G-Eazy is entering a new chapter and finds himself rediscovering who he is with new music on the way. He talks about finding a kindred spirit with Demi Lovato, working with Britney Spears, his upcoming tour and more!
Are you excited for G-Eazy’s return? Let us know in the comments!
Are you excited for G-Eazy’s return? Let us know in the comments!
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MusicTranscript
00:00Blonde or brunette?
00:01Both.
00:02My favorite Britney Spears song?
00:04Ours?
00:05Toxic.
00:06Toxic, classic.
00:07Kanye was my first concert.
00:09Oh, I love that.
00:09In San Francisco, I was like a freshman in high school, went with some friends.
00:19You guys ready to play a little Beat the Buzzer?
00:20So in this game, Jeezy's going to have 60 seconds to answer as many questions as he can in rapid fire style.
00:26I think he's ready for it.
00:27Let's go.
00:27Oakland or New York City?
00:29Oh, man.
00:30It's always going to be Oakland, but I do love living in New York.
00:33Blonde or brunette?
00:34Both.
00:36LiAngelo or Lonzo Ball?
00:38Oh, man.
00:39LiAngelo, man.
00:40That eye-tweaker.
00:41Yeah, nah, he got that song going.
00:43That song is really good.
00:44I would say him, yeah.
00:46I mean, if Lonzo played more, yeah, but like, you know, it's tough.
00:49We're going with Jell-O.
00:50The best ability is availability.
00:52Right.
00:52Jalen Brunson or Steph Curry?
00:54Ah, Steph all day.
00:55Come on, man.
00:56All right.
00:56Airbnb or hotels?
00:59Hotels.
01:00I'm banned from Airbnb.
01:02Recording at home or in the studio?
01:06I'll often record at home, get an idea done, and then cut it for the studio.
01:10Bacon, egg, and cheese or chopped cheese?
01:12Sausage, egg, and cheese.
01:13Hey.
01:1490s or 2000s?
01:16Oh, man.
01:172000s.
01:18All right.
01:18Vanilla or chocolate?
01:19I'm a vanilla lady.
01:21Shout out, Missionary Jack.
01:23I had a few questions I had about Freak Show I wanted to get into.
01:26Showbiz, you talked about being raised by Pac, Amy, Bob Dylan, Jay-Z, and Wayne.
01:30Raised by Lil Wayne playing Carter Sue and some Beatles, Dylan, 40, and some Pac.
01:35I know you have a record with Wayne already, but out of the other ones, if you could choose
01:38to collaborate with any of those, who would you have gone with?
01:40Ah, man.
01:42Amy Winehouse is like my favorite artist of all time, either her or Nina Simone.
01:45But I just saw the Dylan movie last night.
01:47What'd you think?
01:48Couldn't have seen it.
01:48It was incredible, man.
01:49I thought he did a great job.
01:50He killed it.
01:51Yeah, I thought the movie was great.
01:52Here's a take on that.
01:53It's like, it's okay to just be a fan of somebody's music and not need to necessarily make music
02:00with them, if that makes sense.
02:01Oh yeah, definitely.
02:02I can like somebody's music and not have to, you know, be involved.
02:05Yeah, I got you.
02:06More like from a fan perspective rather than from the artist brain type.
02:09I got you.
02:10Another bar.
02:11I was like, this bar was for me on South of France.
02:12You rhymed Emily Ratajkowski with Sebastian Janikowski.
02:21Right, right.
02:22Yeah, Sebastian Janikowski, that's a Raiders legend, man.
02:25A Raiders legend.
02:26He'd just be smoking cigs on the sidelines and stuff.
02:28I've admired rebels, you know what I'm saying?
02:31Whatever the space is.
02:32A Dennis Rodman or a Janikowski or, you know what I mean?
02:35People that just, yeah, beat their own drum, like, go against the grain.
02:38I don't know, man.
02:39Those stories are interesting to me.
02:41One day, you also referenced Kanye, Jay, and Dr. Dre.
02:44When I look in the mirror, I see Kanye, Jay-Z, Eminem, Dr. Dre, Lil Wayne, baby.
