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00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 - All right, Kevin Abstract,
00:05 I told you this before you walked in
00:07 and before we got recording,
00:08 but this is really huge for me to be able to interview you.
00:12 It's been a long period of time
00:14 for me witnessing your growth.
00:15 I feel like you've really soundtracked a lot of my life.
00:18 - That's very sweet of you, thank you.
00:20 - So you tweeted, I'm gonna--
00:22 - Oh shit.
00:23 - Yeah, we got the tweets, man.
00:25 - That's not good.
00:27 - You said, "I sometimes make songs
00:28 just for me to listen to pretending
00:30 to be every Brockhampton member.
00:32 Not sure if it's too healthy of an exercise,
00:34 but it's interesting for sure."
00:35 I think it's, yeah, it's interesting to think
00:38 about how your collaborative work still manifests itself
00:41 in the music that you create now.
00:44 Why do you think that practice is still something
00:46 that you've integrated?
00:47 - I just get like bored in the studio sometimes
00:49 and I feel like I don't know what kind of song I should make
00:52 so it's like, it just feels like a healthy creative exercise
00:56 to do the thing I know best,
00:59 but through a more singular lens.
01:02 Even with the show tonight, I'm like, in a few hours,
01:05 there's songs from different eras of my life
01:09 where I'm such a different person.
01:13 Mentally, I'm trying to figure out how to translate that
01:17 into a character on stage.
01:20 - So thinking about "American Boyfriend,"
01:22 "Arizona Baby," and "Blanket,"
01:24 what are your favorite songs from each of those projects?
01:28 - Off "American Boyfriend," my favorite is "Seventeen."
01:32 Off "Arizona Baby," my favorite is "Mississippi."
01:36 And off of "Blanket," my favorite is
01:38 "Hide Spiders in the Dark."
01:42 - What do those three songs have in common?
01:44 'Cause those albums are very distinct
01:46 for you and your life.
01:49 - They're all real stories.
01:51 Wow, look at you helping me, it's like therapy.
01:54 - Oh my God.
01:55 - I was like, wait, why do I like them all?
01:57 Yeah, they're all very true to me.
02:00 And there's other songs on those albums
02:02 where I'm not being a character,
02:05 but just making up stories or some shit.
02:07 - So I--
02:09 - I'm sweating 'cause it's warm in here,
02:12 not 'cause I'm nervous.
02:13 - Well, it's a little bit of both.
02:14 For "American Boyfriend," it sounds like Texas,
02:17 where I'm from, so there's, you say,
02:20 I was just singing this, and I was like,
02:22 âȘ I'll be âȘ
02:25 (laughing)
02:25 You know, and the 12 speed, it's like I can hear
02:28 the whizzing of a bike wheel.
02:30 - That's fire.
02:31 - Like, it just, you didn't put that in there,
02:33 but it just, it feels--
02:34 - It reminds you of the specific time in your life?
02:36 - Yeah, yeah.
02:38 So how do you put pieces of home, pieces of Texas,
02:41 into the music that you're making now,
02:42 even though it's been about seven or eight years
02:45 since you've moved?
02:49 - Right now, I think it's through flows,
02:53 'cause I'm rapping more, so I try to do a more
02:55 Southern approach, I think, with my flow,
02:59 like a Pimpsy thing or something like that.
03:01 Not trying to get all rap nerdy, but like--
03:04 - Okay, don't say don't try to get all rap nerdy
03:06 when you started on a forum.
03:08 You started on a forum, please stop playing
03:10 with me right now.
03:11 - My fault, my fault.
03:12 Wow, my bad.
03:14 I hope I didn't pick your angle up.
03:16 - How has the process been of rebuilding
03:19 and building collaborative peers and friends in music,
03:22 obviously starting with Brockhampton,
03:24 that was childhood and choices that you made then,
03:29 how are you doing that now as a solo act,
03:33 and do you think it's different, do you think it's the same?
03:36 - It's a little different,
03:39 'cause I search for friendship first now,
03:42 and then if a creative
03:43 partnership comes out of that, then it's great,
03:48 but yeah, with Brockhampton, I was searching for,
03:53 impressed, I used to say I was searching for friends,
03:55 but I really was looking for a way to build a community
03:59 to make sure I had a plan after high school.
04:03 You know what I mean?
04:04 - Yeah, yeah, yeah.
04:05 - So it was a little bit more business-minded,
04:07 but right now, I just feel so lonely.
04:09 I don't feel lonely right now,
04:11 'cause I have the right amount of friends,
04:13 but I think before I met my new circle,
04:16 I was feeling lonely, I just wanted people around me,
04:19 that, you know, like-minded people.
