iLoveMakonnen Breaks Down Why He Went To Cosmetology School

"I don't have to make my name up after no movie shit—I am the movie."

iLoveMakonnen has had a dizzying ride to the foreground of rap and R&B. A Drake co-sign became signing with OVO, and the Atlantan behind "Tuesday" is now poised on the precipice of mainstream dominance.

Makonnen—which is his real name, he goes to great lengths to remind you—sat down at New York's Hot 97 to better introduce himself to the boroughs. In the half-hour conversation, he recounts his role in his best friend's death and his own experiences in cosmetology school. The former, of course, led to the house arrest that gave him the time and isolation from which his off-kilter sound would be born. The latter, Makonnen insists, doesn't make him any less of a man: "It's a new day and age out here and people's mindsets really need to open up."

The lens also widens to include the Eric Garner and Michael Brown protests, which leads to a discussion of Makonnen's history with activism in his native Atlanta. It's perpetual, though; "The club is always going up on a Tuesday and motherfuckers always be getting choked out by the cops," he says.

Throughout, Makonnen is careful and deliberate to present himself as more than just the guy with two club hits. "Just 'cause the cameras is on me now don't think that this is what I've been doing all my life."

Catch iLoveMakonnen as a musical guest on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon this evening.

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