“A halfway decent haircut will go a long way!”
― G-Eazy
“When you’re from the Bay Area, there’s this chip on your shoulder that you inherently come up with, because us, as a region, we’ve been overlooked in the grand scheme of the history of the genre and the culture.”
― G-Eazy
“Time is a finite resource that you can’t get back. I have the same 24 hours you have, and you get the same 24 hours as me. As you rise, so does you chance for opportunity.”
― G-Eazy
“You’d die very sad if you tried to make everyone in the world happy, you know what I mean? You can’t; no one can.”
― G-Eazy
“You have this ability in hip hop to be invincibly cool, and that is a part of G-Eazy.”
― G-Eazy
“If you’re not out living, then you’ve got nothing to talk about.”
― G-Eazy
“Something I stand for is being brave enough to invest in creative ideas that I firmly believe in and bringing those to life.”
― G-Eazy
“Just wearing all black comes from Johnny Cash. I’m on the road so much that if I wear all black, my clothes never get dirty. You can’t tell if I’ve worn the same shirt twice.”
― G-Eazy
“Keeping in touch with the people that matter is important.”
― G-Eazy
“Some people will like it. Some people will hate it. Some people are indifferent. And you have to live with that as an artist. You wanna be appreciated, you wanna be liked, but you know, it’s just not realistic for everyone.”
― G-Eazy
“There’s multiple ways I express myself. Music is my first love and will always come first. But, there are other areas and industries I’m interested in that reflect different aspects of my lifestyle.”
― G-Eazy
“When I was 12 or 13, the hyphy movement was beginning to bubble. And you had local acts such as the Federation or E-40, Mac Dre, and Too Short that the local radio station would play all the time. You’d hear E-40 as much as you’d hear Jay Z.”
― G-Eazy
“I stick with a ’60s vintage aesthetic of letterman’s jackets, plain T-shirts, and good jeans.”
― G-Eazy
“You have to be dope; you have to find an audience and reach that audience with your identity and your message.”
― G-Eazy
“Sometimes you wake up the next morning after making a lot of bad decisions and have this nonchalant reaction like, ‘These Things Happen’ – what can I say?”
― G-Eazy
“I think the most important thing is to be yourself and be genuine and don’t try to tell anybody else’s story but your own. And if it comes from a genuine place, I think people can tell, and if it doesn’t, I think people can tell, and I think that eventually it shows.”
― G-Eazy
“I’ve always been an outsider to some extent.”
― G-Eazy
“I’m just doing the only thing I know how to do. There was never a plan B.”
― G-Eazy
“I’ve got some growing up to do.”
― G-Eazy
“I think you should always push yourself to want to grow and learn more and be inspired and develop.”
― G-Eazy
“Music is one of the toughest industries, so I respect everybody who has travelled any distance, come far in this music business and achieved anything because it is so hard, and there are so many people out there these days.”
― G-Eazy
“It’s on the people to dictate what is relevant and what is moving.”
― G-Eazy
“I think every artist’s next work will reflect a new chapter in their autobiography. Each album tells a story about where they were at during a particular period and how they have evolved.”
― G-Eazy
“I’ll be a Bay kid for the rest of my life. That’s in my veins; that’s in my bones.”
― G-Eazy
“I had a job since I was old enough to work – since I was, like, 14.”
― G-Eazy
“I was making all my own beats, and I really liked sampling stuff, like old ’50s and ’60s pop and soul and doo-wop records. I was chopping those up and putting loops and drums on them and just rapping over them.”
― G-Eazy
“I was fortunate to have teachers that were flexible with allowing me to miss more class than I was supposed to be able to, for the sake of being able to tour.”
― G-Eazy
“I always thought that one day I would be somebody. I would be successful in music, and I would have fans that cared about my music. At the same time, I really feel like an ordinary guy; I have been an ordinary guy forever.”
― G-Eazy
“I just have more Yves Saint Laurent in my closet, but it is pretty much the same – I just wear black almost 365 days of the year. I am married to it.”
― G-Eazy
“The gatekeepers don’t control the gates, and the powers that be aren’t as powerful.”
― G-Eazy
“I feel like if you’re stuck doing the same thing your whole career you’ve got to be doing something wrong. Unless you’re getting great results from it or you’re just comfortable in that spot.”
― G-Eazy
“I’m the type of person that rises to the occasion, and when work is in front of me, I do work.”
― G-Eazy
“I’ve never fit in anywhere in my life. Ever.”
― G-Eazy
“Music is only special when it’s coming from a genuine place – it’s just energy trapped in a bottle.”
― G-Eazy
“Music isn’t selling like it used to, but the one thing you can’t steal or download is a live show experience or a T-shirt.”
― G-Eazy
“I’m really attracted to girls who are passionate about music because that’s what I’m obsessed with.”
