Exclusive Interview: Rich Hil @ Toronto

words by Peter Marrack @petermarrack, photography by Loni Schick @elle_aye

Back in 2008 Lil Wayne took the opportunity to address Reverend Al Sharpton in one of his records, “DontGetIt”, off Tha Carter III. He described the Reverend as “…the type that gets off on getting on other people,” going on, “that’s not good, no homo, and rather un-human I should say, I mean, given the fact that humanity, well, good humanity rather, to me, is helping one another, no matter your color or race.” In retrospect, Weezy may as well been referring to your stereotypical Rich Hil hater, who condemns the underground rapper for his ‘hippie image’, given that he’s the son of fashion mogul, Tommy Hilfiger. Haters tend to forget, everyone has the right to portray themselves independently, independent of their father, independent of their family, independent of their former lifestyle. The liberty to express ourselves freely is one of the primary cornerstones of American citizenship, and ought to be respected. Hell, Rich Hil does not vent on the mic about slanging dope on the corner, moving weight, or kicking it with the OGs in the hood. He merely embraces a culture engrossed in marijuana smoke, tattoos, and honest music, something which haters might even applaud as ‘hippie culture’. If a middle-class blogger from Toronto, whose parents are both doctors, is permitted to secure an apartment in the seedy neighborhood of Parkdale, shop at second-hand boutiques, and pen witty critiques of popular music, then what exactly is Rich Hil doing that is ‘unauthentic’?

In Toronto, Rich performed a tight set of rumored S.Y.L.D.D. jams, as well as records from his recent mixtape drop, 500 Grams, produced entirely by Lex Luger. Rich slinked effortlessly around the step-up stage at Wrongbar on Queen West in his black Carhartt trousers, buckwheat Timbs, a black toque, and a vintage concert tee with holes in the armpits. The venue itself was somewhat buzzing, though most of the apparent rowdiness stemmed from a V.I.P. section full of XO n*****, which included The Weeknd and Omari Shakir. The event was by no means sold out, or even at half-capacity, but that didn’t stop Rich from crooning starry-eyed into the ether above the center of the floor. Quite frankly, Rich didn’t seem to notice the poor turnout for his second headlining performance, which, rather awkwardly, brings us back full-circle to the cons of leading an independent existence. Over time, Rich has been so adamant in his efforts to express himself uniquely, tatting his body, smoking large quantities of marijuana, dressing in the vein of Kurt Cobain, that he may well have lost sight of his current predicament… That his following is not large, yet he continues to pour his heart and soul into every uttered word. That’s Rich Hil’s greatest contradiction, not his trust fund or his father or his lyrical breadth, but the tragedy that is his every day. He sacrifices his soul on the chopping block, almost relentlessly, while all he receives in return is an earful of grief.

Read the full interview after the pic… and do pardon the experimental stages of my groundbreaking ‘Converspontaneous’ mode of hip-hop journalism.

How’s your trip to Canada been so far?

Good, man. I’ve been fucking high the whole time. [laughs]

When did you get in?

Umm, we got in yesterday. We were supposed to get in the day before yesterday but they stopped us at the border.

For how long?

Well, they stopped us for a minute. They told us to turn around, we couldn’t come into Canada.

Lola [of iLuvLola] got the lawyers going then or what?

Yeah, yeah, they were trying to not let us in because of my charges and shit.

But then they worked it out.

Yeah, got the lawyers on it. Jumped in a barrel and jumped off Niagara Falls to sneak in. [laughs] We snuck into the country.

Somebody just went over the Falls recently.

For real?

Yeah, there was a girl and her friend wanted to take a pic of her right on the edge of the rapids-

And she lived?

No, of course not. [laughs] But she fell in taking a pic for Twitter or something.

Wanted to tweet the photo. [laughs]

And then she fell in and went over.

Yo, that’s crazy! Some people have made it though, they’ve gone over in barrels.

Have you seen the Falls?

Naw, I haven’t seen it. We stayed in a hotel in the town of Niagara Falls but didn’t see it.

Last time I was there I got a flat tire on my car.

Yeah? Fuck.

500 Grams, man. It’s fucking awesome.

You like it?

Yeah, man.

