That’s right, it’s time for another edition of The Come Up Show Podcast. Every two weeks, we’re dropping a new podcast with one of your favourite hip-hop artists. For the weeks in between new podcasts, we’ve just begun our #ThrowBackThursdays series. Last week — in our first #ThrowBackThursday — we brought you Shad‘s interview with Classified and the Halflife Crew. This time, we go one-on-one with Oakland’s G-Eazy.
We begin by talking about G-Eazy’s early foray into hip-hop, recording with his friend Marty as a teenager. “We got started in like 9th grade, and we would just hang out every day,” says G-Eazy. “We saved up our money and bought a mic, and [we] started trying to get serious about writing songs.”
G-Eazy tells us one of the biggest early musical influences for him was seeing his aunt and uncle play in their surf rock band. “It was like, wow, you really can go from a basement, to a stage, to pressing up CDs, to building something. It was inspiring to watch,” he tells us.
We talk about what it was like meeting one of his childhood heroes, Kobe Bryant. “This weird thing happened where I wasn’t starstruck at all. I just looked at him, shook his hand, and started talking, and it was as if I was talking to a peer and not a superhero,” says G-Eazy. “There was something about him that made me feel like, this is someone like me who just works and loves what he does, and goes in.”
Later, he tells us about the importance of never getting comfortable with success. “I think even if you look at the greats, like, Jay Z’s still pushing himself. He’s never comfortable; he’s never content. Kobe’s still pushing himself to chase that sixth ring,” he tells us. “I think when people get comfortable is when they fall off.”
We talk about all that and lots more. Listen below (and read along here).
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