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Schoolboy Q is not like everyone else.
Its a stunning achievement.
He thinks the tone is too uniformly dark.
He jokes about not wanting to rap like hes 40 years old anymore.
(He is, after all, only 32.)
Q sees todays newCrash Talk, his fifth album, as the correction toBlank Faces somber mood.
Q, born Quincy Hanley, started rapping casually as a teen hustler in South Los Angeles.
The four rappers bonded in and after sessions at Tops L.A. studio.
Qs vocal delivery is wild and unpredictable, but his chaos is controlled.
His flows and wordplay are ice-pick sharp, and his storytelling makes excellent use of every line.
The gap in style from his singles to his deep cuts can be wide.
You wonder sometimes how much he cares about radio.
Crash Talkis an attempt to bridge Qs creative and commercial impulses, his somber thoughts and brilliant comedic timing.
Its the shortest, brightest work in the catalogue.
The shift feels radical yet also natural.
(Q will have you know that all the singles you hated the most went platinum.)
Q wrote and scrapped two whole albums on the way toCrash Talk.
Perfectionism means toiling and failing in ways the public never sees.
Q is getting back to business now.
(Crash Talks Drunk dramatizes the allure of excess in its hook.)
Schoolboy Q is focused on writing and living better.
He hears his naysayers, but hes his own harshest critic.
When did you know that rap was going to be the career for you?
I was working on [the 2011 debut album]Setbacks.
When I droppedSetbacks, I was just like, Yeah, this is it.
This is what Im going to do.
I was just getting into rapping.
I started to rap in 2007.
Stuff just started catching on real fast.
I got with a crew and shit, and I just became who I am today.
I dont know how the fuck I got here.
I was in the studio every day.
Now we in 2019.
What were the old days like?Shit, same as now.
We were just together way more.
I mean now, with our schedules, everybodys busy.
People have their own things theyre doing.
At the beginning, we were all just figuring each other out.
But as soon we got together, we all clicked at the same time.
We was just homies from the gate, like brothers and shit.
Nobody was jealous of nobody else.
It was just cool.
Jay Rock dont really smoke weed.
He smoked, but nothing like that.
Kendrick obviously a Puritan-ass nigga.
He dont do shit.
Me and Souls bond was fast.
Top wouldnt let us smoke in his house when we first started.
Me and him would always walk out during studio sessions, smoke right quick, and go back in.
Our bond got tight really fast.
Then Jay Rock and Kendrick were probably all at the same time.
Then Kendrick made me his hype man.
Then it was pretty much over from there.
It was crazy cause we all came up together, kind of making the same kind of music.
Kendrick just used to rap about Bentleys and Lamborghini doors and shooting motherfuckers.
You get what Im saying?
Thats why he changed his name to Kendrick.
He was just capping at the beginning.
Just rapping and shit.
We all was on that shit, then we all was on some hip-hop, boom-bap bullshit.
Trying to be the 90s and shit.
Just trying to figure it out.
We just take long as fuck on albums.
It has nothing to do with the label.
Im a grown-ass man.
Im not waiting in line.
People think thats how it works.Yeah, cause thats what it looks like.
I mean, Zacari, we just signed him.
He just put his album out.
Im about to put mine out.
You get what Im saying?
Kendrick droppedTo Pimp a Butterfly, then gave youUntitled Unmasteredright after it.
Isaiah [Rashad], he could have dropped his album, but hes still working on it.
He wanted to keep working.
Everybody, from SZA to whoever, if you want to drop your music, put it out.
Were not gonna just throw it out on the internet and not tell anybody.
If you have your album done, and its ready to go, its no problem putting it out.
Unless its just trash, and everybody hearing it is like, Bruh, its trash.
I remember speaking to Mac Miller.
He said that you had finished an album but shifted gears on it.
Eventually you came out withBlank Face.
There was two albums beforeOxy.
There was two albums beforeBlank Face.
Three albums beforeCrash Talk.I did three albums before this last album.
What makes you change gears?Just hearing shit.
Some shit just be too introspective.
Some shit be too turnt up.
I want balance in my music.
Im not a guy thats just about to give you one sound.
Thats so boring and lame to me.
Thats my biggest regret withBlank Face.
Besides a couple songs, I just made the whole album pretty dark.
I regret that so much.
Why did I do that?
It was dope-ass shit.
It was a great album.
Do you think some of the commercial stuff onOxygave it legs?
Do you feel pressure from the label to put that stuff on there?No.
I mean, if youre gonna play ball, play ball.
Dont play around with it.
Fuck these little internet dweebs.
Every single I drop, dont nobody like it.
Collard Greens, they hated it.
That shit grew on people, though!
Nobody knows what they want to hear till it hits them.Yeah, thats what they do.
Man of the Year, everybody hates it.
Studio … We aint gonna talk about Studio.
I remember them saying I flopped with That Part, and that shit went quadruple-platinum.
Kanye went crazy on That Part!Oh yeah.
[Mimics a whiny voice] Kanye wasted a verse.
They were saying I paid Kanye.
Bro, I never paid nobody for a verse in my life.
Its like little nerd dweebs.
Its stupid little kiddies that hide they face.
Or itll be some white boy from Idaho trying to tell you about your culture.
I dont give a fuck.
They hate every single I drop.
I dont get it.
Whatever, the shit always crack.
Every fucking single I drop goes platinum.
