Azizi Gibson is tired of the bullshit – and that’s okay.
With his latest album, Reaping The Benefits, the Los Angeles wordsmith pens a conscious ode that explores a range of emotions – the good, the bad and the braggadocious.
What does it truly feel like to be misunderstood? A query that provides added insight into Azizi Gibson’s abnormal run in music. The furthest thing from conventional, in terms of the lyrically astute, Azizi manages to tackle adversity head on with tactical precision.
His latest release finds the famed Angeleno emotionally intact with the music. There’s not an instance during Reaping The Benefits where we have to question Azizi’s zeal for the arts. His passion narrates conflicting accounts of a past unrest that creates a discourse on growth through pain, and music is the drug of choice used to control the vibe and take listeners on an introspective journey.
“With this most recent album, I didn’t write anything“, Azizi candidly admits as we deconstruct the creative direction behind his recent project. While cordial drinking shenanigans subsequently lead to versing solitude and love lost with tracks like ‘Should Have Cheated’, records like ‘Now I Give No Phucks’ provide the soundtrack to life for the City of Angels’ emotive grim reaper.
Naturally, the preHISTORIC Records honcho has a reserved approach when it comes to self-assertion, but how can you blame him. It’s already a challenge in itself to exist, or as Azizi claims, “there are so many people that have an opinion on who you should be and how you should act.” Moreover, this notion of acceptance from opinionated trolls and random people on the internet breeds a huge disconnect between what’s perceived to be true and what is reality – but at the end of the day, does it really matter?
When it’s all said and done, it takes a zero fucks given persona to make it by today’s standards, and Azizi Gibson personifies this mantra effortlessly. In an effort to better identify with the artist behind the music, we had the opportunity to house a conversation with the misunderstood maestro.
Read our conversation below.
Talk to me about Reaping The Benefits, how did this project come together?
I’ve always gravitated towards my artwork being represented through some type of grim reaper imagery.
It’s just like the glamour lifestyle, on the water with a beautiful girl, enjoying what I made – just reaping the benefits.
Everything came together pretty quick, it’s not like a COVID-19 album, it was going to be dropped before I went on tour. I would’ve been on my third or fourth tour date today (April 28, 2020), well maybe fifth or some shit.
What was your headspace like while creating this LP?
I forget there’s even a headspace, because there’s so much music, it’s extremely linear. I just do this shit, it’s really nothing to it.
It’s like I love making music, I know which beats work with my voice, I know when I’m supposed to talk about a female, it just happens so quick – like a black-out, but I’m there during the black-out.
If I hear something on my phone that my boy sends me, I could be sitting down playing Smashbros with my roommate, I’ll pause the game and just be like ‘yo, I’m feeling it right now’ and just go.
With this most recent album, I didn’t write anything.
I just did something extra new cause my boy Tate Kobang, he’s on the song ‘Year of the Dog’, he basically came in and freestyled his whole verse, so I’m like ‘oh shit, this what we doing now!? – aight, say less’, so ever since then, I’d just been freestyling all the songs.
‘Should Have Cheated’ was me and my boys drunk, there’s no paper or phones in front of us at all, everything’s just natural.
It’s still fun as fuck, as the first day I discovered I could do this shit. it’s never gotten lackluster.
Nowadays, it’s like I can do it with my eyes closed, hands tied, I can…move a mouse with my fucking tongue or something.
Why the grim reaper theme?
That’s crazy, I feel like I got to explain this like once a week for sure. First of all, just to get it out the way, he looks cool as shit.
Second, he kind of has a bad name or bad rep for himself because he’s associated with death. Anybody that sees the grim reaper is frightened. People just assume the grim reaper is evil. When it’s like nah, he just comes for people when it’s time to go.
He works on a schedule, which is the schedule of death. He’s just doing what he does, he doesn’t come early and he doesn’t come late.
I feel like that’s how my fame will be – it won’t come before, it won’t come later, it’ll come at the time that it’s supposed to come.
I feel like I’m this person who has all these powers and things, but I have to take it step-by-step and follow the line, so that I can look back and say that I did it right.
Man, that’s one hell of an analogy. It’s like you have an introspective approach with your mindset, but at the same time it seems like you’re not rushing things – just letting things flow naturally
Exactly. We’re doing what we need to do to still make things move forward, but we’re not going to deface ourselves or demean ourselves to achieve something.
Music just seems like a therapeutic vice in a sense, I feel like we can both agree on that
Absolutely, I don’t give it enough credit as I should. Until this COVID shit, I didn’t realize how much I needed music to express myself.
