VIBE Exclusive! Bay Area Rapper G-Eazy Talks Mac Dre Influence, Staying Indie & Raining Bras On Stage

February 20, 2013 - 6:46 pm by Christopher Harris

Must be nice being 23-year-old Gerald Gillum—better known by his stage name, G-Eazy. The Bay Area-bred rapper is on a relentless mission to bring his doo wop-inspired sound to hip-hop, and is embarking on a cross-country tour to do so. Amidst the screaming young girls in tube tops and pencil skirts at the Highline Ballroom, VIBE got the chance to catch up with the neo rat pack rapper they call G-Eazy.

VIBE: When did you fall in love with hip-hop?
G-Eazy: Probably 13 years old. I was riding the bus to school everyday listening to A Tribe Called Quest. It was around the time I first started making beats. I’d come home everyday after school with all my homies and we’d just set up shop in my room. I saved up and got a little microphone and we’d just work everyday after school. It was an exciting experience to be that young and be able to record something after school, burn it on a CD, take it to school, pass it to a girl in class, and be like, 'Check out my music.' It was around that time I really got into it, and it just never went away.

Who were some of your influences at that age? Who are they now?
That age, it was definitely Nas, A Tribe Called Quest, Tupac, & Mac Dre. Growing up in the bay, Mac Dre was a massive influence. He was everybody’s favorite rapper. [He had] the whole scene going on in The Bay. Nowadays, it’s everybody from John Lennon to Jonny Cash to everybody that’s new that’s out—A$AP Rocky, Schoolboy Q, & Kendrick Lamar obviously. His new record's amazing.

How would you describe your current sound?
It’s kinda tough to just put it in one box. A sound that I really like to work with is doo-wop 50’s pop meets contemporary rap. At the same time, I would never want to be just pigeon-holed into that one specific sound. You know, I‘m trying to push that forward and experiment in new ways.

(Read on to find out how graduating from Loyola University and being from Oakland influenced his style)

What do you feel like you bring to hip-hop that’s unique? I don’t know. Nothing at all. I’m just like everybody else saying the same ol' shit. I think more than anything, [it's] my storytelling and my perspective. I just try to talk about really honest stuff that we all go through and we all can relate to. My style—if you take a look at me, it sets me apart from everybody else. I’m not like your average rapper. How does being from Oakland influence your style? Growing up there, Mac Dre was everything and that sound and the hyphy movement that was going on. It took me getting out of that and moving to New Orleans and broadening my horizons to realize there was more to hip-hop, more to music, more to the culture than just that bay scene that I was so heavily involved in. When you think of West coast music, you always think back to the gangster rap days. How’d you shy away from that? I think the rest of the country wasn’t as up on the scene we had bubbling up in the Bay in like the mid 2000s. Like you said, when you think west coast you think Dr. Dre, you think Chronic 2001, you think NWA, but the Bay was like our own island up there with its own scene that was really strong. Would you consider it an advantage that you went to school for music? Yeah. I’m really heavily involved in the marketing side of my music, the business strategy side, the finance side and all of that. Those were all things I picked up going to school. In general, this sounds simple, but college trains you how to think. It trains you how to write, so the whole experience helped in a lot of ways. (Keep clicking for the conclusion of this interview, where G speaks on his craziest moment on tour—which you've got to hear—and what's to come in his career)

What are you currently working on and what are your plans for the rest of the year? I’m working on a new project that I’m really excited about. I haven’t had a whole lot of time off in between touring to do too much work, but the project is starting to take form. I’m just going to finish out this tour and look forward to taking a good five months off and then going in the studio and make that project that’s going to take me to the next level. Your hit song “Loaded” has a dub step feel to it. That’s the only track on the album I didn’t produce, actually. What do you think about hip-hop moving towards an EDM direction? It’s funny; the guy that produced that—my friend, Carnage—I think of him as kind of a pioneer within that subgenre, where trap meets EDM. It’s interesting. It’s cool to see those worlds come together. That’s what I’m all about, grabbing a doo-wop record and mixing it with 808’s and drums. What’s the craziest thing that’s happened on tour? I love it when it just showers bras on stage. Girls just throw panties and bras on stage. The craziest one – we were in Austin, TX. This one bra that got thrown on stage had a note on it. It had a phone number and a note that said call for the freshest pussy in Austin. I was like, 'Man, that’s out of pocket! that’s next level.' I know you’re currently indie, but are you in talks with a label right now? Nah man. I’m all about staying independent as long as I can. I don’t even think about labels right now, and continuing to operate as we always have. Small business life.