With ScHoolboy Q’s major label debut scheduled for release near the end of this month, the rapper recently spoke with Fuse about the album, Kendrick Lamar’s recent Grammy nominations, and his mother’s reactions to his music.
When congratulated on the preorder performance of his yet-to-be-released album on iTunes, Q described the length of time it took to realize the milestone. “Two years,” he said. “And like it wasn’t no label problems, it was actually me. To see that they still with me and make it jump to number one,” he said of the album’s spike on iTunes, “it’s crazy, you know what I mean. Everybody was about me, I let them into my personal life. They know who my daughter is.” The album’s deluxe version is currently listed as the fifth most popular album within iTunes’ Hip Hop/Rap section, directly behind Childish Gambino at #4, but ahead of Macklemore and Ryan Lewis’ recent Grammy award winning album The Heist.
The TDE emcee went on to credit raising his daughter as the inspiration behind the title and central theme to the upcoming release. “The album is basically, all the wrong I’m doing, that’s the oxymoron in it, [is] to do good for her,” he said. “Whether I’m stealing, selling drugs, beating somebody up, whatever it is I’m doing bad, is all for a good cause, for my daughter Joy. That’s the oxymoron in the album.”
In his interview with Fuse, Q also reacted to Lamar’s recent Grammy nominations. “It’s outstanding,” he said. “They’re well-deserved, I ain’t shocked.”
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Later in the interview, Q reflected on the progression he’s made from his early role as a hypeman for his labelmate Kendrick Lamar. “$200 a show dog. And that’s crazy to what I’m making now,” he said. In late 2011, speaking to BET, the Oxymoron rapper described the decision to step away from the role to focus on his own career. “See me and Kendrick had a long talk about it and I told him I wanted to step down from being hype man and actually following him everywhere,” ScHoolboy Q said. “That’s my bro. That’s my nigga and everybody know that but it just comes a time and point where you just gotta break off and do your own thing.”
When asked about his mother’s reaction to his music, Q detailed her disapproval of his publicly self-identifying as a member of the Crips in his music. “She mad,” he said. “Telling me to stop saying I’m a Crip, like, ‘You don’t need to be sayin’ that, somebody gonna kill you…’ or ‘Somebody gon’ get at you, don’t be telling nobody that.’ [It’s like], ‘It’s your fault, you should’ve moved.’”
The rapper added that his mother has attended his performances despite generally not being a fan of Rap. “She came to my shows,” he said. “She not with the standing up part, waiting until—you know what I mean? She ain’t trying to hear all the rest of that. She already don’t like Rap. So, you know, she ain’t trying to [go]. And I smoke a whole lot [at a show]. My momma smoke weed, but we smoke a whole lot, you know what I’m saying. I’ve smoked with moms before.” Responding to Fuse’s question about his mother’s reception of his success, Q admitted that his financial gain has changed the relationship’s dynamic. “She ain’t scared to ask for nothing no more,” he said. “She always know I got a gang of weed so she at least know I’m doing good for myself, she know the prices on weed. You know, she sees me in magazines. She has co workers that don’t believe that I’m her son. She’s very proud, but, yeah, I like smoking with moms though… She smoke that bullshit though, she smoke that old people ish.”
ScHoolboy Q’s Oxymoron is scheduled to be released on February 25. The album features fellow TDE artists Jay Rock, Kendrick Lamar, and Sza.
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