Rapper Denzel Curry on Stage Diving, Fame & Survival

0:00Mo Gilligan: Hey, what's up, people? My name is Mo Gilligan. Right now, you're listening to the Beginning, Middle and End podcast. And what a treat of an artist we have for you today. Hailing from Florida, he comes from the XXL class of 2016, which had names like Lil Uzi Vert. You had 21 Savage and Anderson.Paak, just to name a few. We speak about absolutely everything. the importance of owning your masters when you sign on the dotted line to what it's even like to stage style. So please, welcome to the podcast, Denzel Curry.

0:36Denzel Curry: First of all, thanks for coming on the pod, bruv. Oh, you're welcome, man.

0:38Mo Gilligan: Thanks for coming on the pod, man. And I know you're here on tour as well. Yeah, I was on tour.

0:42Denzel Curry: I just finished with Deftones. I was on tour with them and Drug Church. So shout out to Deftones and Drug Church.

0:48Mo Gilligan: How was that? No, they were hella cool.

0:50Denzel Curry: That was like the smoothest tour I've been on. And I've been on a lot of tours. but that was the smoothest. That was like, everybody was cool from Deftones themselves to Drug Church, like the act before me. Man, everybody was cool. Everybody was a delight to work with. Everybody didn't step on nobody's toes. We was all like hanging with each other in the catering.

1:10Mo Gilligan: Nah, it was hella cool, man. So like, when you're performing, like, because you don't describe yourself as a rapper, you describe yourself as an artist.

1:18Denzel Curry: I mean, listen man, I do rap. Like, let me not celebrate it too, but I do, describe myself as an artist because that's what I wanted to be growing up. I just didn't know it was going to end up being like this. I always see myself as an artist first. And then rap just took me to a place where I can never be. But that's why I feel so passionate about it. I always describe myself as an artist because the way I look at the music, I don't look at it like music. I look at it like, okay, this is a piece that's going into the world.

1:47Mo Gilligan: And being from Florida, how has that influenced your sound?

1:51Denzel Curry: I mean, you know, just stuff that's around and stuff that you hear from your brothers and your family and stuff like that. But growing up, like the local guys was like Iceberg, Ball, Greasy, Sea Ride, Dunk Riders, you know. And then, you know, you get your Tricks, your Trinas, you get your Rick Rosses, you get Flow Riders, Pitbulls. You get all of them there. Piccolo. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. And then that was all around and everything. and it was like growing up in Florida, if you wasn't listening to Iceberg, you was listening to Lil Wayne. That's how it was for me, like middle school growing up, you know?

2:25Denzel Curry: Yeah, yeah, yeah. You either got all the dedications or you got Strictly for the Streets coming out. And yeah, man, it was just that. And then, you know, Ross coming out with like God Forgives, I Don't, Teflon Don, Deep Rated Rap. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Like those albums, insane. And of course, Trick, you know, Trick is always going to be a legend.

2:45Mo Gilligan: you know what I'm saying like you know in terms of the environment because I've only been to I've been to Florida twice but then I guess for me I've been to like tourist Florida

2:56Denzel Curry: yeah you've been to like

2:57Mo Gilligan: South Beach and stuff

2:58Denzel Curry: I went Orlando

2:59Mo Gilligan: oh wait no that's not that bad yeah but how does that influence the sound because I remember going to Florida I done a show there last year and February it was hot and how does that influence the sound in your surroundings when it comes to making music. But really it's like the slang and the environment that I was like grew up in

3:19Denzel Curry: and like that I was around at the time. So we getting a whole lot of sounds in Florida, you know, it's not just like music because musically, you know, dance is big and like in Miami. Yeah. Dance is super big in Miami, you know, Latin music is super big in Miami. And then you got, you know, dance hall, reggae. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Because that's what I asked.

3:39Mo Gilligan: Because when I, I only went to Florida because there's a massive, there's a massive Jamaican community.

3:45Denzel Curry: Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. My mom, yeah, yeah.

3:47Mo Gilligan: So that's where I went because people, I was in Atlanta and there were some people and I was like, yo, man, you need to come to Florida, man. Yeah, a beer Jamaican. So I went there

3:56Denzel Curry: and I can't lie,

3:57Mo Gilligan: there's probably two, two that came to the show. So I was like, hey. But she was in Orlando though.

4:02Denzel Curry: If you would have came to Miami, it would have been a whole different story. Oh, really? Miami, West Palm, Brad County, it would have been a whole different story because that's where a lot of them be at. You know what I'm saying? So that's why I was like, when I come out to London, I know y 'all got good Jamaican food. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Toronto, Miami, New York. Those are like the places where I know they got good Jamaican food. Everywhere else, they be on that bullshit. I don't know what it is. They was like, I remember we was in Cleveland one time. We was on tour, and it was like a shitty day, right?

4:31Denzel Curry: Bro, man, they was like, yeah, there's the Jamaican food. They was like, oh, yeah, there's the Jamaican food across the street, and it's real deal good Jamaican. And I'm like, lady, we in Cleveland.

