It just takes one.

Tate Kobang was completely unknown outside the city limits of Baltimore last April when he released his remix of “Bank Rolls”, a local hit by Tim Trees from 2000, to promote his latest mixtape. The remix caught fire in the city. It was a hit! Within a matter of weeks, Kobang had signed a deal with 300 Ent.

With his down-to-earth yet swaggy lyrical style and dance-friendly flow, Kobang may well be the hottest thing out of Baltimore. We believe he is destined for bigger things. With an EP on the way, Tate Kobang sat down with HNHH for a spirited discussion about dance, music, sports, women, philosophy, and life. He revealed him to be a man of great ambition, intelligence, and humor.

WARNING: Do not read this interview while taking public transportation. Read it in the privacy of your own home. You will laugh.

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Before you rapped you played the saxophone and sang in the choir. Which of those did you prefer?

It had to be sax.

Why’s that?

It was just some new shit, you know? I was young, black, on the block, you know what I mean? In the trenches. I was playing the saxophone and bitches loved it.

Did they really?

Hell yeah!  Look, do you know what it takes to play the saxophone? Lips.  And women loved it.  They were like, “Oh you must be a good kisser!”  

Is that why you did it?

Yeah.  Everything we do is for females if you think about it.  You get up and wash your ass.  Why? Cause you might see a female that you you like and you don’t wanna stank.  You know what I’m saying?  Everything we do is for females bro.

What about Charlie Parker?  You weren’t doing it for Charlie Parker?

Who the hell is that?

The greatest saxophone player of all time.

No man.  I was doing it for the women.

Fair enough.

I’m going to look into Charlie though.  He sounds pretty awesome.

You should check him out. He went down in flames.  Like heroin addiction, but he changed the game. He pioneered jazz basically.

Oh! I might have to sample some Charlie. I know Tony Parker.

What part of Baltimore are you from?

Shit, I was everywhere over east.  But the place I was at the longest I would say Cold Spring/Alameda. At my grandma’s house.  It was cool. But the city, we had the alleys.  That’s where all the kids played at.  Basketball hoops with a couple crack needles on the corner.  A couple hustlers down the block.  Then you had the old people who tried to keep the block up.  They came out every morning and sweep and shit like that.  Yeah man, just a neighborhood full of kids, then we all grew up. A couple of us dead. A couple of us in jail  And I’m here.

What were some of your hobbies?  Like what would you do for fun growing up?

Oh man. Yu-Gi-Oh cards. They were fake.  I had some Yugimon cards or some crazy shit.

Pokemon or Yu-Gi-Oh?

Nah, Yugimon.  I had like some flea market shit.  You know how that go.  My grandma tried to get me to start collecting baseball cards, but that wasn’t fucking fun, you know? A bunch of guys with wooden sticks in their hands. Like, fuck type shit is that? I was about Yugimon, man.

Was that par for the course?  Could you play Yu-Gi-Oh with Yugimon cards?

Nah man.  That’s like coming into a spades game with Uno cards.

Did you play sports?

Yeah, I wrestled for Marigold. That didn’t last long.  I played football for Northeast Chargers. That didn’t last long.  I played basketball for Yorkewood and Hazelwood. That had a little longevity to it until report cards came out. Then I was back on the bench.

What position did you play in football?

I was cornerback. I did cornerback, kick returns, and strong safety.

What was the dopest thing you ever did in football?

I cracked this fat guy.  

That’s what’s up.

It was actually my cousin.  His name is Carlos.

I know your uncles got you into rap.  What were they listening to?

UGK, Wu-Tang, all of the old fucks, man.  Really all the old rappers.  Mobb Deep, of course.  Really just the gritty shit.  They weren’t listening to A Tribe Called Quest and all that shit, which I like. I think that shit is fucking dope.  The Lost Boyz, of course.  Shit like that.  As well as their own shit, making their own music.

Did they have a home studio?

Yeah. I got in there a couple times.

What was the first thing you did with them?

Me and my cousin Jerrell did a track.  I have yet to actually do a track with my uncle.  That would be crazy. I just want to see where he’s at with it now honestly because he was like my biggest influence music-wise.

You’ve said that Method Man’s “Tical”. What made him doper to you than all He’s dope, but what made him to you doper than all those other guys like Mobb Deep?

He was raw and creative. Mobb Deep was just raw. You weren’t really getting raw and creative until you got the Wu. Between Meth and Rae, it was neck-and-neck as far as the creativity.  As to the other ones, they were more content.  They were more like, “Yeah, we’re going to put a filter on our shit.” Red and Method were just uncut, bro.  Uncut as fuck.  That’s how I am.  I just don’t give a fuck.

You’re a funny dude and they’re pretty funny also.  They have a good sense of humor so I could see why you like them.  What else were you listening to?  I saw somewhere that you’re big into R&B.

Yeah, I’m an R&B guy man.  For like two weeks straight one time I listened to Michael Jackson’s “Butterflies.” All day.  Two weeks straight one time.  It was just life-changing, man.

Why did you move to York, PA?

My mom moved me, my brother, and sister.  I’ve been back and forth up there for 8 or 9 years now.  Yeah, that’s my other home man.  

Were you acting up?

Oh, bro. Oh my goodness.  I was going crazy.  Even when we I moved up there I was cutting up.  That’s where I met my brother Dizz  at and we just started doing this shit.  I was a product of my environment in Baltimore.  I was going to end up either in jail or in a box.  So my mother was like, “Nah, fuck that.  We’re going to move up here to this place where nobody goes and try to better our life,” which it definitely did and I thank her for it. I love York.

What’s it like?  I had to look it up.

15% of York is from York.  Everybody else is in the same situation as me. Everybody moves there. You got DC, New York, Philly, Baltimore – shit like that all in one place.  And the Spanish women. Oh my God, bro.

I’mma come through and check it out.

