Your favorite rap-singing chef is on a roll, and he’s no ordinary hash slinger either. Signing deals left and right, one with Atlantic Records and one with G Pen, there is no doubt Action Bronson is becoming the Emeril Lagasse of the rap game and the hash game. Though, he claims on his new record, “Actin Crazy” produced by 40 and Omen, “All I do is eat oysters and speak six languages in three voices.” While that is rather outlandish, anything out of the ordinary seems to be his style, from body-slamming fans to highway motorcycle speed chases while on LSD (as seen in the video above). With his debut studio album Mr. Wonderfuldue to hit stores on March 24th, Bam Bam is set to have one of the most prolific years of his career. Catch Bronsoliño headlining Miami’s premier Hip Hop festival, Rolling Loud, on February 28th.
The opposite of an overnight success, QuESt hails from early beginnings of the blogosphere, with successful mixtapes like Fear Not Failure, How Thoughtful and most recently Searching Sylvan. Signing alongside Logic to Visionary Music Group in 2013, he has undoubtedly been on a steady path to greatness in Hip Hop. As a South Floridian himself, his hometown heroism will be displayed as he hits the stage at Rolling Loud Festival in Miami on February 28th.
Since the rise of Black Hippy and TDE, the rap game hasn’t been able to get enough of ScHoolboy Q. His ability to set trends and create memorable records is uncanny. With two Grammy nominations under his belt from his latest full-length effort Oxymoron, he certainly has justified and solidified his place in Hip Hop as one of the elite. As his ongoing hustle continues, he will be headlining Rolling Loud Festival this month in Miami on February 28th.
Jacksonville can be a rugged place; it’s the largest city in the United States, with over 840 square miles of land. Off rip, most people would be quick to dismiss the Northern Florida city’s music scene, especially for Hip Hop. That is, if they have yet to discover Jacksonville’s very own DoLA: a rising 24-year-old rapper who released an impressive debut album entitled Ch. 1 Night Vision.
Citrus Rap strives to bring the people fresh original content. In this instance, not only do we have an exclusive interview with DoLA, but him and his management team have been gracious enough to allow us to premiere his first single of 2015, entitled “What Now??” (Prod. Eddy Braveaux).
How was your come-up as a kid? You mentioned your father exposing you to hip hop and your mother encouraging your writing. Elaborate on that, and some of early signs indicating that you would eventually become a rapper.
Growing up, my dad was really into hip hop. He showed me Jay-Z and Nas early on, but my mom bought also me a DMX CD in 5th grade, and I would eventually go back and listen to all the other albums. I had a cousin, about 10 years older than me, named Giraud. He was the coolest nigga in the world to me because he could do backflips and he rapped. I was probably around 6 years old around him when I wrote my first rap. I remember years later, after graduating high school with my friend who was about to join the military, we came home from the strip club and he told me to start writing raps. After that, he told me I had a gift and needed to take it more seriously. So I moved from Jacksonville to Atlanta in 2008, but It didn’t work out and moved back to Jacksonville, then back to Atlanta again in 2011. This time, I was able to meet some people, but, life situations got in the way and brought me right back to Jacksonville. This provoked a brief epiphany to stay in Jacksonville and start my own movement right from home, somewhere no one really knows about. Now that I have my feet planted out here in the scene, I’m definitely working on going to Atlanta again to finish what I started out there, but I still want to continue to hold my city down.
Have you always lived in Jacksonville, if so, what about the city has changed in front of your eyes that comes sort of as a shock to you?
Yes, and one particular event that showed me potential in Jacksonville was when we had the Super Bowl there. I wasn’t even living there at the time, but I went to visit, and it was a lot different. There was so much more going on with nightlife, when the city used to shut down after 2am or earlier. From then I saw a lot more people working together to make things happen in the downtown area. We have this event called One Spark that has a lot of notoriety nationally, and I took part in that and did probably 11 shows in that 4-day period.
You had shows of yours get shut down for violence in Jacksonville. That’s obviously not a Jacksonville thing, but certainly an urban one. How does that make you feel, and what instances have you personally seen in which there have been issues with the police?
In any urban area, you always have to worry about your safety at night. I wasn’t surprised to see my shows shut down due to fights, because you can’t always control who gets allowed into the shows, and anything can happen. As far as police, I’ve been lucky to stay on the better side of things. But I remember when I was young, like 7 years old, and they came into my grandma’s house and whooped my uncle’s ass…like, beat this nigga’s ass! …just because he fit a description of a suspect, but it ended up being someone completely different. I’m not surprised about the police corruption because I’ve been exposed to it.
Wow, sorry about your Uncle, man. I can only imagine, when you reside in an urban area with rich southern roots, racism is something you deal with on more than just one occasion. What are your feelings towards racism in your area? Can you recall any particular event in your life in which you witnessed it first hand?
Yea, especially in the north side of Jacksonville, like Oceanway: a predominantly country area full of people who go hunting and shit, and they aren’t too fond of the gentrification of the different races moving into their area. There’s always been racial conflict in schools too. One of my high schools made the news when I was there because someone hung a black doll in a noose from a tree. You can’t live in fear and let that affect your everyday life, though.