4:43Denzel Curry: fuck y 'all know about Jamaican food y 'all don't know shit about Jamaican food like I'm a bit of Jamaican food snob so I was like I know when it's good like especially when you in LA I get my Jamaican food made by my homegirl Jazz cause she's actually Jamaican you feel me she's like she be sheffing that shit up and she be doing my meal preps and shit so like I'm like I'm a bit of a snob so they be like oh you ever go to We Jammin not shitting on them but I'm like man I'll probably eat some Belizean food before I eat Jamaican food in Los Angeles bro cause I know y 'all don't got no good Jamaican food bro like I already just know I'm laughing cause I've beaten to that

5:24Mo Gilligan: I've beaten that that's why I'm like man like

5:29Denzel Curry: that's come on man yo I remember I was in Japan bro they was saying they was having like a Jamaican party in Japan bro where

5:39Mo Gilligan: was it in Osaka Sucker. Or Tokyo.

5:42Denzel Curry: No, we was in Tokyo. So my homies that was in there, you know, I got black homies that live in Japan. They have Japanese. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I wanted to go hang with them. Man, I go up and it's like a Japanese dude just spinning nothing but dance hall, cutting it off too early. I was sick. Cutting too early. And it was like, yeah, they serve Jamaican food too. I'm like. Yeah. What's it saying? You ever had jerkless chick? that they try to pass it off to jerk chicken. So what was the sauce? There was no sauce.

6:13Mo Gilligan: I was like,

6:14Denzel Curry: man, this jerkless ass chicken, boy.

6:16Mo Gilligan: What did you say there? I'm a mean ass chicken. Did you say it was that? Did you do the fake? Because some people do that.

6:22Denzel Curry: Nah, nah, nah. So my boy made his own hot sauce and then I put it on there and the hot sauce actually tasted like real jerk. So I was like, oh, all right. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, this is it. You know what I'm saying? like this is what they needed the whole time yeah yeah yeah yeah so man I was

6:41Mo Gilligan: just like bruh yeah something nah so in terms of traveling because you I know you performed here at O2 with Deftones yep and I seen I seen some of the clips and stuff and you know they're like metal what's it for you like as an artist when you're performing to different crowds when you're performing around the world but especially supporting you know I mean like artists

7:05Denzel Curry: like deftones well here's the thing though like people associate me as being like hardcore or like rock or metal adjacent because like obviously um the music that they hear you know i'm saying the festivals that i get on like for instance like um breakout like outbreak outbreak festival and then you know obviously the rage against machine cover really like took it to new heights and everybody I just felt like I was in the wrong genre. They'd just be like, yo, I love when Denzel rap, but I feel like he'll blow up if he was actually in a punk band or something. You know?

7:42Mo Gilligan: Could you be doing stage dives and stuff like this? Oh, for sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Man, if you look at my Instagram right now, man, I started stage dives.

7:48Denzel Curry: I've seen it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

7:49Mo Gilligan: You jump and then you do stage dives and all this stuff. I mean, yeah, not as much because a lady tried to sue me one time in Canada. Yeah, swell. What happened? So what? You jumped in and so what?

7:59Denzel Curry: No, no, she tried to sue me because her kid teeth got knocked out because somebody jumped off stage. Like, no, let me tell you. Some kid, like some kid. No, wait, hold on. No, no, let me tell you. Let me tell you stuff. Like, so, man, I'm performing. I'm on tour with Illegal Civ. It's us, Trash Talk. We going crazy, and there's a bunch of skaters that's on that tour too, right? And then Mikey Alfred was showing the short film. So after he shows the short film, then the acts start going off. so they'll do trash talk and then i'll go go on next and then maybe show me the body which is another band shout out to show me the body um we was at the show and i told everybody stage dove doing one of my songs and shit so the lady was like we're suing denzel you gotta get my kids teeth fixed because he came over broke your teeth and then i was like okay let's look at the footage because i don't remember jumping in the crowd they looked at the footage i didn't jump in the crowd i was like you can sue them you can't sue me oh yeah it was like you can see one of them she instantly dropped it it was just like she instantly like stopped thank god for the footage though yeah she was like yeah you can sue one of them because i didn't jump at all and she was like

9:09Mo Gilligan: oh so they tried to sue you try listen man don't get me wrong as a comic it'll be amazing to that

9:16Denzel Curry: stage dive it doesn't really work in comedy don't get no like how you gonna do that you tell a joke the punchline hit yeah

9:22Mo Gilligan: I'm just like nah because it's parts of it's parts of any performer where you look at one side and you say ah man that looks fun man but there must be a part of you does it not feel a bit dangerous or are you just so like is the adrenaline so high you gotta know it's like

9:36Denzel Curry: the shows would let you know

9:38Mo Gilligan: do you ever look in people's eyes

9:39Denzel Curry: and you're like I'm gonna jump oh yeah they know even if I did jump they were just like yeah but it gotta be so turnt that like they'll just let it fly

9:49Mo Gilligan: because I see some of the videos where some people get their stuff stolen as well, like chains and stuff.