Just bring a lot of condoms bro.  Cause you’ll leave with kids, I’m telling you. I’m telling you.

How’d you get the name Tate Kobang?

Tate was a block name.  I used to dance so they used to call me Dancing Tater.  My mother used to call me Tater Head, which was a joke.  My head is a peanut shape, not shaped like a fuckin’ potato. And then Kobang – it stands for “King Of Baltimore And Niggas’ Girls.”

I can’t wait when you’re ten times more popular and you gotta explain that to Oprah.

Yeah. Oprah is going to be like, “So you know we got Tate Kobang on my couch.  So the name – I’ve been hearing a lot of stuff about it but I want to hear it from you.”  Like, “Alright, you sure? We on TV – is this what you want?” (laughter) But yeah, I can’t wait to be on that fucking couch. Roll some weed and sit with my feet on her couch. Bring chicken on stage and shit.

What was the first project you made and how do you think you’ve grown as an artist since then?

Oh my God, bro, my first project was Higher Ups.5. It was an all freestyle tape.  Me and Dizz, we did it. I was in 9th grade.  We edited it on Virtual DJ.  He did all that with the drops, bring-backs, and shit like that.  And we recorded that shit on a Rock Band microphone with a sock on it as a pop filter. Did that shit from the inside of his closet and went crazy.  Just went in bro.  They were playing that shit in the club and shit.  I was like, “Ooooh, what is this? Is this real?” So yeah, it was amazing bro.

So do you feel like that’s your best work?

Hell no, man! (laughter). I was going off though. And for my first project, all freestyles – it was pretty fucking dope.  My grandmother to this day still rides around with that CD.  Crazy.

What’s the difference  between Tate Kobang now the rapper and Tate Kobang then?

I wasn’t even Tate Kobang then.  I was Tate the Bait. Or I was Space Jam Tate.  It was one of them fucked up ass names, bro.  It was really no difference other than now I’m into songs.  Like now, I do songs.  I pretty much do every fucking thing now. I didn’t have hooks back then.  I would just go.  But now I’m more polished and more put together, more organized as far as the records go.  I understand a lot more now, sonically and everything.  It’s going to be a problem, we’re going to go crazy.

I know the original “Bank Roll” was like a local hit.

16 years ago.

Are there a lot of songs like that?  I feel like Baltimore is a very contained.

Yeah! The same fucking guy! The same fucking guy that produced that record has like eight fucking crazy ass records with like four artists.  Like the same four fucking artists on every track.

Is Baltimore like the Bay Area of the East Coast? In that it’s very provincial and a lot of music doesn’t make it out.

Yeah because they don’t want to leave.  Alright, say there is a bitch, right?  She has possibly the best head in the world and she’s a local ho.  But she could be global ho.  But she doesn’t want to be a global ho cause she’s good with being known in her block and she’s able to go the club and get shout outs and get free bottles and shit like that.  And she’s good with that.  She’s content.  That’s every fucking artist in Baltimore that Baltimore’s ever had.

And why are you different?

Because I’m tired of that shit! I’m tired of going to funerals bro.  I done been robbed, I done robbed, I done been shot at, I done shot at people, I done been stabbed over my eye in fights and shit like that.  I’m tired of it and that’s not what I want my kids to grow up and be in. I refuse, bro.

How many kids do you have?

Too fucking many.  All of them. I got five kids of my own and then I take care of my brothers and sisters.

You have five kids?

Yeah bro, four girls and one boy.  I slang the dick, bro.  

When you were making “Bank Rolls,” what inspired that flow? Did you immediately recognize the hotness?  Or was it just another song?

Bro, we were sitting on that shit for like a year and a half.  It was just all freestyle.  

I was in the basement.  A couple cats from back home had freestyled on it and that shit was corny. So I was like, “You know what? Let me kill this shit real quick and then finish making my real music.”  I did the joint and just put it in the stash.  I sent it to the team.  They were like, “Damn, that shit hard.  But where’s the other music at though?”  We ain’t give a fuck about the record.  It was just… got all these hollow tips, what I’mma shoot this blank for? Come to find out, it was a hollow tip (laughter).

Did you ever think it would have had the sort of legs that it did?

No, no. I still don’t believe it’s doing what the fuck it’s doing.  Like 7 million on fucking Spotify, bro?

So what was the reaction when you dropped the original last April?

It was crazy. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, all that shit.  We were just sitting back like, “What the fuck is going on?” Cause we dropped that to let people know we had just put out a project.  It was like, “Okay, you’re watching the music video and then at the end it says ‘Available Now.’”

So when did labels start reaching out?

This was April when we dropped it.  We were thinking probably January.  Fuck no! A month later, if that.  A month later we sat back like, “Are you sure? Like really?  Like us?  This shit? Alright, whatever.”  That’s when I went back in, me and YG Beats.  We chopped it up.  Directed up. Put another verse on it and shipped it out bro.  

Was that after you signed to 300?

No, it was before. The radio came to us first and then 300 caught everything that was going on.  They were like, “Oh no, we need to pump some steroids into this shit.”  And surprisingly, they really didn’t even do anything.  They wanted to see how it was going to do naturally.  They didn’t like shove down people’s throats or put a whole bunch of fucking money in it.  It’s just growing organically and people loving that shit.  We just sat back like, “Word?”

Why did you pick 300? I know Kevin Liles is from Baltimore.

Yeah, but Kevin didn’t – he wasn’t even the one who found us.  It was Salim [Bouab], Lyor [Cohen], and Todd [Moscowitz].  They hit us and they called us out.  At first we got the call and we were like, “300!?!? I ain’t signing to no fucking Chief Keef, bro.”  And then when we had heard who it was – he already knew, he’s an older guy – but me, I was like, “Who the fuck are these guys? Lyor? The fuck is a Lyor? Todd? Who the fuck are you?” (laughter).  And then I went on Wikipedia and I was like, “Oh shit! Nigga, us? They want us?  We gotta go!” We was on the bus, hell yeah. That was crazy.