02:50And you have a Bound 2 interpolation in there.
02:53Yeah, yeah, yeah.
02:54Kanye was my first concert.
02:55Oh, I love that.
02:56So, for College Dropout era?
02:57Yeah, man.
02:58College Dropout.
02:59He got his gold plaque on stage.
03:00That's awesome.
03:01Yeah, and San Francisco.
03:02I was, like, freshman in high school, went with some friends.
03:05I still remember his stage presence.
03:07You know, that struck me as much as anything.
03:09Yeah.
03:10You know, and his, like...
03:11The same confidence that he had.
03:12I mean, confidence, man.
03:13I just, like, circling back, it's the same thing.
03:15It's like, you know, people who go against the grain, oftentimes they're polarizing figures.
03:21You know, for that reason, and it won't make sense to everybody.
03:24And, of course, it's controversial, and separating the art from the artist is a whole other topic and issue.
03:30I've just always admired artists and individuals who stand out and, you know, just are uniquely themselves.
03:39Everybody will not get it, and that's a part of it.
03:42And that's ok.
03:43And that's totally ok.
03:44Another record.
03:45Hello, comments.
03:51Love You Forever.
03:52I thought it's, like, a beautiful tribute to your mom.
03:54What work did you have to do to, you know, have that kind of pour out of you and put that into a record?
03:57The record Love You Forever, it was a song I knew that I'd have to do.
04:01Like, that's something you have that you get out of your system, your spirit.
04:06You know, it's a part of the grieving, it's a part of, you know, the process.
04:10It may be excruciating, it may be hard, but it's cathartic.
04:13Hopefully healing in a way, but it also can be impactful to a lot of people on the outside.
04:17Yeah, it was tough to record.
04:18It's been tough to perform any time I've tried to perform it.
04:20Good music is good music, you know, if it's true and it's real.
04:24And it's from the heart.
04:25Right.
04:26Most definitely.
04:27That's a beautiful record.
04:28I enjoyed the project, and we have more music coming up.
04:35Man, so this record, Kiss the Sky, I went on tour.
04:38It was a Lollapalooza South America tour.
04:40Ok.
04:41And Cage the Elephant has always been one of my favorite bands.
04:45And I remember one of the first days, knocking on their green room door, being like,
04:48Yo, it's G. I just wanted to say I'm a fan.
04:50They were like, G, get in here, man.
04:52And we just instantly bonded.
04:54And me and Matt, the lead singer, just instantly hit it off.
04:57We became friends.
04:58This song, it just like, it was just right in the pocket.
05:01It just felt right, man.
05:02And I was doing this album with this producer, Radiyah McDonald.
05:06He helped put the record together, that song, the whole album he did.
05:09And he just really coached me and brought the best out of me and pushed me.
05:13And it's a whole lot of material I'm really excited about.
05:16We're excited for the new project.
05:18Can you talk about the headspace you were in?
05:20Or if it's like a return to maybe an older sound?
05:22Or what you were trying to accomplish with it when you were in the studio?
05:24The process of making this record almost felt like I had rediscovered myself.
05:29Everything was just about having fun again.
05:32And just getting back to the essence.
05:34When you lock in and you get in a good space and you have fun,
05:37and you understand the mission, and you feel motivated,
05:41then it should just flow like water.
05:44And that's what it felt like.
05:45I've experienced a whole lot of life.
05:47And I'm also a sponge of culture.
05:49And I'm influenced and inspired by a lot of things.
05:51But sometimes you can get pulled in a lot of directions.
05:54Somebody may like me for this sound, or this sound, or this sound.
05:57But this was almost a return to the selfishness of,
06:01well, what does Gerald want to do?
06:03What's the essence of Gerald?
06:04And what does he want to do?
06:06Ultimately, man, it's this new music I feel incredible about and I'm really excited.
06:12We lost the great OG Mako recently, and I know you guys were cool.
06:17How did you guys link up and, I guess, work on music?
06:20OG Mako was, man, he was brilliant.