9:53Denzel Curry: I had my chains on. My fans ain't stealing nothing from me. Is it? I would give my chains away before I do some shit. I would... You take it off? I'll give it, get it, yeah. Give it to somebody from the camp.

10:03Mo Gilligan: See, I've always wanted to ask this, man. Because artists look like there's so much in the moment of performing that I sit there and I'm like, is this just a spur-of-the-moment thing? Is it like you tell your people, listen, I'm going to stage that, make sure there's someone in there. Oh, no, it's not prepared. the energy gotta be so up that you just do it yeah yeah yeah

10:23Denzel Curry: the energy gotta be high so if the energy is that high

10:26Mo Gilligan: and everybody's going having a good time do it and speaking of energy when you perform Ultimate because I feel like that was like one of your kind of breakout hits in terms of when I feel like there's a way that artists can use social media and social media can benefit artists and people would use it on like memes and stuff like this like Ultimate? yes

10:48Denzel Curry: yeah yeah yeah yeah when that was happening it was like when vine was popping yeah so like ultimate carried me for like damn near past 10 years bro and it still goes off to this day like that song still goes off to this day and really it was just because i made that i made that song just for the fans really and like i just put it out there at like five in the morning and the next day it kind of just took a life of its own everybody started making memes about it with the sunglasses and stuff started making more memes about it and then next thing you know it just became a thing that that was it then the bottle flip challenge changed everything then everybody was calling me the bottle flip guy and i'm like i'm not the bottle flip guy i can actually like rap yeah yeah yeah people you know i'm saying but that took a life of its own and then it was like when a song is bigger than the artist and then i didn't want that to happen so i just kept working and kept doing what I do.

11:44Denzel Curry: Next thing you know, Cloud Cobain happens and now I'm like, I got two hits under my belt. Then Ricky happens. Now I got three. Then Glass Animals. Now I got four. Then Walking. I got five. You know what I'm saying? And Walking just went platinum and Cloud Cobain went platinum before Ultimate did.

12:01Mo Gilligan: So it was like,

12:02Denzel Curry: okay, not only am I not a one-hit wonder because of Ultimate, it's because, like, you know, not because of that, I got other singles that went off too and on top of that I went platinum more than once you know Nas was like oh you went platinum yeah that's nice but let me see you do the same thing twice so I did the same thing twice but if it wasn't for Ultimate you know what I'm saying and before Ultimate if it wasn't for Threats then Ultimate which Ultimate really took a life of its own I wouldn't be in this spot just talking to y 'all right now you know I probably would but it probably would have been longer but Ultimate is like what really set it off and And every show just goes off to this day.

12:46Mo Gilligan: Was that important for you at that time to definitely push out music and prove to people that you're like, no, there's more beyond what you're seeing from this track? Because it's like you're saying, if people are saying, are you a meme? Because sometimes you can hear a track and I feel like it happens today where you can hear a track and you're like, oh, I don't know the artist, but I know the track from a meme. Do you know what I mean? Yeah. So did that inspire you or push you even more to be like, no, I need to show you a lot of my music. Oh, for sure.

13:20Denzel Curry: Because I'm like, I got to show people that I could actually do this for real, for real. And then it just so happened, a little bit of clown makeup, a black and white video, me killing myself on a song where I'm singing. That was the one that just did it. That was just like, oh, everybody was like, what? What? What? Crazy. and then that project everybody loves that project you know they love taboo yeah you know they love imperial and ult would kind of spawn like because of ultimate like ultimate set up a lot of things for me like the whole ult thing the the um everything that transpired after that me wanting to just make hits and just do this and you know that's that was like the basis especially when claude cobain here i was like oh it's hot right now i gotta keep going and i just never

14:09Mo Gilligan: stopped yeah because i always wonder that with artists because i feel like when you look at what how social media has changed so much within music and you talk about artists and you talk about streaming and festivals the live experience i feel like you have a lot in terms of your arsenal where you can you know you have your your tracks that that go off do you know i mean like where you're like, cool, this is my, I don't know if you want to call it like your, if you compare it to like wrestling, this is like your finishing moves, you know what I mean? It's the one that the crowd, this is what they're here for.

