I think you should always push yourself to want to grow and learn more and be inspired and develop.
I grew up in Oakland, California, and there was a really active scene in the Bay Area. Everyone else knew it as the 'Hyphy Movement' of Mac Dre, E-40, and The Pack.
I read the Steve Jobs book, and that kind of changed everything. I've been, like, an Apple geek my whole life and have always seen him as a hero. But reading the book, and learning about how he built the company, and maintaining that corporate culture and all that, I think that influenced me a lot.
When you're around somebody like E-40, all you can do is watch and learn, and soak up game.
That's the nature of this business. Something that took ten years to make can crumble in an instant. It could be snatched away from you at any moment.
The thing is, I've always wanted to be a star. I've always wanted to be an Elvis Presley or a Tupac - like, a huge icon.
When you're making an album, it's, like, exciting every night you make something new, but you're the only one who gets to hear it.
'Downtown Love.' I made that with one of my homies in New Orleans. The story is tragic, and the song is emotional. It's my favorite. I'm most proud of that; it's such a creative piece.
I hate picking out clothes.
I wanted to make an album that plays from the top to bottom and feels together and complete. That's just something that felt important.
I wanna put numbers on the board. And the thing that everybody doesn't get is that it just doesn't happen. It doesn't just fall out of the air and land on your lap; the only way to get it is to get it and put the work in.
Touring is starting to feel more like home than home does.
The Bay area made me who I am, and it only felt right to go back there.
London, from the architecture to the culture to the fashion to the accents, feels like it's a special place.
Growing up in the Bay, I was still looking for a lot of East Coast hip-hop. I had an older homie put me on to a lot of stuff like Nas' 'Illmatic.'
I got my start in small dive bars in New Orleans.
A halfway decent haircut will go a long way!
If you look at any creative person's work, you can see bits and pieces of their influences. That's what an artist does.
Performing music live, there's a certain magic to it.
When you sample something, you're using the crutch of borrowing chords and melodies from a song that's already great, that's already stood the test of time, that's already special. When you're trying to do it all from scratch, you're writing something brand new that has to stand on its own.
Some people will like it. Some people will hate it. Some people are indifferent. And you have to live with that as an artist. You wanna be appreciated, you wanna be liked, but you know, it's just not realistic for everyone.
I'll be a Bay kid for the rest of my life. That's in my veins; that's in my bones.
My friends put me on to Mobb Deep when I was a little kid. I've always been a big fan.
I just kept telling myself that ultimately, the money that my grandparents had put away to go into my college fund, that they were investing for me to go to school and get this education, it had to be worth something.
Albums serve as paragraphs in an artist's autobiography.
My mom was a single parent.
I always thought that one day I would be somebody. I would be successful in music, and I would have fans that cared about my music. At the same time, I really feel like an ordinary guy; I have been an ordinary guy forever.
It's definitely been a long, long... long, long, long, long, long journey since I was selling burnt CD's out of my backpack in downtown Oakland.
It's one thing to turn up and jump around stage and give people a good time - that's obviously a big part of this - but I'll always get deeper than that as an artist.
It was inspiring to see local legends like E-40 and Keak da Sneak break out with 'Tell Me When to Go.'
I'm really attracted to girls who are passionate about music because that's what I'm obsessed with.
Anything back in New Orleans is definitely nostalgic. I really played my first shows of my life and learned to perform here. I learned how to work a stage and how to connect with a crowd. It all started here.
I've always been an outsider to some extent.
I fell in love with hip-hop at an early age as a culture, as a sound, both from the perspective of a fan and a creative outlet.
You have this ability in hip hop to be invincibly cool, and that is a part of G-Eazy.
Rapping was something I always wanted to do, so after school, my friends and I would catch the bus to my house and just sit there writing songs, every day.
I like to have a lot of girls over and play loud music.
The gatekeepers don't control the gates, and the powers that be aren't as powerful.
Whenever I can squeeze it in, I'm writing and recording.
You have an entire generation of kids who grew up with the idea that music is something that you can download for free.
I feel like if you're stuck doing the same thing your whole career you've got to be doing something wrong. Unless you're getting great results from it or you're just comfortable in that spot.
I don't go in the studio to make music that won't matter. I go in every night to try to make a point and make the best music that I can make.
I played shows in front of like 25, 50 people, and it's a lot harder to do your thing in front of a crowd that's small.
I was making all my own beats, and I really liked sampling stuff, like old '50s and '60s pop and soul and doo-wop records. I was chopping those up and putting loops and drums on them and just rapping over them.
When you're literally staring at the person right in front of you, you're connecting with them on a personal level. I even jump into the crowd sometimes and perform with them, sing into the mic with them and share the experience with them.
For whatever reason, it's easier to perform in front of a massive crowd than in front of a small one, but again, that's how we came up.
Chance The Rapper makes some of the greatest music out, and he build his brand up organically, and the fans have reacted to it.
Something I stand for is being brave enough to invest in creative ideas that I firmly believe in and bringing those to life.
Music is one of the toughest industries, so I respect everybody who has travelled any distance, come far in this music business and achieved anything because it is so hard, and there are so many people out there these days.