But why them and not someone else?

Because man, we definitely didn’t want to go to a label and definitely not a major.  Cause you know, they juice niggas and you see how they be like. We see it everyday.  We hear about, read about it everyday.  So we were going to take our chances and start our own shit and just do it like that. But the fact that they’re independent with the muscle of a major and the way they move and the connections that they have – it was just like, “Alright, let’s try it out.”

Over time, we grew and built relationships and it wasn’t just all about business with them.  Like Lyor text me, “Hey Tate, I’m on a boat” and shit like that. Then Salim – we had Salim in the strip club with us.  Me and Todd exchanged information about leather jackets and shit like that. Like they’re just real humble and genuine.  They actually care about their fucking artists and shit.  So it’s amazing.  You don’t get that everyday. You’re not going to get that.

Do you get recognized in Baltimore?

[Tate’s manager: Shit, I ain’t going to the mall with him.]

Tate: We causing riots, bro.  And then people walk up to me like, “You ain’t Tate Kobang.” Shit is crazy. Church be ridiculous.

You can’t even pray.

Right!?! And it be family.  Like I’m sitting there praying and motherfuckers be taking selfies like, “Me and cuz.” Golly!

Most of the country was just following the Freddie Gray riots online. What was it like for you?

Man, it was a fucking war zone, bro.  A war zone. Niggas had the National Guard in Baltimore.  National fucking Guard.

Were you out there?

Hell no!!! My ass was in the house.  I was like, “Look at these crazy ass niggas.  That’s my cousin right there. He is crazy. Tyrone better take his dumbass in the house.”  Look man, it was just crazy is what I’m trying to tell you.  In a song, I said “I got a bitch live on Appleton, she like them killers.” Appleton is on both avenues.  That’s actually my baby mother’s crib.  So my kids was out there in that motherfucker.  It’s the trenches, you know?

We seen this shit, we seen the aftermath.  It was real. You don’t prepare for shit like that cause you never think it’s going to hit home.  But when it do, you just gotta know how to go.  All you can do is pray, there’s nothing we could do.  It was what it was.  But it wasn’t the first time police killed somebody at home and it won’t be the last. It was just the first time it reached a national platform.  Shit, we shoot at them, they shoot at us. It’s normal. It’s Baltimore bro.  Everything you see on TV, on The Wire and all that shit – that shit is real.

You used to tap dance. Did you get into tap cause you like to dance?

Nah, my mother made me do that shit.  I’m a thug. I ain’t wanna tap dance, I’m a fucking thug man.  But it was cool, it helped me appreciate culture.  

What are your favorite songs to dance to?

Oh man. Well being from Baltimore, one of our favorite records to 2 step to is Gucci Mane – “On Deck”. Anything Michael Jackson and I’ll fuck some shit up.  One of my shows I’m just going to stop the whole show and just do a Michael Jackson tribute.  It’s going to be funniest shit you’ve ever seen in your fucking life. Cause niggas are going to be like, “Wow! He can really fucking dance bro.”

What’s your go-to move? When you’re in a pinch on the dance floor, like “Oh, shit!”

The Harlem Shake bro.  Either The Harlem Shake or the Milly Rock. Its like you can Milly Rock through anything, you know what I’m saying? You can fall down the steps, get up, and be like, “Damn, you killed that fall!” Nah, that shit wasn’t on purpose B.

So for “Oh My” you got C-Note.  You just got some dance-y shit.  What other producers like him are you trying to work with?

Shit man, I want to work with Bangladesh.  See, people don’t understand.  I tweeted this the other day, but the ultimate goal in music and life period is to push people.  Like Kanye pushed the shit out of Metro Boomin, yo. That shit was not Metro Boomin.  That shit was Metro The Fuck Boomin.  It was like a whole ‘nother nigga.  

That was like Rick Rubin.

Yeah! Rick Boomin.  Metro Rubin. Like C-Note, that’s not a conventional C-Note beat. So I want to push people.  I want see how Metro on some me shit. Yeah man, that should be the ultimate goal in music – to bring people outside of their box.  I can’t wait to see what my final form is.  

I like “Oh My” even more than “Bank Rolls”. It just makes you want to dance.

Yeah! People don’t understand that music is supposed to make you feel.  And if it’s not making you feel, then it’s not fucking music.

My thing is I’m doing struggle rap.  And when you think struggle rap, you thinking niggas that struggle to make bars.  No. I’m telling you real life shit.  Everything I say is real shit.  I’ve been through it.  I don’t do the “I’ve seen it.” People be like, “What do you go through to make songs?” Nothing.  You shouldn’t have to go through shit to make songs because if it’s real and it’s really you, shit will come organically.

So yeah, I’m doing struggle rap. I struggle. I’ve struggled my whole fucking life.  I’ve seen my mother struggle.  I’ve seen my grandmother struggle.  I’ve been through eviction. I’ve been homeless and had to sleep out front of gas stations in the snow and all the shit like that, you know what I’m saying?  Like when I had bury my mother – my mother passed the day before my 21st birthday and then my father passed two months later.  I had to go through that shit.  I’m fucked up, bro.  I’m an emotional fucking time bomb.  Like any given moment, I’ll just break out.  And sometimes it’s needed as a man. It keeps you – especially with this shit I got going on – it keeps you grounded.  It gives you a foundation.

645AR burst onto the scene out of nowhere and, almost instantly, hip-hop took notice of him. Born in New York and raised in Atlanta, the young recording artist has been around two completely different ends of the table as far as rap’s approach goes. In New York, a focus is placed predominantly on bars and lyricism while, in Atlanta, trap beats and vibes are the top priority. Acknowledging that he would need to stand out from the pack if ever he wanted to live out his dream, 645AR developed a voice that we all know too well now.

