JPEGMAFIA
The idea of me being an icon or something is a very funny thing, just because of my own weird insecurities. But, yeah... probably because I toiled away being nothing for so long.Collection: Funny
For me, sampling is a high art. Most people don't see it that way, but it's a beautiful thing. I wouldn't know anything about music if it wasn't for samples.Collection: Music
Liberals allow right-wingers on their platforms to have a 'civilized discussion,' but there's no reasoning with racists. I don't want them to have a platform that humanizes them. I want to talk down to them and meet them exactly where they are, with absolutely no respect.Collection: Respect
Kendrick Lamar is 10-times the rapper I am, but I just feel I'm the best at getting my own point across.Collection: Best
I don't rely on the strength of my image.Collection: Strength
I have no history with 4chan.
I don't know if there's anything Kanye West can do that can erase his influence on me, because it's here. It's already there. He can't even reverse that himself, because it's just so ingrained in me.
I am used to experiencing so much trauma, that when I see it, I have to speak out. I don't think rappers have a responsibility, but if you don't say something or be silent or avoid it, I believe it shows your true real character to the world. It's like, if no one wants to rap about gentrification then I am going to fill that void!
I'd rather be dead than work in a warehouse.
After the military, I floundered around between jobs for a while, and there was an opportunity for me to go live in Japan. I was living on the Okinawa Airport Base, off the grid, no real address.
Bjork for sure. Definitely, I would like to do like something with Tommy Genesis, too. There's a lot of people actually.
Whoever likes my music, I'm gonna reciprocate that same love back to them. I'm not trying to alienate anybody.
Rick Rubin is interesting. He doesn't wear shoes, I think? No wait, he wears shoes.
When I first heard 'Pearly Gates' by Mobb Deep and 50 Cent growing up, the rapper Prodigy had a line about wanting to beat Jesus up. I wasn't religious, but I'd never been introduced to something like that. I was scared and mad, but then I asked why I felt like that.
I am used to making people upset and uncomfortable with my lyrical content when it comes to music.
I'm very much a person of free thought.
I see lots of people online making fun of me cause at my shows there's a bunch of white people.
I'm aware that if I make a country album and release it, and it gets on the Grammys, the Grammys are going to put it in the Urban category. Just my blackness automatically sets it in there.
Originally my entire goal with music was for it to be my job. When I sit down to make a beat, I wanna know that I'm gonna get paid from it, and that I can pay my bills and still have money left over to be a person.
We need true free thinkers, people who really say what they feel and have good, genuine intentions.
America to me is where I grew up: in Brooklyn, around other black and Latino people who helped and loved each other. I just want to show people that America doesn't have to be this 'I'm in the NRA, blah blah blah' type of place.
Black people are not a monolith. Black people have different thoughts. And sometimes people just need to hear the harsh truth - even myself. But you can't manufacture a hard truth and place it on somebody. When Kanye says slavery was a choice, that's not a harsh truth.
I don't think rappers have a responsibility, but for me, I gotta say something. I can't just look at injustice and keep quiet.
The U.S. army is pretty terrible. Never join it!
Punk is all about doing what you want and being yourself. And that's what rap is too.
I just wanted to write about music if I wasn't going to make it.
When I released 'Veteran' and the reception was good, it was the first time I ever worked really hard on something and had that hard work reciprocated back to me.
Veteran' is an exercise in editing because there is a lot of moments I took out and some that almost didn't make it.
I'd never been to a festival till I played one.
There are so many odd things that happened that are centered around Britney Spears it's kind of amazing. There's just so many cultural moments centered around her existence and nothing else.
If you listen to my music, you know who I'm talking to, what I'm talking about, and exactly what my message is.
I'm not some patriot. I didn't have some yearning to defend my country or anything. I was poor.
I don't have a manager who's secretly on Interscope. I'm the complete opposite of an industry plant.
A lot of these dudes in metal, they're just mad at the world because, like... who even knows?
The first time I ever went to Texas was on a bus with curtains draped over the windows. I just joined the military and got shipped off to basic training in San Antonio.
I think it's important for black people in general to be aware of what's going on and do what you got to work around it. Not bow down to it publicly.
If Kanye was not in the equation, I literally wouldn't even be here. His music pushed hip-hop - the man is a master at taking a complex idea and presenting it in a way that is accessible for everyone.
Rules limit you, and once you start thinking about what the audience wants or expects, it becomes a trap that a lot of artists fall into.
Now that I have a little platform, and there are more eyes on me to release something, all that does is challenge me and put me under pressure, and I love being under pressure, especially musically. I might fail, but I'm excited about the possibilities.
I'm going to shock you with the truth. I'm just going to give it to you raw, and however you take it, I'm just going to watch your reaction.
Everything I say is true and from the heart. I exaggerate some things, but the core base of it is just facts.
It just seems like Baltimore, talent-wise, nothing can touch it.
I used to get stop-and-frisked every time I walked out of my house.
I want to work with Danny Brown but also Cannibal Corpse and Maroon 5.
Everyone has a little niche in rap, and I just wanted to carve a piece out of it for myself.
I'm always just gonna do whatever I want. I don't feel any pressure to appeal to anyone in particular.
I don't want anyone to expect anything from me. I just want them to know that I'm gonna put 1,037% into whatever I do. If I tell you I'm gonna release a folk/reggae/country album, just know at bare minimum there's gonna be 1,010% put into it.
The way I make music, I know what I'm doing, because I been doing this for so long. This is the only thing I'm good at.
I grew up in Flatbush, Queens, Laurelton. These are places where it's mostly black and there was a lot of diversity.
I've been watching anime for a minute, so I know like real weird deep anime that people probably don't care about.