Gerald Earl Gillum, better known as G-Eazy, understands music and how to create his brand. "It's not money, it's really just having a good idea," says the 23-year-old rapper/songwriter from Oakland, California. It's clear, looking at Eazy's self-produced music catalog, and rows of black-and-white photos of him decked out in classic Americana gears, the indie talent had great "ideas" and consistent efforts for his sound of memorable tunes and bars to come together as a package. But his sound wasn't always channeling 1960s nostalgia (like on Endless Summer) or boasting lifestyle of the ratchet (like on "Loaded"). Growing up in the Bay during the height of the hyphy era, Eazy's musical epiphany came when he arrived in New Orleans for college. While his peers were busy celebrating youths, G locked himself in his dorm room, composing music, and recording tracks. His early determination began to pay off after graduation, hopping on tours, quickly growing from 200 seaters to nearly 1,000-seat venues. Is he a front runner for the new wave of web-savvy indie talents? He's certainly in the race, and quickly running faster than most. While in New York City for a sold-out show, XXL caught up Eazy about zebras, groupies, and oversized t-shirts. —Jaeki Cho (@JaekiCho)

Growing Up in the Bay
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Growing Up in the Bay:

G-Eazy: “I grew up in Oakland and I moved to New Orleans for college. So throughout high school, Mac Dre was everything. I grew up in the midst of the hyphy movement. To us, that was our world. You couldn't escape it. The XXX-sized t-shirts, the waist-36 jeans, obviously much slimmed down now, but that was everything. The Bay Area, it was a bubble. It was a world within itself. It was like, you drive too far south and it's outside of that world. L.A. was different.

“I started rapping in high school and making beats at the same time. Me and my homes, we'd either just skip school or ride the bus after school to my house and set up shop and record until late at night when my mom would kick us out. All through high school, and then I moved out to New Orleans for college to study music business.

“I always knew it was weird, the ghost riding, the big-ass shirts, the dances and all that, but it wasn't until I got out to New Orleans that I realized how weird it was. I got out there and I’m talking Bay slang and I'm playing these songs and they're like, ‘What the fuck are you talking about?’”

Moving out to New Orleans
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Moving to New Orleans:

G-Eazy: “It was crazy. Especially at that time, Wayne was at his peak with all his mixtapes. The Carter III came out my freshman year, so if you can remember what his buzz was like at that time, you couldn't go to any club or any bar in New Orleans and not hear his music all night long. To see somebody just be on top and be embraced by his hometown was crazy. It was inspiring.

“Most people like to do the college thing and have a big social life, hit the bars every night or whatever. I was in my dorm room, Pro Tools set up, working on beats or recording vocals.”

The Turning Point
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The Turning Point:

G-Eazy: “The realistic, legitimate turning point was around the time I graduated college, like a year ago. I was coming to this point like, ‘I'm about to be out of school. Life is about to get real as fuck, and it's time to set myself up to hit the ground and make this shit fucking happen.’ I knew I had to be out there on the road and I knew I had to have a mix tape and a video. I got my first look to go out on tour. It was the only opportunity to go out with Shwayze. In my mind, I was like, ‘Shwayze? I've heard of him. This is dope, to be in front of people every night.’

“I did that tour and then I dropped a mixtape, The Endless Summer, that got picked up by a whole lot of blogs. I released a music video for one of the big records on it called "Run Around Sue" and it got a lot of traction online and a lot of views. That kind of started putting things in motion. I just kept recording after that and the next project I did was all original without samples. I was like, ‘Alright, it's time for me to go to iTunes and get some rent money.’ Now we're out here, touring, and it feels good to finally be on my own tour headlining in front of a packed house that's there to see me.”

Packaging and Visuals

G-Eazy: “I think what it really all comes down to, it's not money. We shot ‘Runaround Sue,’ which was the first video that popped off for me, for like $1,500. We saved up like two shows worth of money and made it happen. It's really just having a good idea. You got to brainstorm with the right people, with the right minds and just work on it. For ‘Run Around Sue’ we did our homework. We watched all the '60s movies to get inspiration for the story. You want people to talk about you. If you got a video just like everybody else with your homeys in front of a liquor store, what is there to talk about? Not cool. I'm not going to watch it. But if you're like, ‘There are fucking asses all over and a zebra that walks by and its on a beach.’ It's just the idea in the first place, and that's something that we work on before we go in and shoot."

Next Step
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Next Steps

G-Eazy: “The next step is more music. I feel like, as long as you have great content coming out, or you're at least working toward that, and every song you're working to get better and tell a better story and make harder tracks, it'll keep pushing you forward. When I first started playing my own headlining shows, we'd play in front of 200 people. We'd come back and we'd play a bigger room. We'd play in front of 400 people. We'd come back to New York and we'd play in front of 700 people. You keep pushing things forward and keep taking the next step until you're in arenas.

“And taking over the world, trying to get on that XXL cover. I'm working on a new project, so as soon as this tour is over, we're going into the studio.”

Signing with a Major
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Signing with a Major

G-Eazy: “There's a certain pride and satisfaction I get from being able to say at the end of the day that this is something we built. My entire merchandise inventory is in my living room, and my girl ships that out. She takes it to the post office and drops off boxes and boxes of t-shirts every day. The studio is in my house. So to say at the end of the day, I walk out on stage in New York, across the country from where I grew up, and play songs that I made in my room, there's a satisfaction to say that we run the business how we want to. When you got people like Dom Kennedy and you got people like Macklemore who are proving that it's possible, there's no ceiling for an independent artist. If you make great music and you have the right strategy and the right team, it's possible.”

Groupies
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Groupies

G-Eazy: “It's amazing, man. I feel like Elvis out there. Our new marker of how good or bad a show is each night we gauge it by how many bras get thrown on stage. Last night was a really good show by that account. There had to be over 20. It was just raining bras. They just kept hitting me. It was awesome.

“Luckily, I've got a girl that's really supportive and she understands this shit. She does music as well, and she understands the business side.”

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