GAWDBODY | Grea8gawd
INTERVIEW KB Tindal PHOTOGRAPH @creativedrae
Rising artist Grea8gawd has barred it down with some of the best wordsmiths of this era. His travels from Iowa to Brooklyn, to Rochester to Syracuse has cemented his legacy in the streets and molded him into the consummate hustler and lyricist that he is today. His real life is the soundtrack for the music that he creates. He's a man of honor that stands on principles and discipline and he's well on his way to becoming a household name. His recent signing to Roc Marciano’s Pimpire label is destined to be a future sculpted in greatness. I got the chance to talk to this King in-depth about music, life and the future. Thank you for hopping on board. Enjoy the ride.
Validated: At a young age you went out to Waterloo in Des Moines, Iowa, and then ended up in Brownsville, Rochester and Syracuse, New York, three very different but very similar parts of New York. Tell me how each of those places kind of inspired you? What's something you took away from those locations that you still carry with you today whether it's for survival tactics, or relating to the music or whatever?
Grea8gawd: So let's start with Waterloo. Right? So my grandmother lived at 229 Ricker Street right in Waterloo. From that household, I took away love man, honor and respect. You know, like my mother's mother was somebody whose house I spent a lot of time in. You know what I'm saying? Rest in peace Almita McClellan. Yeah. But it's like, I took a lot from her crib bro. I learned a lot walking to Juniors from her house, not the cheesecake, but Ross Jr's. It was a little corner store by her crib. And then around another corner, my Aunt Astene lived on east fourth street. So east fourth street was the first time I got shot at. It was on that block with my cousin Pooni who was a GD. And I was running with some VL’s and they were shooting at him. And I happen to be in the car. But from that household, from Waterloo period, I got a lot of love and respect. I learned love and respect because my uncle's were real men. They were the real man's-man's you understand?
Validated: Got you.
Grea8gawd: So I had real uncle's. If I disrespected my mother, I already know that there is hell when I go over there. I'm getting dropped over there and I might get a mouth shot, an eye jammy but at the very least though god, I know I'm gonna get a stern talking to. That built character. I knew who to play with. I learned the rules and parameters at my grandmother's house.
Because at my mother’s house I grew up with a step pop. So, I played with him. I played with them a lot. You know, I will push the limits with them. But I know at my grandmother's crib ain't no pushing the limits. One uncle lives upstairs, one lives downstairs where the pool table is. Boy you had to be sturdy. I had to be all the way right.
After that, I will say in Brooklyn, what I took away from BK was first of all knowledge of self. The lessons. Learning to master who I am, or even striving for perfection. Ain't none of us perfect. But I learned there to strive for perfection. But I learned that in Des Moines too. I learned the treachery of, you know, like not just everybody shaking your hand. You know what I mean? Don't put your gun down because your enemy smiles. I learned a lot of that in BK. I learned Juxing. All of the foolery that I could get into was just taken to a whole other level. You know what I’m saying?
In Syracuse and just upstate period, Rochester, Syracuse is where I really, really started to put down my hustle. Even in Iowa I would dibble and dabble. But when I moved to New York, I was working in the barber shop. And you know, they had a pool table back there. Mind you I just said, I grew up with a pool table the whole time. I had one of them already downstairs. So my grandfather you got to call two balls ahead with him. He was sharp on that table. So, once I was working at the barber shop now I wasn't even really cutting because I'm cutting everybody's ass on a pool table. Around that pool table I’m hearing conversations that I ain’t supposed to be hearing. And now I'm learning to hustle. Now I'm learning this and that. After that now I want my own gate. I don't want to work for nobody. I don't want to work for the old men or more. Let me get my own 62. Let me rent my own gate. Reinforce the doors. Give me a crockpot in case them people come to the door. I’m frying this coke. Yeah, you know, so that's where that started at. I didn't have any children before I came to upstate New York. So I had my first baby girl in Rochester. And then I had my other children in Syracuse. So in Syracuse, I learned a whole lot. I learned a whole lot, because I've met the people that have molded and shaped my rap career. I met the people who molded and shaped my mind into adulthood like my mentor Kasim. He's somebody that I wish could be here for him to see where this is going because he really believed in me like Mike Childs and Sal and all of them. They really believed they really truly believed in me and still do but Kasim ain’t here. But he was one of the people that saw what I was doing in the streets and he was the only person that would have conversations with me in regards to “come on son, you better than that. I understand that you think that you're good at that but don't be talking about that’s all you know how to do. That's what you choose to do. Because you could do anything. You probably could have been the president if you put your mind to it.” He always used to tell me “man, you could be in politics and you could be the mayor.” You could do this and that. Yeah, so upstate, I learned that man. I learnt the hustle. I met some beautiful people up here. I'm still in Syracuse as we speak. What I really took from Syracuse is that geographical location don’t have nothing to do with your dreams. Man, I made everything happen in my career and for my brothers careers like the rest in peace stuff man, Sammy G, Louis Vuitton we did all of that from a three bedroom apartment on 726 North Solina. We did that 624 North Solina, 726 was the studio. 624 is where we honed our skills at and we formed this brotherhood. We never really had any discrepancies, we were close brothers. I learned brotherhood and you could do whatever you want.
