Can you speak more about Westside Gunn’s vision in the rap game and just being a curator and helping so many artists elevate and be fully themselves?
Me being a fan of Westside Gunn and being a fan of Griselda before I’ve known him personally, from my standpoint, I feel like he’s grown from just a rapper putting out his solo albums to… You know how when you listen to The Chronic, it’s a Dr. Dre album, but he’s orchestrating and putting so much together? I feel like, right now, Westside Gunn is like Dr. Dre to me. He just doesn’t make beats. When Dr. Dre makes an album, it’s like an orchestra. It’s a big-ass event. It’s not just him rapping on every song. He’s putting different artists together that probably would have never rapped together, and just making a beautiful composition. So with Westside Gunn, I feel like he’s elevated from just being a rapper putting out an album.
Now, he’s an artist putting out a composition, and he can just put shit together so that shit is ill. He’s doing amazing shit for the culture. If you had told me five years ago that I would be on the same album with Lil Wayne, 2 Chainz, and Jay Electronica, I would’ve been like, “Who the fuck did I sell my soul to?” Because the way my life was a couple years ago, it would’ve had to be something miraculous, or I would’ve had to really level up. So he’s doing that shit. I can’t say nothing bad about what Westside Gunn is doing, because he’s allowing people to get shine.
Some rappers would never do that. Some rappers would never allow another rapper to get on their album and shine. He told me, “If I send you 16 bars, spit a 60. This is like an alley-oop. If we’re playing basketball, I’m the one throwing the ball up. You’re the one dunking, because at the end of the day, the one that does the dunking is the one that everybody is looking at.” So for him to be a person who everybody wants to see dunk, but he’s throwing alley-oops, that’s amazing. He’s literally the culture right now, even if a motherfucker don’t realize it.
You have the collaboration project with Ransom coming out. What made you want to put that together?
I’ve always been a fan of Ransom since the DJ Clue tapes and shit. I met Ransom in Cinematic Records, and when I met him, I introduced myself, and he was like, “I know who you are. You’re killing shit. We have to spar.” In my mind, I’m like shit, Ransom is one of the illest lyricists I’ve ever heard, so for him to say we have to spar instead of just doing a song, I knew he wanted to go crazy.
A couple months later, he sent me the “American Hustle” joint, and I knew that shit was hard, so I slid on that. Then I sent him a joint, and he sent me a joint back, and all the fans are like, “Y’all sound crazy together.” Then Ransom just put out a tweet like, “Yo, me and Rome Streetz about to do an album.” I’m like, “Word, we are?” And I said fuck it, let’s get it, because at the end of the day, Ransom has been one of my favorite rappers, so why would I say no? That couldn’t do anything bad for me. If anything, it’s going to push my pen and put me on a different stratosphere, because there’s people who look at Ransom like he’s one of the best lyricists ever in rap.
So for me to do a whole album with him, it’s going to be like, “Okay, so who is this Rome Streetz nigga rapping with Ransom and he’s keeping up with him? This nigga is crazy.” I looked at it as a win-win, and the album is fucking disgusting. I don’t really think there are too many two-man albums that can really stand up to this shit. And even if there is, this shit is up there with them.
What was the recording process like? Were y’all in the studio together?
We did that shit during the pandemic, so getting in the studio was a little difficult. We probably got in the studio together for one joint, but I record at my crib, and so does he. Once it came about, it was like, “Yo, I got a joint.” I’ll be in the crib, I’ll record something. I’ll send it to him or he’ll send me something, and I’ll send it back the same day. I’m the type of person, like when Westside Gunn sends me features, if I’m not with him in the studio, he’ll get that shit back the same day.
If I’m in the crib, I’m doing that shit right there, so a lot of the shit with me and Ransom was done the same day, like we were in the studio. I do a joint, I send it to him, he sends that shit right back. And we’re on the phone talking, so even though we’re not there physically in the flesh every step of the way, we’re corresponding or we’re bouncing ideas off one another, so it wasn’t just some mechanical shit.
Westside Gunn told me when he’s working with artists, he’ll send them something and say he needs it back in 48 hours. Did you experience that with him yet? Did it put pressure on you?
I experienced that with him, but it’s not really pressure. Other people have hit me up saying they need something fast, but with him, I kind of set the tone with that. That “Steve Behr” record that we did, I sent that shit back, like, an hour later. He sent me that shit, I went to the store to get a drink, came back, recorded the shit, and sent it back. I kind of set that precedent.
It’s really not any pressure. I thrive in that shit because now I rap for a living. What the fuck? Man, this is nothing. My pen has adrenaline. If any rapper that I deem as somebody who I respect sends me a track, I’m going to send that shit back today, because fuck waiting, I want this nigga to know I kill shit. I don’t play with this shit, so it’s no pressure. I get it done. Even when I went to Arizona, I probably did 14 songs in four days, and it’s not forcing it either. I was just in a mode. I was energized. I’m hyped for this shit for myself. This is what I’ve always wanted to do, so I’m hyped for it. When I’m in a situation, it’s nothing. Rapping is the easy part. Sometimes being present and showing up and all the extra shit that comes with this rap shit is the difficult thing. It’s not really difficult, but I’m just used to rapping. It’s second nature to me.
I’ve read you liked to write raps on the J train. Can you speak to the process of writing in public? And do you remember the first rap you wrote on the train?
I can’t really remember the first thing I wrote on the J train, but I remember I did this song called “The Train Ride From Manhattan.” The process isn’t really nothing. I put the headphones on, and I just write. Ninety-nine percent of the shit I create, I wrote that shit on my phone. It’s nothing for me to write while I’m on the train and shit, but I don’t really do that no more because I drive now and shit. But on the come-up, with the train, you get to see everything. You get to see a bunch of different people, and the thing about New York is it’s a thin line between everything. For instance, you could see a millionaire and a homeless person in the same step. You got fucking $5,000 a month condos across the street from the projects. Being in New York, you see both sides of life at their extremes, all in one sight.
When you’re on the train, you’re traveling through all these different places, and everywhere has a different flavor. So if you’re going on a long train ride, you see a bunch of different people and flavors. You’re looking out the window and seeing different types of architecture, whether it’s historic New York shit that will just jog your creativity, as opposed to just sitting in a room by yourself and just writing. So when you’re on a train, you could reference some shit that happened just now, like immediately. Sitting in your room, it’s all in your head, so the train was a cool creative space for me. I used to do pen and pad, but if I’m writing with a pen and pad all the time, what if I’m not at home next to that pen? Then what? Hopefully I can remember this shit all the way until I get next to a pen. If I got my phone on me with the notes, and if I think of some shit right now, I’m going to write that shit right now.
What does the future hold for you? What else are you working on?
Besides the Ransom album, there’s the album I got with Griselda. That’s coming out, but I don’t know when. And just more Griselda shit. I’m signed. One thing Westside told me is the same shit he was doing with Benny is the same shit you’re going to see him do with me, so I can’t really tell you exactly what the hell is going to happen, because it’s really whatever West can create in his mind. Whatever looks that he can just curate. We’re trying to do another tour. I don’t really want to disclose a lot of the information about where we’re going to go for the tour and who it’s with yet, because it’s not super solidified, but there’s more lit shit about to take off. I can say that. Just look out for music and videos, that’s a fact.