Interview: YG and The Art of Storytelling

Ask anyone to give a vivid description of Compton, California and you may be referred to Boyz n the Hood or Menace II Society. Musically, options may include N.W.A.’s Straight Outta Compton or Kendrick Lamar’s Good Kid, m.A.A.D. City. Once you add My Krazy Life to the list, the visualization becomes pretty accurate. My Krazy Life is the newest addition to the West Coast’s lineage of inner-city stories that give a raw, uncensored look into a day in the life of a Compton kid. This one is Keenon Daequan Ray Jackson, or YG. Featuring co-signs from some of the industry’s biggest names (Drake, Kendrick Lamar), My Krazy Life is a cohesive record with a strong story line that has even tentatively been compared to achievements as tall as Dr. Dre’s The Chronic and 50 Cent’s Get Rich or Die Tryin’.

RESPECT. recently spoke with YG about My Krazy Life, his current tour, and some advice the OGs have given him. Not only did we speak with him, but we also got a chance to visit the My Krazy Life Tour on its Atlanta stop. The tour, much like the album, is cinematic. YG retells his story, live, with props and accompanying skits. He takes you on a tour of L.A. It is a staggering twist of events–from being forewarned by his mother of the consequences of gang banging, to party anthems, to a robbery–which ultimately lead to a real life jail sentence. My Krazy Life and its corresponding show prove that YG is a real rapper from Compton with a real story to tell.

On your record, “I Just Wanna Party” with Schoolboy Q and Jay Rock, you’re putting your conflicting gang affiliations aside to just have fun. How did this song come about?

Ah, man, that record came about because when we come to a club or a party, there don’t need to be no issues, that’s why the song starts off, “I just wanna party, I don’t want to hurt nobody.” When I was making that [particular] record, I was really trying to make that an L.A. anthem. It’s very West Coast. That’s why I decided to put Schoolboy Q and Jay Rock on there.

“Bickin Back Being Bool” is becoming a fan favorite. It has people switching up their lingo. Why did you choose that title for the song?

“Bickin Back Being Bool” is slang that me and the homies use all the time, so, when I’m just going about my everyday life and when I was going into the album, that was one of the first things that came to my mind for song content. The album is based on reality and everyday life, so with that I had to have everyday life situations and content on my album. That was the main thing that stood out that I could talk about real good. That’s where that came from.

“Meet the Flockers” is definitely one of the hardest and most descriptive of a robbery. What do the homies think about that record?

They love that record! I’m talking about what we came up doing. Me and most of my homies…that’s what we were doing when we were like 16,17,18…breaking in houses. I caught a case for that and it was something important I had to let be known. I had to write a record about it and let people know that’s how it goes down.

Has your mom heard the track dedicated to her, “Sorry Momma” ?

She told me she couldn’t listen to it because she would start cryin’.

My Krazy Life has been compared to The Chronic, Get Rich or Die Tryin’ and Snoop is calling you and DJ Mustard the new Dre and Snoop. What’s some really good advice that some of the OGs have given you?

They told me to keep my foot on these niggas necks. Me and Snoop always be having conversations about what he’s gone through and giving me advice on all that because he went through all that when he was coming up; telling me what to avoid so that I won’t go through the same stuff, you know, typical conversations from the older homies.

Jeezy on the left, YG on the right.

You’ve worked with quite a lot of people already, but, specifically, name some artists coming out of the West that you haven’t worked with, but would like to?

I think I [pretty much] worked with everybody out the West Coast who I really, like, fuck with. I got Schoolboy Q on the album, I got Jay Rock on that, Kendrick, Ty Dolla $ign, DJ Mustard produced it….Terrace Martin.

You’re performing at Summer Jam this year. What kind of pressure does that add to you knowing that you’re going to be sharing the stage with Nas and 50 Cent?

There ain’t no pressure. That’s all there is to it. I gotta put on a show.

The My Krazy Life Tour is going on right now, what can people expect from you and Mustard?

Ah, man, the show is gone to be crazy. People are gone walk into the show and get the whole feel, you feel me? You’re gone feel like you’re in LA. I’m gone come out and turn up. So, I just want everybody to check it out. I know after the first show, muthafuckas gone see the show and probably gone start talkin’ about it and it’s gone get around, so that’s what’s gone happen.

Besides Summer Jam and touring, what’s next for YG?

Me, DJ Mustard and Ty Dolla $ign, we partnered up on the Pu$haz Ink Label [that we own]. We got some artists we workin’ on, we got deals on the table, ya dig? So, that’s gone be the next step after my album. We gone come back and get right. I have some other shit, too, I’m working on, but I don’t want to speak on it. So tell everybody, be at the show, ya feel me? And get the album if you ain’t got it.

Purchase My Krazy Life via iTunes.