People will say, “man you still up here? You still over there? You better get out of there.” It's like “nah, I don't need to be in LA to make it happen, to shoot a movie.” We shot a movie right here in Syracuse and had the town going crazy. You understand? So I learned geographical location ain't going to determine where I get to in life in Syracuse.
Validated: Yes. No doubt. A lot of Jewels from a lot of places, man. It seems like you had real ones around you that taught you shit that you were supposed to learn on how to get you to the next level as opposed to how to keep you in one spot. You know what I mean?
Grea8gawd: Yeah. A lot of the older gods saw what I had in me and they knew it was special. And they cultivated it more than they tried to destroy it.
Validated: That’s what’s up. Absolutely. Now, we all know that Roc Marciano is like the father to that underground style that a lot of you guys incorporate into your bars and into your music. He's like the godfather of that.
Grea8gawd: Absolutely.
Validated: Tell me about how the opportunity to actually sign with the Pimpire label with Roc Marciano came about?
Grea8gawd: So that happened. I was shooting a video in Rochester with Eto from crack era. I would just mention it to him because I knew that he had a relationship with Roc. And I mentioned to him that I wanted some Roc Marci beats. That's how it all started. So being the good fella he is, he called him on the phone and was like, “Hold on, one of the gods wants to holla at you.” So I got on the phone with Roc momentarily. We talked for about 10 minutes. He was like, “Yeah, nah, lord, like send me something. Let me see where you at with it. And then we'll build from there.” So then I sent him the records, then I sent him a couple more he was like “Nah. Oh, like, how long have you been rapping gawd?” Like, “Oh, what's going on? I want to know your gram. You got a fucking mask on. Who are you my nigga?” So I'm like, “Nah. So I just started. I've been doing this about a year and a half. You feel me”. He like “nah.” He like, “Send me something else.” So I sent him multiple records. And then you know, he was just like, “Nah.”
I remember the first text he sent me back after he heard the batch he’s like “No you different. You special. You got something different about you”. And then you know, we continued to talk. And we continued to build and we were really building on everything except rap. You know, my son had just went jail at that time. My baby boy got incarcerated around that time. So Roc would call me a lot and just talk to me. We were talking about my young man and his situation and things of that nature. And then he started inviting me to shows, introducing me to people. This is all genuine off the cuff. There’s cats that pay for this type of tutelage. But he did it because he genuinely thought that I was nice. Then one day he said, “Yo gawd like you great. I'm great. You know what I'm saying? We don't necessarily need each other but we will be beautiful together as a unit.” And I said, “you know what? I agree gawd like let's add on” And that's what we did from that day forth. He has been genuine. I give him his props every time I’m on an interview because he did something that he didn't have to do. And like you said he is the Jay-Z of the underground. There is no way around that. He's the guy you got to go to to get hot. So for him to keep it real with me and be alley-ooping me and talking about me to certain people and having my names in rooms that may have taken me four years for my name to reach, believe me, I was trying. I was racking my brain. How do I get Elliot? How do I get these people on my radar? How do I get Rosenberg's attention and this and that? So all that type of stuff comes natural when you messing with the god. I started noticing those follows. When he talks people listen. When it's all said and done with, somebody gotta give him some millions for some A&R work because his track record is proven. What everybody brings to table is truly amazing. I talk about my brother every time. I will rather talk about him than not talk about him. People like “dang, why he always biggin his brother up?” Because people are like, “oh he talk about him in every interview.” You fucking right I do! He helped me feed my family. He helped me feed my kids, man. Of course. I'm talking about him.
Validated: So we know you dropped a Snow Day EP a while back.
Grea8gawd: Right.
Validated: How did that EP change your life? Like you said you was looking for the way in the door.
Grea8gawd: Yeah.
Validated: You had these ideas. You had this music. You're looking to make a change in life to come from the streets and convert to something new. How did that EP change your life as far as being an artist is concerned? And how did you feel about the love that the project got?
Grea8gawd: So in regards to being an artist, it changed my life because the only thing I ever wanted to do god was be heard. I never rapped for the money. It was never really financial driven. You understand?
Validated: Right.
Grea8gawd: I never did it because I wanted to hang around other rappers. I only wanted people to hear what I had to say. And that EP made it to where people said, “oh nah, the boy a little different, like hold on now. Hold on. What's going on?” So as an artist, it changed my life in that way. And it just made it to where I could ride around with a trunk full of bricks legally, because I took my EP and I put it in the form of a kilo.
Validated: I saw that.