14:43Mo Gilligan: They want to see this one. They want to jump and do the mosh pits. But then you're actually like a very good live performer as a rapper as well, where you can hear the clarity in your lyrics. But then you're also able to be somewhat of a personality as well. no because it's true because i feel like sometimes the the persona of a rapper can sometimes like you even when you come in today you would you was just on vibes do you know what i mean yeah i mean yeah so i guess it's like there must be a lot in the makeup of any artist where you're like okay i have to think of this i have to think of that i need to think of this but also have to be an artist that you're like okay cool i need you to take me seriously because there must be parts of your your makeup as an artist where you're like okay cool like you know i can do this this and this

15:35Denzel Curry: yeah i mean like when they see me get serious that's when they get an album an album is like me completely serious so i take albums completely serious even if you don't get the point i take them serious um but when i'm just chilling i'm this i'm goofy i'm crazy yeah i might come in here a somersault you know what I'm saying like you never know what you're gonna get and I tell people like there's two things you don't wanna see me as you don't wanna see me mad and you don't wanna see me serious or like and if I'm not talking that's that's a problem

16:08Mo Gilligan: yeah yeah you know what I'm saying

16:09Denzel Curry: is that your switch off time that's mine yeah like you know how people get hot when they get mad I get cold oh yeah yeah yeah it's the opposite yeah you gotta watch out from people yeah they're people rising temperature I drop I drop in temperature

16:22Mo Gilligan: you're the quiet one and people go

16:24Denzel Curry: bro why is he quiet yeah and you know it's crazy i talk so much and they be like oh man bro you'd be like sometimes you so so annoying or you say too much when i don't say anything they'd be like

16:33Mo Gilligan: hey bro you good i'm like yeah yeah i just felt like being quiet today as an artist like you've been very outspoken we've talked about like your personal loss of excess tentation how did that shape you as an artist because i feel like grief in any part of life you know can can definitely change the trajectory of where you go do you know i mean but how did that change you it depends it

16:59Denzel Curry: depends like for instance like when my brother dying it made me want to be more socially aware about the world like my brother got killed by police so that made me more aware when x died it just made me understand like yo i gotta keep going like that just made me want to keep going as a rapper like as an artist you know i'm saying it's just like give hope to where like you know it's not even like a fill a void kind of thing because i've been doing my thing but it's just more so like i really gotta live because like it's just like one to gun violence one to police brutality i seen both sides of the spectrum you know i mean so it's just like with that kind of thing it just made me want to be more of a force like i gotta really survive you know what i'm saying it's like survival to me at this point is and you know you get survivor's guilt which is is also like you know what i deal with but other than that like the way i deal with it is like therapy writing you know i'm saying like just stuff like that it is it's such a it's such a weird feeling you know i'm saying just dealing with that kind of stuff so it's like gets gets

18:10Mo Gilligan: very like touchy so i guess music is your pure escapism in a sense of when you're performing is that when you feel like the most free or is it the process of writing and creating because for me as a comic i probably enjoy the process of before i get to do the tours and i'm doing my small shows that i call work in progress shows because now i'm just like oh i'm free i can see where this goes because the real work for me would then start when i'm on stage the lights the camera

18:41Denzel Curry: everyone's coming out that's the that's the person that they're going to get that's the image that they're gonna see you know what i'm saying with the lights and camera on i just turn it on boom boom boom i go there kill it say what i need to say and i turn it to when i'm on stage i turn it to a wrestler like i turn it to like i'll be thinking i'm like the rock or stone cold when i'm on stage like so i'll be like on the mic like this side makes some noise that side makes some noise what you looking at he's like you know what i'm saying so i turn it to a whole different person then when i'm off stage the adrenaline be so up but when it comes down when i make the music itself i try to get personal i hate touching on subjects but as i get older i'm getting more comfortable and i understand that in order to grow you got to be uncomfortable you know i'm saying and that's where a lot of this stem from so it's like everything i said on taboo i reiterated and explained it on melt and now that i got no and then everything else in between that's like okay that's just to help you out so y 'all not musicless but then when you get that one serious album it just releases like all the all the it just peels back another layer

19:55Mo Gilligan: you get it out yeah it's like it's in the system it's built up you're like yeah because you never

20:00Denzel Curry: know who is gonna help at the end of the day like and that's my therapy you know i'm saying i never know what's gonna help even when i talk about like my personal life and things i've been through traumatic wise a lot of people come up to me like that was brave and i went through the same thing and this and third so i'm like okay this does help people yeah yeah you know how do you find the uk could you hear a lot man i've been coming here since 2014 yeah yeah that was the first time i ever came anywhere came to like you know i always hear about europe i've never been there you know i'm saying you know you meet people to be like yeah i'm from this and third and just like but But when I came over here the first time, it was tight.

20:42Denzel Curry: The first place I ever performed in the UK was at this place called Birthdays.

20:46Mo Gilligan: Hey, that's in Dalston, isn't it?

20:48Denzel Curry: Yeah. Yeah.

20:50Mo Gilligan: Yeah, I remember that show. Okay. Everyone used to like, a lot of American acts would always perform in Dalston. I knew that because I used to hear how ASAP Rocky, when he used to come here, he would always go there.

21:03Denzel Curry: No, that was like the place they always had me at. So I went to birthdays and then I opened up for Schoolboy Q when he was here. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that was a minute ago. That was 2014.

