Usually I start with a beat, I start making a beat, and my producer side is making the beat. And on a good day, my rapper side will jump in and start the writing process - maybe come up with a hook or start a verse. Sometimes it just happens like that. A song like 'Lights Please' happens like that.
I feel like I've mastered Dave East. For a long time I was trying to figure out who I was and what sound I wanted to come with.
99% of my life I was lied to. I just found out my mom does more dope than I do(Damn!). I told her I'd grow up to be a famous rapper, make a record about doing drugs and name it after her (-Oh, thank you!).
There are a lot of dope people in the DMV: WillThaRapper, Big Flock, GoldLink, Logic, IDK, Rico Nasty, Goonew and Q Da Fool. Seeing them get national attention motivated me to do my thing.
Whatever happened in the neighborhood. That's what I was rapping about. And that sparked people's interest. And that's what kind of put me on that path.
I would go to the store, I would buy cassette tapes, and I would read the liner notes and sort of subconsciously creating the connections between the rappers that I was reading and the poets that they were teaching us in school.
I can't wait to see someone else from Louisville make a hit song 'cos that'd be dope. I can only imagine how J Cole would feel if somebody just came out of Fayetteville and started booming with some crazy records.
My biggest influence is Tupac. He was a poet, and listening to Tupac is what inspired me to start rapping.
Nobody can deliver a line better than Jadakiss. That's where I learned my technique. He can deliver punchlines so perfectly wrapped up for you to enjoy. If I had a different favorite rapper, I wouldn't be able to make some of the music I do.
I was, like, 12 or 13; the first hip hop song I tried to rapping to was Macklemore's 'Thrift Shop,' and my English was so bad, but learning to rap to different songs really helped me with my pronunciation, and looking at the lyrics on Rap Genius and stuff like that.