Grea8gawd: Yeah I made these bricks by hand, Styrofoam and taped up, cut a window in them and when you pop the window open you get the EP. It just got to show people who I was and where I was artistically as a curator and then most importantly who I am on an emcee level. The love was overwhelming. It's still overwhelming. I still get people like every day somebody new hits me on the gram and say like “yo boy I heard you damn. What? Like sorry I’m late”. And I'm like I appreciate that god. So in terms of that that I mean come on man when you got Premier and Lord Jamar all the people that I looked up to talking about, “nah him. Watch him.” You know the Roc Marci’s, there’s so many more bro like the love was overwhelming and I don't take none of it for granted. The Tragedy, Khadafi’s these are people that that I looked up to bro. Tek and Steele. People don't know that Tek was one of the first ones from Smif N Wessun to be like, yo, son crazy, and really show me love. And we did records together. I got a record so mean with Tek man that I still ain't put it out. We gone put that thing out when he gets cold because this is Anti Up 2025. So I just say that to say like, I looked up to them, man. You think that I got GODBROVAS on my own? GODBROVAS is Cocoa Brovaz. Yeah. I really looked up to them. I really watched them and studied them. So to get that love from them is different man. To have Havoc calling me talking about these records and sending me beats like come on son. You know what I mean? When that type of thing is happening, man it's incredible man and it feels beautiful. I would like to always say, I just feel like Islam is the reason that I mastered the patience that I have. The patience that I show I know and understand I got from Islam. That's why the lessons are so important because without knowledge of self, you don't get the patience that I got. It's hard to watch other people that you alley-oop other people and you're like “Damn son, you forgot that i…” Islam and being a five percenter in these lessons taught me “You know what? I'm not even mad at y'all. Hey, y'all can still get a verse.” This ain't a revenge thing for me. I don't have any revenge in my heart. I don't want to make it to shit on nobody. That comes from having knowledge of self because I know what Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala put in the air and put for me can’t nobody take it.
Can’t nobody take what he put in place for me. That's why I've never had a problem with helping everybody else because what's mine is mine and what's yours is yours. There were times of course, when I was younger, where I may have been like, “Man you have such and such. I did this and that. Damn bro. For the most part now like, nah, I got rid of the ego. When you master self it manages all, everything works out better.
Validated: Now I heard you say that your favorite track on the EP is “Thanks For Nothing,” because you approached it from the concept of the addictive person's perspective. But what do you think, whether it's on this project or, a track that you got somewhere laying in the cut, what do you think the hardest song was for you to ever make? Because maybe it was therapeutic for you. Or maybe you spit some bars about something that was really tough to talk about, or come to terms with? Is there a song like that in your catalog so far?
Grea8gawd: Two of them. One of them is called “Sins Of A Father”. That record is for my son. The other one is called “Ky’Aire’s Dream” that’s my son’s son, Ky’Aire that's my grand boy. And he’s three and a half months old right now. That record that I talked about him it's gonna be on my new EP. But that record right there was just me telling the babies to hold on to your dreams, man. I just kind of gave them the guide of how to go through life. And whatever you do, children hold on to your dreams. And don't ever think it's too late because I'm the prime example of I'm the poster boy for “It's never too late”. It ain't never too late to get a dream, and write it down and accomplish it and go after. It ain't too late. But really like “Sins Of A Father” is one of them records that for me was like, you know, I had to talk to my son and I had to let them know. And I had to let myself know, like, man, you had him around the block. And you had him around these people that was dangerous people, and they revered you and they glorified who you was in the streets, and he's listening. And he shouldn't have been in those conversations. He shouldn’t even been around those people. I should have kept him away from those people.” The things that we watch our father do, son, like, I watched my father do things that I wanted to do, just because he did it. I had to just look back in retrospect and say, damn man, like, I should have had him in the Masjid making Salat, not on the block watching niggas glorifying his pops, I should have just really guarded my baby boy a little bit more. I should have guarded his mental, and things he was looking at and seeing. I should have sheltered him, you know, put shade over his eye a little bit more. Even though I felt like I did. But it's just particular times that I know that I dropped the ball and he saw and heard things that he shouldn't have. He couldn't fathom what was being said or what he was seeing. It wasn't fair for me to expose him to that at that age.
That record is on my new EP called “Sins Of A Father”, featuring Thavid Ruffin. Now that one is a special one.
Validated: What's your earliest memory of Hip Hop?
Grea8gawd: Earliest memory of Hip Hop? I mean, I will have to go back to like, you know, Wildstyle. Around that time, with my older brother and him running around with his box.
Validated: So you were exposed to that generation. We call that generation 1.5 basically.
Grea8gawd: That's 1.5? Yeah.
Validated: 1.5. If you are talking Wild Style, that's generation 1.5.
Grea8gawd: Yeah. Electric Boogaloo. Breakin. Turbo.
Validated: You talking early ‘80s.