21:17Mo Gilligan: How do you find it in the UK? Because I do hear these comparisons that people often say and a lot of American artists say that they perform. They prefer performing in, I want to say the UK, maybe Europe as opposed to America. Is there any truth in that? That's a lot of truth in that.

21:36Denzel Curry: Because, you know, Americans, it was like, oh, we could see them because, like, they live in America. You know what I'm saying? Over here, it's more so like, oh, y 'all over here? Y 'all coming over here? Because you never know. Like, they may have a favorite artist, but they just don't tour. Or they may have a favorite artist, but he has priorities that he can't tour over here or can't go across any border. Because they got, you know, like, F's on their report card so they can never get in there.

22:02Mo Gilligan: I forget that in the States.

22:04Denzel Curry: Yeah. And, you know, so when they come over here, it's like, boom. One of my favorite places, I ain't going to lie, this may sound controversial, but, man, Russia. Really? Yeah. What's it like in Russia? Russia? Insane. It was like crazy. St. Petersburg, Moscow. Every time we did a tour and it was like, oh, yeah, we got to go to Russia. We knew how them shows were going to go. Is it? Those shows were chaotic and great.

22:32Mo Gilligan: like so like in terms of because i know you've done some of the festivals here as well like in the uk and i know you've performed with the likes of like fred again and stuff yeah um how do you find like uk music is there any uk acts that you want to work with that

22:50Denzel Curry: right now i enjoy working with i want to keep working with fred again um i want to be able to work with jim legacy because i heard his tape his tape is really dope yeah man um who else i want to work with. I want to work with SD Kid because it just reminds me of the stuff I came up with.

23:07Mo Gilligan: I met SD Kid at Clout Festival,

23:10Denzel Curry: I think in Poland.

23:11Mo Gilligan: Yeah.

23:12Denzel Curry: Like, long time ago.

23:13Mo Gilligan: Mm.

23:14Denzel Curry: And he was wearing a Missing Sense Thursday shirt.

23:17Mo Gilligan: Yeah.

23:17Denzel Curry: But yeah, met him and that was like a minute ago. I can't tell you what he looked like, but yeah. It's not

23:26Mo Gilligan: Timothy Charlemagne, no.

23:28Denzel Curry: Nah, I can't. I don't know.

23:31Mo Gilligan: it could have been

23:32Denzel Curry: it could have been

23:33Mo Gilligan: that he's the he's the musician's Banksy isn't it so everyone's like with with um everyone's like oh yeah like it might be I think it was nah cause he was

23:43Denzel Curry: wearing a mask so I don't know even when you met him even when I met him say

23:47Mo Gilligan: no no way man he didn't take it off a little bit he didn't see a little bit of the mask no that you're doing a poker face nah he really didn't take it off like dead serious he didn't take it off so how how are you finding it as an artist now, are you, are you enjoying where you're at in terms of your being able to make the music you want to make? Of course. Because, you know, there's always this talk of like streaming and as an artist, you know, you're not making any money when you're technically putting out tracks because of the streaming numbers and stuff, but, you know. nah, I'm making bread.

24:20Denzel Curry: Oh, yeah? Yeah, for sure. Because I'm like, I do a distro deal. I'm damn near independent. So what's a distro deal

24:27Mo Gilligan: for anybody listening?

24:28Denzel Curry: Like, it's a distribution deal. So you, like you work with a label you sign with them so they could do distribution for yourself but a lot

24:34Mo Gilligan: of that stuff comes from the team that you're with and basically like i own my masters because

24:39Denzel Curry: that's where i was like where when ultimate blew up and then double excel and then imperial all that stuff was coming out at the time a lot of um places wanted to sign me at one point and i didn't know what i wanted until i watched this documentary on nwa's fall like the fall of nwa and the rise of death row and suge knight said something like they could keep the money i just want the masters i was like why would he say that because i didn't know what what to ask for in my deal i just knew i want to create a control and nobody telling me what to do yeah yeah of course and you know i remember that's what i want and i didn't even know what it was i was like why would he say you want the masters so i and then i talked talked to one of my managers and he was like that's what you want he's like yeah and i was like yeah he's like okay cool so we went to every meeting asked him the same thing he's like okay we want marketing dollars he wants creative control and he wants the masters those are the three so we went to every label and all of them was like we could do two out of three and well i was like what's the third one they can't do and that's when i knew where my money was the masters like that's why you like you kind of You use your masters to like, you know, you could license the music out.