The brain behind “4 Da Trap” and “Yoga,” and possibly Tik Tok’s biggest rap star of the year so far, 645AR is ready to tell his story. 

After struggling to gain attention with his music, 645AR decided that he needed to find something that would separate him from anybody else, officially giving birth to his squeaky-voiced delivery last year. 

Whether you love it or hate it, you’ve got to accept that 645AR is one of, if not the most unique rappers in the game right now. He has already left his mark on the industry and, with so much more to contribute, it’s time for us to take notice.

We hopped on a video call with the rising star to speak about everything that’s happening in his career right now, including “Yoga”, his future collaborations, and why he’s so much more than just a meme.

Read our interview below, edited for clarity and length.

Image Publicist

HotNewHipHop: Hey, what’s up!? How’s it going?

645AR: Hey everybody. Whew, I just woke up.

It really be like that. You’re loving this quarantine, huh?

Yeah. I was just tryna find weed yesterday and I couldn’t find any so I was just like up and I ended up falling asleep like really late.

You got the snacks on deck though so you good.

Yeah man, I was tryna pull some sour yesterday, I was hurt man. I got spoiled to the exotics.

I just wanted to start off by saying congratulations cause you’re blowing the fuck up, it’s crazy. What do you want the people to know about 645AR?

I’m not playing around. That’s my one. They just swear I’m playing around but I’m just not playing. I’m so serious.

There are a lot of people that write you off right off the bat because they hear the voice and they’re like, is he a meme rapper, does he have substance to him? What would you say to those people?

I would just tell people to stay tuned ’cause you know I already have so much in this project like, that’s what I do every single time. Every time I drop they just like, they just confused like they don’t fully understand it.  

Where’d you grow up?

I grew up in Atlanta for real. That’s really where I spent my teen years but I was born out here in New York. I had moved to Florida in ‘05 so after like ‘06 I spent most of my time in Atlanta and I basically grew up there, in a really small area.

What was your childhood like? Moving around can be tough sometimes.

Yeah, I started moving around when I was a young boy so it was just hard for me to adapt to things. I was like 10 years old when I first moved so it’s like, you know, I picked up so much stuff being out here and stuff, then I moved to Atlanta and it’s like completely different so I gotta adjust.

What do your parents do?

My mom is a nurse and my pops is a truck driver.

Image Publicist

Speaking about you as an artist, I would honestly go out and say you’re the most unique artist that’s out there right now, especially in rap. How would you describe your artistry? 

I would describe myself the same, most unique thing out right now. People gon’ take it how they wanna take it but I feel I’m the most unique person out.

How’d you come up with the squeaky voice delivery?

With delivery, I was just playing one time. I was just trying to find a new sound, I just felt like the current sound that I had wouldn’t take me as far as I wanted to go. The first time I did it, it was on a song called “Crack.” I said no cuss words and when I just did it, I was just trying something new. At that moment I knew I could do something with it, experiment with something. So I ended up doing that. And I just do a lot of thinking, I do a lot of analyzing so I just knew it was going to draw too much attention and stuff. I did it but like I tried perfecting my sound so like there are different frequencies. I tried perfecting my whole squeak ’cause there are levels, like I came in rapping then I came in with the “4 Da Trap” shit, so I perfected that sound.

It’s emotional too. I feel like a lot of people don’t realize. Like, they’re not listening to the lyrics, they’re not looking deep into that. They’re just hearing the squeak and they’re just like, shit, that’s crazy, they’re not reading into it. And a lot of what you’re saying is deep shit.

That’s another thing too. When I first started, I had said some real shit so like, I don’t know. I just knew people would think I was a gimmick if I was just saying a whole bunch of bullshit, like just a whole bunch of unimportant shit. I actually try to talk about deep shit, like shit that’s really going on. I don’t want people to be like ‘yo this n***a tweakin’, you just toyin’” cus like some people is hip to it, like they know what is going on.

What were peoples’ reactions to it the first time you did it? What did the engineers say, what did your manager say? Did people believe in it in the beginning?

No [laughing], hell no. Uh, when I first did it, there was a day we shot this video and we was just like recording, I had did it, there was two people, it was my boy Tony Shhnow and my boy Bag Ty and instantly Bag Ty was like ‘boy you a genius’ and he was like crazy. Tony Shhnow, on the other hand, was like ‘you trippin’ I’m not gettin’ on this [laughing]. You know, they knew I was with the song, like I knew what I was doing, they just follow my lead.

When did you realize that you had come up with something that was gonna be big? 

It was before I had dropped “4 Da Trap.” It was the month of December, I don’t know, I just felt like my presence on the internet was just like, strong, so. Actually, I’ll say with the first record, ’cause with the first record when I tried the squeaky like it started getting recognition in the city but like, people were just like, ‘what is he up to?’ Yeah, people was just like ‘what is he up to?’ I mean actually, cus when I started off, I started off at like, the lowest-highest frequency so I was going back to my regular voice then doing the squeak shit. So that was like the first record I ever did and then we had ended up shooting the music video to it six months later. So the song came out and people was like, okay, this is something they don’t really know. And then the video came out and they was like ‘okay, okay.’ They was just confused, they were just super confused. That was like the first video that came out. Lil Tecca is a person I really gotta give a shoutout to because he really got the ball rolling, he had posted that video and then that video just started taking off.

Tecca did that? That’s dope.

Yeah, so that got me the meeting and then once I got the meeting they was telling me like, what they had in mind for me and what they had planned out and I was just like, okay this is how I gotta push straight to the stuff that I do so people could grasp more into it. So I did “Crack” and then after the meeting I did “Bible and a K” and that was like the first whole sound ’cause the first song I did I was going back and forth, I was switching my cadences but when I did “Bible and a K,” I had high frequency the whole track, I just went in, so, yeah.

