Picaso Swag

Who or what inspired you to pursue a career in music?

I Actually Wrote My First Rap At 6 yrs old. My Father Was A Big Hip Hop Fan N The Public Enemy Grand Master Flash Years He Say As A Baby I Use To Grab All His Hip Hop CD’s N Use Them As Chew Toys And Frisbies. Lol. It Was Just A Heavy Influence In My Life My Older Bro who’s N Jail Right Now (Free King Jamez) Also Wanted To Be A Rapper Since We was kids till present Day. He was One of My Biggest Influences he kept me n front of the TV n The Golden Years of Music Videos watching Artist such as 2pac, Master P, Bone Thugs, Biggie, Jay-Z, & Nas. Those Videos that LifeStyle Was Inspiring.

What is the significance of your moniker?

Imma Gumbo. I’m Artistic not Just A Drill Rapper, Not Just A Conscious Rapper, I Always Hated Those Titles. I’m From The Hood Sometimes I Wanna/Have to Be Conscious about a Decision, Sometimes I Just Wanna Party & Not Give a F#ck, Sometimes I Had to Get Dirty & Do Somethings I wasn’t Proud of Its just the Reality on How I Chose to Adapt to My Environment.

What was it like working with Labrian Dunkin on the music video for ‘Fefe’?

What went into the making of the video? It wasn’t the Best Experience I Shoot Videos & I always Shot My own It Was The First Time I Stepped Out on Myself so I Didn’t Properly plan. I Felt When He Arrived To The Set which was (An Actual Mixtape Release Party I Had going on For My FreeStyle Mixtape where I Rap over underground & industry Chicago Artist Drillin 4 Beatz #D4B) He would show up follow all My direction and Everything would go Smooth, but He Wasn’t Feeling alot of My Ideas and Felt They Would Hinder his Feel of Videos he Shoot, So We Kept Bumping Heads. Which I Understand as A Director Your Actually the Guy with the Vision and Their was no Laid Out Treatment So I Understood and Learned Alot About Proper Planning & Professionalism When working outside of your own Camp. It was an Learning Experience , That’s Why Most people say #Ywul YWouldULie video is Mtv , BET ready I took those Steps.

What has been your experience within the hip-hop / rap scenes of Chicago, Illinois?

I Realized It’s not gonna be Easy working here. I saw Artist From Here have Big singles Gain Major Exposure but Still not Reach Platforms I plan on Reaching once I make it to That Level. I Realize the crowd Is your best Friend Here, cause at these Shows Artist bring Their Whole Hood Out & I Don’t travel n Packs like that I learned earlier n Life to Separate myself to live long & avoid alot of Issues. So I Have to Captivate The Crowd , plus Its usually not all the Time but usually a House Favorite with the judges but he/she can’t even get an honest win if I got The Whole Crowd #Turnt Singing My Words to A Song They Never Heard. This Was The Best Place for Me To Embark on This Journey.

What experiences and events led to the writing and recording of your debut mixtape (“Pimpn’ Sippn’ + Trippin'”)? Could you tell us a bit about each of the featured tracks?

That’s Crazy U Know About That Mixtape Cause I Pulled it From The Internet. That was My Stress/Glory year Making That Mixtape My Kids Mother and I Was Falling Apart and I Felt I was just learning about Women but With a Chip on My Shoulder Point Of View. My Kids mom, My First Love We Bought an Apartment Together & Was building a Family but Around that Mixtape Era We Felt Like Roommates. The Pain Was overwhelming So I Turned to Heavy Weed Smoking and Even Drinking Lean and Just Put All my focus into Music and Making Me Happy. I Kept Artist in & out our apartment Daily That’s how I Stumbled Across Rich Crew Ntune & Melo For A Dope single “Turn Me Up” , which I still Plan on letting the World hear Soon , Cause its just So Good Lol. Then I Got song such as “So High”, “Smoking Up”, “Pussy & Weed” which is Basically Smoking Cool Vibe Tracks, I Really Like The Cool Vibe I Was In At The Time. Then one of The People’s Favorite “Chase N Dough” which Is More Energetic n single Worthy Came About the day before I Took My First Trip To New York I Was dumb Excited Actually Shot The Video Soon I Touch Down in New York. The Skits Was actually an Older Drunk Man That Just Walked Up One day while me n The Homies was in Front of My Crib Learning My Camera, He walked up and Just Started Talking A Whole Bunch of Drunk Pimp Shxt I Knew That Would B Perfect I Filmed the Whole Thing. Then We Got “Bad Chick” which Derived from the Membership I had at the Strip Clubs at The time lol.

The Single “I’m N IT” Was Actually A High Of Lean Moment I was Listening to the Emerging Drill sound n Just Had a I Could Do That Moment. Some of The Other Featured Tracks was Actually in My Transition Period Where I Moved Out It Was Tough But Realising to know the Cycle was over and I Could look forward to a New Positive Less Stress Life coming with Songs like “My Testimony” where I vented , “Dnt Tell Me You Love Me” Where Me & Featured Rapper/ Producer of The Track Beezy Stone Cold Declared Music is Our New And Only Love Where We plan On Having a Long Term Relationship. The Track “Pimp’n” Featuring other Childhood Friend & Producer of The Track C.k. where he Added a Back drop of American Pimp the Movie where The Most Prolific Pimps n the Game Talked That Talk. Last but Not least the Track “Make it Rain” that Had A Back Drop of Soothing Rain Drops Where Saint Nick gave Me the Idea To Tell My Story But an Exaggerated Version of A Girl U Think Is So Quiet , but Actually Have A Side She Hides From You. That’s #PST in a nutshell since then I Haven’t Drank That Drank & Recently Stop Smoking, My Kids Mom & I are Best Friends , but That Tape Will be Re-Mastered ReVamped.

What does 2015 hold in store for Picaso Swag?

It Holds Consistency, Paid Shows, More Visuals, More Online Presence, Proper Planning, Preparation, and Execution. I’m Releasing an Independent Album TrapArt. I’m Traveling More taking This Show On The Road And I’m Getting my Passport. I’m Pushing My Single #Ywul YWouldULie Dj’s and Fans Around The Country Been Taking Heed It Just Take More Of A Budget and More Promotion To Get It Number 1 on The Billboard charts Which is My Goal. At The Time I created A Clothing line For The Single (Using My Artistic Abilities) That People Been Eating Up I could Barely Keep Up With The Orders. Applying Myself and Not Being Afraid To Fail.

Do you have any upcoming live performances?

Feb. 24, 2015 Abbey Pub 3420 w Grace Street, Chicago Il 10pm + Feb 26, 2015 Harold Washington Cultural Center 4701 S King Drive 10pm both Shows Gonna Be Live, I Bring Out Props, Sexxy Female Twerkers, I Sell #Ywul Gear, and Throw Shirts Out To The Crowd It’s Just a Party Be There. Coming Soon Is The TrapArt Release Party I plan On Doing Art gallery Style, Other then that I got Different Markets Such As Arkansas talking to My people About Paying Me to Perform, This Will Be my first Paid Shows so Pray For that, Wish me Luck. Live Your Dreams and Be Happy #Word #PicasoSwag #Playaslife #Ywul #Road2TrapArt Coming Soon…..





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