Grea8gawd: Right. British walkers.
Validated: Yep British Walkers, Playboys, Sheepskins and all that.
Grea8gawd: Yeah. Fly colored Shearlings and shit like that.
Validated: Yeah.
Grea8gawd: Things of that nature.
Validated: All that. That's my era. I ain’t even gonna front.
Grea8gawd: Yeah.
Validated: New York Queens. That's where I'm from. That's definitely my era.
Grea8gawd: Oh you from Queens. Okay.
Validated: Yeah. What has been your most memorable moment in the industry so far as an artist?
Grea8gawd: Most memorable moment. Oh man, my most memorable moment. I will probably have to say when I heard Kay Slay play my joint with that “warning, warning, warning.” When I heard them gates slam, “warning”. And I had a record called “Projects.” It was a story record about visiting somebody in the Ps. Remember when Ice Cube did, “once upon a time in the projects”?
Validated: Yes.
Grea8gawd: I kind of did a flip on that. And I was driving. I can't remember. I was coming down Atlantic and I heard that “warning”. He brought that thing back like six-seven times. I said, “Oh, boy. Nah he wilding.” He kept bringing it back. My little brother was in the car and he thought I had a disk in at the time. That probably was one of my most memorable moments right there.
Validated: That's a good one to have, rest in peace to Kay Slay man. No doubt.
Grea8gawd: Yeah. You know what one of my other memorable moments was? Meeting Cormega. Me and Trag was in Queensbridge. He knew I liked Mega. So next thing he kind of snuck off and hit Mega and next thing you know me and Trag in front of 4112 just building, and Mega walked up. At that point, I was so engulfed in the streets that I wasn't even really rapping. I was wrapped up in the bullshit. I didn't even rap for him or nothing. We just kicked it for a little bit. And you know, we talked and we just did some building and that was that. Trag put that together man. I love Tragedy. Yeah. Peace to the god.
Validated: Who else did you like to look up to as far as when you look back on it now. Who kind of inspired you to rap and then what age did you really start taking this thing seriously?
Grea8gawd: So when I really started taking this seriously was two years ago, god. I'm gonna be honest with you. When I said, “I'm gonna put all my energy into this and see what happened”. It was like two years ago. Nas made me want to rap. Nas, Kool G, Half a Mil.
Validated: Half a Mil, wow.
Grea8gawd: Oh man. I would just ride through Harlem and I heard someone playing Half next to me three/four days ago. And I'm like, “man, he don't even know”. Half though, Ruck and Rock, all the cats really from the Ville, all of the Boot Camp. All of them like Kane, Rakim, G Rap, all the guys that were spitting that serious stuff. I was always on the fence of okay the knowledge of self records or “I took the shit and hit the bastard hard. Ripped his pants clean off his ass and got the visa and the mastercard.” So it was either one. I will go back and forth like, do I like Just Ice or do I want to listen to Lakim, Shabazz and them?
You got knowledge of self and you know that you’re like, “Man, god damn bro”. Why do I like that so much? So for me it's always been that. That's why I stopped rapping for a long time too because I said to myself like “Damn, how do I know and understand what I know but I'm still teaching the foolery.” That always bothered me god. You can't be held accountable for that what you don't know. But if you know and understand that and you are still doing that, that's 1000 times worse. They say that's punishable by death. If you not teaching babies. So it's hard to make those records, but I make them so well, because I really been through all of these situations.
Validated: Right. You talking about your real life.
Grea8gawd: Yeah. It's just finding a way to mix a message into medicine. Put the medicine in food the right way and give it to him and still be true to what I'm saying.
Validated: No doubt. Definitely. So I've heard you talk about this. And I'm curious if there's a date on it. When is the unveiling of losing the mask? And when is this documentary gonna happen? Because I heard you talk about this documentary. I heard you talk about this scene that you got planned, who's on stage with you, and how you're going to map that out. When can we expect to see that? Is there a date in mind?
Grea8gawd: I will say I'm gonna take the mask off by at least 2025. Give me 2 years with it on. Okay. Now, it all makes sense. And at that point, I want them to be like nah, him? I wanna know and understand they can’t blackball me, they can't do nothing. They can't x me out of the game, because Imma be the man to make certain footprints that’s gonna stand the test of time.
Validated: people already know you from that other life, so to make the correlation between the two and then present it to the people in the right way makes a lot of sense, man.
Grea8gawd: Indeed. When I do that, it's gonna be a special event. Just like for me, son, like the lyrics and what I'm saying just so much more important. Because guess what? Most wouldn’t even get to judge. You know how many rappers I looked at and I say, “Oh, I don't believe son”. Just pre judging.
Validated: That happens all the time.
Grea8gawd: Yeah. You might be locked up somewhere, or you might see somebody. “Oh I know I'm taking that straight up and down”. You don't even care, but just because of how he looked you were like, “Nah, nah. I’m gonna cross the jail line.