I read somewhere that you were hanging around Lil Yachty when he started blowing up? Did you learn anything from him?

I would probably say not being a follower for real, like he was tryna do his own thing. So not like following the trends and doing your own thing. There was an era of rap in like 2016, when Boat was coming up and he had took over ’cause he was so fresh, what he was doing was so fresh to people.

You used to play basketball too, right?

Yeah.

Did you ever think you could go pro? I read somewhere that you’re 6’5″?

I really did, I thought I was gonna go pro but it just didn’t work out and then I let it work itself out, and it ended up working. Yeah, I’m 6’5″ man, 230 man. You know, I don’t know why people be talking to me crazy ’cause like I’m really big. I don’t know, I think people be thinking I’m like 5’5″ or something.

You hear the voice and you’re like ‘this guy’s small’ but no, you a big dude.

Bro, they see me and they like, I’m not gon’ say what I say on the internet to him ’cause he big.

A lot of people are comparing you to Playboi Carti and rappers like that because of your voice. Are you influenced at all by him? Are you a fan?

I’m a fan, I wouldn’t say I’m influenced by him, though. I’m a fan though.

Image Publicist

You just dropped the video for “Yoga.” What do you aim to get out of that release?

You know what I aim for, I just want people to be like ‘Man, this dude’s not playing around,’ and you know we shot the whole video too. Shout out to BRTHR too ’cause they went too crazy.

So, you’re in the process of blowing up and there are gonna be tons of people reaching out to you. Has anybody big hit you up to collaborate yet?

Yeah, T-Raw, my boy Tyga. Yeah, I don’t know if I was supposed to tell you that but yeah, we got a record in the cut. Next record I’m dropping is the FKA twigs joint.

That’s a crazy collaboration!

People still think I’m playing though.

That’s unexpected.

I just gotta let ‘em see what’s in store.

You’re working on a mixtape right now, what’s the plan for that? Do you have a timetable for the release or anybody in particular that you want on it?

Umm nah, not necessarily, you know. I’d say it’s probably like 95% done and it’s sounding like literally the most perfect project to me. Just putting some finishing touches on it.

Every time I log onto Tik Tok, I’m seeing people making their own videos to “Yoga” and “4 Da Trap”. What do you think about the virality of those songs?

Yeah, I seen what people been doing with “Yoga” on Tik Tok, I see what’s going on, you know. It really don’t bother me ’cause it’s just like the kind of stuff I dealt with growing up, you know I’m already used to it, I just don’t pay stuff like that any mind.

I wanted to ask you about your Sink or Swim crew because there’s not a lot of information about everybody else in the crew out there. Can you talk a little bit about them?

So with the Sink or Swim crew it’s just like, if you could name a group other than Migos coming out the South, what group would you say? Who could you say is really coming out of Atlanta? Like you really gotta think about it, so I’m just tryna do that, and everybody’s going crazy. There was a point where everybody had their own single and we was just like, going crazy in the city so we just tryna take over the whole city. The whole gang is gonna go crazy like, we just put structure in everything that we do like, right now, we just getting all kinds of ready, we just reloading right now, we finna go crazy.

You’ve got an R&B side too that I feel like we haven’t really heard yet. Is that gonna be coming out on the next album?

Yeah, that’s what’s coming next. This is what people don’t know, “Yoga” came out last year so I dropped “4 Da Trap” and then nobody heard no new shit that I been working on. And then “In Love With a Stripper,” that’s one of the first songs I made on the autotune shit, I made that song like October. Nobody’s heard nothing new yet so that’s why I’m just like, you know. But I know what I got, I got some real art sitting in the cut.

What’s the plan for when quarantine ends? You gonna be touring, doing performances? What does a 645AR performance look like?

It looks wild, like shoot, I’m not even gon’ lie to you. The last shows I did were in Spain and they had both sold out. I’m out the country and the shows sold out. It was two shows: one was in Madrid, one in Barcelona. They both sold out. People be raging for real, like people be squeaking for real. I love my fanbase, man. I think I got one of the best fanbases in the game right now, they go crazy. Those are the last two shows I had and those are the only shows I did this year. The last show I did before that — I’d probably say like the beginning of December — I was doing underground shows. People was going crazy, like there’s a snippet on Twitter and like, he’s okay now, but somebody had a seizure. It really be that turnt, like no exaggeration.

Yeah, we don’t want nobody to have a seizure.

You see some crazy shit at a 645AR show.

Speaking of the music that’s coming out, what do you want to tell the people about the album?

When I drop this album, I’m just stamping everything I’m doing, you know. I feel like, after the “Yoga” video, there’s still gon’ be some people, they just not hip, they just can’t get hip. I don’t know, they probably just can’t process the high frequency. But after I drop this project, I feel like there’s not gon’ be anymore slander. It’s always gon’ be people hating but I feel like it’ll be to the very minimum after I drop my project.

People don’t realize that you have substance to you so I feel like, once they get into it, they’ll realize that 645AR is more than just an artist.

That’s true, I’m more than an artist. I’m ahead, people are gonna start feeling the vibes.

Do you wanna add anything?

Yeah, you know I just wanna add that I’m going too crazy right now, there are too many people hating on me. It’s too many people that got something negative to say, I just feel like there are more people saying negative things than positive things but you know, I’m just tryna say like my next drop, I think my next drop it’s gon’ touch a lot of people more than “4 Da Trap” did, so. I’m just saying my next drop, I’m not playing around.

When’s that coming?

We saying like next month. We gonna make a lot of noise. I’m doing something original. There’s no gimmicks. I’m excited for the future. I can’t wait ‘til they hear my new single.

I’m really excited about that, man. It’s been a pleasure talking to you.

I appreciate that, I appreciate y’all for having me too. I used to grow up in like middle school and high school watching y’all shit for real. It’s love.