With you having this notion of expressing yourself through music, have you ever battled with clearing the air on past misunderstandings? More specifically, with records like ‘Should Have Cheated’, you allude to some pretty detailed moments in your life
If I talk to someone I know, it’s actually funny to hear them say ‘Oh yeah, I heard what you said’.
I never clear the air via song, I just keep it real. I don’t expect anything from it, I don’t expect anyone in mind to hear it or no shit like that.
It’s like I’m in the room alone, doing my music alone, it’s personal. I’m not thinking someone’s gonna approach me about something on the track.
In terms of your own personal experiences, what do you feel like is more problematic – the pursuit of love or the perpetual paper chase?
It’s actually neither of those. The pursuit of trying to be human, there are so many people that have an opinion on who you should be and how you should act, and then cancel-culture and shit like that.
I feel like being a human is harder than anything, just keeping your name out of the fucking tabloids for all the wrong reasons, even if you’re right.
I feel like love is equally painful for everyone, no matter what position you’re in. Nothing makes it harder or less hard, love is love.
I think love is difficult now because there are so many distractions. People don’t take as much responsibility as the people that raised us.
No one really has focus right now to see that maybe love is something that they should invest in.
That’s what spoils it for me, it’s hard for me to like shit and entertain certain people because a lot of shit is nonsense to me and doesn’t fulfill my needs.
I don’t want to embarrass myself or put more than I need to out there, I like to keep my family protected.
There’s a difference between someone with ten thousand dollars in hand versus a nigga with ten million in his bank account, and it shows.
Musically, how have you been dealing with this whole global pandemic?
I think the wait is going to make everything even better. Even now, we have the next album done and we usually rush shit.
Now, we have this next project done and we’re going to spend these next four or five months figuring out how we should move it.
This next album is very special to me far as the music I’ve been making.
I don’t want to say everything happens for a reason, because fuck COVID-19, but I’m just saying if you’re patient, you’ll figure things out down the line – maybe make something good out of it.
I’m gonna do my best to do that.
Outside of the music, with regard to being a regular person battling stay-at-home mandates and quarantine, what has been the most challenging part about living through this experience?
Touring, just because that’s the only part of music that really can’t be done.
Other than that, I’m just inside waiting it out. I’ve lost a few family members to COVID, so it’s been pretty crazy.
I feel like people are enjoying music more than ever before now, but other than that, yeah.
Respectfully, my condolences to your family, sorry to hear about such a tragic loss
Thank you man.
Yeah, I don’t really want to get into it, but my aunt and uncle both passed away.
My family is doing okay though.
Let’s shift the narrative a bit, talk to me about your imprint preHISTORIC Records
It’s some shit I made up during high-school with my boys.
We had made a song a while ago and I thought ‘man, we need to go by something’ – and I was like preHISTORIC, because it’s before we make history.
The vision changed many times, but it’s like Mario – Mario wasn’t always the way he appears today, he started off in Donkey Kong, he didn’t even have his own game at first.
Even when you have the pieces in front of you, sometimes you just have to rearrange the formula.
preHISTORIC is not just a brand, it’s a lifestyle.
With this notion of being preHISTORIC till’ death and ‘Reaping The Benefits’ as mentioned with your latest project, it’s almost like you’re stylizing death and dark imagery. Is that a mere coincidence or a direct byproduct of your artistic expression?
I feel like it’s all calculated. Everything I do, visually and musically, every single thing is well kept – so well kept that it’s probably holding me back.
From every piece of artwork, every song – I’m just a calculated person.
When I was growing up, artists had clues to their lives for things that they weren’t telling up front and I feel like that’s what I want.
People can make albums on their phone and then not get it mixed and just post a picture of some shit they found online. I’m not shitting on nobody, but that’s not me.
Whatever you’re looking at, it’s mine. Any dinosaur drawing, any little anime figure – when you listen to my album and hear the anime voices, that is me paying actresses and actors to read the script. Every single thing put on the album is owned.
The world just doesn’t fucking know what Azizi Gibson does for them, because I need to do that shit for myself.
I just make music, it’s not something that had to be taught. I don’t know keys, I don’t know how to count bars out, I don’t even know how many bars are in my songs – it’s not a technical thing, just play the beat.
What does the remainder of this year withhold for Azizi Gibson, can we expect a visual from Reaping The Benefits or something along those lines?
I think I may try to do a video or two from this project, I just wanna do a song that makes the most sense between me and my fans.
I got a whole nother album ready to go and then I think I’m going to disappear and let people wonder what the fuck is going on.
If anything, I need to do a video to the old album. I feel like I need to make sure everything is getting felt, musically.
The work is there, there’s so much content, it’s just about putting the content in the right places for it to be seen.
I might just go away, figure out the best formula and come back.