― G-Eazy
“I’m not inherently the most politically or, like, socially conscious rapper, you know? You’re not just going to wake up tomorrow and be Common.”
― G-Eazy
“I wanna put numbers on the board. And the thing that everybody doesn’t get is that it just doesn’t happen. It doesn’t just fall out of the air and land on your lap; the only way to get it is to get it and put the work in.”
― G-Eazy
“If you look at any creative person’s work, you can see bits and pieces of their influences. That’s what an artist does.”
― G-Eazy
“I think when you’re telling a story from inside of you that’s genuine, people connect with it.”
― G-Eazy
“Albums serve as paragraphs in an artist’s autobiography.”
― G-Eazy
“We used to approach a small 400-person show like an arena show, as if I was a star and I was coming out on stage in front of screaming people and that I was to be larger than life.”
― G-Eazy
“Word of mouth is the most valuable form of marketing, but you can’t buy it. You can only deliver it. And you have to really deliver.”
― G-Eazy
“You have an entire generation of kids who grew up with the idea that music is something that you can download for free.”
― G-Eazy
“I’ve dreamed of being on the road, traveling and touring, for as long as I’ve been into doing music. It’s what I live for. I just wanna be Willie Nelson.”
― G-Eazy
“I think, back in the day, when I was first starting to make music, all I wanted to do was to get a record deal.”
― G-Eazy
“I read the Steve Jobs book, and that kind of changed everything. I’ve been, like, an Apple geek my whole life and have always seen him as a hero. But reading the book, and learning about how he built the company, and maintaining that corporate culture and all that, I think that influenced me a lot.”
― G-Eazy
“I’ve been in love with music since I was old enough to establish my taste.”
― G-Eazy
“Growing up in the Bay, I was still looking for a lot of East Coast hip-hop. I had an older homie put me on to a lot of stuff like Nas’ ‘Illmatic.’”
― G-Eazy
“My music is very reminiscent of the sound I grew up on and the place where that happened. It’s a combination of everything I’m inspired by.”
― G-Eazy
“I’ve seen what you can do in this grassroots, do-it-yourself world, and I’ve seen how far that can get you. To be iconic, you still need the gatekeepers to open the doors.”
― G-Eazy
“I’m aware that there are a million other people who want what I’m lucky enough to have right now.”
― G-Eazy
“It’s definitely been a long, long… long, long, long, long, long journey since I was selling burnt CD’s out of my backpack in downtown Oakland.”
― G-Eazy
“We listen to oldies when we go on tour. Beach Boys radio was really clutch; that was definitely our favorite Pandora station.”
― G-Eazy
“I was slicking my hair back when I was in sixth grade.”
― G-Eazy
“What I actually do put much more weight on, in all honesty, is not being critically acclaimed – it’s being respected by my OGs. When I talk to E-40 on the phone, every time I talk to him, I’m like, you know, if he tells me I’m doing good, I’m doing good.”
― G-Eazy
“When I started making music, I was so heavy into the hyphy movement. That’s something you only know so much about if you were right there living in it, submerged in the culture.”
― G-Eazy
“What’s weird is the Hot Boys and the whole New Orleans Cash Money thing had a really big impact on the Bay when that was popping off. I don’t all the way understand it. I mean, I know that they were big everywhere and had a lot of commercial success in the mid to late ’90s, but they were really, really felt in the Bay Area.”
― G-Eazy
“I see myself as a hip-hop artist, but I never wanted to make music for a specifically white audience. That’s not what I grew up around.”
― G-Eazy
“My mom was a single parent.”
― G-Eazy
“Touring is starting to feel more like home than home does.”
― G-Eazy
“When you’re around somebody like E-40, all you can do is watch and learn, and soak up game.”
― G-Eazy
“I hate picking out clothes.”
― G-Eazy
“I’m on Tumblr all the time.”
― G-Eazy
“I think it’s natural for a creative to be sensitive. If I’m in the studio and I write something, I think it’s the greatest thing in the world; it’s like my baby. I just made something out of thin air that exists now in a tangible form. It’s the biggest thrill in my life.”
― G-Eazy
“When you sample something, you’re using the crutch of borrowing chords and melodies from a song that’s already great, that’s already stood the test of time, that’s already special. When you’re trying to do it all from scratch, you’re writing something brand new that has to stand on its own.”
― G-Eazy
“I’m not on the radio all day long. I’m not on TV.”
― G-Eazy
“My whole career has been from scratch, so I never took it for granted that people care and support what I do.”
― G-Eazy
“It was inspiring to see local legends like E-40 and Keak da Sneak break out with ‘Tell Me When to Go.’”
― G-Eazy
“I think if you’re constantly reinvesting into your content and giving the fans stuff, then you can continue to tour. You can continue to sell the merch and monetize the popularity of the brand.”
