“Shit, I been gangbanging for years, since I was twelve years old. I was already of ‘Big Homie’ status, so I just left. It wasn’t no big decision or nothing like that. I needed to support my daughter and I couldn’t do it in the hood and be safe – selling drugs and going back to jail, messing up my daughter’s life. So I just bounced. I [thought] I’d rather be poor and see my kid, than be in the street, catching bullets and dodging jail time and barely seeing my kid. So I went to the studio and worked and I was poor and broke for two years, just to get to this point. Now I try to stay away from the hood. I lived my whole life there and I finally made it out… this is what we all dreamed of as a kid, to be out the hood. I bring my homies from the hood to my environment, to give them something new, to let them know that it is possible. You just don’t have to stay there the whole time. My homies respect that it’s time to move on. There’s still gangbanging in LA, but the gangs are real small, compared to what they used to be. It used to be hundreds and thousands of gang members in just one set, now all the gangs are much smaller because everyone’s on the internet. The internet’s saved a lot of lives cos you can easily get into rap or find out about whatever you want to do on the internet. Now the kids are always looking for the new thing. So people don’t really have time for gangbanging anymore. Of course, it will always be there, forever, but the progression of it is decreasing.
I took a chance with Oxymoron, but I know people will love it. I wasn’t scared to say what I wanted to say. I talk about me, my struggles, my family, how I grew up and things that are on my mind – past altercations, past wrongdoings… I got all that in there. Past, present and future. It’s all in the album.
I used to play football and I always wanted to go pro, but I never had that vision of what could happen ten years from now. When I got into music, I had the vision of 20 years from now – what’s gonna happen and how it’s gonna go. Hopefully. So I know this is what I need to be doing, this is where my passion is, where my heart is at. Music was something I was talented at. I was a big fan of music before I started writing it. I was the dude in high school who always had on earphones. I wouldn’t even go to school if I couldn’t get batteries for my CD player. I’d just ditch school like ‘I ain’t going’ cos I didn’t want to be on the bus not listening to music.
I know who I am. I’m not scared to make a song like Collard Greens or Hands On The Wheel, or There He Go and I come from one of the roughest streets, the craziest blocks. It was known for gangbanging, I sold drugs, I did all that. But I’m me, I make good music and I’m not scared to make good music and make people have fun. That’s what people want to hear and that’s what I like to hear too. I’m not scared to put on an expensive pair of jeans. Not cos other people are doing it, but because I like it. Some people may look at it like, ‘Oh Q, switching up’ but that’s what I like. I can’t change my past, that’s what you can’t change. My past is still in me but I’m doing things different. I took an extra leap, I took a chance with my album. You never know, my shit ain’t dropped yet, but I know people will love it. I’m not even talking about the numbers game, I’m talking about what people are gonna love cos I took my time with it and I wasn’t scared to say what I wanted to say.
I talk more about me, about my struggles, my family, how I grew up and things that be on my mind – past altercations, past wrongdoings… I got all that in there. Past, present and future. All that’s in the album. I’ll give you knowledge on Crip history, I give you knowledge on me. It’s the real LA. It’s the LA where people get shot, and the reactions of the shooter, how he feels afterwards. It’s not just ‘We killed the n***a,’ it’s deeper than just Boyz n the Hood or Menace II Society. They were movies; what I’m giving is for real. This album is gonna shake people up for sure. I called it Oxymoron, cos yeah I used to sell Oxycontin, that bit is a no brainer, but more because of life. Life is an oxymoron; we dead already. We live to die. Life, no matter how you see it, how you want to change it, what you do in it, you’re going to die and everything is going to keep going on and on. You gotta just do what you gotta do for yourself. I believe you come back when you die. So I die and I’ll come back as something else. It’s all energy man. Life is just energy man.”
Credits
Text Hattie Collins
Photography Zach Wolfe
Producer Vanessa Bermudez