Who Is Casey Veggies?

Get to know the L.A. native who's signed to Sony, down with Odd Future, and managed by Roc Nation.

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Complex Original

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Casey Veggies has quietly built himself a pretty solid foundation for a career. He's not a major star just yet, but he's well on his way: Over 100,000 followers on Twitter, YouTube clips racking up hundreds of thousands of views, and his latest project, Life Changes (which dropped last month), flying past 100,000 downloads on DatPiff. The mixtape is his fifth solo release since 2007. While it's impressive that the rising rapper (born Casey Jones) is consistently dropping music, the fact that he's still just 19-years-old? Kind of astonishing.

Veggies first caught listeners' attention in 2011 for his affiliation with Odd Future, back when they were first blowing up. He's since struck out on his own, and started his own brand with Peas and Carrots International. And beyond Odd Future, he's got some pretty heavy co-signs from peers like Mac Miller, industry legends like Sylvia Rhone—who signed him to Sony last year—and even Roc Nation, who currently manages him. 

From how his father used to be Jay-Z's bodyguard, to how Mac Miller helped his career, and his thoughts on the Fairfax scene in L.A, we got on the horn with young Veggies while he battled a toothache to find out: Who Is Casey Veggies? This is what we heard.

As told to Insanul Ahmed (@Incilin)

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Growing Up In L.A.

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Casey Veggies: “I’m a true L.A. native. I was born in the city, at Kaiser hospital. My mother went to L.A. High School and my father went to Crenshaw. That’s Los Angeles to the fullest. I have family from Texas and Louisiana too, so there’s a Southern backdrop in my family. But mainly, we were all born and raised in Los Angeles.

“When I was about 5 years old, my dad used to be Jay-Z and Dame Dash’s bodyguard. It was one of those things where your pops is doing something and he’s not telling you everything he’s doing. He was like, ‘You’re too young, you don’t need to know.’ What I need to know is, ‘Why is my dad [a] bodyguard for Jay-Z?’ I can’t even remember if he told me why, but it’s something crazy.


 

When I was about five-years-old, my dad used to be Jay-Z and Dame Dash’s bodyguard. When I was growing up, he used to always give me game because he knew I was getting into music. He would tell me stories about Nas or Jay-Z and different artists like that.


 

“That’s a part of my history. When I was growing up, he used to always give me game, because he knew I was getting into music. He would tell me stories about Nas or Jay-Z, and different artists like that. He once told me about when he was with Nas, and Nas did a verse for somebody, it took him 15 minutes and he made $15,000. There were dope stories that my dad knew. But nowadays he’s into event promotions.

“My early life was pretty modern. I couldn’t remember all the different spots, but I lived in at least three different households. By the time I hit six, I was living in Inglewood, in a nice little apartment, right in the middle of the suburbs and the hood. Some stuff happens every now and then, but not all the time. It would be cool and calm, I could walk home from school without being around the negative.

“I went to La Tijera Elementary School in Inglewood, and played basketball. From there, I went to a middle school called John Burroughs Middle School. At that point, a lot of stuff changed, because I started to see a lot of different ethnicities of people. I made a lot of new friends and saw a different side of the city. I felt like it brought the artistic side out of me, it brought out my imagination. I was able to see the hood and see the good areas.”

Influences

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Casey Veggies: “I don’t think I got into hip-hop until I was 11 or 12. I got into Kanye West heavy. College Dropout inspired me to get into hip-hop, because he was doing something different.

“I learned about Nas’ Illmatic after I learned about Kanye. That’s what a lot of people don’t realize: I wasn’t aware what a lot of the classic 90’s hip-hop was because I was still such a young kid. So I had to go back and learn all that later on.

“That when I got into albums like The LOX’s Money, Power & Respect, Ma$e’s Harlem World, and even Dr. Dre’s 2001. When I got into 2001, I got inspired, because I’m from the West, so you connect to it and understand it. Now, I be seeing all the legendary West Coast artists [in person]. I’ll be at the studio and I’ll see DJ Quik, so I feel more connected to it. You come from being on the outside, then you realize you build up to where you’re on the inside now, and you see it from a different angle.


 

I learned about Nas’ Illmatic after I learned about Kanye. That’s what a lot of people don’t realize: I wasn’t aware when a lot of the classic 90’s hip-hop was because I was still such a young kid. So I had to go back and learn all that later on. I found my love of hip-hop and then went back and did my research.


