Many rap artists claim to be closely associated with the plug, but Blacc Zacc’s hometown reputation makes those ties wholly believable. Hailing from South Carolina, the former street entrepreneur has spent the last few years on a mission to transcend the trap while legitimizing himself within the music industry and becoming one of the most buzz-worthy artists to ever emerge from his state. Building his audience with projects like High Class Trapper (2017), New Blacc City (2018), and Blacc Frost (2018), Zacc elevated his stock to unprecedented levels with his 2019 mixtape, Trappin Like Zacc, which saw the South Coast Music signee coming into his own. The project, which boasted the Key Glock-assisted heater “Hahaha,” was strong enough to help garner the support of Interscope Records, with whom he inked a record deal with last year, a move he hopes will further increase his profile.
“It wasn’t more so about the money,” Zacc says of his decision to make the transition from an independent artist to one signed to a major label. “Of course everybody’s dream is to get a deal when you’re a rapper and you really wanna be for real with it, but it wasn’t more so about the money with me, it was more so about having the connects. I feel like with me being independent and having to move on my own, I don’t really have industry connects like Randy [Interscope publicist] to be able to have me in this office with you right now, it’s only so much you can do to get where you wanna be when you’re independent. Like you can’t buy everything, [but] certain stuff you gotta have connections to.”
With a machine like Interscope behind him, Blacc Zacc finds himself asserting his boss status with his 2020 debut. Carolina Narco is inspired by incarcerated drug kingpin El Chapo, who garnered headlines worldwide with his epic escape from prison in 2015. Accompanied by a short film that finds Blacc Zacc tapping into his skills as a thespian, Carolina Narco is the newcomer’s biggest release to date and builds on the momentum of his previous offerings. Boasting guest appearances from DaBaby, Moneybagg Yo, Yo Gotti, and Stunna 4 Vegas, Carolina Narco captures Zacc displaying the breadth of his artistry across the project’s eleven tracks, resulting in an LP that positions him as not only one of the more promising prospects out of the south, but a trailblazer within his home state.
VIBE sat down with Zacc to get the scoop on the making of Carolina Narco, expanding his business portfolio, his plans to put South Carolina on the national radar and much more.
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VIBE: 2019 was a breakout year for your career, as you expanded your fan base while reaching multiple milestones. What’s a moment from that year that made you realize that your hard work was paying off?
Blacc Zacc: When I started going to shows outside of my city and I started realizing people knowing who I am and recognizing the song and stuff like that. And of course, when I got my deal with Interscope, that’s when I knew it was real. Like I really got a chance and an opportunity at this.
Musically, you’ve garnered comparisons to Gucci Mane, who you’ve also listed among your biggest influences. What are some things you picked up from watching and listening to Gucci and how has that benefited you as an artist?
Gucci Mane was just like one of my favorite personal rappers just from what he stands for. His delivery, the type of songs he made and I feel like he’ll always be a trap legend. So it ain’t necessarily that I’m trying to be like him, but I’m so influenced by him that it probably rubs off, like people will probably just get that vibe from me.
For those who may be unfamiliar with your backstory, how would you describe the man you are behind the music and your outlook on life?
My outlook on life, I’m a thinker. I know in my music it may seem like, “Oh, he’s one of those dudes that just talk about the trap or the hood,” or the bad that comes with the trap, but I got sense, too. I’m a deep thinker, I think a lot and I got kids so I gotta think for them and me. I’m the first from my family to really be on this type of level I’m on so I got a lot on my plate, but I don’t really complain about it because this is what I signed up for.
You recently released your latest project, Carolina Narco, your most high-profile project to date. How did it feel to take this next leap in your career and what’s the reception from the fans been like?
It’s been a good one. This project might be one of my biggest I ever have done because I been getting so much feedback from it. Like from Twitter to everybody just calling and just having all positive stuff to say, and the feedback I was getting from everybody just really rocking with it. But this is what I set this out to. Because when I was planning it and I knew this was gonna be my first project from being with Interscope and having my situation, what I got going on, I wanted this to be one of my biggest projects to show people I really can rap. I’m an artist for real. ‘Cause like I tell people all the time, a lot of people was respecting me from other stuff, so it never was from music. They wasn’t respecting me for music, but now I’m transitioning over and making them respect me for being a rapper and an artist.
Speaking of that transition, was there a moment that really spurred you to use your musical talent?
