[INTERVIEW] G-EAZY

As G Eazy, his team and his mother enter the cosy creative room at Sony’s headquarters in London, he greets everyone inside with high fives and hugs in the preppiest fit I have seen in a while.

We all get to talking about his crazy night out with Travi$ Scott, leaving him a little tired, hungover and craving food from famed restaurant, Nandos. As we got comfy on the sofa, I casually jump in and say…

Everyone has to have Nando’s when they get here, what do you order?
Like, as a local, don’t you think that’s cliché and you hate it? It’s a good cliché right? Clichés are cliché for a reason because they’re most commonly used. But I’d get the boneless thighs, with the medium sauce, peri-peri chips, spicy rice and the cloudy lemonade. Oh, and the cheese.

The halloumi cheese?
Yeah that, the halloumi cheese is fire!

You’re currently on an European and Asian tour; how excited are you about that?
I go home for a couple of weeks and then we go to Asia after that. I’m excited, I’ve never been to Tokyo, their fashion is crazy. I like the whole oversized look. Is your jacket Acne?

No it’s actually Alexander Wang…
Oh, fire!

Your new album is called The Beautiful & Damned; how did you come up with the name and what was the inspiration behind it?
There’s a book called The Beautiful and Damned – it’s not exactly based on that – but it was written by F.Scott Fitzgerald and The Great Gatsby is one of my favourite stories. I was drawn to the name because I wanted to basically express a theme of night and day, like my Gemini, my split personality thing.

Geminis are terrible…
Yeah I’m terrible, I’m fully terrible. I’m pretty crazy. So I wanted to make a double album like side one, side two and have the first half be the beautiful side; something to turn up to because of the lifestyle. A lot of the records and the concept of them is this lifestyle that comes with celebrity and how we kind of look up to it and think of it like, “wow what a life, that would be beautiful,” but there’s a darker side to it. There’s the compromises and the sacrifices that come with that. So the other half is like the damned side, the more introspective and darker side.

Are there any artist collaborations we should look forward to hearing on the album?
Yeah A$AP Rocky’s on there, I’m trying to think of who else…Lana del Ray, I did a lot of work with Boi-1da and Charlie Puth.

I saw a tweet that said, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone with a work ethic and a party ethic like my bro G-Eazy he’s a real life rock star”. How do you balance working and partying?
I don’t know how I do it, my bounce back is kind of vicious somehow. But it’s also if I’m hungover like today, leaving the hotel to do press all day, I can’t really say no. Like imagine if I cancelled on you…

I’d be upset.
Yeah you’d probably be like, “he’s a dick” but I don’t know. I’m just kind of crazy, I’m hard to explain.

What do you feel gave you the edge over the competition in order to win the 2017 ‘Peoples Choice Award’ for favourite hip hop artist?
That was nice, that was crazy. I don’t know, the people voted right, that was a real honour. But I mean ultimately you know I want to win Grammys and Oscars, I just got to keep working.

When its all said and done, what do you want to be able to say you accomplished as a hip hop artist?
To have made music that stands against the time, especially in today’s world, so much shit comes and goes fast and, ultimately, you can’t last forever. I just went to Puff Daddy’s premiere for his documentary and I loved it, I was fully inspired by it. I mean, he’s one of the greatest of all time; he might be the greatest. Honestly, in terms of breaking down barriers and doing what anybody said couldn’t be done and building this dynasty. It was crazy that this generation, you kind of have to remind them what he did and what he built and that’s just life in pop culture, it comes and goes. Nothing lasts forever and eventually they move on or forget about you or a new generation comes. So its impossible to last forever, but I just want my music to last as long as possible.

Interview by Giovanna Mae.