06:22Really, really brilliant.
06:24Before we knew each other, I saw him as bravely artistic.
06:29From this side of culture to this side, and bridging the gaps.
06:34We got cool and just hit it off.
06:38And then I really discovered how brilliant of a writer and musician.
06:42He's one of the greatest, most talented writers I've ever been in a room with or seen work.
06:46Sure, that's beautiful.
06:47R.I.P. OG Mako.
06:49One of the greats.
06:50I want to jump around to a couple things in your career.
06:52Working with Britney Spears, how does that fit into your whole career
06:55when you look back on that nine years ago now?
07:04I mean, that was surreal. That was iconic.
07:06I was on tour in Australia, and I get the call.
07:09We had one off day.
07:10We found whatever studio we had to find, wherever we were in Australia.
07:14Find me a place, I'll get this done right now.
07:16And just hit it on the spot.
07:18These opportunities are often...
07:20I try to always stay in a space of gratitude.
07:23And imagine your 12-year-old self was told,
07:28one day you're going to grow up and you're seeing this person on TV
07:31and you're going to get to do that.
07:34Never take none of this for granted.
07:36No one likes moving so fast, right?
07:38Yeah, dude.
07:39And then getting to perform it to be amazing.
07:41I was going to touch on that.
07:42Yeah, that was another great moment.
07:43Do you have a favorite Britney Spears song?
07:45My favorite Britney Spears song?
07:47Ours?
07:48Mine's Gimme More.
07:49Toxic.
07:50Toxic, classic.
07:51Another song I wanted to touch on was Breakdown with Demi.
07:57I think that's such a dope record that kind of flew under the radar.
08:01But if you could just touch on how that came together.
08:03Especially, both of you guys have gone through so much from substance abuse and drug use.
08:07And I just thought it was a beautiful connection to have you guys connect.
08:10And how did you put that together?
08:12Demi is a kindred spirit.
08:14Also just a brilliant, powerful force of a human being.
08:18Who I admire and respect to the moon.
08:22She's been through so much.
08:23But this life, this industry, you find parallel people throughout this path.
08:31She's a really special one.
08:32And that song, I think for us, was something we shared and something we both identified with and related to.
08:38It's not a linear path, it's a difficult one.
08:41Those ups and downs, those challenges, that's real life.
08:46As friends, we've talked about that extensively.
08:48It's one thing to have a conversation with somebody about something.
08:51But you don't always get to frame it within three minutes.
08:55Like structure of words that rhyme and a melody that captures it all.
09:00It's one thing to talk about that.
09:04It's another thing to find a way to frame it in a song.
09:06We need more music from you guys.
09:07I feel like that'd be cool.
09:08Yeah, for sure.
09:09Euro tour coming up?
09:10Yeah.
09:11Let's talk about it.
09:12What are you excited for when you get out there?
09:13When was the last time you were out there?
09:14Doing this last leg of the US tour.
09:16It just felt so good being back in front of the fans.
09:19Getting back to what I do.
09:23We toured for almost eight years straight.
09:25It became so deeply ingrained in what I do day in and day out.
09:29Who I am, my identity.
09:31Getting back out there on the road and reconnecting with the fans.
09:34Finding that joy again was reinvigorating.
09:37What do you say is the biggest difference from the US audience to a European audience when you're doing shows?
09:41When you're overseas, it's like I came all this way to be here.
09:46I was raised and grew up and live so far from here.
09:51There's an added appreciation of rarity.
09:54I'm just really grateful for all of it.
09:58Because I could be at the furthest end of the earth.
10:02Or I could be across the street.
10:05I'm just really grateful that people show up and show love like that.
10:09Are you going to spin the block for another North American tour?
10:12Yeah.
10:13Nah, man.
10:14We're definitely going to run it back.
10:15Now that we got the floodgates back open, it's just keep going.
10:20The tour was just invigorating.
10:23I'm excited to get back and hit them with new music.
10:27Just keep it flowing.
10:30It feels good to be going again.
10:32Another big year for G-Eazy.
10:33We appreciate you coming through, man.