Wifisfuneral Interview
Editor: Cameron Skidmore
Photographer: Holger Bradburn
“So that’s how like music felt to me, it was just like this big dragon I’m always trying to chase.”
What was life like for you as a kid?
Basically, like I was born in the Bronx and I lived there, so I was like seven, my mom wanted to move us out of the Bronx because she just wanted to get me out of like a bad area that he was living there and just try to just get me better in life. So my mom definitely tried to do the most that she could, but she couldn’t do that. We moved to Florida. She thought it’d be like a better idea to move to Florida, but things just kind of turned out the way, how they turned out and, um, you know, like right back to the hood.
How’d that affect you as a kid, like moving, knowing one thing and then moving to somewhere completely different?
At first, it was different just because I felt like everyone was talking, you get used to it. You know not all hoods are the same, but like the hood is the hood at the end of the day. Normally, you just get used to it. And then at that point too, I didn’t realize I was like a product of my environment. Everything was just so normal to me. Nothing was really out of the ordinary to me.
But my mom and my pops definitely tried everything that they could do to make sure that I was good. Mainly my mom more than my dad but he’s cool. He’s cool peoples,
Did that work at all or were you a rebellious kid?
Nah, I was a very rebellious kid. I didn’t care about shit.
What were you getting into?
Just stupid shit. I was like 11 and I was like breaking into people’s houses and with like all my friends and just stealing shit. I’m not proud of it, to be honest, that was the type of trouble I was getting in. My mom caught me with like a pound of weed when I was like 12. I was trying to bring it to school., All types of stupid shit bro, just dumb.
How’d you try to explain that one?
I told her I was holding it for a friend, so he wouldn’t get in trouble. And she was like, ”You don’t think that you’re going to get in trouble?” I was like, “Nah, I just know I can handle it.”
Can you think of a couple of defining moments of your life that like, kind of made you who you are?
When I sold out SOBs for the first time by myself and when I made the 2018 XXL Freshman. That made me look at everything and be like “Yo, I’m really doing it.”
Were you passionate about anything else growing up or was like rap the only thing?
Music was the only thing that I knew I could do that I knew I was good at. I was like, yo, like I can’t do shit else but I know I can make music though. It probably might not be to people’s, liking probably might be to people’s liking, but I know I can do it and I can do it to like the best ability that I know how to do it. You feel me? So that was really it, to be honest with you.
“Just … you just gotta have a purpose, you gotta stand for something. You can’t just come into this life period.”
What do you think about you as a person like drew you to want to create and make music?
Just like the feeling that it gave me, it’s kind of like chasing a high, a high that you only feel once and so you’re trying to chase it. So that’s how like music felt to me, it was just like this big dragon I’m always trying to chase. The experience is just amazing. I’m actually trying to bring that back to my music, to be honest. When you start doing business it fucks everything up and everything gets clouded.
Are you still trying to chase that Dragon?
No, I kind of drove myself insane doing that man, to be honest with you.
How so?
You’re never satisfied with anything that you do. You can never give yourself a pat on the back. Even if you make the most amazing piece of art you’ve ever made, it’s hard to grow to like and appreciate it. I just digest everything and just go about it, like as I’m going about it right then and there. It’s like the hardest thing to like put into words. It’s kind of just in the moment right then and there, you just live in it. You know what I mean?
Is that how your songwriting process goes, is it more of a in the moment chasing a feeling thing, like writing it down on a napkin somewhere?
It really depends on how I’m feeling because sometimes I’ll be walking down the street and some lyrics pop in my head, sometimes I’ll be in the studio and I won’t think of music until I hear something specific in the beat. I can rap on command, I can make a whole verse without looking at the shit but to give shit that feeling plus the lyrics and that is all in one and you just have to feel for that.
Before the music shit popped off from my understanding you were kinda homeless at one point, right?
Yeah, bro. Really just taking anything that I could and just being grateful for it, to be honest with you, bro. That people was willing enough to accept me into there crib. Give me like a house to stay out because, for me, I had been on the streets too. You know what I’m saying? So that is, this is what it is. I’m just thankful for it to be honest with you. I don’t even like thinking about the times, that shit sucked dick. It makes me depressed whenever I think about that shit.
