- This past year, everyone's been going through, like,
the same thing, you know, in a lot of different ways.
We decided we wanted to make like an anthem
for people to be able to scream, you know,
like everyone just loves to get their energy out
and everyone loves to be able to sing something
that means something to them.
So "I wanna be all right and I wanna be okay"
is something so simple but so powerful, you know,
that everyone feels.
Working with Travis
is the best decision I could have ever made.
We were in the studio. It was really, really nonchalant.
We decided to bring in this writer Little Aaron
who's a good friend of mine and Travis's.
He's fantastic writer.
And after we made the song,
we realized that it fit perfectly into the standard
of, like, an anthem for people, you know?
I wanted MGK on any song that I could, you know, make,
but it's about timing and it's about waiting
for the right moment, you know.
We never went to him and was like,
"Yo, can you hop on a song?"
After we made that song, Travis was playing it in the studio
and Kels overheard and he was like,
"Yo, what the fuck is that?"
- I know I have a lot of nightmares
but I can't remember them.
Usually when I've had a nightmare,
like it seemed that that day
would, like, become a situation
that I didn't want to be in, right?
And I think it's because of the anxiety in my head.
I'd wake up knowing I had a nightmare
and I don't even know what it is.
A lot of this is, like, centered around,
like, mental health like anxiety, you know?
And personally, I think anxiety, like, destroys people.
I know depression takes people to a place
they never want to go.
But, like, for me personally,
anxiety literally just, like, cripples me.
- I'm just sick of the bad days, man.
And that's what I was feeling
in the middle of this pandemic.
Like I felt like every day was the same thing
over and over again, like I was waking up to the same wall,
like the same mirror, the same clothes, like doing nothing.
I was tired of it, dawg.
I was like, "I'm just sick of this."
And Kels, 100% agreed.
- Sedated, isolated.
I mean, we're in the middle of a pandemic.
That's 100% how everyone was feeling, you know,
whether your fix is, you know, drinking drugs.
Whatever it is, Netflix.
I feel like it's a form of sedation.
I just feel like being able to express that
makes you feel better.
- Mirrors are so powerful.
I have mirrors in a lot of my music videos in the past.
I love looking at things that I can fix, you know?
And I feel like a mirror is what you do.
When you walk past it, you're looking at it to see, like,
what can I fix about myself?
During the whole pandemic, I was feeling that way.
Now I'm at the point
where I don't really give a fuck, you know,
which is really awesome because that's what music is for me.
And it's like coping
and I got to write that down and work through it.
Now I'm at a place where I can go do an interview at Genius,
wear a t-shirt and jeans
that are like four sizes too big for me.
And I'm wearing, like, shoelaces for a belt.
It's about growth, you know?
And if you're not honest with yourself at first,
then you'll never get past it.
- I can say happily right now, I'm not depressed at all.
What I go through really right now is a lot of anxiety.
I think when you have depression,
the anxiety is kind of nullified, you know,
because you don't really care about anything.
You're like, "I don't give a fuck if I die right now."
Anxiety is the opposite.
It's like the over awareness of being alive.
Like, "I don't want to die right now."
Being able to know that a lot of people
are going through that, like a lot of people say depressed.
I never say it gives me comfort.
Like there's people that are depressed
and they don't say it, you know?
And I've been in a position like that
'cause everyone tries to be happy for everybody around them.
- This past year was crazy, man, you know?
I feel like a lot of people lost a lot of people, you know?
And I lost family members and close friends.
And so there's a point where I was like,
"I really feel like I have no one I can call, you know,
when I really need, like, to say what I want to say.
Who's actually gonna listen?"
But now I'm in a place where I have people
that really love me, you know, and really care about me.
Whenever you feel alone, you think it's all your fault.
So anyone who's alone, it's not your fault.
I promise you, it's not. The world is a crazy place.
And you just got to look forward to the next day.
- Drugs scare me now, dude. Like they really do.
I, like, abused drugs in a way I shouldn't.
I'm in a point where I'm like,
I'm trying to figure out how to do this on my own, you know,
in a healthy way instead of just, like,
flooding myself with different, you know, fixes.
After I got arrested, it was a big wake up call.
Like just thinking about where you're going
and where I'm going,
I don't need to bring that with me, you know?
I'm trying to change the world and, like,
that's not gonna happen if I'm tripping dick
all the time, you know?
- The day before my arrest, I was like,
"If I'm doing so bad, like,
if, like, my life is how you say it is..."
I'm like having a conversation with myself to God, you know?
You know, "Show me. I need a sign," you know?
And the next day I got arrested, dawg.
So I took it as a sign.
I'm really just trying to everyday
get healthier, you know, grow.
It's nothing, like, too deep.
Like everyone can do it, you know?
I'm not special. I'm not like this high up person.
Like, I'm not, like, a role model either.
I just like, when I fuck up, I learn and I move on.
And when I, like, do something right,
I let that moment be a moment and I celebrate myself
and I celebrate the people around me.
- In this part, it was really cool
because getting to hear me and Kels's voice
and like right next to each other,
I thought was like, showed a lot of emotion.
We just described all of the things
that I've been going through,
millions of people have gone through.
And then we're like listening to what Kels went through.
All right, now that you heard all that,
I don't wanna do this anymore.
I don't wanna feel like this.
Let's get to the point where we have hope.
I scream at the end of the bridge
because what do you want to do
when you don't want to do something anymore,
like you're fed up, you're at the last fucking point?
The emotion is you're like screaming whatever you have out.
And it's not pretty.
That's one thing Kels has really been teaching me a lot
is, you know, to be relatable, be relatable.
It's pretty simple.
Me and Kels are, like, the fact I get
to go on tour with him and open up for him
at, like, 36, 38 different, you know, stops,
we're gonna change the world, you know?
If we don't, that would... Nah, there's no "If we don't."
Like, we're going to, you know?
And it's destiny. This is what it is.
And that's what this song is kind of foreshadowing.
And I can't wait for people to hear this music live
because it's even that much more personal which is dope.