For you to be able to rap fast and fit many words into a bar, that's what rap is about, the showmanship. That's the thing we're kind of losing now. I'm not saying that the music now is horrible. I mean, I don't listen to it. The showmanship and creativity in rap is what made it special and what made it different.
I like to consider myself a student of hip hop. There's a certain level of certification and wit and craftsmanship that comes with rapping. As rap progresses - it's a young genre - it's becoming way more mainstream, crossing over to different lanes. I feel like it's losing its essence in a way, because it's getting commercialised. I want to keep it fresh and keep it progressive, but I also want to respect the foundation of what rap is about.
Coming into this, making music, I knew that was something that was going to be held over my head. Okay we get it, you're openly gay, but do you know how to rap? Can you really rap and deliver? And I feel like I have that pressure put on me that other artists don't. A lot of people don't have to focus on being so lyrical and actually putting on shows. Before anyone was gonna tell me I was bad, I was gonna prove that I was good.
In this day and age of social media, where everything is so centred around how many Instagram and Twitter followers you have, what's keeping me afloat is the fact that my live performance is something that people can enjoy.
With a lot of people you think you want to work with, you reach out to them about working and then realize you don't want to anymore because they're a complete dickhead.
I was doing my music because it was fun, and I always was like, "If it becomes a business, or it becomes too demanding, or if people try to tell me what to do or control what I'm doing, I won't do it."
I don't think it's completely better. I still have to do annoying things sometimes and explain things that I don't feel I have to [about LGBT].
Now I'm in the business and I do have to have these awkward conversations about how I look, how I talk. But I'm still here.