Validated: I’mma test that one.
Grea8gawd: Testing that. Yeah, he's testable.
Validated: Yes.
Grea8gawd: Now the only thing that you could do now with Grea8gawd is just say, “He can either rap his ass off,” or “He wack.” And I want that to be the most important part, what I'm really bringing to the table. I don't want the car to be the focal point. I don't want the Jewelry to be it. My watch. I don't want who I’m dating. I don't want none of that to be the focal point because they get lost in that god. The people get lost in that. I'm sure we both dealt with women that know more about what's going on on television than what they know about their own relationship.
Validated: That's a fact right there, bro.
Grea8gawd: If you want to talk to me about TI and Tiny and what's going on on TV, I'm not the man for you. But a lot of these females, they put so much of a life in a persona and it's all on TV. They buy into that more than the artist.
Validated: The toxicity from a lot of that shit spills over into their real life.
Grea8gawd: To their real life and this shit wasn’t even supposed to be real. This was microwave shit. Now it has become the main course. It's like, “Wow how this happened?” So I don't want them to be confused god. I just want them to pay attention to the records. That's it. Judge the message not the source.
Validated: I feel you. No doubt. Tell me about the joint project that you got cooking up with Roc Marci, and then give me a little bit of info about your artists that you bring into the table Sammy Gesus with a G.
Grea8gawd: Sammy Gesus. Okay. Roc Marci, we got to record an EP coming out called “GODBROVAS.” Once again. All of my verses are turned in. We gon put the pressure right on the gawd. We talked about doing it. He sent me the beats. I went crazy. He got the project. He said, “Listen, gawd”. And I quote, “I'm not getting on just one or two of these records for this EP. We're going through this Rae and Ghost.” Word is bond. He said, “We gon do this like Rae and Ghost.” I said, “Whoa, say no more. Take all the time gawd. I’mma keep the streets hot until then.” I ain’t gon lie the beats that he sent yo bro. Roc is just tapped into a different chamber. And the chamber he tapped into when he sent those beats, each one of them beats, I'm loading it as soon as he sent it. So the beats are remarkable. The visuals are going to be a movie. I play with the red cameras. That's what I do. So, like the visuals is going to be immaculate. And man I can't wait for that one. That one is gonna be special. It's gonna be called “GODBROVAS”. And that's Grea8gawd, Roc Marci, Roc Marci Grea8gawd going back and forth on damn near every nine records is gonna be on there.
Validated: That's dope.
Grea8gawd: And I'm on Roc Marci new joints. I'm on two of his joints on the project that’s coming out. So you know what, like, he's setting me up properly, man. Like, and that's another the setup, everything is dope. And then he just called me last week and said, with a big announcement. I’ll let him give the announcement but somebody very, very big. He's the biggest in the underground, right? Who's the biggest in the overground?
Validated: That's a broad question.
Grea8gawd: Okay, well that's who grabbed Roc. I'm just gonna leave it like that.
Validated: Okay. Alright.
Grea8gawd: So we are getting ready to do something that they ain't seen. You understand?
Validated: Alright.
Grea8gawd: But who is the greatest though? Let me ask you one question, god.
Validated: Who is the greatest emcee?
Grea8gawd: Yeah.
Validated: Oh man bro, that's a tough question. For me, Hov is my guy.
Grea8gawd: Is Hov better than Nas?
Validated: Let me get on my Queens shit for a minute. So, Nas is probably the follow up of all of that, like, as far as bars, lyricism, cadence, metaphors, entendres, all thatshit Nas is unbelievable at. Those two ways to scale for the best of our generation.
Grea8gawd: So there's no way that you could pick one?
Validated: I got Hov man. Hov is my guy man.
Grea8gawd: Yeah?
Validated: I fuck with Hov heavy.
Grea8gawd: Okay.
Validated: Yeah, I fuck with Hov heavy. But I can see either or. I can see you and Marci doing it because Marci is like the Hov of the underground. And Hov is that dude and so is Nas. So I can see either or being a part of what you're talking about. Either one would shock the world. Let's put it like that.
Grea8gawd: It's one of the two.
Validated: Okay. I could work with that.
Grea8gawd: It's one of the two.
Validated: I could work with that. I could work with either one of them. I know either one of them will make you bring that pen game.
Grea8gawd: Yes.
Validated: Absolutely.
Grea8gawd: My favorite is Nas though, I'm not gonna lie. Nas is my absolute favorite. I feel like he's better than everyone.
Validated: I ain’t mad at that. That's a viable argument in any room that you step into.
Grea8gawd: Right?
Validated: Absolutely. Tell me about Sammy Gesus, man.
