G-Eazy
Time is a finite resource that you can't get back. I have the same 24 hours you have, and you get the same 24 hours as me. As you rise, so does you chance for opportunity.Collection: Chance
You'd die very sad if you tried to make everyone in the world happy, you know what I mean? You can't; no one can.Collection: Sad
London, from the architecture to the culture to the fashion to the accents, feels like it's a special place.Collection: Architecture
The gatekeepers don't control the gates, and the powers that be aren't as powerful.
Keeping in touch with the people that matter is important.
I'm just doing the only thing I know how to do. There was never a plan B.
I read the Steve Jobs book, and that kind of changed everything. I've been, like, an Apple geek my whole life and have always seen him as a hero. But reading the book, and learning about how he built the company, and maintaining that corporate culture and all that, I think that influenced me a lot.
I've seen what you can do in this grassroots, do-it-yourself world, and I've seen how far that can get you. To be iconic, you still need the gatekeepers to open the doors.
When I was 12 or 13, the hyphy movement was beginning to bubble. And you had local acts such as the Federation or E-40, Mac Dre, and Too Short that the local radio station would play all the time. You'd hear E-40 as much as you'd hear Jay Z.
'Downtown Love.' I made that with one of my homies in New Orleans. The story is tragic, and the song is emotional. It's my favorite. I'm most proud of that; it's such a creative piece.
I would never consider myself a role model in the wide sense of the word.
I think when you're telling a story from inside of you that's genuine, people connect with it.
When you sample something, you're using the crutch of borrowing chords and melodies from a song that's already great, that's already stood the test of time, that's already special. When you're trying to do it all from scratch, you're writing something brand new that has to stand on its own.
A halfway decent haircut will go a long way!
Just wearing all black comes from Johnny Cash. I'm on the road so much that if I wear all black, my clothes never get dirty. You can't tell if I've worn the same shirt twice.
I used to go and cop stacks of blanks CDs and sit there and burn copies of my mixtapes and print up my own mixtape covers and post up in downtown Oakland and Telegraph in Berkeley and literally was selling my mixtapes for five bucks, hand-to-hand.
When you're around somebody like E-40, all you can do is watch and learn, and soak up game.
I think it's natural for a creative to be sensitive. If I'm in the studio and I write something, I think it's the greatest thing in the world; it's like my baby. I just made something out of thin air that exists now in a tangible form. It's the biggest thrill in my life.
I was slicking my hair back when I was in sixth grade.
I was fortunate to have teachers that were flexible with allowing me to miss more class than I was supposed to be able to, for the sake of being able to tour.
I just have more Yves Saint Laurent in my closet, but it is pretty much the same - I just wear black almost 365 days of the year. I am married to it.
I grew up in Oakland and Berkeley, California.
I've never fit in anywhere in my life. Ever.
I'm on Tumblr all the time.
I see myself as a hip-hop artist, but I never wanted to make music for a specifically white audience. That's not what I grew up around.
I had a job since I was old enough to work - since I was, like, 14.
My mom was a single parent.
Touring is starting to feel more like home than home does.
I hate picking out clothes.
Word of mouth is the most valuable form of marketing, but you can't buy it. You can only deliver it. And you have to really deliver.
You have this ability in hip hop to be invincibly cool, and that is a part of G-Eazy.
I'm not on the radio all day long. I'm not on TV.
My whole career has been from scratch, so I never took it for granted that people care and support what I do.
Something I stand for is being brave enough to invest in creative ideas that I firmly believe in and bringing those to life.
It was inspiring to see local legends like E-40 and Keak da Sneak break out with 'Tell Me When to Go.'
I think if you're constantly reinvesting into your content and giving the fans stuff, then you can continue to tour. You can continue to sell the merch and monetize the popularity of the brand.
Music isn't selling like it used to, but the one thing you can't steal or download is a live show experience or a T-shirt.
I try to find 15 minutes a day to just be alone without any distractions just for headspace to meditate and get my Zen on. I think that helps me get through the hecticness of the day on tour with the interviews, the sound check, the meet and greets, the show and the post-show meet and greets.
I've gone on in front of a crowd of 10 people and 7,000 people.
I always thought that one day I would be somebody. I would be successful in music, and I would have fans that cared about my music. At the same time, I really feel like an ordinary guy; I have been an ordinary guy forever.
I just kept telling myself that ultimately, the money that my grandparents had put away to go into my college fund, that they were investing for me to go to school and get this education, it had to be worth something.
You have an entire generation of kids who grew up with the idea that music is something that you can download for free.
I've dreamed of being on the road, traveling and touring, for as long as I've been into doing music. It's what I live for. I just wanna be Willie Nelson.
When I started making music, I was so heavy into the hyphy movement. That's something you only know so much about if you were right there living in it, submerged in the culture.
I know what it feels like to walk out in front of a sold-out crowd of a thousand people that are there for you, and how good that feels, but as an opener, you just have to train yourself to think that it's going to be harder.
I didn't grow up around all white people; I never wanted to gentrify hip-hop, I've never wanted to speak to an all-white audience.
I think, back in the day, when I was first starting to make music, all I wanted to do was to get a record deal.
What's weird is the Hot Boys and the whole New Orleans Cash Money thing had a really big impact on the Bay when that was popping off. I don't all the way understand it. I mean, I know that they were big everywhere and had a lot of commercial success in the mid to late '90s, but they were really, really felt in the Bay Area.
My mom would always play me a lot of late-'50s, late-'60s rock.
'Runaround Sue' was a big record for me, as well as the music video for it.