04:23 - I wanna talk about the people
04:24 that you've been working with recently,
04:25 like Laundry Day and Codeca,
04:27 how do you feel like it is working with them
04:31 in maybe a different perspective?
04:34 Like, you're, to me, from the outside looking in,
04:37 it's almost like mentorship,
04:38 it's almost like probably a little bit therapeutic
04:42 for you to work with people and help their creative vision.
04:45 Do you feel that way, or?
04:47 - Yeah, well, Laundry Day, I've known them for a long time,
04:50 and then their success right now
04:56 inspired me to interview them,
04:59 because I've seen them just keep trying to figure it out,
05:04 and it's beautiful to me that as soon as they start
05:07 to be themselves more, they got hella recognition,
05:12 I guess what I'm trying to say.
05:13 And then Codeca is like, he gives me so much advice
05:18 to be more confident or just be myself more, which is cool.
05:23 Yeah, maybe wanna rap again, I really,
05:26 people think I have a crush on him.
05:28 - I've seen that a lot, actually.
05:30 - It's actually so crazy.
05:31 - I'm like, why can't two bad bitches be friends?
05:34 - Y'all don't know my crushes right now.
05:35 - Who are your crushes?
05:36 - I'm not gonna talk about 'em.
05:37 - Who are your crushes?
05:38 - I'm not talking about 'em.
05:39 - Why are you playing like this is-
05:40 - You see, this is the first time
05:41 I actually got nervous in this interview, that's crazy.
05:43 Okay, who are your crushes?
05:44 Come on, this is safe.
05:44 - No, I'm actually sweating.
05:45 - Okay.
05:46 - Bro, no, I can't, I can't do it, but-
05:48 - They would be honored.
05:50 - No, they don't-
05:50 - They would be honored to know.
05:51 - You don't want that, no.
05:53 Look at the sweat, bro.
05:55 - I don't know.
05:56 - I have to go on stage.
05:57 - Right, right.
05:58 - Sweating like this.
05:59 - Right, that's correct.
06:00 - Fuck.
06:01 - Aw, teehee.
06:03 Okay, we'll talk about it later.
06:04 - Codeca's not a crush, but honestly,
06:06 in the studio with bro, like, wow.
06:08 It makes me just feel like,
06:12 it reminds me of the shit with BH,
06:13 where like, we're just making music for fun,
06:15 but I'm being pushed to like, be at my best.
06:18 - Mm-hmm.
06:19 - The song I'm doing today is like,
06:21 the one I have with him,
06:21 and it's my favorite one to perform,
06:23 and it just like, feels 100% me.
06:26 Sky Forever's opened the show.
06:28 I had an interesting thought on the way here,
06:30 where like, when I was 17, I was living in
06:33 Lithia Springs, Georgia, it's like,
06:36 right outside of Atlanta, same high school,
06:38 Lil Nas X went to.
06:40 He was a freshman, I was a senior,
06:41 we weren't friends, sorry.
06:43 It's very important to me for some reason.
06:45 But, I was listening, I didn't have that many friends,
06:50 except my online friends like Brockhampton,
06:53 and I was listening to Sky Forever's like,
06:56 ghost EP and her debut album,
06:59 and then Wolf by Tyler,
07:01 and some, like, the synergy around Even Me,
07:05 saying that like, knowing like, Tyler's
07:07 not only helped me so much in my career,
07:09 but like, headlining here, and this guy's opening my set,
07:12 I'm like, this is, yes.
07:15 You know, it's like, 17 year old dream fire.
07:18 And the song she's covering is just like,
07:20 it feels very Southern.
07:22 She's covering Need You Now by Lady Antebellum.
07:29 - Shut.
07:30 - Which is like, it's so like, you know.
07:34 - Stop, don't make me cry right now, I love that song.
07:38 - It's so lit, it sounds so amazing.
07:40 But that opens the show, and then,
07:42 I go through some other songs,
07:44 and then, Dumb Fight comes out,
07:46 and that was like, maybe he was the first person
07:50 to like, help me realize, I'm gay, I'm joking.
07:54 But it sounded like that's where it was going.
07:57 No, I think he was the first person to help me realize like,
07:59 oh, I feel like one of my greatest talents
08:02 is giving so on a stage.
08:04 He was already lit and popping,
08:05 but like, I was so obsessed with like, pushing him.
08:08 Like, posting him over and over,
08:10 like telling everyone how much I loved him.
08:12 Okay, sorry, so there's that.
08:14 And then, Jack Antonoff is also gonna come out,
08:17 and like, he produced my second album,
08:19 and kinda showed me how to like, really produce records.
08:23 So, important to my story.
08:25 And then, Quadeca, I just went off on a rant about him,
08:28 so, that's it.
08:29 - This is stacked.
08:31 - That's a lot of people.
08:33 (whooshing)