 

“I’m so influenced by old school music, but I still have that new age that I’m trying to go for, because that’s what I represent. I was giving them all my angles. A lot of artists out here are really giving people a diverse angle, because the West was always super-diverse when it comes to music. We pretty much given off who we are.

“I put out a project through Delicious Vinyl. They were the first company to release Pharcyde, and in September 2011, they released the vinyl for my Sleeping in Class. That’s just showing people we’re doing classic things. How many artists can really say that? It’s big for me to be involved with something that means something to the culture. It’s showing younger kids what Delicious Vinyl is, if they don’t know about it. That’s what’s dope to me.”

Getting Into Rap

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Casey Veggies: “When I was 12, I began to write my first mixtape, Customized Greatly. When I was 13, I recorded it and released it. I had a cousin who was trying to be a rapper, he used to have a studio. So he used to just let me come in, and get studio time. I used to sell candy to pay for it.


 

We didn’t [rap] to be the big artists. We didn’t think our images and the stuff we were talking about were going to be something everybody would accept because we were so different. That’s why I had the title Customized Greatly, because it was something from a different angle.


 

“From eighth grade going into ninth, I went to the studio as much as I could. My mom would drop me off after school or on her lunch break, and I’d just wait for her to get off work to come pick me up. Tyler and everybody [from Odd Future] used to come through, and we had it going on. It was me being a young, ambitious kid that was really interested in being a rapper. I just tackled the whole subject and I didn’t look back.

“We all were hungry, but we did it because we loved it. We didn’t do it to be the big artists. We didn’t think our images and the stuff we were talking about were going to be something everybody would accept, because we were so different. That’s why I had the title Customized Greatly: because it was something from a different angle.

“There was a lot of times where I wasn’t sure if rapping was what I was going to do [for a living] because I was still playing basketball from ninth to eleventh grade. I made my mind up [about pursuing a rap career] in eleventh grade when I dropped the Sleeping in Class album. I felt like I was making a name for myself, so I went with what the people were telling me to do. A lot of people were showing love, I was doing shows, and I saw something come out of it.”

His Relationship With Mac Miller

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His Relationship With Odd Future

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Casey Veggies: “Odd Future was blowing up at the same time [I was going on tour with Mac] so it felt like all the right timing. I gained a lot of respect from people knowing I was down with Odd Future. People know that we all respect each other, and we want to see each other win. They knew that we were a team, and people could see that. The fans aren’t stupid. They can see who’s real and who’s not, so I feel like a lot of the fans know that I’m one of the real ones.


 

I feel like I had a place in that group. Even to this day, I feel like I would have fit in perfectly. I probably would have taken it to another level. I was definitely a part of the group. It’s just people go their separate ways sometimes.


 

“When I was working with Odd Future, they had so many abstract ideas. We built that sound together, but we came from the left working with Tyler, The Creator and them. It influenced me to do something different, as well as having my flavor of being influenced by Kanye and Nas. I wanted to take those two, and put them together, and come up with a new style, and add on to it.

“I was a full member of Odd Future, I was one of the original members. But the way everybody’s schedule was, everybody’s lifestyle and what everybody was doing, I just was one of the ones that drew away. I got started doing my own thing with Peas and Carrots. We built our own thing we had that going on, so I branched away from what Odd Future and Tyler was doing.

“I feel like I had a place in that group. Even to this day, I feel like I would have fit in perfectly. I probably would have taken it to another level. I was definitely a part of the group. I never will say I wasn’t a part of the group, it’s just: people go their separate ways, sometimes. But we are still definitely working together and I want them to try and be on my album.”

Peas & Carrots International

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Casey Veggies: “Peas and Carrots is a brand. It’s a team of young visionaries who put an idea down, and it came to fruition. It’s a clothing brand, it’s a website, and it’s an all-around lifestyle guide on fashion and music. The brand’s whole concept is about being your own person and people seeing your creativity.

“It’s one of the most original things out right now. You can be yourself. You can live, you can grow, and it’s organic. It’s teaching people to be original. A lot of brands aren’t coming across as positive, especially with a young rapper. Nobody comes across like my brand does.

“I got to know Anwar Carrots and Josh Peas in middle school. They were in high school about to graduate, and they had a clique called Priceless. It was an L.A. crew, and there were a lot of cliques going on in L.A. Everybody wanted to be the freshest and have all of the girls. Anwar and Josh just happened to two of the main guys in the crew.


 

Peas and Carrots is a brand. It’s a team of young visionaries that put an idea down and it came to fruition. It’s a clothing brand, it’s a website, and it’s an all-around lifestyle guide on fashion and music.


