?
Do you’re feeling there may be much less music being made particularly for the individuals of the Bay?
The reveals are stuffed with much less natives. They don’t perceive the place you coming from. 9 occasions out of 10, the people who run these labels don’t be from Oakland. It’s simply lots of people coming from different locations, so they simply listening to music. How do you will have a concrete sound when there’s so many new individuals, doing totally different shit?
In your music you’ve additionally criticized the surface notion of contemporary Bay Space rap. On “Colossus,” you mentioned, “After they discuss concerning the Bay they suppose we nonetheless gettin’ hyphy.” What did you imply by that?
That’s not our identification no extra. We now not doing the massive white tees and ghost driving the whip.
How do you contribute to the Bay Space sound?
I don’t know, for actual, for actual. I acquired lots of tales, lots of shit to rap about.
The place does your storytelling come from?
I keep in mind listening to “Trapped within the Closet.” I all the time thought it will be cool to do some shit like that someday.
Was that the inspiration for the “Set Up” sequence?
That simply got here to me and Mitchell someday. Me and Mitchell been joking and feeding off one another once we rap since I met him. I keep in mind he was doing music earlier than me. He was dwelling in Calabasas on the time and DMed me saying he was coming again all the way down to the Bay to work with me. He actually got here, performed me some beats, and them motherfuckers was powerful, so we been going since then. However we tried to make a fast backwards and forwards story at first and other people was fucking with it so we ran with it.
What’s the best piece of rap storytelling you’ve ever heard?
My uncle used to play this Nas music [“Rewind”] the place he informed a narrative backwards. He was telling that motherfucker backwards and it nonetheless made sense. I used to love that shit. His pen is impeccable.
