When HipHopDX catches up with Tommy Swisher, it’s his third time visiting Los Angeles. While other trips consisted of networking, performing and other things involved in the everyday grind of an up-and-coming artist, this time included shooting a video for a track off the recently released project The Other Side of The Moon, which dropped July 7, entitled “Make It” featuring Mike G. Alongside being a mixtape highlight, it serves as another example of how hard working the St. Louis-Atlanta transplant has become. The video, featuring a guest appearance from Raury, was shot in the Hollywood hills during one very lit party. In Swisher’s world, there’s always an opportunity to create.
For those keeping up with DX’s Music Meeting Thursdays, Swisher was an alumnus of the weekly program in May while he was on tour with fellow ATLien Rome Fortune. One track on the project, “Star Wars,” became one of the well-received early listens for both viewers and staff. One of many projects released from him this year (including My Box of Unsent Love Letters), The Other Side of The Moon features guest appearances from Mike G, Quinten Miller and Man-Man Savage, among others.
Hanging out in a hot and grungy loft in Downtown LA’s east side, Swisher breaks down The Other Side of The Moon and explains how Atlanta gave him personality.
Swisher Explains The Story Behind The Other Side Of The Moon
“I’ve been actually using that same concept for three years. When I was in high school, we were just reading some type of story of the moon and the wolf. The wolf is a god that got tricked into coming to Earth and when you leave you can’t come back because something else wanted its life, love or something like that. The moon represents the woman that he loves and he can never reach her again type of shit. I always really, really loved that story and I always felt like the wolf. I felt like it was something I was going for that I couldn’t necessarily reach and it made me just put that towards the music side of everything. I felt like music was that thing. I’m running my ass off, really I can see it but what I do I can’t reach it. I always put that towards the music. I am the wolf, I’m kind of by myself in this shit anyway. Got to find yourself and really do the artist shit. It related so close to me that I just said you know what, that’s me.”
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Realizing His Popularity
“I don’t know, people saying I was poppin for a little bit for two years, being the artist and the nigga who be going through the shit I talk about and really understand what I was going through. Having a baby and all that type of shit. My son just turned two. When you going through shit you don’t give a damn about being popular. So it took me more to notice than it took other people to notice so-called ‘popular.’ This year is when I accepted that I was popular. If you say you don’t know me and you’re from that city, you probably just don’t want to say you know me. Either on some hater shit or some kind of keep your composure shit. But out here I realize I see the bigger field and shit.”
Collaborating With Mike G & Being A Fan Of Odd Future
“This is why he’s my partner. Me and Mike G did a show in ATL for this block light show. I see Mike after the show and I approach him to say what’s up and shit. We get to Edgewood and I see Mike again and I’m like ‘Bro, what you doing?’ He said ‘Chillin” so I said, ‘Let’s walk to the store together,’ and I ended up kicking it with Mike the whole time. Then after that, we would just go to the studio and kickin’ shit. We became good friends, really got his back.”
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“I was a sophomore in High School during Odd Future’s rise. I fucked with their energy as a team. They were poppin in Atlanta. I was fucking more with Earl and Hodgy Beats. Of course, everyone fucks with Tyler, The Creator, but my favorites were Earl and Hodgy. I really fucked with Left Brain and Hodgy’s MellowHype albums.”
Swisher Found Inspiration From Dipset, Kanye West, J. Cole & Edgar Allan Poe
“When I was younger Kanye made ‘Jesus Walks’ and off the rip, he was that nigga, period. Kanye Down n Out, I’m a real Kanye fan and I’m a Dipset fan. I really fuck with Dipset. I started listening to Black Star, I listen to real Hip Hop shit. My biggest influence as a kid was Kanye because he was always an outspoken producer who came to artists, and people would be like, ‘Kanye you cannot rap that shit,’ really putting him down. Kanye became the guy who really pushed the envelope for me. Kanye really put the thought in my mind that you can do any music you want to, fuck what these niggas is talking about you don’t have to be put in a box and do that kind of music just ’cause you Black and a rapper. Just because you a rapper doesn’t mean you can’t sing on niggas if you want to. If that’s really you, do it, if it ain’t you don’t do it for no money, it is what it is. You going to make enough money or enough to give back. It’s like what are you pushing it for? Kanye was that person who made me think, even if I like them as an artist don’t take from him and don’t really look up to him. Take your inspirations how you take him. Then as I got older around 14, and I heard J. Cole, I had to become a lyrical fucking genius off rip. I’m already smart, fuck this party music shit none of that I ain’t wit it. I had to be a lyrical god. Niggas started reading dumb books and shit like that, we were already reading and doing our shit but J. Cole really. I’m real psychological ass nigga so I like D notes and shit. Every Edgar Allan Poe book I read. I like the dark shit.”
Swisher Found His Personality In ATL
“I gained less of the music, but I gained more a certain type of personality. I feel like I’m an East St. Louis nigga with an ATL nigga’s heart. I can be a real ATL nigga but I’m an East St. Louis nigga too. When you 14 you know where you from. I went to high school in ATL, but I was still moving. I understand certain shit. In ATL I jumped off the porch. I ain’t with my mom all the time, I ain’t with my uncle all the time and I ain’t with my cousin all the time. At that time, I was going out by myself playing football and other shit. What ATL gave me is I grew up there in the sense that I was fucking bitches there, kickin’ there, going to parties and really learning how to function and make money. ATL gave me the growing up, how to make money and hustle. I barely pay attention from the music shit out there. ATL is its own industry out there. I feel like niggas just take inspiration and just copy them. Everybody uses the same shit, it’s the same pot. I feel like ATL is the driving force of the industry. Without us, you have no sauce period. We have the mainstream sound and the underground sound, that shit doesn’t make any sense. And you got niggas like me who’s going to create a new sound. So it’s like everything comes out ATL no matter what you do you come to ATL and find some crazy shit. Even the fact that everyone is doing the whole Migos shit. The “tap tap” rap. Two years ago, that made me not want to do any of that stuff. I ain’t gonna flex, I can show some shit niggas are doing now from four years ago. That’s what inspires me not to do it. I started creating shit and testing shit and after two years of doing it I have reached that point when you talented and you hear some shit that’s lit.”
