On 'Black Ben Carson,' I had strict no melody thing. I wanted straight, raw, rugged noise music.
— JPEGMAFIA
When you're you long enough, you get to this space where people start respecting you.
I honed my craft in the military, because it's the only thing that got me through it, to be honest. Working on music - being able to come home and work on music whenever I got off - was essential. If I didn't have that, I probably would've lost my mind.
One consistent good thing I can say about the music industry is that at least I can make music freely now, and I don't have to do it when I'm off of a nine to five shift or something.
When I take from my influences, it's rare that I do it literally.
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.
If I wasn't making music I'd still be listening to it and talking about it. That's why I'm able to chill with Denzel Curry and then Jeff Tweedy, because the thing that's linking us is music.
Baltimore's just like, it's like being in prison but being on the yard the whole day.
I'm an artist but I'm also a real person. I have bills like everyone else.
I have no history with 4chan.
Well, me and Freaky been knowing each other for a while, and he was always playing crazy music in his room, but he would never release it. He's, like, the most underground rapper I know, and he's crazy talented.
I been compared a lot to Brockhampton a lot.
I started producing when I was listening to The Diplomats. The first time I heard Cam'ron was 'Dead or Alive.'
I don't think any other place puts out music with no promise of success and still works like Baltimore.
People in rock had this idea that rappers aren't talented. In my opinion we're better writers, we think deeper, and our concepts are harder - Rap evolves faster than any other genre.
I saw Fear perform live at a young age, so I guess you could say I draw from that same energy.
I've been watching anime for a minute, so I know like real weird deep anime that people probably don't care about.
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.
As a black person, I have two parties to choose from: liberal and conservative. If I choose to be a liberal - regardless of who I choose - I'm picking the lesser of two evils in my mind basically.
Bjork for sure. Definitely, I would like to do like something with Tommy Genesis, too. There's a lot of people actually.
I enjoy making music more than anything in the world. It's the only thing that it's felt the same since I was like 15.
My first live performance was when I was in the military. I went to some bar, and they had open mics. You could just sign up and perform. Nobody cared. Nobody liked it.
Rick Rubin is interesting. He doesn't wear shoes, I think? No wait, he wears shoes.
I like for things to be judged fairly.
In my opinion, the most dangerous thing an artist can do in this day and age is not embrace the present.
Most of my experience with racism comes from living in the South.
Whoever likes my music, I'm gonna reciprocate that same love back to them. I'm not trying to alienate anybody.
The first thing I ever put on the Internet was actually a beat tape, but the first thing I ever put on where I was rapping was called 'Generation Y,' and it was hella political.
When I die, I want people to be like, 'Respect the music.' I don't really care if you hate me or like me - what I want badly is the validation and respect of the people.
I am used to making people upset and uncomfortable with my lyrical content when it comes to music.
My music experience living in Baltimore was life-altering. To this day, there is no scene that works as hard or puts as much effort into their art.
The intention behind 'Prone!' was to make a punk song with no instruments.
I don't rely on the strength of my image.
I grew up in Flatbush, Queens, Laurelton. These are places where it's mostly black and there was a lot of diversity.
My dad used to play old dancehall records - Cutty Ranks, Ranking Dread, Michael Prophet, these type of dudes.
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.
Baltimore has the hardest work ethic out of all cities. It makes you want to work harder.
The only real thing I took away from the military is that it just reinforced all the things I already thought about the underbelly of America, like how racist it is. So, it didn't really affect my music literally, but it affected the way I work on it.
I was born in 1989. I literally watched 'Rocko's Modern Life' on live television.
I love soundtracks. I used to have three iPod classics: one with regular music, one with soundtracks, and one with demos on it.
I love Baltimore, I miss the people, but I think L.A. is way more chill.
Either people cling to the past and refuse to advance their ways, or they're always looking to future and not appreciating what's in front of them right now.
I see lots of people online making fun of me cause at my shows there's a bunch of white people.
I'm very much a person of free thought.
When I first started rapping, I used to just jock Jay Z super hard. Back when I was like 14 and 15, it was, like, Jay Z, Ice Cube, and Lil Wayne.
I really got deep into downloading music when I moved to the South and got a computer. So I was downloading the The Diplomats, AZ, Half-A-Mil, 40 Cal.
There's just more emotion and raw feeling in Baltimore music. It can't be copied.
There's no right or wrong way to do things and I think a lot of the SoundCloud rappers with their DIY music are proving that to be true.
So much of rap sounds the same, and that's okay, but that means some people want something that can be the complete opposite too.
Back in the early 1980s when rappers couldn't perform in the fancy venues because the police were too racist and scared, it was the punk venues letting them in to perform.
