Do you have a favorite track off your new album, Rolling Papers? Yeah, "The Race" is one of my favorite songs. "Rooftops," that's one of my favorite songs too.
The album is dropping on your sister's birthday. Do you have any plans to celebrate with her? Yeah! We're going to be in New York when it comes out, so she's going to come to New York and we're gonna get to chill and just party. Yeah, that's going to be tight.
What does she think about what you're doing? She loves it man, she's so happy. And with her friends, she's just really cool and level headed about it, that's what I love about her. She's going to be seventeen.
Are all her friends after her to meet you? Yeah, yeah, especially now, they're like 'I'm almost 18!' I'm like, nahh. [laughs].
What did you grow up listening to in Pittsburgh that influenced you as an artist? I grew listening to everything, a lot of Bone Thugz N' Harmony, a lot of West Coast music, a lot of Snoop of course, a lot of stuff from down South too. I grew up on everything, that's kind of what makes my style as versatile as it is.
What was really the driving force for you to do music? Just wanted to be the man.
How do you cope with being on tour? I love being on tour actually, it's fun. It gets tiring a little bit though when I'm on tour for months at a time, I like to go back home and chill with my dog or just do regular stuff, but at the end of the day, it's fun for everybody, it's fun for the fans, so, you know, I like to do it.
How did SXSW treat you this year? It was good, I was really really busy, but I got to check out some shows and stuff so I had fun.
Do you have any thoughts about Odd Future? Yeah, I like those guys, they're really tight. I got to meet them actually, backstage at the Woodie Awards. I just like their vibe and the element that they bring to the game, I think that it's needed.
What are they like in person? They're really chill, you know what I'm saying, they have everybody--not me because I understand what type of people they are--they have everybody else on edge because they don't know what they're gonna do. But that's kind of tight though, that they're able to shake it up like that, that's a good place to be.
What have you been listening to lately? I've been listening to my stuff lately actually, because I've been working on some new stuff. Of course like Curren$y and Rick Ross and Big Sean and my man Chevy, my man Meko, Mac Miller, yeah.
Any Pittsburgh artists we should be looking out for? Definitely two of the artists I just named. Mac Miller, he just got the cover of XXL for the Freshman Class, and my man Chevy, he just dropped a mixtape. He's gonna be doing his thing in the upcoming years.
