Pitchfork: What was Bay Space tradition to you rising up?
1100 Himself: Huge T-shirts, white Air Forces, Blue Jays hats and shit.
Had 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 vary to tune, so it was simply no matter they was playin’.
What have been they listening to?
Shit. Plenty of Lil Wayne. Plenty 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 plenty of saxophones, and shit like R. Kelly and Anthony Hamilton. I feel 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 superb time. We had an identification again then; you’d hear some music and understand 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 do this. However we don’t have their unity, we are saying we would like it for ourselves however we will’t.
That feels so out of character as a result of the Bay Space has such a wealthy historical past of having the ability to maintain its personal rap scene while not having to drag from out of city.
Yeah, I imply nonetheless we obtained plenty of expertise and other people take from us on a regular basis, however we don’t have all the right labels anymore. We solely have Empire and Thizzler [on the Roof]. Empire is cool, however, if you happen to from the Bay Space, there’s already 3,000 individuals on Empire and [a] bunch of them is larger than you. How are you gonna get the right push?
Do you are feeling there’s much less music being made particularly for the individuals of the Bay?
The reveals are filled with much less natives. They don’t perceive the place you coming from. 9 occasions out of 10, the folks that 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 could have a concrete sound when there’s so many new individuals, doing completely different shit?
In your music you’ve additionally criticized the skin notion of contemporary Bay Space rap. On “Colossus,” you stated, “Once they discuss concerning the Bay they assume 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 obtained plenty of tales, plenty of shit to rap about.
The place does your storytelling come from?
I bear in mind listening to “Trapped within the Closet.” I at all times thought it will be cool to do some shit like that sooner or later.
Was that the inspiration for the “Set Up” sequence?
That simply got here to me and Mitchell sooner or later. Me and Mitchell been joking and feeding off one another after we rap since I met him. I bear 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 robust, so we been going since then. However we tried to make a fast forwards and backwards 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 tune [“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.