25:57Denzel Curry: You could do syncs and stuff like that for movies, video games, all that stuff. And that's why I was like so like animate about like, I don't care who you got on the label. I don't care who you signed in the past. If I can't have this one thing that I know I'm going to eat off of for the rest of my life, I don't want to sign nowhere. And then Loma Vista ended up showing me mad love. and we told them the same thing at first they was hesitant and then they just ended up saying okay yeah and let us let us rock it was like we do three albums you know what i'm saying he was like three album deal distro deal gave him on one album so i really only had two albums to do left after that because we gave one album out for free called imperial so they took imperial we gave them two new tracks they put that out and then after that they was like okay we already got the one album out so all you owe us is two so i did taboo which was had clout colbain on it and a lot of my big songs like we did that one and then after that we did uh zoo and it took me it didn't even take me that long to do zoo it took me like six months to do that one and ricky was on that one and it was like wait wait wait wait wait wait you like you know so that's basically what happened

27:17Mo Gilligan: so you're in a place where when it comes to music you know what you want to get out of it because i guess if you're in a place because your xxl class is insane yeah like that's almost 10 years ago now yeah it actually is 10 years ago and in that did you sign the deal before no so So that was after.

27:37Denzel Curry: I was unsigned. Oh, shit. I was unsigned when I did that. Yeah. And then I signed a deal. Like, people were coming up to me like, hey, you sign to anybody? I was like, no. So you want to sign to Atlantic Rec?

27:49Mo Gilligan: I was like, hell no. I know what y 'all do to people. Okay. So I guess for you at that point then, when you're signed, well, you're at that point, that XXL class is crazy because you've got like 21 Savage in there. Lil Uzi Vert. 21 Savage,

28:07Denzel Curry: Lil Uzi Vert, Yachty, Kodak Black, Anderson Paak, Lil Dicky, Dave East, G Herbo, Designer. And you wasn't signed.

28:17Mo Gilligan: I was not signed. That's insane. So you then basically had the cream of the crop in terms of who you wanted to sign from.

28:23Denzel Curry: Yeah, I mean,

28:24Mo Gilligan: in some ways.

28:25Denzel Curry: Realistically, there were labels, of course, I wanted to sign too. You know what I'm saying? But it was just like what made the most sense at the time. And Loma ended up

28:34Mo Gilligan: Who was the label you wanted to sign to?

28:36Denzel Curry: I mean, before I even knew any label or who I wanted to sign to, the one label I did want to sign to, there were two that I did when I was younger, when I didn't know shit about labels. There was only two I wanted to sign to. It was either out of Stone's Throw that had MF Doom, Mad, and all these guys. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was either out of them or Good Music. Oh, really? Those were the two. How come it's Good Music? do you see their roster that they had at the time yeah yeah yeah man they had connie well connie west pusher t big kid cuddy big sean common dweller mr hudson you know i'm saying they had a lot of great tiana taylor yeah yeah that was a amazing roster consequence they had everybody at that time so of course i would want to sign there especially what they was doing with you know with the Good Fridays and stuff and Dark Twisted Fantasy and like Kid Cudi's Man on the Moon album, the Finally Famous albums, that was the record label I wanted to go to yeah, was that like some of your influences at the time where it's like

29:42Mo Gilligan: and I compare it to only comedy in a sense where you're like oh if I do a special I want it to come out on this platform because everyone's got their special, like Netflix for me as a comic was like if I put out a body of work, Netflix is the place. Whereas before Generation, before me as a comic would say, HBO. Yeah. Because everyone has theirs there because you're inspired because you see your heroes on there. So was that the same for you, seeing people that you admire? It was like definitely like that.

30:11Denzel Curry: You know what I'm saying? And then Kanye was working close with one of my favorite rappers. He was working close with Lupe Fiasco at the time.

30:16Mo Gilligan: And you know,

30:17Denzel Curry: and you get these other artists he was working close with, like Mos Def. And you're just seeing like even a production, like Charlie Wilson, all that stuff. like what they was able to create together in that time that's what i wanted to be a part of yeah yeah yeah so that's why i wanted to sign with good music because they it it just resonated close with what i wanted to go with yeah you know do you find that like with musicians and the music industry that information is kind of suppressed in some ways because you said you had

30:48Mo Gilligan: to find it from a documentary do you know what i mean i mean yeah they don't want nobody to know

30:53Denzel Curry: like yeah you could be able to do it yourself and stuff like that but i feel like everybody could get money for real for real like the labels if you keep the artists happy you could get money out of them for show for show like let them put their kids through college with the stuff that they're doing you know i'm saying so that's what i'm doing with my stuff you know and we just licensing and doing what we got to do are you kind of stepping into that big brother mode now because now you're

31:16Mo Gilligan: 31 and you're going to get artists back that i can trace back 10 years ago from 2016 and seeing you on that xl xxl you know cover but also part of that class that i like oh i you know i grew up watching you and listening to you so does it mean a lot for you now to kind of pass down that information yeah of how the industry is now it's a hip-hop community so you got to pass down

31:45Denzel Curry: information yeah i'm saying and if they take it they take it if they don't they don't you know they'll be like man shut your old ass up like you know but but man it's like i feel i would be doing people a disservice if i didn't pass that information you know that's my whole thing

32:04Denzel Curry: earlier this year you launched your new hip-hop super group the syfe yeah i mean we all get a lot hip-hop groups no more, bro. I mean, it's not even, it's a super group. Yeah, yeah. I had to explain it because people would be like, oh, it's a new group and they're all going to stick together. Listen, it's a super group because all these guys have established careers. All of them could stand on their own two feet. It's not like we came up together, you know what I'm saying, from the sandbox on up and we all trying to make it together. That's a group. And then you get one star out that group. But this is a super group, which is a bunch of superstars.

