Cousin Stizz is just trying to have some fun. The Boston rapper born Stephen Goss has spent the early part of his career earning a reputation as a deep-thinking, philosophizing emcee, heavy on introspection and themes surrounding the trauma that grew its roots early in his childhood. When he released Suffolk County in 2015, Stizz immediately emerged as one of the hottest rappers out of Boston. This led him to find his own course and to put on for his city, because he didn’t know anything else.
“Everything I talk about and everything I really know is rooted in Boston,” he explains to Complex a week after his latest LP, Trying to Find My Next Thrill, was released via RCA.
The new record is ecstatic, both in its looser vibes and more approachable lyrics, but also in the way Stizz navigates between a plethora of styles to round out his multidimensional personality. Stizz doesn’t want to limit himself to conscious rap or party rap. Or any kind of rap, really. As he tells us, “I just do what the beat tells me to do.” So Thrill features both the club-rattling and City Girls-assisted “Perfect,” and “Two Face,” an intricate and serious look at how relationships evolve when power dynamics shift.
Stizz is fully in control on Thrill. It’s a showcase of a guy who simply loves rapping and will continue to make that his career as long as he can. Growing up broke and having a best friend shot to death, Stizz knows that very few make it where he made it from. His records teem with pride; not only for himself, but for his friends, his family, and his community. Sure, calling Cousin Stizz a Boston rapper is limiting. By this point, he’s operating on a national level. But there wouldn’t be a Suffolk County or a Monda without Boston. Stizz is inextricably linked to his city, even as he grows too big for it. Home isn’t where you live, it’s what you rap about.
Now that the album has been out for a bit, how are you feeling about it?
I’m feeling really good about it and liking the response, actually. I feel good personally, just to get that music out.
How long did the process for this album take?
I had songs scattered about from my little musical hiatus. I was just livin’ life, really, for a while. I started really working on this stuff towards the end of October and into early November.
I hope someone really sits down, listens to it, and feels something. I try to give you moments where you feel good, and others where you think about stuff, too.
Why did you take a brief hiatus?
I just needed to live. I’m not one of those people that can make music to just make music. I have to live life and go through shit. That’s what I really love. Just living.
You wanted to loosen up on a lot of this record, but the other half has some of your most personal work to date. What went into that decision?
I just wanted to have fun, really. I can write all of those introspective songs off top. I’m good at that. I could do that and get to those places, but those are deep places, you know what I’m sayin’? I don’t wanna live there. That’s what it came down to. Like I said, I just wanted to have fun and really express how I felt as soon as I heard the beat.
Was there a lot of freestyling?
Not a lot. You can kinda hear it, and you can tell which ones I put my pen on and which records were more propelled by feeling. That’s all it is. Music in general, too. It’s all feeling, you know? Whatever the beat tells me to do is what I do.
Did turning negative experiences and past trauma begin to weigh on you significantly enough to shift your writing style away from it?
It naturally weighs on you. It’s one of those things that you just keep bringing your mind to, regardless of what’s going on. You could be living the best of days, and your mind can just start wandering to a place it doesn’t need to be all the time. It naturally weighs on you.
Especially touring, too. That can be tough, revisiting that.
Yeah, man. I make music about life, and my life in general. It’s all stuff I’ve been through. I don’t wanna have that shit on me all the time. I can make music to have fun. I originally made music to have fun. I don’t wanna keep putting myself in my mind all the time. It’s important, sure, because it’s real and a real life I go through. This is what me and my friends—people I care about—go through. At the end of the day, I’m tryna have fun, though.
Every song takes me to a different place. “Perfect” was one take. I had to sit down to write a record like “Beamin.”
What’s your relationship like with Boston these days? As you’ve become a national act, has your place in the city changed as a local ambassador?
I don’t really know. It’s weird, you know? I could have never imagined it happening in the first place. It’s never happened to anyone where I’m from. There’s nothing I could pinpoint, like, “Okay, this is how I’m supposed to do it. This is how I’m supposed to look and this is how I’m supposed to be.” I’m still learning and I’m still living as it’s going on. I don’t really know, bruh. It’s just natural love. It’s where I grew up.
Do you feel a responsibility to rep the city?
