interviews

Curren$y has built a nice life for himself.
The New Orleans rapper, credited with popularizing “lifestyle rap,” is back with Harry Fraud to give fans another glimpse into a day in the life. And while he’s often seen as the godfather of that certain style of rap, he sees himself more as someone who helped give it a name.

“I’m not the founder of lifestyle rap,” he tells Billboard over Zoom. “It’s a [sub]-genre that I think, through me talking about it, maybe helped name that style — and maybe helped cultivate a space for people who wanted to make music but didn’t want to make a certain type of music in order to be successful.”

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Rapping about all the fly s–t you do while smoking the best weed money can buy wasn’t a novel idea when artists like Spitta and his righthand man Wiz Khalifa came along. However, they were able to show a generation of rappers that they can become successful during an era when the rap industry was in a state of flux. He’s been able to build an empire by making the music that he wants to make for the audience he wants to make it for, and his fans have rewarded him by supporting everything he does — whether it’s copping Jet Life merch, buying tickets to his live shows, or interacting with his Starting Line Hobbies page.

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The 12-track tape, Never Catch Us, boasts features from up and comer Premo Rice, an old friend in Wiz, as well as Griselda’s Conway the Machine and Rome Streetz, the unique Bruiser Wolf, Fendi P, Dave East, Jay Worthy and DRAM. He and Harry even somehow managed to get Babyface Ray, Styles P and 03 Greedo on the same track.

We talked with Curren$y about how all those tracks came together, plus his car collection, his favorite strains and a whole lot more. Check out our conversation below.

Where you at? In the crib in New Orleans?

I’m outside in the driveway just tending to vehicles. I got the ’64 running. I’m waiting on my homeboy to come do some s—t to the drive shaft for me, I’m about to charge the batteries on the ’77. I’m washing this [Corvette] C8 then I’ma wash this little Japanese BRABUS Benz. I’m just having a driveway day.

You said that Benz is Japanese?

Yeah, this is a BRABUS B6. This car thru and thru is from Japan. See all the markers and s—t.

What’s the difference? It has some different features and s—t?

Gonna pop the hood on this joint and let you see what’s going on, then the case can rest. Nothing say Mercedes, everything all BRABUS’d out. This the only B6 in the in the country. It’s a 1999.

I got this, maybe, like a month ago they got here a month ago, my homeboy Vico from the Patina Collective. He has the biggest Mercedes Benz collection in the world. He has the Sultan of Brunei’s car. He got Princess Diana’s car.

When he wants to sell that Princess Diana whip, you gotta cop that. Imagine getting that s—t just to be able to rap about having Princess Diana’s limo.

You know what? If I got it, bro, I would gift it to someone who I think will hold it down. If I get it, it’s getting smoked in, there’s gonna be french fries in the seats, because of my son Cruz. Imma live with it, so I’ll give it to somebody who going to put it away. I’ll get it for Harry Fraud. I’ll give it to bro.

This is like your eighth, ninth, 10th project with Harry?

I don’t know. I mean it was Cigarette Boats. And then… Yeah, dude, you right. Eight, nine, 10, 11, it’s somewhere around there. You right. It’s probably 10, 11, 12, 13 and then every time we drop one, we do a deluxe. One time we did two. We did The Marina then we did The Director’s Cut, and then we came back with another one within two weeks. And this one here, there’s songs that we didn’t put on this one, so we already set up to drop again immediately. So, if everybody responds how we think they will, we’ll just hurry up and just give it to them and strike while the iron’s hot.

Although you still drop pretty consistently, is it fair to say — and maybe it’s your chemistry with Harry Fraud — but that this felt like vintage Spitta?

That’s exactly what happened, bro. You just go into a different mental space when you deal with certain people — and anytime I work with Harry Fraud, I remember the first time that we ever worked, and that was in the middle of me getting ready to put out Weekend at Burnie’s. And I had just did a little move with with Atlantic and Warner, so my bread was changing a little bit. I was in a different space when we lined up, so I approached those beats with all this new money I had just grabbed. I had a different mindset, and I was attacking s—t.