Grea8gawd: Sammy Gesus. First of all, let me tell you how loyal he is. Sammy G is the epitome of loyalty. He's been around me for a long time. He's been very patient. He gave me his EP probably two weeks ago. It's amazing. I'm actually getting ready to drop that. I'm a play it for Roc and I'm gonna see if we're gonna drop it on Pimpire just to give my boy my extra look. Sammy Gesus is… there is only one other person that I ever heard rap like him and it's his older brother that recently passed away our brother Thump Mandoza. Besides that, Sammy G is different. Like I'm talking about wit, he encompasses everything an emcee is supposed to have, everything; songwriting ability, witty, gritty, he got the look, he got everything. He got the delivery. He got everything he got the right amount of cockiness without being arrogant. Sammy Gesus embodies everything that you support. He's an A&R’s dream for real and he gon work too.
We done slept in the studio together for a decade and a half or more. Yo, I woke up he record me. We raised our children, we raised our boys in our studio. There are pictures of me and them. Sammy has been with me the longest out of everybody who is still around. He's different. A matter of fact I'mma take one of his singles and I'm gonna start getting his artwork done and in the intro of putting my joint out, I'm gonna be sprinkling his joints out because he is definitely ready and he needs the light. He’s different man.
Validated: Alright.
Grea8gawd: I remember Paul Cain during COVID was doing that where he would let you call up on his live and every time Sammy got on there, I'm talking about the legends like how people revered me and cheered me on they was doing it to him. We just didn't take it and run with it but right now you know his bro got the ball and if I got the ball you know I'm always alley-oop him. So I will say personally that I know Half a Mil was the best at everything. Half was just different man. Thump Mandoza different. Sammy G, they’re like neck and neck man. Ya’ll know how nice Half a Mil was. Sammy and them, he got that in him man. He really got that in him. Then the rest of the gawd squad man we got my bro K-Dot from Brownsville, Juss One, my man Roc North from out of London. We got a section out there. My man Rufus Sims out in the Chi. William Bostick in Brooklyn. We got to cats that’s ready to get super duper busy, and we got a family of producers with us.
Yeah, we got a movement. People are cool with following one person, but they want to claim a movement. So we're gonna give them this next wave.
Validated: Yeah. So I've heard you say that you don't drink and you don't smoke.
Grea8gawd: Right. I never have.
Validated: Is that because you just chose to at an early age or was it just the things that you saw in your life that made you say, “I'm not even gonna mess with that”. Did you know early on, that you had like the kind of personality where it was like, “I don't need to fuck with that”. What was the reason behind it?
Grea8gawd: So, in the beginning initially it was my uncle's. My uncle Tommy was the one that turned me on to the Nation of Islam. So I learned early that ain’t what I was supposed to be doing. As I got older and it became a conversation piece and I will be the only one in the room nine times out of 10 that could say that, then, it was like I like that, that's dope in itself to be different. Then I just never really had a followers mentality. I always had a leader’s mentality. So I never wanted to do something just because somebody else was doing. I always kind of wanted to do the opposite. Then once I tell the ladies “I ain’t never did that”, they’re like “What? Oh, unicorn.” You know, that type of love from the sisters make you be like, “Oh, yeah, I'm cool on that”. Then the last part of that equation was I'm too old now. Like ain’t go start now.
Validated: Why would you start? Yeah. No doubt. So we all know you’ve worked with some of the best lyricists in the game, Jada, Benny and a whole bunch of others. I heard you say that your only competition was Benny. Who is the one artist or the one producer that really makes you step your pen game when you know you're going into the studio with them?
Grea8gawd: The artist to where I make sure. I will probably say Kiss did that. When I did the first record I did with Kiss, I sent my verse first, he sent me his or Fendi sent me his verse back after that and I wanted to change mine. Hey yo god, I want to change my joint. I ended up leaving it because they said that was cheating. (Laughs)
Validated: That's cheating god, you can't do that. (Laughs)
Grea8gawd: You think that’s cheating? That's crazy. You can’t do it. You know what's crazy is I was talking to Tek about the record I was telling you about and I said, “Yeah I’m about to record my verse though. You know I'm saying just spit it over.” He like “Oh nah. I'm doing mine over too.” I said, “Nah your shit was straight.” He was like “Nah son. Nah, I'm doing mines over too. The fuck is you tryna do gawd?” Kiss definitely made me do that. Even Roc though. I ain’t go lie, Roc made me do that. First of all Roc kind of threw me for a loop because he sent me a beat that sampled every three bars. Now you know that shit like this.
Validated: That’s all over the place.
Grea8gawd: I'm trying to catch that. That was the first record he sent me to get on. I’m like, “he's testing me right now”. This right here is a test. I ain’t gon lie that verse took me longer because I usually knock out a verse in 10-15 minutes. None of my verses that you heard on Snow Day took longer than 15 minutes.
Validated: Oh, gotcha.