― G-Eazy
“I try to find 15 minutes a day to just be alone without any distractions just for headspace to meditate and get my Zen on. I think that helps me get through the hecticness of the day on tour with the interviews, the sound check, the meet and greets, the show and the post-show meet and greets.”
― G-Eazy
“I’ve gone on in front of a crowd of 10 people and 7,000 people.”
― G-Eazy
“I just kept telling myself that ultimately, the money that my grandparents had put away to go into my college fund, that they were investing for me to go to school and get this education, it had to be worth something.”
― G-Eazy
“I know what it feels like to walk out in front of a sold-out crowd of a thousand people that are there for you, and how good that feels, but as an opener, you just have to train yourself to think that it’s going to be harder.”
― G-Eazy
“I didn’t grow up around all white people; I never wanted to gentrify hip-hop, I’ve never wanted to speak to an all-white audience.”
― G-Eazy
“My mom would always play me a lot of late-’50s, late-’60s rock.”
― G-Eazy
“London, from the architecture to the culture to the fashion to the accents, feels like it’s a special place.”
― G-Eazy
“I grew up in Oakland and Berkeley, California.”
― G-Eazy
“’Runaround Sue’ was a big record for me, as well as the music video for it.”
― G-Eazy
“I don’t know if most people know it or not, but I produce, like, 95% of my own stuff.”
― G-Eazy
“When I first decided I wanted to make beats and write songs and stuff like that, it wasn’t like I sat down and the first thing I wrote was even halfway legit. It took a while to find my way through it.”
― G-Eazy
“In the past, my process would start with a sample of another song, and I’d chop it up and use that as the basis of the song that I was making.”
― G-Eazy
“In my opinion, creative control means a lot, I feel like I’m really in touch with who my fans are and what they like about my music, and I’m able to communicate directly with them.”
― G-Eazy
“I’ve never been critically acclaimed. I’ve never been nominated for no Grammy. I’ve never been on no magazine cover. It’s almost taboo to say I’m actually good.”
― G-Eazy
“I fell in love with hip-hop at an early age as a culture, as a sound, both from the perspective of a fan and a creative outlet.”
― G-Eazy
“Rapping was something I always wanted to do, so after school, my friends and I would catch the bus to my house and just sit there writing songs, every day.”
― G-Eazy
“I thought everybody unanimously hated this man. I don’t know anyone who was like, ‘Go Trump.’ I was surprised.”
― G-Eazy
“Being in a position to bring people together like we do is a beautiful thing.”
― G-Eazy
“I got my start in small dive bars in New Orleans.”
― G-Eazy
“I’ve always dreamt big and the dream is to keep making music.”
― G-Eazy
“When I sample something, it’s just me drawing from what I’m actually into. It’s whatever sounds like a good track.”
― G-Eazy
“I wanted to make an album that plays from the top to bottom and feels together and complete. That’s just something that felt important.”
― G-Eazy
“It’s an honor to be able to tour with somebody I grew up listening to and somebody I look up to. When you’re around somebody like E-40, all you can do is watch and learn, and soak up game.”
― G-Eazy
“I grew up watching Kobe Bryant.”
― G-Eazy
“I think being a rock star is a little bit different than being an athlete or even a movie star.”
― G-Eazy
“New money is something fun to celebrate if you never had it.”
― G-Eazy
“I would never consider myself a role model in the wide sense of the word.”
― G-Eazy
“It’s one thing to turn up and jump around stage and give people a good time – that’s obviously a big part of this – but I’ll always get deeper than that as an artist.”
― G-Eazy
“I actually went to high school with Lil Uno.”
― G-Eazy
“I’m just making music, and I’m paying my bills.”
― G-Eazy
“I grew up with the Pack. When they released ‘Vans,’ it was a seeing-is-believing moment.”
― G-Eazy
“You don’t need mainstream media outlets, the big TV looks, or the magazine covers.”
― G-Eazy
“I think my music is so personal that it lets people in. And they identify with me more because of that, you know, so it’s like my story; it’s who I am as a person.”
― G-Eazy
“Me personally, I’m real close to my mom. She raised me. It was a single-parent home situation. She did everything: cooked, worked two jobs, came home late, but she loved me to death.”
― G-Eazy
“My friends put me on to Mobb Deep when I was a little kid. I’ve always been a big fan.”
― G-Eazy
“I don’t go in the studio to make music that won’t matter. I go in every night to try to make a point and make the best music that I can make.”
― G-Eazy
“When you’re making an album, it’s, like, exciting every night you make something new, but you’re the only one who gets to hear it.”
― G-Eazy
“Anything back in New Orleans is definitely nostalgic. I really played my first shows of my life and learned to perform here. I learned how to work a stage and how to connect with a crowd. It all started here.”
― G-Eazy
“When you’re literally staring at the person right in front of you, you’re connecting with them on a personal level. I even jump into the crowd sometimes and perform with them, sing into the mic with them and share the experience with them.”