So, now every time we line up, I feel the same way. I think that’s why I just bought those cars. That’s the BRABUS Benz out there and that yellow 355 Ferrari. Ferrari mode is always Harry Fraud. Whenever I’m f—kin’ around like that. That’s me and bro hangin’.

I peeped that canary yellow Ferrari. What year is that?

Yeah, yeah. 355 F1. It’s a ’99. I wanted that before I got the blue one. That was the one I always wanted, but my manager and s—t — when I bought my Spider, the first one, they was like, “Nah, you can’t get that old ass Ferrari.” It got the flip up lights and s—t. That’s my era. I grew up on Miami Vice. That’s the stuff I want.

I was going to ask about Miami Vice, because of the speed boat on the album artwork.

What I liked most about the show is whenever Crockett would get lost, whenever he would go undercover. Sometimes — I don’t know if he had a mental problem — his character would get lost into being a drug dealer too long, like, “Sonny, you’re still a cop!” They have to wake him up. But every time he’s lost, that motherf—ker lived the life. 3:00 a.m. Ferrari rides. 5:00 a.m. speedboat rides.

Miami Vice never would really show the the bad guys and per se, living large, too much for us to see it and romanticize it — they would make it more about the police work. But whenever Crockett would get lost on the job, he had access to so much, it was just cool to see.

Yeah, it’s funny because my pops used to build model cars, and he used to get mad at me because I always played with the white Testarossa and break it all the time.

You can’t roll them around, man, it’s art. [Laughs.]

Talk about your Starting Line Hobbies Instagram page.

I had been building model cars forever, but when we couldn’t go nowhere during the pandemic, I was like, I ought to figure out what else I could do. I started taking pictures of the ones I was building, and people just kept asking me where I got them from. So I was like, I might as well open an account with the people who I buy the models from, and start a business to sell them to people who wanted to build them because people didn’t really know where to get that kind of stuff from.

That like an art that has kind of died out. When I was little, that stuff was in stores. Used to go in the toy section, get models, paint. You can only find all that online now — or you gotta go to a mom-and-pop hobby shop that’s still holding on.

You also race diecast cars on a track on that page.

It’s a racing league. People who follow it, register and I post all the Hot Wheels you could pick. When I post the season, I do a draft with the cars that are available and I don’t open them beforehand, so nobody knows if they’re fast or not. So you draft your car, name it, and then I @ you every time we get ready to race. I go on Live or I go on Twitch and race them. I’ve been doing that since the pandemic, and that s—t fun as hell.

You be chillin’, man. You got your formula figured out. You make your music, you do your shows.

Yep, and just use that money to keep me in the house. My whole plan was always to make my surroundings comfortable enough to where I didn’t want to leave, because I live in a dangerous city. People always like, “D–n, bro, why you still live here? Why don’t you move? Blah, blah, blah.” But as long as you all you watch how you move around, you’re not gonna make it easy for nobody.

Would you ever get an electric car?

Oh, hell nah. It’s against everything that I stand for. All the electric cars I have are literally right here on this table. I got lowriders. I got a few on-road sports cars, and I got some dirt-track trucks. I built the dirt track around my house. I got an RC track outside, like blazed right through the middle of my lawn. Don’t tell the HOA.

Let’s get back to the tape. You were saying that you were in the zone. So, how did you and Harry work on this? Was it over email? Did you guys link up?

We didn’t link up this time, but we just both knew it was time to do it, and with that urgency, we worked quicker than if we would’ve, pulled up on each other. If I would’ve flown out there, it had been two or three days of just bulls—ting and eating cheeseburgers and just smoking and possibly not even pulling up to the studio.