Im just trying to figure it out.
What do you niggas really hate?
Stop listening to it if you hate it.
Talk to me about the new album.
We heard that you were almost done with something in 2017.
Now youre saying you went through several other concepts.
The first album I finished, I was rapping about moms.
It was just silly-ass shit.
Corny, super-concepty, trying to cater to somebody, trying to get good ratings.
Im not here for that no more.
Im here to make dope-ass shit over and over again with balance in it.
I have to scrap all that super-40-year-old rapping-ass shit.
Im not with that.
Im gonna keep balance, bro.
I dont get it.
It was always like that.
I was like that when I was a kid.But its stupid.
Why would you want to listen to …
I mean, I get it.
Youre talking about fatherhood and responsibility and money but in a way that is not boring.
It shows that youre thinking about balance.I always come fresh.
My voice is always gonna sound different.
My appearance is gonna always look different.
My beats are gonna sound different.
Im gonna always have that element in me because Im me.
Youre going to always hear certain shit from me.
We make a run at make an album thats completely different from the last album.
Thats my whole thing.
Whether you fucked withBlank Faceor you didnt, I switched it up.
Whether you fucked withOxyor you didnt, I switched it up.
Im coming fresh again withCrash Talk.
Theyre gonna fuck with this regardless.
I already know its about to go crazy.
Then Im gonna come with something next year, maybe.
Can we hold you to that?Maybe.
But I always say that.
Youve said before that you pushed backCrash Talkbecause of what happened with Mac.
Did you take time off for yourself?The album was supposed to come out last November.
Mentally, I wasnt there, or physically.
It just wasnt supposed to come out.
It was supposed to come out last week.
We werent expecting Nip to die.
We had so much shit lined up, dude.
It was so much.
It derailed my whole shit and fucked up everything.
Im not saying it like that.
Obviously, what [Nipsey] went through is … [whistles in disbelief].
Yeah, everything was just off.
I scrapped a few things because of his death.
How do you mean?Everything.
Not musically, but media and running around.
Being from L.A. … it hit everywhere hard, but inL.A., it hit really, really hard.
Ive been on flights.
I talk to people.
People are pretty much back to normal everywhere else, but in L.A., its still a little weird.
Talk to me about getting back into a work mind-set.Im always working, though.
I just dont tour all the time, and I dont be posting on social media except Instagram Stories.
When Im not about to drop an album, I dont do social media at all.
Im never on it.
But what real rapper doesnt rap everyday?
For kids who are growing up listening to rap right now, theyre losing someone every couple of months.
Now, somebodys going every three to five months.
Im worried about these young fans.
Trust me, bro.
Dont let death fool you.
What it is, is theres way more rappers than there were back then.
People have been dying since the beginning of time.
People are gonna pass.
Its sad to say, but there are going to be people that get murdered.
Nipsey-wise … [whistles again in disbelief].
That was some bullshit.
That was weak as fuck.
Im just saying, in general, youth gangbanging is at an all-time low.
People dont want to talk about that.
What are you going to report?
Niggas aint gonna report no good shit.
And thats the people thats guiding us thats in our culture.
They so quick to play a rapper.
That shit aint cool.
You aint never post nothing about this man.
He go to jail, you post him.
You aint said nothing about this man.
He dies, and youve got a hundred articles.
Sometimes thats the job!
A writer covering the news has to post the news.No, this is rap, man.
This is not how its supposed to go.
Youre supposed to love our people, dawg.
Country motherfuckers aint doing that.
Rock-and-roll sites … All these niggas aint doing that.
Youd be surprised how much hate does exist in those communities.
But they also treat their legends a little better than we do.They respect their artists.
Theres always gonna be a dickhead somewhere out there.
You cant help that.
But the majority of other cultures dudes dont get treated the way us rappers get treated.
Motherfuckers really think we need them.
Nigga, were the rappers.
We dont need no fucking website or no publication or nothing, man.
They need us to work.
They report rap music.
Shut the fuck up.
Thats all they do.
They cant wait to disrespect a rapper.
As soon as something happens.
[You] say something wrong, youre fucked.
WithCrash Talk, it seems youre trying to tap into your humorous side.
It feels like youre trying to pull both sides together.
Is that what this is?Im a funny nigga.
Ive always been a funny nigga.
Its just who I am.
When you think of a gangbanger, you dont picture a nigga that acts like me.
You see gangbangers all the time.
Crips, Bloods, whoever it is.
Rappers … we act a little different.
I think Im separate.
Even my music, you could categorize me as a gangster, but could you really?
But could you really say Im a gangster rapper though?
Shit, likeCrash Talk, evenBlank Face?
Whose ear do you trust?Mine.
Fuck niggas, man.
I got pretty far by being me.
Im lucky, man.
I could disappear and come back, and niggas are still interested.
You cant really cancel me off, nigga.
Im Schoolboy, bro.
You always gonna listen.
Youre always gonna give it a shot.
Even if you dont like me, youre going to listen somehow, someway.
You gonna be in somebody car, theyre gonna be knocking my shit.
Youre gonna be walking down the street, theyre gonna be knocking my shit.
You may go to the strip club and hear my shit.
You may go to the festival, and some nigga playing my shit.
I give you too much balance.
You dont have to like me.
But you cant avoid me.
Im the nigga, bro.
Ill always be that nigga.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
