SCHOOLBOY Q: Yeah, I really grew up in the ghetto, where roaches like, you know - I'm pretty sure you probably had that problem, too. So when I heard that line, it made me real curious. MUHAMMAD: I was wondering about that, especially because it's been - the last record was. For example, a song like "Hoover Street" is - I'll say, "I done jumped up off my a- / Hit the lick and barely pass but I quickly got to ballin' / 2012 ain't really happen, so I guess it's back to trappin', eyes open night to morning / Had roaches in my cereal, my uncle stole my stereo / My grandma can't control him." MUHAMMAD: You just like ripped the lid off and it's just like. Straight from the top it's like, "Gangsta, gangsta, gangsta." Compared to, you know, Setbacks and Habits, it's real sinister. MUHAMMAD: Yeah, we were talking about that. SCHOOLBOY Q: Yeah, it took me two years to make this s. That's like a real show tomorrow so I gotta turn up, you know what I mean? I gotta get some rest tonight. I never really have days off like so I was always expecting to do something today, even though I just found out I got a 700-people show tomorrow. dark album from a good student's point of view." When we sat down with him, the night before he performed brand new songs from the album, he spoke thoughtfully about addiction (his own and his uncle's), why he used to think rappers were fake and how he grew up. With Oxymoron, he says he wanted to make "a gangster rap L.A. As a part of Top Dawg Entertainment, the company that gave rise to critical phenom Kendrick Lamar, ScHoolboy Q has played the role of the hard-boiled cut up. ScHoolboy Q has released two mixtapes and, just this week, his major label debut - but he says he's got two more albums all planned out.
All this s- happened before I was even 21." And then he started rapping. And out of all that s- I done did, I had a job - worked a job for two years. I done been a kid that was kind of living on the fortunate side when my mama was starting to do good, and I was hustling just to hustle because, dude, my homies was doing it, you get what I'm saying? But then I ended up actually really needing to hustle. "I done been an athlete, a gang member, drug dealer.
The Los Angeles rapper has lived a lot of life in his 27 years. ScHoolboy Q onstage at Le Poisson Rouge in New York City two days before his major label debut dropped.