Grea8gawd: That one that I did for Roc’s album just the beat being off it threw me for a loop. But then again it was like I know what I'm up against too. I know what they love him for. What they love him for and what they love me for is not necessarily the exact same thing. We both dope in our own right. It's definitely a difference. The shit he do is immaculate. I can't do that. The way he puts that shit together. You know how he gets in there weaving in and out of them pockets, back in the pocket and then come out of the pocket. I’m a straight shooter. I'mma bar you. He made me do that though. Yeah, for sure. He was like, “Nah, I'm gonna send you this joint”. And then when I hit him back and I sent it I'm like, “Yes son, that joint was weird”. He like, “Oh, yeah. I meant to tell you that like that joint looped on every third bar. It was just a little different”. I said, “Yeah, you know what you was doing”.
Validated: That’s what’s up. No doubt. I know everybody says Cocaine Rap, but I heard you say that your shit is Luxury Cocaine Rap. I like to think it's more like powerful personal stories of resilience and hustling, and survival, and just life's lessons. So how do you feel when your art inspires someone else? Or gets them through a bid, or just through anything in life, and they come up to you and they give you that accolade and say, “yo, bro, you got me through this gawd”, you know, whatever the case may be, like, how does that make you feel man?
Grea8gawd: Man, that made me feel amazing. And it happens all the time. You know, my gram, they hit me. And that's telling me that now and I re-posted a lot of times. For me that's everything son because if I can save one baby, one person or you heard a record and you heard the patience through my record, and you use that and you ain't cut son in the yard, that's a beautiful thing. It makes me feel amazing man. Just like I said to just know that they really tuned in and they really paid attention. So now I really know my duty. Now I gotta really take it there. A lot of guys get on the podium and they get their fame, notoriety and they get lazy. And then they start cutting the brick. Now niggas ain’t getting high no more. For me, it's the opposite. Now y’all watching this all I've been waiting for. Okay now y'all tuned in, now I’m about to give you the stuff. That's why the new EP doesn't have Cocaine Rap. There ain't no coke bars on there. Because now let's get to the nitty-gritty. Now let me show you why I call myself Grea8gawd, and how I got that attribute Grea8gawd. Now let me show you that. Now since you thought that you could box me in and you thought all I did was rapped about Cocaine, no that was just for that project. That was for that. There's a vast amount of layers. You understand? Now I'm gonna take them through another chamber, to where they gonna say, “Oh, yeah, there ain't even a box big enough.” It ain't. Yeah.
Validated: That's definitely dope. I heard you tell this all too common-ass story of a fan sweating Roc Marci for an autograph and it ended up turning into something that got a little physical.
Grea8gawd: The physicality.
Validated: I know fans can be like that sometimes. They get so amped up that they want to get next to a person that they kind of idolize. I want to know, how was it for you? And do you remember the first time that you signed an autograph?
Grea8gawd: Yes, I do remember the first time I signed an autograph. The first time I signed the autograph was in Harlem. I was on 145th street the first time I signed an autograph. I can't remember. I would be lying if I gave you a year. But it was a while ago. But that's where I signed my first autograph.
Validated: That’s a great place to sign your first autograph.
Grea8gawd: Right. And that was when 145th Street was like Times Square at that time.
Validated: Well, yeah. Back in the days.
Grea8gawd: On that hill.
Validated: That’s the old Harlem.
Grea8gawd: Yeah that’s like being on the deuce. You feel me?
Validated: Yeah, exactly.
Grea8gawd: Right. As a matter of fact, Hell Rell and JR were rapping outside at that time. Somebody asked me for an autograph. I never forget, I had on the ill yellow and black Vanson Leather. I was out there talking that talk, told them niggers “I'm a handsome fella / with seven different Vanson Leathers / The lady ladies love me but don't get it confused / because my neck full of that shit that you put on a bruise. You feel me? I was talking that type of foolery back then. I remember someone's like “Yo, you gonna be something son”.“Let me get your autograph now”. Show them you still got it. But yeah, that was the first time though, Yep.
Validated: That’s what’s up.
Grea8gawd: But let me talk about that Roc incident. What's so crazy is people really look at the god like he's God man. I’m telling you like they'd be overwhelmed when they see him man. He’s got a natural aura and a natural glow and presence. You know he magnetic truly. I was like, “Oh man, this is getting ready to get crazy”. He was on his shoulder but it all ended well. For me it was like “Man, he didn't mean no harm. He just really-really-really saw somebody that he really admired and really respected”.
Validated: Exactly. He fanned out.
Grea8gawd: He wanted his two minutes to talk to the god.
Validated: Yeah, that meant something in his life.
Grea8gawd: Now imagine if we would have bounced him down two steps on his edge up.
Validated: He would’ve been fucked up forever bro.
Grea8gawd: Oh, man. God.
Validated: He’d be like, “My idol. The person I looked up to…” Yeah, that would have damaged him forever, bro.
Grea8gawd: Yeah.
Validated: He probably would have never looked at another celebrity the same. Fans do that. They look at celebrities like celebrities and not like normal human beings.