What advice would you give someone in that? Like trying to find a couch to stay on tonight?
Keep pushing, keep pushing and there’s light at the end of every tunnel you just got to keep digging.
What was something that allowed you to keep digging?
It was really just the music bro. Just believing in a dream. I didn’t know how far it would take me. I didn’t know where it would take me but just believing in the dream of being obsessed with something. I was just, I was obsessed with being able to say like, I have something to show for, with music that I’ve done. You know what I mean? Either it’d be big or significantly smaller, whatever it is, you know what I mean?
Just … you just gotta have a purpose, you gotta stand for something. You can’t just come into this life period. Doesn’t even matter if it’s just music, you can’t just try to pursue something in life and not have any meaning behind it. It’s just, it doesn’t work out even if you’re just doing it just to do it and it just doesn’t work out.
Wifisfuneral Interview
Is making music the best way you know how to express yourself?
Yeah. Cause I don’t really even like talking to people about like feelings and shit like that. I do it cause it’s my job, you know what I mean? And like I have to, but like I really like letting the music speak and letting the music talk. Cause I feel like that just speaks bigger volumes and I can get to the point. Now I don’t know how to put my words and my sentences together whenever I talk to people because I start thinking about what actually happened back then. And then I get put in that mind frame and then I feel like I’m back. Like, you feel me? I feel like I’m like back in that situation all over again. And so that’s why I just, I just express it over the music.
Amy Winehouse has this good quote she said [Paraphrased] “I can get across in my music what I can’t get across in a regular conversation. I can talk to you for a half-hour and not say as much as I can in a two-minute song.” So is each project reflective of a certain point in your life? What was your mind frame going into your latest album, Pain?
I just got out of like a nine-year relationship that I was in and it was just really weird. I was with someone for like nine years, so just getting adjusted and living for myself instead of living for another person, finding myself.
That’s what I was going through while making that album really, just starting all over and just starting to accept like certain aspects about myself that maybe I didn’t like, or maybe the personality traits that I picked up that aren’t necessarily me. Also learning new stuff about myself that I didn’t know. and that I’m growing to like myself.
What’s your favorite song on the album?
“All In”.
Was that the most personal for you?
Nah, I just liked it the most and the way how I constructed the song together. the one that hits for me the most is “Day Switch”.
What was it like when you were writing and recording that one?
I was just mad as fuck and just everything that I was thinking about, I just wrote it down. It was about some bitch I was fucking with, she was doing some floss shit so I was like fuck it I’m gonna not text you about it, cause obviously like is not getting through to your brain.
Is that what’s causing you most of your troubles these days?
Nah, I’m just at a weird point in my life, going from like a kid to a man. It’s the weirdest shit ever.
Wifisfuneral Interview
Do you feel like it’s even weirder that you’re in the public eye?
Yeah cause anything that is normal to normal people, it’s like shame on you to anybody with any notoriety. Like if you do something and you wild out in a certain situation. Nine times out of ten people will be like that’s perfectly normal you just need to approach it differently next time. I wild out and people are like, “That’s embarrassing.” And they could be going through the same shit I’m going through. Shit’s weird.
Why’d you add a question mark to the end of it?
It was really just me asking myself throughout the whole album “Is that really what I’m feeling?” Because I was trying to see if it was different emotions of pain that I was feeling. it was really unidentified. Me trying to see certain scenarios or certain things that I went through throughout the past few years. Like should I address this? Is this what I’m really feeling?
What are your hobbies like outside of rap?
I like playing video games a lot, I’m really into like basketball and huge into sports. Love the UFC and combat sports. Also just learning like random facts about the world and like knowing a lot of weird shit that people don’t know. I’m more into random doctor facts about like the human body, stuff like that.
Any good Youtube channel recommendations?
Nah, I can’t be spillin’ the sauce like that.
What was the last tattoo you got?
This Starfire one right here on my ribs and my stomach. I didn’t even get it shaded in, it hurt so bad. I just got the outline and I was like, I’ll see you later.
Wifisfuneral Interview
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