Things can go away just like that. You got to be always respectful and nice and positive.
Rich Brian
It doesn't really bother me if people misunderstand me. It's cool, but you can't do anything about it.
I just say 'Amen' a lot. It's just about being grateful and never taking things for granted.
I'm inspired by a lot of things. I came from Indonesia. I grew up watching a lot of YouTube videos and was inspired by all these other things. I just love making music. I don't think I'm trying to profit off anything. I just like creating stuff.
Some fan literally broke into my house. He literally came in and said, 'I'm a huge fan. I brought you food.' He brought me three boxes of noodles.
I'm listening to Tame Impala, Mac DeMarco, Frank Ocean, Childish Gambino. I'm just trying to just get as many different inspirations as I can. I love artists that can adapt and have different styles.
It's pretty hard as an Asian rapper to not be put in a box. I do my best to avoid that.
'Dat $tick' was the first song I tried to be serious on. Then I thought, Wow, what if I really did this seriously? How dope would that be?'
I didn't want to be one of those people that does something that blows up and keeps doing it for way too long.
I used to play the drums when I was, like, 5 through 10.
All I have to do is to do my thing. I don't have to talk about it like, 'Oh, I'm representing for Asians.' I'm just... doing it.
I always liked to draw, and when I was a kid, the Internet wasn't big at all, so I would go to Internet cafes and search Google images for cartoon characters and save it to my USB drive.
In my opinion, an album has a story from start to finish and has a concrete concept.
Learning how to rap actually improved my English, because it forced me to talk fast, and I used to suck at that.
I very rarely shop. The only money I spend is on, like, Uber and food.
Me and my family used to have a Christian covers band together... like rock Christian music, upbeat, all in Indonesian. The band was called Roasted Peanuts.
My influences are a wide variety: from Dave Chappelle stand-up comedy specials on YouTube, to watching chick-flick comedy movies, to scrolling through stuff people say on the Internet.
I was, like, 12 or 13; the first hip hop song I tried to rapping to was Macklemore's 'Thrift Shop,' and my English was so bad, but learning to rap to different songs really helped me with my pronunciation, and looking at the lyrics on Rap Genius and stuff like that.
When I say 'homeschooled,' I was homeschooled for, like, two years, and then we just stopped. It was me and my parents, and they'd give me homework and stuff like that, but then one day, they just stopped.
Every time I get the chance, I just talk to myself basically in English just to practice my pronunciation.
Honestly, I'm not a big activism or politic guy. I wouldn't say I'm super educated in that stuff, and I feel like I shouldn't speak on things that I don't understand too much.
I don't want to be boxed in or looked at a certain way, as in, 'Yo, he's an Asian rapper.'
I want to write from my own experience.
I stopped playing the drums when I was ten, and I picked up Rubik's Cubes. I was doing that for a while, and then I got into cinematography.
I've known about hip-hop for a long time. The first time it intrigued me was when I saw this music video by Tyga on television. I was intrigued by the whole aesthetic. It was very unique.
I started listening to rap music in 2012 or something, because that was when I started becoming friends with American people, and they showed me rappers to listen to. I actually started listening to Macklemore a lot. He's the first rapper I started listening to.
I like lyrical rappers and turn up rappers.
My sister sings, and my brother plays the keyboard.
I actually, honestly don't look into politics that much.
I started playing the drums at five years old and used to listen to a lot of screamo bands like Asking Alexandria, Dream Theater, and Attack Attack!
I started making raps in 2014, recording stuff from my iPhone and putting them together in Sony Vegas, which is a video editing program.
At, like, 11, I think, that was just me watching a lot of YouTube videos, and I whenever I had the chance, I would talk to myself, practise pronunciation. Then I found out about hip hop and became friends with American people through Twitter. I was like, 'Yo, I need to be in a country where everybody speaks the same language.'
Hip hop helped me learn about a whole bunch of American culture.
In my neighborhood, there are stray goats everywhere, and, someone owns it. Someone has a farm full of goats. At daytime, they just let them loose, but then at nighttime, they just come back. So, it's like, in daytime, the whole neighborhood is just filled with goats walking around.
I say funny stuff in my songs sometimes, but it's still all in the seriousness of the music and the craft.
I say funny stuff in my lyrics to make people laugh, but it's all in the seriousness of the music. I'm just being witty.
I remember in Indonesia, there was this actor in a film that got pretty big internationally, and he went to Hollywood. Seeing an Indonesian guy doing that when I was 13 or 14, it really motivated me.
I've always felt like I could express myself better in English just because the way the grammar works.
I went through a clubbing phase - then, I dunno, dude. The club scene in Jakarta sucks. It's rich kids and kids who are trying to look rich.
I grew up in West Jakarta, in a middle-to-low-class neighbourhood.
My dad put me onto Phil Collins and Dream Theater and all that stuff.
I have very little thoughts on Lil Xan. I think his music is very unique.
One day, I was just thinking about something, and then - you know when you think, and you have that inner voice in your head? I realized it was in English.
I feel like, with an album, that's how you get to know an artist.
I would also love to get into acting. I love being in front of the camera.
When I found out my parents wanted to homeschool me, I was so bummed out. I missed all my friends. But now I realise that if I wasn't homeschooled, I'd be the lamest kid ever - I wouldn't have been able to speak English, for a start.
I wouldn't really call myself a spokesman for anything. All I wanna do is inspire young people everywhere - not just Indonesia.
I'm definitely trying to make longer songs, but if it's short and good, I'm not going to do anything about it.
My dad is constantly looking up my name on Twitter, every single day. He made a Twitter account just for that.
When my family got Internet installed at my house, me and my siblings went crazy and would take turns browsing. I'm homeschooled, too, so I would be on the computer every day. It was so exciting to finally get Internet at my house.