For Alina Baraz, her whole career has just been one long period of growth.

The R&B singer— who, quite frankly, rejects the labels imposed by “genre”— is fresh off the release of her debut album, It Was Divine, and the project is already receiving rave reviews. Despite how grateful she may be for the positive reception, Alina reveals that she doesn’t make music for the critics— instead, she uses the art form solely to express herself, and anything else is just a bonus.

Growing up in Cleveland, Ohio as the first child in her Ukrainian-Russian family to be born in the United States, Alina was raised on classical music, but quickly discovered artists like Amy Winehouse and Lauryn Hill on her own. After moving to Los Angeles at nineteen to pursue her music career, she came across Danish producer Galimatias, with whom she would go on to release a collaborative EP, Urban Flora, in 2015, the first project of her career. From that point on, she became one of the early pioneers of what we now know as “alternative R&B,” after signing a record deal with indie label, Mom + Pop, collaborating with Khalid, and releasing her first solo EP, The Colour of You, in 2018.

Now, with a few years in the industry under her belt, she was finally ready to make her official debut. On It Was Divine, Alina is at her most vulnerable. Her sound is more mature and refined, but the content as a whole bears a newfound openness. She opened up to HNHH about how a major part of the process of making her debut album was allowing herself to write about whatever she needed to write about, and using the music to heal. “I was able to purely write it for myself,” she notes. “In the past, I thought it was a burden to write about sadness…whereas, with this album, I just let go of all those things, I just didn’t care anymore. In the best way possible.”

Read our exclusive interview with the songstress below, edited for clarity.

Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

HotNewHipHop: Thank you so much for doing this today. I really appreciate you taking the time to talk to me about everything. So your new album [It Was Divine] just came out, not last week but the week before. To start off, congratulations on the release! It was fantastic if I do say so myself.  

Alina Baraz: Thank you. 

So from what I understand, you’ve been working on this for quite some time. I read that it’s been at least since the summer of 2016, if not longer, if that’s correct? 

I mean, I’ve technically been working on it for one year just based off the songs that made it, but I guess you could technically say since I dropped the last EP [The Colour Of You]. Preparing to get in the mental state of writing is equally as important as actually writing the songs, so I feel like I’ve been getting ready since I started my whole career. 

Right. So, from whatever point you would consider the beginning of the process, whether it is when you started writing the songs or when you started to get into that mental state—from that point until the final product when it was released—how has the album evolved from beginning to now?

I mean, I think the topic evolved so much. I think, like, halfway through the album, I was so focused on wanting to write it to someone. I wanted to get out all the things that I wanted to say, but through the whole process, I’m actually writing this to myself and I think that was the biggest point in evolution for me through this album. Like it’s so easy for me to talk about self-worth and self-love but it’s a whole other story to actually do it. But I think that’s where I evolved the most. 

So other than that, if there are any other main priorities, whether it be expressing yourself as an artist or if it’s sonically or lyrically, what were your main priorities in terms of what you wanted to bring to this album, what you wanted to offer  to your fans? Is there anything that you hadn’t been able to express with your other projects? 

I think the main one was wanting to heal. I think I’ve always been such a perfectionist, that I’m crafting together songs and I don’t think about myself where I should be. And it just becomes [about] what’s sonically going to sound really, really good together, and I mean, I still figured that out, but I was able to just purely write it for myself and nothing else, and I just knew. But in the past, I thought it was a burden to write about sadness or anything. I just didn’t wanna talk about that. Whereas, with this album, I just let go of all those things, I just didn’t care anymore. In the best way possible.

So you’ve actually said before that your EP, The Color of You, which dropped in 2018, served as kind of a prelude to It Was Divine. Can you speak on that a bit and explain how you see that as a prelude, and how those two projects interact with each other and what their relationship is.

I think it’s just a timeline of my growth. I think they all come from me, I write every single song, I come up with all the melodies with all the people in the room, so it’s an evolution of myself. Inevitably, it’s gonna connect no matter what I talk about because it’s just coming from my heart. But at the time, when I started writing The Color of You, I really wanted to write my debut. But as I continued to keep writing, I just knew in my heart it wasn’t my debut, so it just felt like the thing that comes before the debut, that’s just how I finished it, with that mentality. So to me, they just connect as a timeline of my growth.

With It Was Divine, why did you decide to go with this title? I think it’s a fantastic title and it feels very applicable to the content, but why did you decide to go with that title and what does it mean to you? Does it have any sort of exceptional meaning or was it just a nice-sounding phrase? What was the decision-making there?

I think it was all the above. Most of all, I saw the word ‘divine’ everywhere. Like just literally in dreams, on signs, in the park, in my car a song would pop up. It was just following me around and I take signs seriously in my life. I feel like it’s always what I need, I’ll just see it wherever I go. But I kind of wanted to leave the ‘it’ pretty vague and leave all those explanations to whoever wanted to—I just wanted it to be whatever they think ‘it’ is. I never really wanted to explain the ‘it.’ I wanted it to be vague and it could be applied to so many things.

Mom + Pop

Do you think that applies to the music as well? Because you said you wrote this music as sort of a healing process for yourself, but in terms of what you said about the title, do you think that applies to the music as well, can it be applied to your fans generally or is it more specific to your own experiences?

Oh I wanted it to be everything. Even sonically, we would go into the sessions with ‘divinity’ as—just subconsciously even, we would think of it in terms of sonically, what that would be. That’s what’s so cool to me; I could have been summing up the experience I had with this person, I could have been summing up the experience I had with myself, I could’ve just been sonically summing it up. It just kind of comes out in every form for me.

Were there any other working titles that you had that were scrapped for It Was Divine or was using that word always in the plan?

Yeah, it was always the plan. I feel like, for me, album titles always come at the last possible second, where everyone is frustrated with me because they don’t know what to create for the album cover. But that’s just like how I work. I thrive off of that kind of pressure, so it was always just that. 