Like I said, just being a thinker. You got to know, like, if you really in the streets and you’re really doing your thing, you got to know that don’t last forever. So you got to have your turning point, whether it’s rapping or whether you’re gonna hustle to start a legitimate business, but you gotta have some kinda way out of it. And I know I wasn’t gonna get no job with nobody and I was getting good feedback from rapping. And then, I always knew I could rap, but I learned the hard part about rapping is not making a song, it’s getting it out there and marketing. Once I realized that’s what really matters, that’s when it became like a real job to me, when it came to that, but I always knew you can’t do that other stuff forever. So I knew it was gonna have to be a turning point someday, anyway.
How do you feel about rappers speaking about the trap life, but not living it?
I feel like… like if it’s working for them, but it’s gonna catch up ’cause when you come around somebody that really comes from that and they may ask you something and you don’t know about it, or it might even be an interviewer, but some way it’s gonna come out. Whether you’re acting like a drug dealer, whether you’re acting like a gangster or a shooter or whatever, and you walk outside on these New York streets or anywhere and somebody come snatch your chain or do something to you and you don’t do nothing about it, it’s gonna come out so it’s not gonna last long. Either way, it don’t matter how good it’s lasting right now, it’s not gonna last long because the universe is gonna make you stand on everything you’re trying to be.
Last year, you released the song “Carolina Narco,” which inspired you to build on that theme throughout an entire project. Tell me how that song came together and why you decided to run with that concept?
That song came together when I got in the studio with Youngkio, me and him locked in. I wouldn’t even expect Kio to make that kind of beat because he made the “Old Town Road” beat, which is a banger, of course, but I didn’t expect him to be on no trap shit like that and his vibe and he’s such a cool person outside of the music. But once he came in there with that beat, it had like a Narcos feel and I just started freestyling and that’s when I made that song and I was like, ‘You know what, I like the song so much, my next album is gonna be like a Narcos feel.’ I wanna do a movie with it; I want the front cover to look like when El Chapo got arrested; I wanted the actual song, “Carolina Narco,” to be like how when he was getting out the plane and he escaped. Everybody knows El Chapo escaped, so I wanted it to be like him escaping and stuff like that. I just wanted everything to be on some Narco sh*t but in a Carolina way.
Other than El Chapo, who are some other gangsters or hustlers who you got inspiration from or just have a level of respect for?
Of course, like all of the popular people that everybody may know of, like Pablo [Escobar], El Chapo, Griselda Blanco, those types of people, but I mostly was influenced by a lot of people that I seen with my own eyes coming up in my neighborhood. Like Hot Boy, this guy named Boss G, those type of people was getting a lot of money on my side of town that I seen and I was kind of in tune with them, too, but I most definitely know all of the popular people. Pablo, Frank Matthews, Frank Lucas, all of those people. I knew all of them, but I was influenced by a lot of people that were from my neck of the woods, too.
Another song from the album that’s been gaining traction is “Make A Sale,” featuring Moneybagg Yo. What led you to reach out to him to hop on that song and what was it like recording the music video with him?
For that particular song, how it came about, we was on the Baby On Baby Tour or the Kirk Tour, one of ’em and he was backstage. And we was introduced and I was like, “I wanna do a song with you,” and he was like, “Send it to me.” So I sent him the song, I’m thinking like, ‘He gonna take forever to get it done,’ you know how these rappers be sometimes, but he sent it right back to me. And as far as the music video, we was both in Miami and I was like, ‘Shit, let’s shoot the video,’ and he was with it. Moneybagg Yo, he been solid, anything I done ever asked of him to do, he’s done it.
Over the years, you’ve collaborated with a number of artists from Memphis, Tennessee, including Yo Gotti, who appears on the Carolina Narco cut “Fucc Up A Check.” Is that a coincidence, and if not, what’s the backstory behind your connection to the city?
I ain’t never been to Memphis, crazy part about it, but I most definitely done worked with a lot of artists from Memphis, but they just be like my personal favorite artists at the time that I really can rock with and vibe with. When I got a feature from Dolph, I paid for that ’cause I was really rocking with that. I was rocking with that, and with Gotti and stuff like that, that just came later on down the line from just working. They just shot me the feature, that was on the love, that was on the house. Sh*t, it’s just a coincidence, I guess, that I work with people [from Memphis]. I even worked with Key Glock from down there.
What are three songs from Carolina Narco that you’re excited for the fans to hear and why?