It was better this way and faster this way — because that’s actually my homeboy, so when we link up, I might not want to work. I might just want to download all of the Mortal Kombat fatalities and do each character’s fatality on the first Mortal Kombat together. Like, “Can we do that today instead of going through the beats?” I feel like it’s equally as productive, because it makes us that much closer.

Yeah, I had interviewed him and Boldy James when they dropped their album and he said that he likes to link up with people in person, but that with you it really didn’t matter, because the chemistry was already there.

It’s actually… I like to do that because with him, I’ll do all the records and then I won’t send them. Like, I’ll put a little clip on Instagram, and he’ll realize I use this beat or that beat. I’m kind of unprofessional with bro, because I’ll record nine records and send him two, and then a week or later I’ll send him two more. I just have so many records. After this project was turned in, I had forgotten about like seven more records. I was like, “Is it too late? Can we add them?” We decided to hold them for part two.

How did the the features come together? The one that surprised me the most was the track with Babyface Ray, Styles P and 03 Greedo.

When I heard that beat, I was just gonna make a verse and a hook. Usually, that’s what I do anyway, if I don’t put somebody else on a song. But I heard all of my homeboys on it in my head. I was like, “Damn bro, go off on this b—ch, but then down the big homie will go off. but damn then dude’ll go off.” So, I was like, “F—k it, just send it to everyone.” And everybody sent their s—t back in a day. Some of them, I sent them done already. Like, “Yo, I put bro on here.”

I’m lucky enough to have friends in the industry. I have people who, if I reach out, they lend a hand instantly. Those are the people that I work with. The first time that me and Rome worked, he flew out here. There’s no way I woulda came back again without putting bro down.

I feel like to a lot of the younger underground, indie guys, you’re the OG now. You help make the blueprint to being independent in the Internet age streaming age.

Motherf—ker’s saw me get all of the s—t that the other motherf—kers have who kind of take the bait or kind of go through the s—t that we don’t want to go through [don’t get to]. You could still have that s—t and stay yourself. And a lot of people would tip they hat to me for — not necessarily for showing them it could be done, but adding reassurance to the thought that they already had, because they already had to be thinking that too. They had that mindset already. Here’s another example of somebody who was thinking that way and turned it into what they wanted to.

Would you ever sign to a major again?

I am a major. I’d sign to the Pelicans. I would do that, but that’s it. [Laughs.]

What advice would you give to someone that wants to be a rapper today? What are the pros and cons of being independent?

You’re gonna have to trust someone in a game where you can’t trust nobody. So, it’s damned if you do, damned if you don’t. You can handle it all yourself, but then it can only grow to a certain level. You only got two arms, so you’re going to have to entrust some homies, so you gotta keep your circle tight.

And as much as you can do for free, you do it. You know, as far as the resources and the people you got around you. If you know somebody who knows how to work the camera, he might not shoot at the quality of what you need, but grow with him. One: you put one of your homies in motion with a gig, and two: you got a weapon at your disposal every time you need to film, so you could put out as much content as you want.

Content is king. People want to see you brush your teeth. They don’t necessarily want to hear the music. They want to know how many backflips you could do. I show them my Hot Wheel wall. I’m trying to get the first motherf—ker with a million Hot Wheels. They’re like, “Yo, let’s stream it, he needs these dollars.”

This generation of independent artists figured out how to tap in with the fans. We had to figure out what you could do to impact people’s lives outside of the music. And you can also provide some dope merch like a jacket to wear. They can go to a game with a jacket and people will know what artists they represent, who they like. Now you know something about them. Like, if a girl shows up with a Jet Life jacket, you can probably assume that she knows her way around the shoe store. She probably doesn’t smoke trash. Don’t try to pass her no bum weed. Now you know what you’re dealing with.

What you got planned for 420?