Your frequent collaborator and close friend, Khalid, is featured on “Off the Grid” [on It Was Divine], and you two have worked together throughout both of your careers since pretty early-on. How did you two initially connect and begin working together so closely? Why do you think you work so well together as artists, why do you think you mesh well together?

I think it’s just one of those rare connections. Along the way, I’ve met people that I just genuinely love and they love me back and it’s just a pure connection. But our first song was “Electric,” and we didn’t get to work on it together. We had a mutual A&R and he just sent it to [Khalid] and didn’t tell me, but it was the biggest blessing of my life because I was amazed at his talent and then we just became friends. We met each other on stage because we were both running late. I asked him to come sing “Electric,” and so we both were late and just met each other on stage and I thought that was the coolest story. But ever since then we’ve just been amazing friends and I love writing with him in the studio. I love being around him, period.

Are there any other artists that you’ve connected with on that level and that you consider to be a really good collaborator because you vibe so well together?

I haven’t really dipped into this world of collaborations within artists, so my first experience was with Khalid. I mean, I would definitely love to, but I think the most important collaborator is the person I executive produced this album with, Spencer Stewart, those things are so important. To find someone that believes in this as much as you do. But I haven’t had that kind of connection with anyone else yet, like Khalid.

Are there any artists or producers that you are interested in working with on your next project?

I feel like I’ve spent so much time looking for the perfect producers that just mesh well and so I’ve kind of found that within this album that I’m excited to get back in with. There’s a producer named D’Mile and he’s insanely talented. I just look at him as one of those living legends, like you just get to know them. There’s another one, Dante [Jones], he’s in a group called THEY. if you know that group? 

Yeah, I think I’ve heard of them.

I mean they’re both mega-talented, but I’ve only gotten to work with Dante. Everyone that I’ve gotten to work with, I want to work with them again. I’m so excited to work with them again.

Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images

When you started out, you were sort of notoriously difficult to categorize into a specific genre. A lot of people said your music kind of blurred the lines between Pop and R&B. Do you think that your music still reflects this lack of fitting into a concrete genre, or do you think that your sound has evolved more towards one genre or leans more towards one side now? 

I feel like when I started this I kind of like defamiliarized myself with words like ‘genre’ or ‘single.’ I think when I start to think in categories, that’s just where I lose it, it’s just not gonna come out how I want it to. But there’s a lot of R&B elements in this album. And in Urban Flora, electronic elements were prominent, so I guess you could definitely pick up like prominent categories. But no, I feel like I’m still kind of an outcast to genre and that’s just how I grew up, too. I always felt like an outcast, so it makes sense that that’s just how I consider my music, too.

So you don’t think about things like genre? That’s not a major concern for you when you’re making music, it’s more just about what feels right?

Oh yeah, that would be the death of my artistry, if I started thinking in terms of what it fits into. All the creativity flies out the window if I start thinking of it like that.

Kind of shifting gears a bit, obviously everything going on in the world right now has been affecting everyone and has been an overall negative experience, but a lot of artists have been talking about how, in terms of having the time and space to create, it’s been positive for their artistry. How has being in quarantine and isolating yourself from a lot of the world and having more free time to think and work creatively affected your creative process, if at all?

If anything, I thrive in this situation. I don’t want to be insensitive to anybody that can’t go to work and all these things, but for me, I’ve always been such a homebody. It’s a little toxic, but I can stay in my apartment or house or wherever I am for months without even thinking about having to leave. And I started Urban Flora even with Galimatias and he was overseas, so it’s always just been kind of normal for me to work by myself in a room.

Have you been working on anything new since going into quarantine?

Yeah. I feel like I’m usually so depleted after a project whereas this time I was so energized. I’ve been working a lot, there’s these websites that I never knew about that you can do real-time sessions with people and that’s how I’ve been working.

Who do you name as your greatest influences, whether it’s musically or personally. It could be anyone in the industry, it doesn’t just have to be a musician or a singer, it could be anyone that works in music. 

I mean that’s always so hard to pinpoint because I think every moment of our lives leading up to right now influenced me. So the things that I struggled with when I was 15 and 16, that influenced me, that influenced my writing style. All the people I grew up listening to, I grew up listening to classical music because my parents would play the piano, and then my brother was obsessed with hip hop, and then I found artists like Amy Winehouse and Sade and Lauryn Hill and Erykah Badu. So it’s like endless inspiration due to my bringing up, due to my environment. But Amy Winehouse is someone I still—I always talk about her. When I need to get back to my roots, to ground myself, that’s who I’ll listen to. I think that subconsciously inspires me.

Andrew Chin/Getty Images

And my last question, just off the top of your head, what is the best piece of advice you’ve received about how to succeed as an artist?

Oooh that’s so hard! Oh my gosh. I don’t know about the best, best one, but one of them was for sure to not criticize yourself and let others do it for you. Just forget the criticism. I think the worst thing you could possibly do is not put something out because you’re scared of reception.

Was it one person specifically who said that to you, or has that been something that’s come up a lot from different people?

I don’t remember where it came from but I’m grateful it’s stuck in my head because that’s definitely something that you can get in your head about for sure. But, especially with this album, I’ve just let go of criticizing anything. If it makes me happy, I really could care less about how it is received. But it’s just a super big blessing that it was received well. That’s just a happy bonus.

For sure. Well I think that’s all that I wanted to ask you today, but thank you so much for taking the time to do this. 

Absolutely. 

I’m so happy for all of your success, and congratulations again on the album. 

Thank you! Thank you so much.

Stay safe, take care of yourself, and I hope that we’ll be able to cross paths again in the future. 

Absolutely.

