- On the record "Take It Down" with Offset,
you talked about how you slept on a cot before you popped.
- Absolutely.
- What was those early days like for you?
- It's all a grind. You know what I'm saying?
The bed-- on the first song I said, "I sleep diagonal,
so my feet don't hang off the edge."
You know what I'm saying?
So, I went from that to sleeping on the pullout
in the living room, and I just remember that time,
I remember that grind and then stuff changed
for me cause I stuck to it.
- The Pardi has arrived
and so is this new project, 'UNDER8ED.'
How does it feel to have it finally out?
- Feel like a burden lifted.
I been working on it for a while, so to finally have it here
and for the people that can all listen to it and enjoy,
I'm real excited about it.
- How has the music changed from the release of your first
project, 'Not Supposed to Be Here?'
- Basically, my music always reflects where I'm at--
mentally, physically, it's basically just telling
you where I'm at at the time, so you just gonna
see that evolution of where I was then and where I'm at now.
Same style, same energy, but different story now.
- What's that transition like going from a collaborator
to being a solo star?
- In my mind, I'm keeping it 100, I always been a solo star.
You know what I'm saying?
I'm just also a team player, so when somebody calls
for some assistance, I don't have no problem doing it.
Like I said, after listening to this, people will be like,
"Yo, this is really underrated, he's really a dope artist."
I feel like a lot of people don't know,
being that this is my first project,
and that's a lot of the feedback
that I get from new listeners.
I'm one of those people that look at all
the YouTube comments and look at the Instagram comments,
so whenever there's a new listener, they always,
"He's really underrated.
How more people don't know about this, though?"
It's like a common theme.
- How do you feel like you gonna be able to get outta
that title of "underrated?"
- These projects and these visuals.
All of my visuals, I put together myself, with my team.
I help direct them and shoot them, so I feel like the more
that they get into me, they gonna see
where I belong and be ranked.
- Absolutely, now you mention Section 8 a lot
in music, on social media,
what's the significance behind that to you?
- Section 8 is the home team.
That's the brand, that's where I'm from.
Everybody knows Section 8 housing is like government
assistance, that's the bottom.
That's where I represent from, I'm from Newburgh, New York,
and I feel like that's the lowest of the low.
Section 8, you know what I'm saying?
You trying to work your way out
and I feel like it's in Newburgh, everywhere,
so I'm representing for my city and everybody else
that got stories from the bottom.
So, that's what you hear in this project.
- Now you got a lot of support, too, in this project.
You got features from Jeremih, you got Offset,
you got Cardi, how did you get
all those big names on this project?
- The funny thing is those are all people
that I can call on the telephone.
So, all of these is like real organic features,
people that really mess with me, have conversations with,
and we just happen to link up on some music.
- Right.
And speaking of Cardi, I know you worked with her
on 'Invasion of Privacy.' Did you anticipate
that kind of success from that project?
- I can't say that I foresaw it, but after what happened
with "Bodak," and she's already been a star,
so just to give her a different platform to stand on,
I mean, it was only right that it did what it did.
- Right, and "Shea Butter",
that's one of my favorite joints.
- "Shea Butter," mine too.
- You talk about, you said you did songs with Cardi,
and you said Ne-Yo and Adele?
- Nah, I need one with Adele.
- Oh, you need one with Adele.
- I need a song with Adele cause Cardi's a super duper star,
so where else I'm gonna go from there?
And I'm a big fan of Adele, so Adele, if you watching this,
you feel me, let's get this feature out the way.
Come to Section 8, I would like that.
- You gonna bring her to Newburgh too?
- Absolutely, I brought Cardi to Newburgh, you feel me,
so Adele, we go to Newburgh, I'll put you on.
(laughing)
- So in addition to Adele, who else you wanna work with?
- Beside from Adele, I would like to do something
with Beyoncé, Rihanna. - Me too.
- Ed Sheeran-- it's just different sounds
that I would wanna see what we could make in a studio.
You know what I'm saying?
I would like to see what could come of that.
- When you first started in the game,
who were some of your inspirations growing up?
- My inspirations. DMX was by far the first one.
I came up in the church, so I was literally in church
five days a week.
I couldn't play hip hop in my house at all,
so I stumbled upon this DMX cassette tape,
where it was the 'Flesh of My Flesh, Blood of My Blood,'
and that was the first body of work
I actually got to listen to and I got to hear him
tell his story and deliver it.
So, that was my first hip hop experience.
So, X is by far one of my influences.
The second one that really moved me, I would say
it would be Kanye West.
Kanye, I used to listen just to his outro.
I say it all the time, I used to listen to his outro
where he was talking about how he got his deal.
- Oh, on 'College Dropout'.
- Yeah, on 'College Dropout,' the first one.
And I was like, "Yo, this dude, he ain't rapping
about this or that, but he got his own lane."
He was like a real bridge. So, Kanye really gave
me another lane that I could run with in my music
and feel free to express myself the way I wanted to.
So, those is probably like the biggest two influences I had.
- And you love the ladies, I saw the "Peach" video.
- Absolutely.
- Inspired by Tupac "I Get Around?"
- Absolutely.
- You're a self proclaimed feminist.
Why was it important to have so much diversity
in the video?
I'm a person, like, visuals has always
been a big thing to me.
I grew up seeing the Missy videos and the Puff videos and Busta Rhymes,
and the big budgets they had and how much they put
into the visuals.
I knew I wanted to do something with this "Peach" video,
and I knew I had seen a bunch of videos already
where it had the models and the pool and summertime,
and I seen a bunch of them, so I always like to try
to be innovative in a way. So I'm like,
"How can I do this differently?"
And the Pac "I Get Around" video has always been
one of my favorites, it's like, that was one of the visuals
where you got to see a fun side of Pac,
a play-around Pac, you know what I'm saying?
You got to see that. So, I wanted to incorporate that
in my music, but not just with the typical models
that you see, you know what I'm saying?
So I'm like, let me get some different flavors in here.
I got some curvy girls in there, I got some fluffy ones
in there, but I always try to pick the women
that I have for my videos or everything, every aspect
of my videos. I like to put a platform to the ladies
that might not have the spotlight on them,
cause in this industry, it's so easy for the camera
to be facing one way.
I thought, why not take my opportunity to put it back
on some of the things that I like to see.
- Cool, and lastly what do you expect
fans to take away from this project?
- I'mma be they new favorite.
I think Fontaine is gonna be a new favorite
amongst a lot of people, 'cause it's just so much
on this project, so many different sounds,
so many different layers that I got into,
so I think people gonna walk away with like,
"Yo, he really was underrated."