Naturally, yeah. I rep the city because it’s all I know. I wouldn’t know to rep anything else. It’s just one of those things that kinda happened because of who I am and what my experiences were. This wasn’t something I was going after, like, I didn’t try to be an ambassador for anything, really. I just wanted to make music that me and my friends liked. Everything else that happened just kinda happened.
How does your writing process begin? Do you sketch out all the songs at once? Do you start with themes first?
Making projects is funny, man. It’s different every time. It’s not something I can explain in one way. Generally, though, I just make a bunch of music. I get into the mindset where I’m in studio mode. Eventually, you start hearing similarities in songs and the themes begin to build themselves. I don’t try to think about it too much. When I think about it too much, well, I usually trash those records.
Are you in a healthy place mentally right now?
Yeah, for sure. I’m enjoying life. From where I came from, bro, to now, I couldn’t complain about shit. Like, at all. I couldn’t be more happy and proud of myself and the people that are around me that have helped me get to this point. For real, for real.
Is that what keeps pushing you? To never go back to that place?
Yeah, it’s that. It’s a couple of things. There are also the things back home that I’m not able to change yet, you feel me? That’s what drives me. Obviously, I’m trying to keep us afloat, but I’ve got shit back home that I really gotta take care of.
How do you balance the art of rap with the need to make money?
Rap is all about feelin’ that whole shit. It’s kinda like the same thing. It wouldn’t even be an option if I wasn’t rapping. I’d be doing something totally different. I don’t even know what I’d be doing, but I doubt it’d be something great. This shit is even making that choice an option. They’re kinda one and the same at this point.
20 years down the line, what does the ideal Cousin Stizz career look like?
A legend. A legend in his own, bro. I’m not just doing this for shits and giggles. At this point, I really like the shit I’m doing. I love making music. I wanna be remembered for that. That’s a legend, to me. It’s people that get remembered for what they love to do. That’s what I want.
Do you feel any pressure now that you have a major label and a big fan base eager for new music? Does that weigh on you?
Naw, I think that’s one of those things that happens if you’re not prepared. You have to prepare yourself for everything. I knew what I was signing up for. If you work hard enough, this shouldn’t be a thing that pressures you. You work for it. You were ready.
How do you prepare to get to that place?
I just work, bruh. I just get in the studio. That’s all it is. I just get in the stu’. When it’s time to lock in, that’s what I do.
Do you write much when you’re not in the studio?
For sure. That’s when I get the majority of my writing done. I go to the studio with the music, or I go there with a clear head and a mindset that we’re gonna hit the beats and I’m gonna go in there and say what I say.
Are there any older rappers you’ve worked with that have taught you anything about the game or served as mentors?
Nah, not really. Being from a place where there’s not anyone else, I never received that type of game. I learned how to move from where I grew up. At this point in my life, I don’t need no other n***a telling me how to do shit. I never had nobody like that.
Not having that same rulebook is freeing.
Yeah, bro! I guess so. There’s no way to move, per se. You just make up your own way. I was cool with doing that in the first place. Once the music started picking up in the first place, I knew that that’s what it was gonna lead to.
You’ve always been known as a super lyrical and heady rapper. Was part of including looser, more party-centric songs on this album to shed that label a bit?
I don’t even see them as party records. These are just things I thought were fun to make, bro. That’s really all it was. There was no other thought in there. When the beat came on, I was just like, “This shit is hard!” That was it. [Laughs].
Are you a fairly reactionary rapper? Do you just kinda go in and do it?
I wouldn’t say that. It really depends. Every subject is different. Every single song is different. Every song takes me to a different place. “Perfect” was one take. I had to sit down to write a record like “Beamin.” It’s a different record. It’s a different type of tone, a different type of subject. I’m touching different places. I gotta go back places, I gotta think about things that are happening now. You can’t just do that—well I can’t do that—on spot. A lot of music I love is just feeling.
What do you hope someone listening to this record takes away from it?
I hope they learn something because it’s one of those records that goes up and down. I hope someone really sits down, listens to it, and feels something. I try to give you moments where you feel good, and others where you think about stuff, too. I don’t want you to relate it to me, though. I want you to relate it to yourself and think about how it can help something you’re going through currently. Just know that shit’s gonna be aight at the end of the day.