42 Dugg is ready for his spotlight.

For much of his life, things have been uncertain. The rapper has had difficulty staying out of trouble, getting locked up for six years early in his life and being forced to grow up in the hole. Beginning to take rap seriously when he was in solitary confinement, 42 Dugg realized that he could make a career out of this, which would prevent him from needing to hustle to come up with money.

Signing a combination deal with Yo Gotti’s Collective Music Group and Lil Baby’s 4PF, 42 Dugg is easily one of the highest touted rappers in the country right now. He is in high demand and, after hearing his music, you’ll know exactly why.

Dugg brings a certain vulnerability to his sound that hasn’t been heard since Lil Baby came up. There’s a pain in his voice after having had to endure so much in his early days. When he gets in the studio, he taps in with his struggle to deliver some of the rawest and most emotive tracks in modern hip-hop.

Following the recent release of Young And Turnt 2, we hopped on a video call with 42 Dugg to speak about his newfound success.

Read our interview below, edited for clarity and length.

Prince Williams/Wireimage/Getty Images

HotNewHipHop: What’s up, Dugg? How’s it going?

42 Dugg: What’s good, my G. What you got going on?

Not much, man. I wanted to start off by congratulating you on the success of Young And Turnt 2.

Appreciate you.

What does it mean to be young and turnt? 

To me, it just means having fun and living your life how it’s supposed to be lived. Turnt, going crazy in yo bag.

A lot of your music pertains to your experience in prison. You spent 6 years in jail. What for?

Carjacking. 

And you started rapping when you were in solitary confinement?

Yeah.

What was that like? Right now we’re all in quarantine and, just recently, Ellen DeGeneres got in trouble for saying that quarantine is like jail. What would you say to something like that?

Ain’t too far from it. We still get to do whatever we want, they ain’t on our ass. You get to move freely but you still got rules. You still gotta be somewhere at a certain time. In a sense, it is.

What are you doing to stay busy right now?

I’m doing everything. I ain’t tryna hear it.

Prince Williams/Wireimage/Getty Images

It’s a really distinctive sound coming out of Detroit right now. Who do you think is running the city?

Me.

Is there anybody in the city that you’re trying to work with on the next project?

I wanna work with Baby Money, my youngin’. We fuckin’ with him on my next tape. I fuck with Big Sean, I really fuck with everybody. If I don’t fuck with you then you know, but other than that, I fuck with you.

Speaking of Big Sean, he’s working on the new Detroit project right now. Is that something you’d be down to get on?

He hit me up, hell yeah I’d get on that bitch. I’m Detroit. He hit me on DM and said we could kick it. He posted my project.

You’re signed to 4PF and to CMG, Lil Baby and Yo Gotti. What are the differences in working with them and what came together from that partnership?

It came together two different ways but it’s real organic. I met Baby kicking it on some other shit. We formed a little close relationship. He asked to listen to my music and everything was history from there. With Gotti, somebody put Gotti on my music. He was like, “sh*t, what do we gotta do to make it happen?”

Somebody like Lil Baby, he’s only 25 himself. Do you consider him a mentor?

I consider him like a brother.

Do you have anything in the works with Baby as well?

You know he’s about to put the deluxe out, I might be on there. I don’t know. Gotta wait and see but I’m telling you, we going crazy.

What happened after your feature on “Grace?”

Wait till you hear this new shit. We vibe in the studio. I already know how he gon’ come, he already know how I’m gon’ come. Ain’t nobody slacking when they get on that. I know when the beat go on, me and him know you gotta come with that shit or you’ll get fucked over on this muhfucka.

It’s like a competition every time?

Yeah. Fasho. It’s like a friendly competition. Ain’t even gotta be nothing said. He know what it is, I know what it is. Let’s get it soon as the beat come on. Come with that shit. That’s the only way the song gon’ be right.

Paras Griffin/Getty Images

In almost every song, you shout out your homies Nell, Reese, and others. What do they mean to you?

Them my uncles, you know? Nell got life, Reese died. They brothers. Nell, he still listen to the music. He still get to listen in jail. I just wanna let him know, I ain’t forgot about you bro. If there’s anything I can do, I’ma do it.

What was it like spending such a long time in jail? What’s your mentality in a situation like that?

Being safe. Getting home. That’s all you thinking about in that bitch. Just making it out how you came in that muhfucka. Muhfuckas will fuck you over in that bitch if you moving the wrong way, that’s why I just mind my business and get home.

After you got signed, once you got all that money, what was your first big purchase? 

Man, I been turnt. That shit just joined what I had. I already had my deal money, I was just gambling and losing that shit. I bought a few watches. I had cash before that shit though. I just bought a few watches and kept it going really.

Who’s been the most surprising co-sign in this last year?

Tyler, the Creator. I was a little surprised when he hit me. But I’m hard, can’t nobody fuck with me. 

On a song like “Been Turnt,” you’re communicating the prison experience with such anger and vulnerability. You can hear the emotion in your voice. How do you get back to that zone when you’re in the studio?

I really just trying to be very energetic. I was just tryna let you know, “bitch, I been on that shit. My n***as in jail still on this shit.” That’s the message I was tryna get across. 

When you’re able to perform again after the quarantine, how crazy do you think that’s gonna be?

It’s gonna be crazy. I can’t wait for the reaction. Obviously, my Detroit show got rescheduled to May, so hopefully it’s that one. You know we ’bout to go crazy.

Do you have any dream collaborations?

I ain’t gonna say no dream collaborations because I ain’t really dreaming about no shit like that. I fuck with everybody, you know? Thug, Roddy [Ricch], but these muhfuckas I done kicked it with before. Thug is who I’m looking forward to, I ain’t gonna say I dreamed about that shit though.

What do you have coming next this year?

I’ma try to go deluxe. I just wanna keep this shit going. Gotta keep the wave up. I know summertime we gon’ come with something crazy. We gon’ pipe this bitch up.

Absolutely, man. Thanks for taking the time to talk, Dugg.

I appreciate you having me.