Connecting with your music, you have alluded to wildlife, animals, and so forth. Where does that come from, is it a metaphor for Jacksonville being a jungle?
It’s more so a metaphor for the way I view the world. [I view] my surroundings (including people) as just wild. An animalistic perspective. I put out a song called “Raised By Wolves” and that’s a metaphor for my parents being pretty young raising me and my sister. Like, kinda, not ready. I say [in the song] “one day my father told me it’s okay to be a thug”. I talk to my father about this all the time. One day my dad was a truck driver, I was in 6th grade, we were driving and he asked me if I was a thug, and I said “no”. And he said “why not?” and I really didn’t have an answer. He told me it was okay, I could be a thug if I want to.
That’s pretty interesting. So was your father, in a way, encouraging you to thug out?
My father kinda grew up on the rougher end. He was a drug dealer for some part of his life so I don’t feel like he was encouraging me to deal drugs, but more so encouraging me to hold my own because he understood me. I was always one of the smallest niggas in my class, and in any predominantly black school, if you were a light-skinned nigga, niggas gon’ try you. I didn’t have a brother, so my dad wanted me to hold it down, like if I had to walk up to the biggest nigga and bust him in the head just to let people know not to fuck with me, then that’s what I had to do and that’s kind of always how my father encouraged me.
Can you tell us about your music’s subject matter and give us some insight into some other subject matters you have yet to touch on in your music thus far?
I try not to be so directly in cahoots with what goes on in the industry, because it doesn’t apply to my life too much. I live, pretty much, a normal life so I want to relate to normal people. I don’t want to fabricate anything in my music. I feel like, on my last album, I spoke a lot on the starving artist struggle and the natures of who I am based on who my parents are, or who I am in spite of who they are. Mostly, I want to touch on subject matters that are going to be able to help young men, because that’s really what my aim is. I used to work in a foster home, and that has really inspired a lot of my music lately.
Ch. 1 Night Vision is your debut release. Was it important to you to release it with any hype or was it more of a stepping stone/therapeutic release?
Initially, when I first started, I wanted to have hype around me before I dropped it because I didn’t want to say so much that was built up over the years and then have nobody get to hear it. But it got to the point where it felt like I needed to experience putting out a project, and I had so many songs recorded, so I put the fire under myself.
One aspect of your style in this album that stuck out to me when listening to it, is your experimentation with flows. You do not seem afraid to take risks with them. Where does that derive from?
It comes from me growing up listening to a lot of music. My dad is one of my biggest critics, and before the internet was around, he knew what good music was and who was hype. He knew what people were going to get on. I listen to his opinions and keep them in mind when making music. I listen to people’s opinions on other artists, and people complain that their flows never change. I make music for myself, but at the same time if I’m selling it, I have to entertain and be entertaining in some sense.
There is something about a rapper’s first project that makes him or her bring some of their best material. Is this true for you?
I don’t think that’s true for me because before I dropped my first project, I constructed it and made so many songs that could have been the first project, but a lot of them didn’t end up making it because I wanted to save them for future projects. I wanted to spread it out so that people don’t just experience one side of me. A time-lapse of my life, instead of just one era.
You had the privilege of performing not only as a featured opening act next to some national headliners, but in areas outside of Jacksonville. How important is that to you, and can you recall anything in particular from doing so that has affected your game?
It’s definitely been my favorite part. I always think of my dad when performing. He told me that he wouldn’t pay to see Jay-Z live and watch him stand around and rap. He said one of his favorite concerts was Goodie Mob, and talked about how entertaining they were. I take that into consideration. I try not to be a fanboy, and I’m sometimes standoffish, but I’ve gotten some advice from people like Key, who is a very humble individual. He gave me some good advice. Blu gave me a little advice, but he was pretty stoned, haha! Denzel Curry gave me mad props after watching my set at my first performance in Miami. That was definitely one of the highlights of last year.
I have personally seen you perform alongside some acts that are so far left of what you are doing and what you sound like. Knowing that ahead of time, do you make any adjustments?
I try to, because I know the fanbase is different. I don’t ever change lyrics, but I had songs lined up for the Two-9 show that I definitely didn’t play at the Blu show, you know what I’m saying? At the end of the day, people appreciate a good performance, regardless of demographics.
Discuss your relationship with Apply Pressure, the management company that has been backing you for quite some time.
Everything has been so organic. They saw my set at my One Spark event, and approached me about doing more, and getting shows outside of Jacksonville. With them, I’ve been doing more shows and getting the type of exposure that most artists would usually have to pay or sell tickets for, so it’s been great.
It’s called ‘What Now’ because it’s really about growing up, and the mysteries that live on the other side of that threshold the takes you from boy to man.
Lastly, discuss some of the future events/plans.
If anyone tells you Ch. 2 is dropping soon, they’re lying. But I will promise you this: We’re working on some stuff. Hopefully more shows!
