How did you come up with the title of the album, “Dirt on My Hands” is there any significance or meaning behind the title?
“This album is about a lot of different things, Mental Health, Relationships, Addiction, Love, Music Etc. But the overall theme is guilt, referencing the expression, ‘don’t point fingers with dirty hands’. Throughout the album I question consciousness and whether or not human beings make rational decisions of if determinism is the truth and reality is pre-scripted. The artwork of the album is meant to represent the role brain development/chemistry has on our actions as human beings. It is me drawn as a sensory homunculus which is a creature that represents a map of brain areas dedicated to sensory processing for different anatomical divisions of the body.”
“A Big Part of balancing my mental health revolves around managing my guilt and knowing the difference between explaining and blaming, throughout the album I mention this a lot with lyrics like ‘Something I need to change about myself is how often I complain, it is often I’m explaining and it just comes out the wrong way’ and ‘I’m Just trying to learn about myself but I can’t tell if I’m talking down or encouraging myself’ as well as the whole real concept behind the title track “dirt on my hands”.
“Do you think there is a chance reality has been pre-scripted? What is your take on the simulation theory?”
“Simulation theory is possible but I do not know much about it I think there is definitely a chance reality itself is prescribed yes I think it’s quite possible but we also may have free will we can never know for sure. It’s really hard to evenly distribute blame”
“Do you think humans should be easier on themselves with guilt or do you think there is a purpose for guilt? “
“There is a purpose for guilt for sure, it steers your moral compass for you, you know somethings wrong if it makes you feel guilty so yes we need it but I think too often we (human beings) feel guilty for things far beyond our control, I know I do.”
“Where do you feel like you were at before making the album to where you are now mentally? Do you feel any different or learn anything after making the album? “
“I learned a lot man I learned about myself but I do every time I make an album, I learned a lot about the people around me when I made this album, like my engineer Teus and my girl Tara and shit. About other people and Myself like I learned a lot about how everyone’s contribution is essential for the product I needed ya know? Like every producer I worked with especially my engineer man he was working hard man just learned a lot about making music. Music a lot more about the progress.”
“How long did this album take to make approximately (start to finish)?”
“Man I’d say including all the writing. I mean dog some of that writing is almost 2-3 years old but most of it is within the last 6-8 months, it took about id say 10 months with all the mixing, mastering, design etc.”
“That’s Wassup… It looks like you reunited with Morgan Murray in a few tracks that’s tight- was your bday recent? (not excited video) Turn 25? Happy Bday
“Na G b days in a few months G was just the concept lol confused lots of people tho. And yeah man we’re connected for a bit tight before he went in while he was in when he got out of treatment but we haven’t spoken in months now, we have a very complex relationship I wish em all the best. He will always be like a brother to me but sometimes people need space.”
“Excellent are you still sober? How as the journey of recovery been with addiction. Would you say you have new addictions to music etc.”
“ I smoke weed on the daily other than that I am sober. I don’t drink I don’t do anything else and don’t like to be around it if I can help it. I would say new behaviors for sure defiantly new addictions, certain behaviors fade other ones pop up it’s all about compulsion for me and managing my mind. But defs like take on thing outta the mix find yourself going to another for sure 100%. Music I don’t consider an addiction. I haven’t written a song in a few days or recorded any music for like two weeks I do music related things everyday like I go over my songs and do promotional shit but I don’t know I can control it haha with addictions there is no control, music is just my life man even when I did drugs everyday I did music everyday too in some shape or form even it was just rapping to the people I was around”
“What do you think is the best track on the album which track was the toughest to record?”
“My Favorite track just sonically is, ‘Eighth’, the hardest track to record like literally was, ‘No Feelings’ cuz there were insane amount of melodies, toughest song emotionally recording was separate but recorded it like 8 months ago now.
“Hell yeah who has been inspiring you lately any people you follow who have helped mold your work ethic? What has been motivating you lately?”
“All the hip hop I listen to motivates me especially that new young boy nba tape and future’s new tape like gave me some ideas sonically but even if I take an idea on how to record something like I flip it into my own way ya know? My work progress is molded by indignation?
“Awesome do you often feel misunderstood or do you think most people lack awareness?”
“When it comes to addiction yes in general people lack awareness but that’s because of our laws. Our laws make it seem like simply a ‘poor choice’ to engage in substance use and therefore a lot of our citizens uphold that same belief, they have to for the society to function. I do not hold this belief, they have to for the society to function. I do not hold this belief, I think it is impossible to manage another’s state of consciousness and ridiculous for any government to attempt to do so, government intervention in matters concerning the mental illness that is drug addiction should only involve harm reduction, people should not be punished for using drugs. So yeah people would rather think it is someone’s choice or someone’s decision to be addicted, as if any rational being would ever consciously decide to give up his or her autonomy I mean it’s insane, but it’s our world.”
“That’s awesome do you plan on dropping more music videos for the album or are you already on to new projects?”
“ Two more off this album then onto the next”
“That’s wassup we noticed Luke Connor does most of your visuals on videos does he typically take over the creative process or do you usually bounce ideas off of each other?”
“Yeah man that’s the homie! And yeah I mean he’s the talent, But we definitely bounce ideas and concepts off each other. We talk on the phone a lot before shooting kinda planning it out we’ve even done that in person before on the day of the shoot like sat down and mapped it out but the guys an animal man lighting angles movement editing etc super talented dude.”
“Awesome did you also throw in on the The Design of the cover art of the album, who did that and how did that come about? “
“Yeah man the design was done by my G Luc Bury hes @burymedead on instagram. Yeah Man I came to him with the concept we went back and forth quite a few times easy dude to work with eventually we got it to a stage I considered perfect, I am really happy with the artwork for this project”