Thanks, bro.

I was listening to [Limosa Nostra] Act. IV a lot this summer.

Oh word.

In Serbia.

I’m trying to remember- Oh, Act. IV. It’s a lot of instrumentals on Act. IV.

On Act. IV? How about the one that goes, “Duh, duh, duh, duh”? [imitating the intro to “Hold Me Down”]

How’s it go?

Like that.

On Act. IV? You got it on your phone?

No.

Fuck, I don’t know.

I’m drawing a blank, whatever. “Can’t Stay Away” is actually on my iTunes Top 25 Most Played list, one behind Bob Dylan’s “Sarah”.

Are you serious?

You’re a Dylan fan, right?

Huge Bob Dylan fan.

Which records?

That record doesn’t stand close to no Bob Dylan shit, you’re buggin. [laughs]

Number 23, man, believe it or not.

Wow, man.

Which record do you like?

Bob Dylan, umm, there’s so many, man. Probably “Like a Rolling Stone” just to keep it G.

[then, addressing one of countless interview intruders]

You got dutches? Can we smoke in here?

[intruder opens a box to reveal a dozen or more packages of dutches]

Oh, fuck. [laughs]

Intruder: Yo, did you see the tickets? They’ve got your face on it.

Naw.

Intruder: It’s cool. You should ask to see one.

I need one. This dude [speaking of the intruder] tweeted me about bringing up dutches to Toronto for me so I could seem civilized, because I smoke Backwoods.

What are those ones from Atlanta? Splitarillos or something?

Cigarillos?

Naw, there’s a special one called Splitarillos.

Splitarillos? [laughs]

Intruder: Lola’s guys smoke some weird Canadian blunts.

Pom Pom’s?

You know Pom Pom’s?

I smoke Pom Pom’s.

Intruder: They’ve got one pack of Pom Pom’s and one that looks like Phillies. They call it Uncle Sam’s or something.

Ah, I’m going to pass on Uncle Sam’s. [laughs]

Are you saving any of the Lex Luger records you did for Support Your Local Drug Dealer? “Rollin” isn’t on there, the Trel joint.

Yeah, “Rollin”- I took that off 500 Grams last minute because Jonny Shipes called me and he’s going to put it on Good Talk 3, so I gave him that for that. Lex and I made thirty or forty songs, so we have a lot more records than what’s on the tape.

Are they going to be on Support Your Local Drug Dealer?

Yeah, one of the singles on Support Your Local Drug Dealer is Lex.

When’s that coming out?

Fuck, dude, soon.

Should we expect a longer wait now that you’ve dropped 500 Grams?

Naw, probably shorter because of that. That was just to hold the fans off for a minute. It’s December now, right? So y’all will definitely get Support Your Local Drug Dealer in January.

You tweeted a pic of what the tracklist might look like. I didn’t see “Light Up” or “Be Here” on there, and on the videos online they say Support Your Local Drug Dealer.

That’s because I record so much that when it comes down to picking out the songs for an album, it’s like I’ve already got 200 new songs, and “Light Up” and “Be Here” are already old, compared to the selection on the album. But I believe “Light Up” will still be on the album. That list that I put up on there was just my iTunes playlist, the 50 songs I got ready or whatever.

You called it an album. It it going to be an actual album, because you recently signed? What’s that changing in terms of your career?

More help from the label. I still like the independent feel of my shit, like I still like doing Smokers Club Tours and shit like this, but there’s something about Warners, there’s more help there. They’ll put out Support Your Local Drug Dealer and shit like that so it’ll be dope.

I caught you at the Smokers Club Tour here. I didn’t know you were coming. I was there early and I saw you on, but I missed like half of it, I was trying to get another interview done. I was like, “Shit, I’m missing it.” Is it ever weird when you open and people are still coming into the venue, and maybe the following isn’t the same?

Umm, no, it’s fun, because this is probably only my second show ever headlining. Opening for other artists gives me a chance to prove to the crowd and win the crowd over, you know? That’s interesting for me because I’m a different artist than a lot of people.

Fiend was after you, and I was like, “Fiend?” [laughs]

Well, Fiend is real good too because he does that smoking music, that lean back shit.