― G-Eazy
“That raw connection between the two performers is something you can’t fully plan. You just go with it and get lost in that moment and feed off of each other.”
― G-Eazy
“I played shows in front of like 25, 50 people, and it’s a lot harder to do your thing in front of a crowd that’s small.”
― G-Eazy
“For whatever reason, it’s easier to perform in front of a massive crowd than in front of a small one, but again, that’s how we came up.”
― G-Eazy
“I grew up in Oakland, California, and there was a really active scene in the Bay Area. Everyone else knew it as the ‘Hyphy Movement’ of Mac Dre, E-40, and The Pack.”
― G-Eazy
“It’s our approach to treat each show like an arena show. We over-invest in production to make the stage look bigger, turning the show into an experience and not just somebody standing around with a microphone rapping.”
― G-Eazy
“If we’re deciding about merch pieces, t-shirts or hats, they have to be well designed and cool enough for somebody to want to buy it and then wear it and walk around advertising me and my music.”
― G-Eazy
“As we’ve added players to the team, like a videographer, a drummer, or a sound guy, we’re trying to keep a bus full of A players and keep a culture where everybody is comfortable enough to push each other in their areas to be great.”
― G-Eazy
“The Bay area made me who I am, and it only felt right to go back there.”
― G-Eazy
“I don’t want to be a small-time, independent, successful rapper.”
― G-Eazy
“The thing is, I’ve always wanted to be a star. I’ve always wanted to be an Elvis Presley or a Tupac – like, a huge icon.”
― G-Eazy
“What costs the world to you as a working kid fresh out of college costs nothing to you as a successful musician.”
― G-Eazy
“It’s just crazy to look back at what I was wearing in high school.”
― G-Eazy
“I used to go and cop stacks of blanks CDs and sit there and burn copies of my mixtapes and print up my own mixtape covers and post up in downtown Oakland and Telegraph in Berkeley and literally was selling my mixtapes for five bucks, hand-to-hand.”
― G-Eazy
“I’ve definitely grown and evolved as a person, as an artist, you know. Just in terms of my style, my taste, my influences, everything… That’s a part of being an artist I think.”
― G-Eazy
“We’re really critical with the process of who we hire. But when you put great people in position, that’s how you avoid any missteps.”
― G-Eazy
“There’s only so much you can do on a physical level trying to tour or pass out mixtapes. Although that matters, I realized that you can reach more people putting your music on Soundcloud and networking with blogs to write about you. It really comes back to the music and what you release.”
― G-Eazy
“That’s the nature of this business. Something that took ten years to make can crumble in an instant. It could be snatched away from you at any moment.”
― G-Eazy
“Whenever I can squeeze it in, I’m writing and recording.”
― G-Eazy
“I love the road. The closest thing to home, for me, is being on a tour bus, ironically.”
― G-Eazy
“Performing music live, there’s a certain magic to it.”
― G-Eazy
“I love being in a room in front of an audience who cares about the music, who knows the music, and who has lived with the music. It’s kind of like an experience you share. I’m on stage performing it, but they’re singing the words, too.”
― G-Eazy
“Growing up, I heard as much E-40 and Mac Dre on the radio as I did 50 Cent. It’s in our culture to support our own.”
― G-Eazy
“’Downtown Love.’ I made that with one of my homies in New Orleans. The story is tragic, and the song is emotional. It’s my favorite. I’m most proud of that; it’s such a creative piece.”
― G-Eazy
“Chance The Rapper makes some of the greatest music out, and he build his brand up organically, and the fans have reacted to it.”
― G-Eazy
“I like to have a lot of girls over and play loud music.”
― G-Eazy
“I remember, when I was ten, I wanted to look like Em. I had the bleached blonde hair.”
― G-Eazy
“Much respect to Eminem – he’s the greatest.”
― G-Eazy
“When you use a sample in a big way, when you loop something in the way I did with ‘Runaround Sue,’ it’s like you have your chords and your melody and the quality of the song right there before you add your own production. It’s like the song is already made, in a sense.”
― G-Eazy
“I just hear a beat and start mumbling words. I just hear sounds and rhythms, and it just kind of comes intuitively. Formatting a song, figuring out a flow, how I respond to the beat.”
― G-Eazy
“Touring is a tough plane to get off the ground, and it takes a lot of hard work and a lot of investments.”
― G-Eazy
“You open up a lot of tours making nothing just for the fact that you need to start somewhere and get some exposure. When you start to headline your tours, all the money is in headlining, but there’s no money in headlining small rooms.”
― G-Eazy
“Me personally, I will always be a fan at the end of the day. No matter how big this gets, I still look up to other artists and people I respect creatively.”
― G-Eazy
“You can tell when someone is reading the lines of a song or performing it.”
― G-Eazy
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