I’m on the road, man, my tour starts two days before 420. You know who you can’t find for 420? Me, Wiz, Devin the Dude, Cypress Hill, Smoke DZA. That’s a blessing to know that if we ever fell off and had to survive on only one check, you know one that’s guaranteed to come every year. [Laughs.]

Even if you’re working, do you have a ritual on 420?

Nah, I would have one if I didn’t smoke regularly, if it wasn’t what I did with everything I do. I would have a special 420 blanket with a neck hole cut out of it, so I could just put it on and sit in a Morocco room with pillows all over the floor and watch Cheech and Chong movies. That’s just the life anyway.

Do you have a favorite stoner movie?

I like Nice Dreams, because the opening sequence has some lowriders coming over the hill, so I dug that. I really like [Cheech & Chong] movies because they had good cars in them.

How did you react when you watched Nice Dreams for the first time and seen Pee-Wee Herman coked up?

Bro, I don’t think people around me understood what we was getting. It was like jumping into a time machine. We not supposed to even get this? That’s what I’m going to do when I get done washing these cars. I know what I’m doing today. Also, as clichéd as it may be, Half Baked was amazing for a lot of reasons. Half Baked was good to me when I didn’t smoke weed. I had the VHS.

Do you have any favorite strains?

All of my own. Andretti OG, Grape Jelly, Bourbon Street Brunch, Berry Beignet.

I haven’t tried any of those. Are they in dispensaries?

Yeah, in select ones. We’re kind of a boutique brand because we’re trying to keep it as true to form. What we managed to do was track down some of the genetics and growers from when weed was weed. You’re from the time, so you was there when Sour Diesel hit. It’s not like it died down, it’s just that other people began to grow and cut corners.

There’s so many different names now, you have to check which strains they were made from.

Absolutely, and that’s what I’m telling you. It’s like the coke or anything else, they stepping on it, they start f—king with the lights to make it look a certain way when it when it reaches a bud and sh—t, and it’s not real. And in a lot of the motherf—kers who do that don’t even smoke. It’s like when Bape got f—ked up and n—as became Bape dealers. They didn’t even wear the s—t, but they knew you wanted it. It’s like Pit Bull puppies, bro. The weed got f—ked up, just like the dogs got f—ked up. They start looking bad, breathing crazy. That’s what happened with the weed.

So, all we did was go back to those growers and let them do exactly what they were doing with the newest technology. Let us know what you would have in your dream grow, and what you would do, and then we provide it for ’em and we get the best s—t.

There’s an article came out last year about the dude who invented Sour Diesel. He made it legit now. He makes the original New York Sour Diesel, and he’s selling it to dispensaries.

And the other dude. You knew about Chemdawg [Greg Krzanowski]? Him too.

I’ve been seeing Chemdawg around too, so that makes sense. That’s the sh—t we used to read about in High Times.

Yeah, and they had to sit in the shadows to do interviews. They couldn’t be Berner (founder of Cookies). They wasn’t out at in Berner’s time. They couldn’t just stand in front of the sh—t and say, “I made this,” but they still have enough youth in their bones to grab some cash and see what’s going on in the industry. They’re legends to people like us who keep it 100 and know that these new strains aren’t necessarily new strains, it’s just people not keeping it funky with the genetics. We haven’t been alive long enough for a motherf—ker to have grew some unheard of s—t like come on, dawg. The Earth been making tomatoes from the beginning.

They inventing strains like they invented broccoli.

Come on, man, you got it, dude. But that’s what they’ll tell you.

I wanted to just get back to the cars a little bit more. How many do you have now? Are you over 40?

Yeah, it got out of hand. It’s not 50, though. I would know for sure if I had 50 cars. I’m around like 46 cars right now.

And you drive all of them? Do you have a rotation? Like you would do with sneakers.

I’ll just change the whole front of the house. I got eight of them at my house, and then my mom lives right across the street, and she got four of them in her driveway. She be driving them too — or does she have her own rotation? She got a rotation alright. She gets a new Benz every Christmas. That’s what she gets. She got lowriders in her driveway. She always thinks she’s gonna hit the switches with her leg, so she doesn’t really get in them. But, what I’ll do is, [I] have some of the homies to take cars back and forth to the warehouse.

