{"id":5853,"date":"2024-01-15T16:50:19","date_gmt":"2024-01-15T22:50:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/socc\/?p=5853"},"modified":"2024-01-15T17:01:47","modified_gmt":"2024-01-15T23:01:47","slug":"the-maxo-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/socc\/2024\/01\/15\/the-maxo-interview\/","title":{"rendered":"SoCC Interviews: The Maxo Interview"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Maxo is an up-and-coming rapper hailing from Los Angeles, and he carries his city and familial roots close to him. Growing up with Billy Higgins, Prince, YG, and Kendrick Lamar, Maxo grabs inspiration from all sorts of music while injecting his own stories and personality into his music. His lyrics are full of ventful, articulate lyricism over beats built upon obscure sounds and jazz-inspired melodies. Maxo\u2019s philosophy towards music and art lets it come to him rather than seeking it out. He releases what feels right, and lets the art come back to him, full circle. Since 2015, he\u2019s released 5 projects, including his recent release Debbie\u2019s Son<\/em>, and has worked with the likes of The Alchemist and Earl Sweatshirt. He recently performed at Tyler, the Creator\u2019s Camp Flog Gnaw music festival, and is currently touring the U.S. and Canada on his \u201cA Friend of Mine\u201d tour. I got the chance to talk to Maxo about his life, music, his recording process, his tour, and an interesting story about meeting The Alchemist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Image courtesy of Julian Klincewicz<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019re from LA. How does where you\u2019re from influence your sound or lyrics?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maxo:<\/strong> Yessir, born and raised. I got different references. The East Coast is known for having woke-ass rappers. On the west coast we grew up with the ignorant shit but we wise and smart as shit. I feel like for me, just being able to have in one ear YG and in the other ear Kendrick in my youth influenced me. That\u2019s similar hoods but different type of mentalities and balances. I feel blessed to be from the coast because it has made my references and influences more versatile. The West Coast has the Bay and LA, there\u2019s just so much influence. The culture is contagious. It just helped me to be able to rap about some shit but also rap about all my complexities. It didn\u2019t put a shield on how I should think. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m not from the West Coast but am a fan of West Coast rap. I was in high school when Drakeo the Ruler, 03 Greedo, and Shoreline Mafia were blowing up.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maxo:<\/strong> You feel me, there\u2019s that stuff but then there\u2019s rappers like me. You got me and 03 Greedo, it\u2019s so versatile out here. It\u2019s really because LA is so big, you can go anywhere and get a different type of flavor. You can go to Long Beach, Compton, Inglewood, wherever the fuck. I\u2019m from Ladera but I grew up in Pomona, it\u2019s where Suga Free from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Image courtesy of Orienteer<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

How\u2019d you get into making music?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maxo:<\/strong> My brother used to rap, I kinda just picked up after him, from where he left off. I just got into it so I could reach for something to confide in, something to vent to. I think it found me to be honest. I ain\u2019t really search for it. I ain\u2019t start rapping till I was 20 years old. This whole path is a vine I\u2019ve been following. From starting off just being in the studio watching my brother rap. You know how life be showing you things, I feel like music is one of them. It\u2019s always been there, but the moment I started using it as a vessel for myself to communicate, it just opened things up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Does your brother still rap?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maxo: <\/strong>He writes but he doesn\u2019t really rap anymore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who are your biggest inspirations and influences, both musically and personally?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maxo: <\/strong>My mother for sure, Miles, my brother, Keishan, my uncle. A lot of Jazz musicians, Billy Higgins, Donny Hathaway, Quincy Jones. Prince as well, Michael Jackson, R. Kelly, I grew up on everything. My musical influences might not be the best people in the world but they have great songs. It really varies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s your process for creating a body of work, whether that\u2019s a single or an album?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maxo: <\/strong>Usually I go in the studio wearing these special socks. They have the individual toes. I have those on with some green basketball shorts, a tank top, and an LA fitted on, and I just go in there and stand right in the middle of the studio in that outfit. I stand there for a few hours. Usually, I get some ginger tea, the studio assistant gets it for me while I stand there and I think about what I wanna rap about. As I\u2019m standing up, I face my two big toes to each other. Usually, when I point my big toes at each other, some bars come to my head and they start formulating. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Image courtesy of Donovan Novotn<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

