Tell me about CrasH Talk. Is there a story
behind the title?
I mean, it’s just all my thoughts crashed into
pretty much. It wasn’t nothing super, super deep
or a hidden message—it’s just me and my
thoughts.
What was it like making this album?
Was the process any different or special
than albums in the past?
Not really. Music just gets easier and easier as
time passes. I know what I want to do and how I
want to execute. If it doesn’t sound right, I move
on instantly. Honestly, songs I made that didn’t
make the album, I didn’t even remember most of
them because I just move on. It’s just less
stressful than it used to be. When you first come
out, you try so hard to win people over and you
finally win them over and then you’re pretty
much free.
Do you still enjoy rapping just as much as
you did back in the day?
I mean, I still love doing it but it’s definitely
different now than then. Back then it was just
how many songs I can do at the time. Can I do
two songs today? Can I do three songs today? But
now, my process is different. I’m a perfectionist
now where, back in the day, I really didn’t
care—made it, mixed it, if it’s better than this
one, then put it out. Now it’s just way easier.
The videos that accompany the album so
far, especially “Floating,” are really dope
and execute a sick visual vibe. Do you find
yourself taking a more visually artistic
approach to your tracks these days?
Not really. That’s just who I am. I don’t try to do
these things. I don’t try to do anything—it just
happens. I just do what works for me and it’s
dope when people notice the progression and the
changes in certain things. But I’m just being me.
I’ve never really looked at it like that. But I do
notice from back in the day that my videos are
way different. But I’m not going to sit here and
lie and act like money don’t play a part in it.
I have way bigger budgets so a lot of the ideas
I wanted back in the day can come to life
now because back then I didn’t have the
extra $20,000.The song “Dangerous” with Kid Cudi really
sets itself apart from the rest of the songs.
Did you record that towards the beginning
or end of the album?
It was actually early on in the album, pretty much
around the same time I was working on
Blank Face in 2016, but it just didn’t fit that album
at the time. I’m trying to remember—I had
finished the whole album and was going to put
something else out in 2017—there’s a whole
album that I never put out—but that song just
kept sticking out. Come 2019, it was January and
I was, like, Do I still wanna use this? ’Cause you
know when you’re listening to your own music
for a while you get tired of
that shit. A lot of it I’ve
heard over and over
again—you’re pretty numb
to it—and you play it for
someone else and they’re,
like. “Oh shit!” This was one
of those ones. Every time I
would play it for somebody
that was one that would
stick out like a sore thumb,
no matter who I would play
it for. Like, “What was
that?!” I would play 100 songs and the reaction to
that one would be way different than a lot of the
other ones.
Do you have a personal favorite record on
this project?
It changes weekly. Right now I’m not listening to
my album because I’m personally burnt on it.
I’ve been listening to it three years pretty much.
I’m listening to different things right now, mainly
Tyler’s album right now—that album is crazy.
I’m listening to Young Nudy right now. I’m giving
my album a break and getting ready to work on
the next album. I feel my blood boiling again.
I’ve been trying to stay away from my music.
Every album I try to change it up. If I constantly
listen to CrasH Talk, when I go back into the
studio, those patterns, that flow, that beat making
will still be in my head. So right now I’m just
trying to come fresh. But since the last time I
listened “Drunk” was my favorite. It was “Water”
but now it’s not.SCHOOLBOY Q
cHoolboy Q—signed to Los Angeles based independent powerhouse label T.D.E.
alongside some people you’ve probably never heard of like Kendrick Lamar,
Ab-Soul and SZA—has always stood out from his label mates. He came out
swinging in 2012 with his hit “Weed and Brew,” an anthem for doing the most, and by the
time his first studio album Oxymoron dropped in 2014, it seemed he had the whole world
hooked. His bouncy, dark, twisted party anthems about drugs and sex with a gangster twist
was the perfect recipe. CrasH Talk marks Q’s third studio album and his personal favorite to
date. We had a chance to catch up with him and talk about the new project, how easy rap
has become for him, who he’s currently listening to, his responsibilities as an artist and a
Crip and how he played us all with Oxymoron. —Traci PutkeyS
196 Thrasher“Every time that
y e
y f
t y ”
Did you know that little girl who got big
fame on the gram dancing to “Water”?
Nah! I didn’t know her. She did that on her own.
That was tight!
What’s your relationship with critics
these days?
I mean, I never looked at no reviews or what
people were saying. I never really cared, so I
really don’t even know or have a clue. I just go
off what people say in real life now because the
Internet is such a lie. Like I said, when Blank Face
came out you would have thought I dropped the
greatest gangster rap album of all time, but in the
real world it was nowhere near it. Nowhere near
it. There’s a bunch of dweebs on the Internet
that just listen to music every day and they just
review it, you know what I’m saying? They whole
life is, What new music can I listen to today?
Dweebs, man, they just dweebs! They damn near
fucked my whole career up. I was always highly
reviewed at every fucking project, you know, and
I was, like, Man, why am I not bigger than every
fucking rapper? I wasn’t tripping, though, because,
as an artist, you just wanna be heard. But I’m so
truthful in who I am and what I like to do. When
someone tells me something I believe it butwhen shit don’t add up I question it. I’m not one
of those artists that just stay in denial about
things—I question things. That’s the difference
about me and other artists—I question things.
I think CrasH Talk is my best album. I think Oxy
is the worst of the three.
Why is that?
What can I say? Oxymoron was more critic
friendly—nerd friendly. Like where I’m from and
shit, when I made that album I knew how to get
them. I knew exactly what I was going to do,
you know what I’m saying? But I knew what I
was doing with that album; I knew exactly what
to make; I knew exactly what I was doing. That’s
how I know it’s so easy to manipulate rap,
especially with the Internet now. I knew “Collard
Greens” with Kendrick on it was going to be
great for white college kids. I knew “Man of the
Year” was going to be good. I knew “Studio” was
going to be great. I knew what I was doing with
that shit. I was doing the money run. I was just“Every time that
you meet someone
you take a piece of
them with you”