ScHoolboy Q on why he doesn’t drop music as often as other rappers

8 September, 2023

ScHoolboy Q

ScHoolboy Q has shared why he doesn’t drop music as frequently as his rap peers, arguing that he “never looked at this industry as a sport”.

The rapper and golfer has stepped away from the limelight ever since his fifth studio album, 2019’s ‘CrasH Talk’. Q (real name Quincy Hanley) is mostly known for being a poignant rap star and a part of the hip-hop supergroup Black Hippy alongside Ab-Soul, Jay Rock and Kendrick Lamar. All were signed to Top Dawg Entertainment (TDE) until Lamar’s recent departure last year after dropping ‘Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers’.

While streaming the latest episode of BackOnFigg, the LA resident told hosts Smac and Trell why he is “cut from the same cloth” as Tyler, the Creator, Danny Brown, Kendrick Lamar and late friend Mac Miller.

“Those guys,” he explained, “We never looked at this industry as a sport.” This led to him divulging as to why he can’t churn out new material as fast as today’s biggest pop-rap stars.

“This is our life; me talking about our situations, y’know, the shit we done been through, homies we done lost to the system or to the streets,” he said. “It’s not a sport, me talkin’ about my mama[‘s] trauma from her own brothers is… You can’t compare that to somebody that won a[n] NBA championship.”

He concluded: “When it comes to music, I don’t look at it as like, ‘Oh, you have to drop every year.’ I’m like, no, your favourite rapper has to drop every year because he needs chilli. I do what I want because I move off peace, I move off my experiences.”

Q reminisced on the time he and A$AP Rocky made cult rap classics ‘Brand New Guy’ (from Rocky’s treasured debut mixtape ‘Live. Love. ASAP’) and ‘Hands On The Wheel’ (from ScHoolboy Q’s second album ‘Habits & Contradictions’). “I don’t care [when I drop] because when I was in the studio with Rocky when we had no fans, ain’t nobody care when we dropped,” he said. One of the hosts interjected, saying that was when “the quality shit” was made.

“This is the only genre where fans feel entitled to something, or that I have to live up to something,” the 36-year-old said. “As a[n] artist, if I bring nothing to the table that comes from my life, I don’t feel I should put it out.”

The Germany-born rapper also commented on his last body of work, saying he felt that “‘CrasH Talk’ is [his] least introspective album.”

“It performed so well, though,” he reasoned, “but it left me so empty because it just wasn’t… I was in a space of transitioning; I was super drug-free, I was super daddy, but I didn’t know how to get rid of the gangster image.”

In other news, ScHoolboy Q’s Grammy-nominated song ‘Studio’ was featured on the soundtrack for the satirical comedy-horror Swarm, which was co-created by Childish Gambino.

Last year, Hanley mentioned how golf changed his outlook on life, saying that “It changed [his] mental health” and “fixed” his attitude and “a lot of things” in his life. “Life is a golf game – some good shots, some bad shots,” he explained, “but most importantly, keep going you never know. Don’t give up because you’re in the sand on your fourth shot, you might chip it in.”

In 2020 and 2021 respectively, the South Central star worked with the Gorillaz on ‘Pac-Man’, an ode to the iconic arcade game on its 40th anniversary, and with Freddie Gibbs on the thought-provoking ‘Gang Signs’.

The post ScHoolboy Q on why he doesn’t drop music as often as other rappers appeared first on NME.