YG and DJ Mustard make hits.
For some time, their sound was being heard loudest in the mainstream through other people. Songs like 2 Chainz' "I'm Different" and Tyga's "Rack City" were both Mustard productions but not YG songs. Meanwhile, YG has been putting out consistently potential-hit-saturated tapes, each with song after song after song that makes us wonder why it took this long for the mainstream to catch on. He broke the Billboard Top 20 fairly recently, though, with his hit, "My Nigga" (doesn't remind you of the Luniz' old "I Got 5 On It"?) and it seems as though he is finally starting to reap the benefits of consistent quality output.
The morning after concluding a 40-city tour with a stop in New York City, YG came into the Complex offices with his A&R rep Sickamore to let us hear his new album, My Krazy Life. It didn't disappoint. And here is a prediction: you will be hearing a song called, "Who Do You Love," that he made with Drake (and that we heard a snippet of recently) a lot in the near future. We also learned that you can make anything sound cooler by starting words with the letter 'b.'
As told to Alex Gleckman (@andfeedingyou)
That's a quite a coup to get Drake on a song. How do you think he became aware of your music?
I feel like he probably was fucking with it so hard because he heard the shit. He was hearing about me on the West Coast, he's out there a lot. All these little females that be fucking on me, they're playing my shit. That's how it happens most of the time. There'll be artists from out of town that will move out there, and they're living the life, having females over, and they ask, "Who the nigga out here?" And the females will tell you.
What is your favorite Drake song right now?
Right now, we off the whole album. I have a lot of sex to Drake shit, no homo. I be fucking my bitches to Drake shit.
What else are you listening to right now?
Nipsey Hussle, the Crenshaw tape. The Durk tape. We listen to the Migos. Future. That song "Sh!t." I just like music bro, I listen to everyone.
Why did you change the title of your album from I'm From Bompton to My Krazy Life?
I was talking to Young Jeezy about the album, he was asking me about the title. I told him I'm From Bompton and he asked me who do I want to support my album? Do I want a certain type of people or do I want the whole world? I told him I want the whole world. If my album was called I'm From Bompton it means like, I'm gangbanging, so certain people might feel some type of way. They won't purchase my album because I'm gangbanging, they ain't with what I'm with. So I'd be like fucking myself up, low-key.
I have a lot of sex to Drake's music, no homo. I be f*****g my b*****s to Drake's music.
Well, a lot of people bought Straight Outta Compton.
That's what I've been thinking about lately! Ay, Sickamore, I swear to God, I'm like I want to change my album back to I'm From Bompton.
[Sickamore: You can call your second album I'm From Bompton.]
I know. But fuck that, man.
Do people ever do that? Change it, then change it back?
I was thinking about that yesterday. I'm From Bompton just sounds like "I want to go hear that shit." That's what I'm talking about, like, when Snoop was on his Crip shit hard everybody was still buying that shit. When the shit is real, you got to respect it. That's why I changed the title though.
You just finished your tour here. Can you explain your role in Los Angeles to the people in New York City?
They look at me as the face of the West, like the new West Coast. What Snoop and them did back in the day, they look at me as the new version of all that shit that was going on because it's like the same type of shit. It's just we bring our own sound and the music is different. But the shit I rap about, the lifestyle, is all the same that they was rapping about back in the day. And the way I paint my pictures in my videos, it's similar to that. So I'm giving the people the same type of feel. The culture, the streets. and that's what I am. The West Coast.
What else can you say about your album?
It's on ten. When people get it and hear it, they're gonna love it. I feel like it's gonna be a classic. It's the best work me and Mustard did so far. I was listening to a lot of classic albums like The Chronic, Get Rich or Die Tryin', Doggystyle, Life After Death.
For inspiration.
Yeah, I ain't approach it like my mixtapes. On my mixtapes, I just rap. I just lay out a lot of situations. This album is a day in the life. I got a song called "Bicking Back Being Bool." That's our lingo.
Using B's.
Yeah, using B's. When someone asks, "What you doing?" I say, "Bicking back being bool."
Or "I'm at Bomplex."
[Laughs.] Yeah, exactly. But that song, I'm telling you a story, a day in the hood. I got a lot of records like that on my album. A lot of situations that a lot of people gonna be able to relate to.
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