You switch the rotation up depending on how you feeling.

How many movies did I watch? What era do I think it is? The newer cars are always from my management and my staff. They bought that Corvette C8 for my birthday. I had the first convertible C8 that existed. The one that they used for all the promo when they wasn’t selling it, that’s the car that I have. The Rolls Royce Cullinan is dope because you could just have somebody drive it. I got a Wraith, but I kind of felt like a d—k driving that motherf—ker to a f—king Walmart to go Hot Wheel hunting. I put the Wraith at the warehouse, because I look like an a—hole with two cars worth a million dollars.

How does it feel, though? To be able to cop and drive all these cars.

It feels like Grand Theft Auto, bro. I knew my life would be like this, because I felt too connected to that kind of s—t. I don’t know how to say it, but people have visions and ideas of what they life gonna be, and you gotta believe them, because they mean that s—t. The s—t is tangible. The s—t is not from Mars, you don’t have to go to f—king planet Saturn to get a f—king Lamborghini.

You mentioned that being around Cash Money early on helped you.

Hell yeah. Just seeing motherf—kers do that. from No Limit to Cash Money. There was game I picked up when I started moving with Dame Dash and them in New York, too. Listening to the stories he would tell me from the golden era. It’s like, “Damn, off rap, off making words rhyme, you were able to do this?”

You got Wiz on this project, and people always excited when you guys link up…

Yeah, man, because that’s my brother. We went from from zero to this. We both had record deals with majors and stepped away. Had people looking at us like we didn’t know what we were doing, telling us what they would have did if they had a record deal, and we still did our thing.

Have you been paying attention to his freestyles these last couple months?

Yeah, it’s good stuff. The work that he’s doing was actually beneficial to me, because I never changed. I never stopped. I always did this. And my bro had achieved mega stardom; things got to change, you gotta move a certain way, people kind of can’t just have access to your art that much, and things come into play, so I understand. But to then have a resurgence and kind of show that you ain’t going nowhere either is good.

And then it benefits me, because by me reaching out to collaborate — it’s nothing to us, because that’s what we do — but it’s everything to the people who grew up and put themselves together based on the music we was putting out. That’s what makes it count so much.

You guys ever plan on doing another tape together?

Yeah, man, we got enough records already. Between him and Larry [June], I got like 35 records.

People like to compare you to Larry too.

Yeah, that’s my man. We done did a gang of work together. We got an album worth of music too. I’m not the founder of lifestyle rap. It’s a [sub]-genre that I think, through me talking about it, maybe helped name that style, and maybe helped cultivate a space for people who wanted to make music but didn’t want to make a certain type of music in order to be successful. As long as they do it the right way, it’s good with me.

Max B is your favorite rapper…

Yeah, he’s supposed to be touching down in seven months.

Are you hoping to work with him when he comes home?

Yeah, man, no pressure. You know how people try to gatekeep music? What happened with me was, my listeners gatekept my music, because they didn’t want other people to be on it too. I didn’t gatekeep Max B’s music. I knew through promoting and telling people about it — they would love it — but what happens with me is, the higher-ups, they borrow from me a lot. I don’t get upset, but people who are further up in the game, they pay attention to what we do, and then they do it. They did that with [Max B] too. It’s like, “Yo, you didn’t even know Max B, bro.”

So, these people are going to be clamoring to collaborate with him — and you gotta let it happen, because they’re going to pay so much to do it, because they paying for the love and for that affiliation because they know they slept on Max. So, I want him to make all of that money. Get all that bread and then come f—k with me.

Do you have a favorite song or tape of his?

“Cake and Eat It Too.” That’s my favorite song. I will listen to that song from here to Houston.