Yung Mal has a lot on his mind. It’s September, and up until now, rapping is mostly how he’s processed a year in confinement: several months in jail, and now house arrest. In his first interview since coming home in January, the rapper spoke to BRICK about his musical process, where he’s headed next, and how his support system has helped him navigate incarceration.
"We’ve experienced a lot of life in the past year. We’ve grown up a lot, very quickly." In BRICK's Edition 05 cover story, BROCKHAMPTON reflect on their rise, before all jumping into a freezing cold pool for our photoshoot.
Like many of his peers that have been churning out a high volume of tapes on SoundCloud, the twenty-six-year-old from Cobb County, Georgia is a proud student of Gucci Mane, Lil Wayne, and the countless Southern rap stars that dominated DatPiff.com less than two decades ago. “I'm from Atlanta, this is embedded in me,” he proclaims, gliding between his living room and front porch during the duration of our hour-long interview. “It's in my veins, that style of music. That's why I ain't silent.”
In just four years, Lil Baby has attained all the signifiers of modern rap excellence — hyperproductivity, a heavy presence on the charts, and a growing list of successful neophytes — and it only took him about half as long as it did for his predecessors.
“Some people don’t want to improve; some people don’t like to be pushed. But I do. If I’m happy to stay at the same level and make another album like Stillness in Wonderland, I could have done that in no time. But that’s not growth to me, that’s not evolution.”
Yung Mal has a lot on his mind. It’s September, and up until now, rapping is mostly how he’s processed a year in confinement: several months in jail, and now house arrest. In his first interview since coming home in January, the rapper spoke to BRICK about his musical process, where he’s headed next, and how his support system has helped him navigate incarceration.
"We’ve experienced a lot of life in the past year. We’ve grown up a lot, very quickly." In BRICK's Edition 05 cover story, BROCKHAMPTON reflect on their rise, before all jumping into a freezing cold pool for our photoshoot.
On the heels of the rapper’s self-titled project Highway, we spoke at length about his roots and moving back and forth, the city’s unique culture, the importance of maintaining his independence artistically, and more.
Durk’s latest album, The Voice, isn’t celebratory in tone. Much of it is a poignant look into the pain, loss, and tragedy that have surrounded his ascent. “I always found my lane was to be soulful, to speak to my past,” he tells Atoosa Moinzadeh.
Like many of his peers that have been churning out a high volume of tapes on SoundCloud, the twenty-six-year-old from Cobb County, Georgia is a proud student of Gucci Mane, Lil Wayne, and the countless Southern rap stars that dominated DatPiff.com less than two decades ago. “I'm from Atlanta, this is embedded in me,” he proclaims, gliding between his living room and front porch during the duration of our hour-long interview. “It's in my veins, that style of music. That's why I ain't silent.”