“Cocky” stands out because I like the instruments in it. It got that Narco feel like I wanted and, of course, I put my brother on it because of some other stuff. Stunna, I put him on it ’cause of course, I know he’s dope, but that cocky means something else different for him so I was like, “I’ma put him on that one.” And “Bang” came across like… with DaBaby, I put a snippet up and he wanted to jump on it. I didn’t even hear Baby on that song, to be honest, but I wasn’t gonna tell him no. But he snapped on that and then it got that aggressive feel on that. And the “Murder For Hire,” I feel I started the album off right with that one. I like how the sample in the background gives you that feel like, “This sh*t bout to be hard.”
North Carolina has produced stars like J.Cole, DaBaby, Little Brother, Rapsody, Petey Pablo and many others, but artists from South Carolina haven’t been able to attain that same level of success. What would you attribute that to?
It’s probably the opportunities, cause South Carolina is not as lit as North Carolina. North Carolina got the Panthers, they got baseball teams, they got all kinds of little stuff up there. Like their city’s way more lit than South Carolina but you can’t use that as no excuse, it’s just that nobody from South Carolina hasn’t made it yet because I guess they ain’t working how they’re supposed to be working. But that’s why I’m here to open that door and break that curse.
Being one of the more popular artists to come out of South Carolina in recent years, how does it feel to have the opportunity to put your state on the map?
It feels real good because if you’re that person that do that, you’re forever a legend you’re gonna forever be known for being that one that did that. And just being able to show people from South Carolina that it’s possible to do ’cause at this point you ain’t gotta act like you’re from nowhere else but South Carolina. You can go somewhere and be like, ‘I’m from South Carolina, I’m a rapper,’ or North Carolina or Carolina, period. Back then, you couldn’t really do it.
You launched your own record label, D.M.E., a few years ago, and have been vocal about your focus on being an entrepreneur. Where did that business sense stem from and are there any CEOs in particular that you’ve modeled your approach after?
To be all the way honest with you, I didn’t even know what a CEO was when I was calling myself that, I just knew it was a high position [laughs]. But once I got knowledge of what was going on, people like JAY-Z, Diddy, and even Rick Ross, those type of people motivated me because I got more of a CEO lifestyle than a rapper, people. I had to mold myself into wanting to talk and stuff like that, you can’t be anti-social, people will take it the wrong way and take it like you’re being cocky. So you really got to be a certain way when you’re a rapper versus being a CEO, you ain’t gotta be in everybody face all the time, you can kinda play the background.
You signed with a deal with South Coast Music, home to Da Baby and Stunna 4 Vegas. What’s the backstory behind that partnership?
I think I signed with South Coast in the end of 2018. I been knew them, like (Daud “King”) Carter and all of them, but just being part of that, it’s good ’cause being in the same loop as the winning squad. It’s a lot of people that probably just hate that, just not being in the mix of all that’s going on, but that just came from everybody working
In what areas would you say you’ve grown as an artist over the years?
I got more confident on the track. I got more confident performing, I got more confident talking in interviews. It’s just a growth, it was a learning experience. I learned the business more. The main thing I learned about it is my audience, I learning who I’m catering my music to. you gotta learn who you’re rapping to. You gotta really realize what’s your message and who you’re trying to deliver your message to.
In 2017, you teamed up with Hoodrich Pablo Juan to release the collaborative mixtape, Dirty Money, Power, Respect. How did that project come about?
Really, I always knew Hoodrich Pablo, but I wasn’t really no big fan of his music, my brother felt like it was a good move. So we was in L.A. and my brother brought him to the studio and we knocked out three or four songs. And they wanted to drop it like a little slick collab, so we just put it out there like that.
If you could paint a picture of what your life and career will look like in five years, what would the portrait look like?
One of the biggest in the game and South Carolina being known as a music capital. I want a lot more artists to come behind me, at least five to ten artists to come behind me within these five years and be like megastars including myself.
You’ve mentioned making a short film to accompany the album, what inspired you to do that and how did it feel to tap into your talents as an actor?
It was really good to see how I can really transform from rapping to acting. I feel like I can do anything as long as I put my mind to it, though, not on no cocky sh*t, but I feel like I can do anything. But it was some real good experience just from testing myself and putting myself in that lane where you have to get in character mode and be serious on the camera all the time and really get into that mode, but then I wanted to do something different. There’s nobody I can think of or nobody that’s done it in a while where they dropping a short-films with their project. Because a lot of people listen to music, but it’s a lot of people that will go look at a movie, too.