Being home-schooled, you really get to explore your hobbies, what you want to do for a living.
— Rich Brian
I'm really not a materialistic person.
When you listen deeply to a song, you find all the little sounds they use and subconsciously learn how to produce and mix.
Learning how to rap actually improved my English, because it forced me to talk fast, and I used to suck at that.
I'm really about seeing people and art for what they are. Like, seeing people as humans and seeing art.
I want to write from my own experience.
I say funny stuff in my songs sometimes, but it's still all in the seriousness of the music and the craft.
I made a Twitter account when I was 10 years old. I wasn't even trying to be funny. I was still tweeting in Indonesian. I didn't really speak English yet.
I say funny stuff in my lyrics to make people laugh, but it's all in the seriousness of the music. I'm just being witty.
I've known about hip-hop for a long time. The first time it intrigued me was when I saw this music video by Tyga on television. I was intrigued by the whole aesthetic. It was very unique.
I learned how to make videos, I learned how to make music, I learned English from the Internet. It's such a great platform, too, to release your stuff.
I don't want to be boxed in or looked at a certain way, as in, 'Yo, he's an Asian rapper.'
I'm definitely not making fun of hip-hop.
I don't want to be just seen as a character, because that can get exhausting after a while.
I started home-schooling when I was in elementary school because my parents were really busy back then. They didn't have time to drive me there, and we didn't have a school bus or whatever.
It's important for kids to see someone who looks like them carving his own path. I definitely acknowledge that, and I think it's super great.
I started playing the drums at five years old and used to listen to a lot of screamo bands like Asking Alexandria, Dream Theater, and Attack Attack!
My brother was the first to be home-schooled, and one reason they home-schooled me was so he wouldn't get jealous. Another thing is my mom noticed that I would stress out a lot about school. I would ask my teacher how good my grades were and think about that all the time.
I feel like kids naturally love guns, so I was drawn to that.
It took me a while to figure out the U.S. sense of humor, a lot of trial and error. I would write down jokes to casually tell my American friend over Skype to see which ones he'd laugh at.
I went through a clubbing phase - then, I dunno, dude. The club scene in Jakarta sucks. It's rich kids and kids who are trying to look rich.
Honestly, I'm not a big activism or politic guy. I wouldn't say I'm super educated in that stuff, and I feel like I shouldn't speak on things that I don't understand too much.
I just say 'Amen' a lot. It's just about being grateful and never taking things for granted.
I just love making people laugh.
I stopped playing the drums when I was ten, and I picked up Rubik's Cubes. I was doing that for a while, and then I got into cinematography.
I'm inspired by a lot of things. I came from Indonesia. I grew up watching a lot of YouTube videos and was inspired by all these other things. I just love making music. I don't think I'm trying to profit off anything. I just like creating stuff.
Academic studies in general is not something that I'm very good at.
When I say 'homeschooled,' I was homeschooled for, like, two years, and then we just stopped. It was me and my parents, and they'd give me homework and stuff like that, but then one day, they just stopped.
For songs to be big, I don't think there's a certain formula to it.
My dad put me onto Phil Collins and Dream Theater and all that stuff.
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.
I have this friend who does comedy but also music, and I really enjoyed his stuff, and I wanted to do that.
There are good things about Indonesia, but there are bad things about it that I hope can be fixed.
When my family got Internet installed at my house, me and my siblings went crazy and would take turns browsing. I'm homeschooled, too, so I would be on the computer every day. It was so exciting to finally get Internet at my house.
I very rarely shop. The only money I spend is on, like, Uber and food.
One thing about Indonesians is that a lot of them, even if they don't understand English, have absolutely no problem memorizing English songs. Even my dad.
'Dat $tick' was the first song I tried to be serious on. Then I thought, Wow, what if I really did this seriously? How dope would that be?'
I like what Dumbfoundead and Awkwafina are doing, but I think I'm just trying to do something different.
Indonesian people don't get satire; that's the thing. There's no thought in our humor.
In my opinion, an album has a story from start to finish and has a concrete concept.
At one point, I had more friends on the Internet than I did in real life.
I'm listening to Tame Impala, Mac DeMarco, Frank Ocean, Childish Gambino. I'm just trying to just get as many different inspirations as I can. I love artists that can adapt and have different styles.
My main goal was to be a cinematographer. I was making short films, and the plan was to keep uploading them on Twitter and build a fanbase there. One day, I just started making music for fun. When I made 'Dat $tick,' it blew up, and I saw the potential in that.
I actually, honestly don't look into politics that much.
It's pretty hard as an Asian rapper to not be put in a box. I do my best to avoid that.
I like lyrical rappers and turn up rappers.
I take my music very serious. I don't call myself a comedian.
Hip hop helped me learn about a whole bunch of American culture.
I remember in Indonesia, there was this actor in a film that got pretty big internationally, and he went to Hollywood. Seeing an Indonesian guy doing that when I was 13 or 14, it really motivated me.
It got to the point where I would wake up at 6 A.M. and go on my phone and tweet something and have it be really good and get lots of retweets... and then I would wake up, because it was actually a dream; I would wake up with my hand holding nothing - an air phone.