Grea8gawd: Right.
Validated: So when I tell you to pause for a minute, like, give me some room to breathe, I'm gonna get to you, that's like, “wait a minute, you might forget about me.”
Grea8gawd: You might spin off.
Validated: Right. Yeah. How are you adjusting to fame right now, man?
Grea8gawd: To be honest with you, god, I'm going through so many other things like real life situations, like with my son and my 16 year old baby girl. So, she's a 16 year old kid doing what 16 year old kids do. Then my son is facing some serious time. There are very few times as far in between, to where I get to really just bask in my own little bit of glory. You know what I'm saying?
Validated: I got you.
Grea8gawd: There are certain times that I get to do it like when I'm on stage, or when I'm at a show. But a lot of times, it's just like, I'm really dealing with what's going on, in my family. And, and then trying to perfect and master myself again, too, because I've been falling short of my deen too. So, harder on myself. You know, if you hard on somebody else, you got to be 10 times harder on yourself. So for me, it's like, I gotta get my relationship right with my daughter. I got to maintain a relationship with my son, a better relationship with my boy and with their mother. A lot of that is what consumes my mind. I get to the little bit of fame when I get to it. You know what I’m saying?
Validated: I got you.
Grea8gawd: Like, for now. It's cool. It was beautiful. Like, I tried it. One thing I don't like is that my Instagram got so crazy to where I can't really read all the messages any more. Because I used to talk to everybody. I send voice messages and talk to them.
Validated: I noticed that, yeah. When I hit you, you sent the voice message back. Yeah.
Grea8gawd: Yeah god. You know, I like to be personable, man. You don't know what that does for people, man but I do. I'm not saying you don't know, but people that’s in our positions that people revere and look up to, like that means something. So I got to that point where now my story I look at it's like 1000 people watching this there are too many DMs. I used to say that all the time. I just don't want it to get that big to where I can’t tune in the people. So, you know, that right there is important for me god.
Validated: Now's the time to maybe, you know, start putting out personal messages. You know, not individual personal messages, but just personal messages to the people, letting them know that you appreciate it. You know what I mean? Stuff like that.
Grea8gawd: What’s crazy is I wrote a song about that like three weeks ago when I didn't get it in time for my EP, but I'm gonna put it out as a warm up record until my EP comes out. I'm just thanking people. So these people, they're gonna be shocked, people that I did interviews with, people that just hit me and just cheering me on all their names is on this record, god.
Validated: No, that's dope. That's definitely dope.
Grea8gawd: Yeah.
Validated: Next to last question.
Grea8gawd: Okay.
Validated: What does Hip Hop mean to you?
Grea8gawd: Hip Hop means the world to me. It changed my life. It shaped and molded my thoughts, my attitude, just my everyday being man. From way back to listening to Rakim. If Rakim wouldn’t have never said, “I tell you who you are and why you're here, take it in stride because it might take a year.” I’m like, “Okay, what does he mean when he talks about these lessons and these degrees?” So then you hear Wu and them talking about the Power U and all of this. Those things made me want to say, “Man, I gotta get knowledge of self. I want to be known.” Mind you like I said that then carried on to my ways and actions to this day as a man. So without Hip Hop, I don't get that.
Validated: Right.
Grea8gawd: My uncle, my uncle introduced me to Islam, but he didn't introduce me to the lessons. He introduced me to like orthodox Islam. Atiba and Justice are the ones that introduced me to the lessons. And then when he taught me about the lessons then it made me think about everything that I heard in his records, and I went back, and I relistened and redigested them. It's like, okay, so Hip Hop is everything because I learned all of these things through Hip Hop. It's a lot of things that I've learned through Hip Hop that I just wouldn't know. You know what I'm saying?
Validated: Yeah. That's a fact. Rakim is my favorite emcee of all time. Like what he did, the words that he spoke and the Jewels that he dropped were just everlasting. I was a teenager at the time, and I had never heard anything like that ever in my life. And to this day, I don't think I've ever heard anybody do it the way that he did it when he came through the door. It just completely shifted the culture and shifted the game completely. That only happens a few times in our sport. Hip Hop has been here for 50 years, and you can count on both hands how many times somebody shifted the culture. You know what I mean?
Grea8gawd: Literally. He made it cool to talk like that. Listen man that was different. The God different man. I never even met Rakim, that's the crazy thing. Yeah, I gotta meet the God.
Validated: What's in the pipeline for the gawd man? Beyond the shows, beyond the merch, upcoming projects, anything outside of that, like, what should people be expecting from the great one?
Grea8gawd: Expect, besides the music and merch and all that is the “Snow Day” movie. And then I'm shooting a movie called “Up Top”. So besides all the music and everything, just the films, man, like, pay attention, I'm gonna be shooting these films, directing and shooting the films. And that's what I really want people to pay attention to. Because that's where I'm gonna give you all the Jewels at, is through these movies.