You’re grimy as fuck on 500 Grams, did that come out because of the beats?

That’s just me and how I rap.

Even more so on 500 Grams.

I switch up my voice, I’ll sing if it’s a sensitive kind of song, but on the Lex Luger beats he just gave me room to say whatever I wanted so I did.

Was the “Light Up” video inspired by Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas?

Yeah, I’m a huge fan of Hunter S. Thompson. I’ve got a Hunter S. Thompson quote tatted on me.

Which one?

It says, “You better take care of me Lord. If you don’t you’re gonna have me on your hands.”

Which book is that from?

I forget what it’s from, man, but he wrote it. It’s just that whole trippy kind of- It’s the idea of him as a philosopher or writer who has all this information to give out to the world, and he killed himself because he knew he had to die, he knew his talent-

His health was going downhill too.

Yeah, but also the way he viewed the world is inspiring to me. He shot himself because he knew that he didn’t want to give out any more of his information, he’s like, “Fuck it, fuck the world, I gave y’all everything.”

He has that quote, “If I’d written all the truth I knew for the past ten years, about 600 people – including me – would be rotting in prison cells from Rio to Seattle today.”

That’s wild.

When you were younger you were a Freeway, State Property fan, right, Philly music?

Not so much Freeway, but Beanie. I fuck with Freeway, but Beanie was like my favorite of all time, and State Property.

How was that, I mean, where you’re from? Did you listen to that in your headphones during lunch at school, or did you come home and blast that in your room. How did you listen to the music?

I would listen to them in the car on the way to school, on the way back from school. I would write to their beats, a lot of D-Block shit too I was listening to. We were wearing all Dickies with Timbs to school everyday.

I had a question about one of the lyrics from “Wouldn’t Let You Go”. You go something like, “They used to pay me back in high school to fuck her.”

Naw, I said, “Lacey played me back in high school, so fuck her.” Lacey’s a girl from high school who wouldn’t go out with me in high school. I was thinking about that, so I’m talking to the new girl and I’m telling her, “Lacey played me back in high school, so fuck her.”

I missed that one. I wondered about the “Never Coming Back” video.

You liked that?

Yeah, it reminded me of Halloween in Madison, Wisconsin.

Oh, word, that was Halloween in L.A. on Santa Monica. It was wild, mad people dressed up and shit.

Will that song be on Support Your Local Drug Dealer?

Yeah.

On there you’re in pure singing mode, but you have two modes, like you said, the rapping which is like a devilish voice, and the subject matter changes too. When did you begin to switch back and forth between the two?

Well, I started rapping originally, and then I stopped rapping completely and only did the singing shit. Then I got some beats, because if I have 12 beats in the studio, I’m going to do them all that night. Some beats don’t permit singing and shit like that, so I just started rapping on that shit too. Girls were telling me like, “Yo, you should rap more like that, I like that.” So I kept on doing that.

Does that reflect different parts of your personality too?

Yeah, yeah. I’ve got like an emotional, sensitive, pain from my past side [laughs], and then that rebel ‘I don’t give a fuck’ misfit kind of side. You can definitely hear that in my voice.

Why do you think your music alienates older people, even ex-flower children, when you call yourself a hippie?

I guess because nowadays, at my age, with my tattoos, and we go out in public, a lot of the stuck-up community or older community is looking at me like, “What happened?” You know? So that’s basically like I put the middle finger up to them.

What’s the drink the guy in the Observer profile was talking about, he was like an ‘off-menu lemonade mojito concoction’?

I don’t know. It was like some vodka shit maybe.

What about the drink from “The Deal” video?

Oh, that was Summertime Lemonade, that’s like strawberry lemonade with vodka in it. I stopped drinking vodka like that though, man, because after I got off probation I stopped drinking and got back into drugs, because alcohol makes you feel sick.

There’s a photo on The Weeknd’s blog. He’s wearing a Tommy hoodie. Are there any classic pieces you have tucked away?

Yeah, I have a lot of shit from the 90’s. The tag will say Large but the shit fits like a 3XL.

What pieces? I saw that Ferrari jacket.

Umm, flannels, I sent that Ferrari jacket to Curren$y, because he got a Ferrari, so I thought he might like it.