EDITOR's NOTE: All this week, VIBE.com brings you profiles on a new class of Cali emcees who are ready for their close up. Pay attention!
Government Name: Santiago Leyva
My Cali: Fresno, Ca (Eastside)
Album/ Mixtape: One Shot, One Kill mixtape (September 2008)
Signed/ Unsigned: Unsigned
My Jam: “When She Calls”
Fashawn isn’t who you think he is. He’s torn. Stuck between two people—Fashawn, the rapper and Santiago Leyva, the 20-year-old kid from Fresno, CA. “I’m trying to find Santiago, I think I got lost in Fashawn, “ he says, taking solace in his apartment on an idle Thursday morning. “Fashawn is someone ya’ll are just meeting right now. Santiago is that 12 year-old kid who had a notebook and was just jotting shit down. I’m trying to find him.”
Somewhere along the way, the Central Cal rapper lost his way. Raised on Fresno’s notorious eastside—known to residents as “Grizzly City”—Fashawn grew up around drugs and crime in a city home to more than 100 street gangs. “It’s that mentality that you will do anything to survive—rob, rap, anything. It’s a struggle out here. It’s not just a place, it’s a mentality,” he says. “I never had a stable home, I was always moving. My mother, unfortunately, was addicted to drugs as I grew up so I didn’t get a lot of time to spend at home.” And yet, amid the anarchy, Santiago became Fashawn. Looking within, Fashawn began honing his skills by writing about anything and everything. “I started writing at 12, scribbling poems, or rhymes, whatever you want to call them,” he says, boasting with assurance. “I’m so confident in my abilities now, it’s limitless.”
It’s true, Fashawn is ripe with promise. His first mixtape debuted when he was 16, and now he’s five mixtapes deep and working on another one with OnSmash.com and NahRight.com—tentatively titled Higher Learning—and has been working exclusively with Los Angeles beat maven Exile on his debut, Boy Meets World, scheduled to drop in 2009. “I used to rap about a lot of bullshit when I was younger, but as I got older, I got a lot wiser,” he admits. “I think I matured a lot faster than other cats. I know some cats my age that don’t write like I do.” His sound is reminiscent of a young O’Shea Jackson, but less attitude and more swag. He’s quick to denounce his gangsta sensibilities, though. “It’s some sprinkled in there because that’s just where I come from and live everyday. But I’m not on records talking bout I want to kill people or slap bitches,” he says. “It’s definitely part of my environment, and I do capture it. I’m more flexible than anything.” He also wants to make another point very clear: “That whole hipster rap, I hate that shit. I don’t want to get caught in that bubble,” he says. “I am not a hipster! I’m not a gangsta, but I will smack you in your face if you step on my toes and get too close.”
As for what’s next? “There is a lot of shit that I haven’t spoken about even though I put out like five mixtapes. That’s why I can’t wait for my career to unfold.” And aside from sonically potent production from Exile on his 2009 debut, the album will feature fellow Cali wordsmiths Blu, Planet Asia, and Evidence. “The actual music on the album is a story, it starts with the beginning of my life to now and how I formed into this kid now. It puts everything in perspective,” And as for Santiago? “The book, The Alchemist, is the story of Santiago. It’s kind of relative to my life,” he says. “I know there’s a treasure out there waiting for me.”
Check out the other featured MC's in the New West Series: Diz Gibran, Shawn Jackson, U-N-I, Dom Kennedy
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