32:37Denzel Curry: Like how you would see Chris Bosh, Dwayne Wade, and LeBron on the same team.

32:41Mo Gilligan: Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know what I'm saying?

32:42Denzel Curry: Like, they working together. So, that's what I meant by saying it's a super group. It's a super group compiled of rappers and producers. The rappers are myself, Kina Yada, Ferg, Tia Corrine, BK The Ruler, right? And then you got the producers. I love it. Beautiful Man from Working On Dine, Oogie Main from Working On Dine, I Love Kimchi from Working On Dine, Swaggy Ono from Working On Dine, Benny X worked on a couple stuff too. so you get everybody compiled in this one super group and then shoot i get texts from people like man you know i'm part of the site like one of the homies was like man i definitely want to be a part of the site um got the 03 greedo he hit me up he was like man you know i don't you know i'm psych material what's up rug rat like man it was like i know y 'all need a white boy in the group like and then um what they call it man uh little nar he hit me up he was like yo that's like shit hard man whatever y 'all need boy let me know so a lot of people like seeing what's what's happening and it's becoming that's like the community and then a lot of that comes from like just stuff that i was like influenced by which is all the super groups i was like mentioning before like even soul querions also like soul querions um one day as lion um those are super groups to me it's um child rebel soldiers which is pharrell connie west and um lupe fiasco you know and i just wanted to bring that element back to music because of the hip-hop community is i just feel like it's so segregated yeah like you got oh you rap like this you're over here with these rappers you rap like this you over here with these rappers you rap like this you over here with these rappers we don't know where to place you so we're gonna put you over here in this little weird bubble and that's what you are like yeah yeah so the rap game is segregated but all in all the base is still hip-hop it's just different forms of it so it's a hip-hop community at the end of the day who said that hip-hop is just boom bat beats it's not you know i'm saying it's ever evolving like you know i mean so long as the base is hip-hop and there's a hip-hop community like yeah give criticism yeah say what you gotta say so everybody can be sharper but I feel like that would be done more if everybody in the community is working together and we could tell them on the spot like yo you gotta go harder than that so that way we go when it's put out into the world that thing is like oh everybody's like oh I did not expect this because that's the community aspect of it and that's how I was approaching it it's more like a one nation kind of thing

35:21Mo Gilligan: I guess it's like

35:23Denzel Curry: power in numbers because the more of you move together the better it is for everyone.

35:28Mo Gilligan: Yeah, for the labels,

35:30Denzel Curry: for the listener, for everybody. And it's hard to do, don't get me wrong, because you're dealing with a bunch of personalities. But at the same time, you're like, yo, it's about the message. It's about the goal. You know what I'm saying? So it's going to be pushed in that way. And if it takes a life of its own, that's what it does. But the main thing is, it's sparking the brain for all these people to come together and do this.

35:54Mo Gilligan: you got a new album coming out next week

35:56Denzel Curry: yeah how you feeling about this man man I feel pretty good man we've picked the best 8 so you know what I'm saying like we've picked the best 8 tracks so we're just gonna put it out there in the world and be like this is what it's gonna sound like this is what it is you know what I'm saying we get feedback from that and we go into the next one but before we go into the next one I want everybody to like if you wasn't familiar now you're gonna get familiar and then like by the time you get the next one it's just insane Do you find a lot of pressure when it comes to releasing an album?

36:27Mo Gilligan: Because I feel like with music, people can very much kind of focus, hone in on the album. You get people that can listen to an album as soon as it's come out and you get a review online straight away. and I feel like you've done music for well over 10 years now so you've seen the change of you know where someone can bring out a song to maybe a mixtape to an album because I feel like albums can be critiqued in an hour of them being released how is that for you as an artist now?

37:00Denzel Curry: It's a little weird because but then again you gotta think about back in the day people were giving bad reviews to movies and those movies are legendary to this day

37:08Mo Gilligan: you know

37:09Denzel Curry: like people didn't understand The Shining from Stanley Kubrick at that time, right? When that movie came out, they said it was garbage. They said it sucks. Now it's one of the greatest movies of all time, you know? So people don't understand or appreciate something when they get it in its own form because it's so new or it's like, it's such a faraway concept that they wasn't even thinking about. Then they just group it in with everything else, but it's not like everything else. You know what I'm saying? And then the moment they go back to it, they'd be like, oh, I get what they were trying to do.