 

“I was in middle school but I got put on, and I was the youngest member in Priceless. That was cool for me to be in the crew while I was in middle school, it was a good look. I would always be the youngest one hanging out with all the older dudes.

“From there, we got older and branched off from that. We started doing Peas and Carrots and I started doing music. We started to blog, and from there, it all just naturally became what it is now. It was definitely planned to be a clothing line from the get-go. After a while, we realized it was our umbrella for everything, not just a clothing line and a website. It was a team and an imprint that could take us to the next level.

“[The site is important because] it’s all about being able to give something for your fans to come and see.”

His Rap Name

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The Fairfax Scene

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Casey Veggies: “Fairfax is a place for dreams. It’s a place for people into fashion, it’s young kids that just come in, check out something new. It’s not like Macy’s, or like when you walk into an outlet. You come to a spot where real brands and people that built it from the ground up to make something out of nothing are doing something different.


 

Fairfax is a place for dreams.


 

“You have to respect somebody that comes with something new and succeeds, and all the brands over there are pretty much self-made. I respect all the brands over there. I like them all from Diamond to The Hundreds to Flight Club to the OF store. I’m mad that Turntable Lab isn’t there anymore. And of course, I love Supreme. You can’t go wrong with Supreme.

“You got to hustle, so a lot of kids came up with that [entrepreneurial] spirit from L.A., trying to make something out of nothing. All the young thinkers from the area played a big part in Fairfax. People like me, and people like Odd Future.

“Back in seventh grade, I used to take the DASH bus over to Fairfax and over to La Brea, where the Stussy, Union, and UNDFTD stores were. I saved my money up in order to go to Fairfax and be able to cop a shirt for like $40 at Diamond. Now we have a brand and we’re doing collabs. We’re just like the brands that I used to cop back in the days, so everything comes full circle.”

Roc Nation

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Singing To Sony

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His Latest Project, Life Changes

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Casey Veggies: “On Life Changes, I solidified my sound. I finished up this project while having my record deal, but I still posted it as if I was a regular, independent artist, because that’s what I am. I just stayed down to earth and did this project on my own.


 

I wanted to tell my fans that been down from the get-go about the newer things that I’m getting into and what I’m seeing now. The album portrays that and tells people what I’m thinking at the moment.


 

“The time period [of the project] is from the Blue Slide Park tour era to when I signed my deal. Around that time, I was moving out of Inglewood and I got a new car. I was like, ‘I’m getting used to this. I’m moving up a little bit.’ Things are starting to change for me and I wanted to talk about it.

“I wanted to tell my fans that been down from the get-go about the newer things that I’m getting into and what I’m seeing now. I’m letting them know I’m on my way to this album. I’m ready to do this now, and that’s what people should focus on, so I feel like it’s the perfect setup. But I [also] didn’t want to do too much on Life Changes. I wanted to save it and give people surprises for the album. I have a lot of surprises for everybody.”

Future

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Casey Veggies: “I need to finish this debut album. Peas and Carrots has a lot of space to blow up as a brand, so I’ll focus on that. We’re going to take it from there. I’m definitely all for the music, and we’re going to do some big name partnerships.

“I’m definitely health-conscious. I’m trying to get back on my vegetables better, start working out more, and definitely promote to all the young kids saying stay healthy. [Laughs.] Just like your mom would say to you as a kid. I had a convo last night at two in the morning about how I need to start working out.


 

I’m going to start acting. I’m definitely going to step into that world but I’m focused on the music right now. I want to do real movie acting. I need to do a couple of classic movies before I’m done.


 

"I got to get right, because then your mind gets right too if you [work out], because you're working out different parts of your brain. You think better, so my raps will be better. Peas and Carrots, live and go lifestyle. It’s something that you can live by, that’s why it’s going to go far.

“After that, I’m going to start acting.  I want to do real movie acting. I need to do a couple of classic movies before I’m done. Everybody isn’t a Will Smith, but I’m definitely trying to go up that lane. I’m just trying to focus on music and conquer this first, and then we’re going to take it over there for a bit.

“[I don’t feel there’s] pressure [on me to be a bigger artist] because I like what we’ve been doing with Peas and Carrots. I’ve always been different, always been unique. I’ve been keeping the creative juices flowing. We’re going to keep doing what we’re doing. There’s not really pressure, because I’m so confident with what we’re doing, as a brand and musically. We’re going to keep pushing the bar. I’m trying to keep getting better, and make sure this album's a real great album for the fans.”

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