When did you first start working with The Alchemist? How did you meet him? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maxo: <\/strong>One day I was walking, and I went to this 7-11. I went to get a drink, and you know when you reach in for a drink and you can kinda see the back? So I reach in and grab my drink, and when I moved it, Alchemist\u2019s face is right there behind the drinks, and ever since then we\u2019ve been cool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is that real?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maxo: <\/strong>Yeah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was he working at 7-11?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maxo: <\/strong>Hell nah he was just in there. I don\u2019t know why he was in there. I just went to grab a drink and he was there. I ain\u2019t never seen him work a job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What? I don\u2019t know what I\u2019d do in that situation.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maxo: <\/strong>I just saw him and told him let\u2019s go to the studio. Ever since then, we\u2019ve been cool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How is your journey as an independent artist? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maxo: <\/strong>You know when the slaves got freed? It feels something like that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think major record labels have a place in Hip-Hop?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maxo: <\/strong>It depends on who\u2019s running the major record labels. Some of these old people need to die so things can change. I feel like once you make so much money, certain people disconnect and stop caring, it only becomes money. I feel like all major labels should have a catering business, on Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, some turkey. The old folks are crazy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your album covers, especially those of your past three albums, are pretty abstract. What\u2019s the vision behind these covers? How do they relate to their respective albums?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maxo: <\/strong>The last cover, on Debbie\u2019s Son<\/em>, that\u2019s just a picture my mom took of me in the tub. I had my friend Polo Cudi from Long Beach paint it, he airbrushed it. That\u2019s a real painting too, I have it. As for the statue on Even God Has a Sense of Humor<\/em>, those were put in place to signify three different emotions from one person, being myself. It was a simple thing. With that cover, it more so became something as I was doing. As I\u2019m sitting in the cast, I\u2019m having epiphanies, full circle moments. As you create something, it starts to make itself and then it teaches you. All my covers are drawn from my life, it\u2019s all original.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Image courtesy of Orienteer<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

How was performing at Camp Flog Gnaw?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maxo: <\/strong>That shit was crazy, it was tight. I can\u2019t even explain it. For someone like me, I already see myself doing some headline shit for it. Flog Gnaw is the only festival I really wanna do! From just being someone who was seeing it from a distance and couldn\u2019t afford a ticket to being booked and paid for it and getting my whole family for free, that was the best shit ever. I fuck with Tyler for that. I fuck with Tyler cause of how the festival felt. We\u2019re all artists playing music, ain\u2019t no obvious hierarchy. He tries really hard to go against the politics so it\u2019s about the actual plot. It doesn\u2019t matter how much bread you\u2019re grossing. Obviously, people are gonna make money and people wanna make money but we were all there playing music, no hierarchy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

How\u2019s the tour going so far? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maxo: <\/strong>I fuck with tour but I also hate it. I wanna grow past existing in these spaces of the venue. That\u2019s really my goal, even with this art show I\u2019m working on called \u201cKeep On Livin\u201d. I\u2019m a rapper to some, but I don\u2019t feel like existing in the spaces they put us in to display our music. I want to expand and exist in different spaces. I fuck with tour cause you get to feel everything. Some people talk about how a song made them cry during the performance, you just feel it. Baltimore was super fun, Brooklyn was super fun, today we in Montreal, tomorrow Toronto. But on a simpler scale, aside from music, just being able to travel and move around and do music. Even if we\u2019re not at the goal point, I\u2019m so grateful to be able to embark on this journey, this isn\u2019t regular. Sometimes artists are spoiled, cause it gets regular, but you could be working at Ross. There\u2019s nothing wrong with Ross, I love Ross, but they can\u2019t be taking crazy blessings for granted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On your song \u201cFace of Stone\u201d<\/a>, a Bandoneon is playing throughout the track. That\u2019s a really unique instrument. Is there a specific reason that the instrument was chosen?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maxo: <\/strong>My man Karieem Riggins the one! I didn\u2019t make that beat, I just helped arrange it. Karieem is as sharp as can be with the sonics. When I picked that beat it just stood out to me. It\u2019s an in between part that grabs attention. I like obscure sounds that grab attention, it doesn\u2019t even have to be a pleasant thing. You know, we\u2019re black, we African! We feel different sounds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who are your favorite current artists?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maxo: <\/strong>I like Baby Africa, go listen to her. I like 454 and Cleo Soul a lot. I try not to like him, not like that, but I have to be won over by artists. She\u2019s been dropping some heat since I\u2019ve heard of her, there\u2019s been at least two songs off her shit I like a lot. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think you\u2019ll collab with 454?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maxo: <\/strong>Hell yeah! We talk about it all the time. We just need to be in the same spot same time cause I\u2019m not good with the Gmail collabs unless it\u2019s like Madlib or someone like that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Image courtesy of Julian Klincewicz<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Dream collab?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maxo: <\/strong>On some random shit, Little Simz. She\u2019s also one of my favorite current artists. She\u2019s current but she\u2019s been going crazy for a long time. She\u2019s still a current artist cause she hasn\u2019t gotten her recognition. She\u2019s getting it right now, but off the dome, she\u2019s my dream collab. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you have a path that you\u2019ve thought out or are you just taking things as they come?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maxo: <\/strong>In my head, I\u2019m kinda in the middle of a ten-year plan. It gets shaky cause I\u2019m learning in real time, but I always gotta be strategic out here, I can\u2019t be out here loose. Myself won\u2019t even let myself be like that, even when I want to. Even when I\u2019m like \u201cFuck this shit I don\u2019t wanna do this shit anymore!\u201d I always get up and just tell myself \u201cNah we gotta stick to the program. I can\u2019t play with my life, I don\u2019t have time to take shit as it comes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maxo’s Instagram<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/rundatback\/?hl=en<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maxo’s Music<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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