37:40Denzel Curry: oh i get it oh this is great you know i'm saying yeah so people gonna judge first and we're a very judgmental society if not a vain one you know i'm saying because image is a thing too yeah so that's like the whole thing so it's kind of like weird when they say when they try to uh judge things before it comes out but as they stay with it they're gonna be like oh this is they get it once they see the shows oh they really get it once they see the videos and then they piece it all together from how the live aspect of it is and i guess that's you bringing the album to the live

38:15Mo Gilligan: experience giving them the stuff that they want which is like i know you're gonna want to hear this track i have to play this because i just like this track but also give a new a new listener who is maybe 16 yeah i mean it's like coming to your show for the first time and watching you in a place where you're like, he might have staged that. I might get my teeth knocked out. You know what I mean?

38:42Denzel Curry: I mean, shoot.

38:43Mo Gilligan: I didn't do it. That's why I didn't do it. Before you leave, what do you want your legacy to be? What do you want to leave behind as an artist? Because I feel like you're such a well-rounded artist where you're able to kind of perform on tracks in different genres where you still want to kind of you still believing in in the collective of we grow as one do you know what i mean so what does that look like for you in terms of a well-rounded artist what you want to leave behind because you said that you know with like your brother passing and close artists to you passing what is that how does that start shaping what you want to do in the next 10 years like what i want

39:28Denzel Curry: to leave behind basically what my legacy is that you got complete truth i was 100 me and that me being 100 myself and telling you exactly who i am that's what i want to leave behind i don't want to leave no store on turn i just want you to understand like i did this and i did in various ways so you could be inspired to be able to do what you got to do you know so i don't want people to be exactly like me i want them to be better than me to be honest you know because that's the whole point there's somebody that was on before me and i took that mental up and i wanted to push it further and then somebody's just gonna come after me and then i want them to push what i was messaging further you know what i'm saying the only reason why i mentioned one nation because that was a vision that i never got to see especially pop being that he was 25 when he passed and that was supposed to be the last album he'd done that's what i want to see before i go

40:21Mo Gilligan: I guess that's also for you as a musician where you're putting out music and each album you're probably putting out you're like ooh I need to put my all in this

40:32Denzel Curry: yeah I mean every album I do that every album I put my all into it

40:36Mo Gilligan: your flow you can spit fast I feel like you on gram oh yeah they know yeah like you on a 140 bpm old school post x pal type of beat

40:49Denzel Curry: oh man yeah bruv I mean I know I can do it I definitely know I can do it yeah

40:55Mo Gilligan: alright selector run the track oh my

40:58Denzel Curry: selector we ain't gonna make you freestyle moveable's always yeah

41:07Mo Gilligan: how do you feel about that when it make you not freestyle I hate that shit yeah I honestly hate because I heard Vince Staples say that that he hates like when as an artist you gotta come on a show and you have to freestyle

41:20Denzel Curry: yeah you don't see a country artist doing that shit. You don't see an R &B artist doing that shit. It's the same as a comic because they say tell a joke.

41:26Mo Gilligan: Tell a joke. Like, all right, bitch.

41:28Denzel Curry: Why the chick cross the road, bitch? Like, what the fuck you want from me, dog? Like, it's just crazy. Like, every time, yo, you got some bars for us. I just gave you fucking 16 tracks. Yeah. Like, what you mean if I got bars for you? Play the album. The bars is right there. You want me to waste material? Fresh. Now I got to think of more material because you want me to give you something for free? Fuck you. Give you these recycled-ass bars. Like, I'm going to hit red, rose, white, silver. I didn't think that, man.

42:04Mo Gilligan: It must be so under pressure. Hey, yeah, yeah, come on, man. Around the beat, you're like, oh, come on, man.

42:09Denzel Curry: I'm like, bro, I'm tired of this shit. Gucci Mane was like, I remember when Gucci Mane was like, Gucci Mane, you got freestyle for us? He was like, it's going to cost you like 20K. I was like he was like gotta start charging bro he started charging yeah man shoot

42:22Mo Gilligan: because if you do one you gotta do all of them boy

42:24Denzel Curry: yeah I'm like nah but nah honestly it's such a pleasure

42:28Mo Gilligan: to have you on the pod man I'm a massive fan and just to see like your trajectory I was watching even like this morning I was watching like your tiny desk like and I was like oh rah because I feel like that's one of those moments where you watch an artist and you're like the clarity the live performance performing with people on camera in the moment I feel like you've got so many strings to your bow do you know what I mean so it's going to be so intriguing to see your next 10 years do you know what I mean as an artist so yeah this my friend has been your beginning, middle and end thank you very much bro thank you

43:02Denzel Curry: appreciate you man

43:03Mo Gilligan: appreciate you man

43:04Denzel Curry: hey what's up thank you so much for listening to the podcast today

43:08Mo Gilligan: now a lot goes in to making each episode I know you hear my voice but there's a team behind the scenes who helped make it and if you did enjoy it I'd really really appreciate if you could show the love to them by giving us five stars and if you also have the time please leave us a review it's always appreciated and we love reading the comments and of course we want to keep making it better thank you for listening and have a great day peace