It was one of my big homies. It’s one of the bosses. The understanding of having real OG’s around you, real people that’s been through this shit that will tell you what it is, what’s really gangsta, what’s really like a real man’s job, is the most important thing that you could find as a young man. As anybody. Having people that you can accept a mentorship. It was plenty of conversations. It’s not about keeping your money; it’s about keeping your family. It’s about keeping your sanity and your growth.

I went through a really long time—just because of the influences of hip-hop, just because of the influences of misogyny—understanding my value in my house to be basically just monetary. That was the role of families that I’ve seen within my own family. A lot times either their wife doesn’t work or their wife makes less than them. That’s America. Even though I didn’t have a job, my girl was working three jobs when she was with me and providing me a place to stay and food to eat and everything.

When I first got money I was very selfish about my money. In more recent times I’ve grown to be accepting of getting rid of the thought of my woman ever wanting me for my money or wanting me for any type of success that I got and start to be able to share with her the things that she helped me get. Even with that, that’s not how you pay it back. That’s not equivalent, by any means, to the actual time and work that she put in to building my family.

In every way. I am who I am because of all the decisions I made, as we all are. I want my daughter to have everything I couldn’t have. Which is a lot. I think that’s what every parent wants. That’s why there are so many kids' parents that are like, “You better go to college.” Like, “Your ass didn’t go to college.”

The whole song is just about creating a home, creating a space that is ours, that’s locked down. That for our daughter and our kids-to-be’s for their growth. That whole line is just about us getting past all the shit that we had to do that we’ve put each other through and creating a space for our lineage to grow.

This shit is what happened every time we went to the gas station anywhere. I think that just the Chicago Black, South and West side Chicagoan’s feel is that PTSD of having seen some shit happen and understanding how people move that creates the way you move, really. I don’t park in a parking lot with my car facing a gate. I need to be able to get out as fast as possible. If I’m running in the gas station to go get a Swisher, and were just trying to get back to the house, I'ma go in there, I’m not letting my girl walk in there by herself. And I’m also not finna… I tell her, “Don’t turn off the car, don’t park that joint.” That’s a thing I think a lot of people could relate to, from Chicago, just knowing how we move most of the time. The gas station—its fucked up shit that happens at the gas station.

My homie died last year at a fuckin' gas station. I think that was always how we moved. And what’s funny is like, I move that way ‘cause I was from out South. My girl lived on the North side for a lot of her life. She grew up in Hyde Park, but iher sister had the foresight to invest black, in the neighborhood. We had to live there in the beginning 'cause that’s where we was living. That’s how long she’s been riding with me. Now I can go to any gas station and niggas is gonna ask to take pictures or thank me for they little sister’s books or some shit. At the time, I was a random nigga walkin’ in the gas station.

She doesn’t do it anymore but my girl used to be a studio rat. She used to be in the studio with me as long as I would be. I’m the definition of a studio rat, but my girl was like, right there with me. She would come to the studio, in the hood, and stay with me at my sessions. I got a lot of sessions for free from engineers that just fucked with me. Like L Boogie. Shout out to L Boogie. Recorded the whole 10 Day thing for free. But, because they were free that meant they had to be after all the booked sessions. So my sessions would start at 2:00 a.m. and my girl would be in somebody’s house with no air conditioning and shit like that, for hours with me making this music.

Obviously after hearing it a million times, she didn’t want to hear that shit no more. But if she was to ask me to play a song, it was the most validation that I could feel out of anybody saying anything about my music. So yeah, where’s the return on investment?

A lot of stuff goes back to the first South By that I went to. The first South By that I went to with Kids These Days, this dude Dan Weiner was their publicist. Or they might have just hired him when they got down there. But he was doing Donald Glover. And Donald was about to go on his Camp Tour. He had just dropped his Camp album. Vic or somebody showed him my music and he showed it to Donald, ‘cause Donald was lookin’ for an opener for his tour. Somebody that would be cheap as hell. And Donald brought me on for two dates to replace somebody. After I came back home, he was like, “Yo, come and finish out the tour with me.” So I left. Got some money. Donald’s like a big brother to me. I’ve said it a bunch of times. He’s consistently given me advice, great advice. What’s funny is we got way closer toward the end of that whole tour. I was really close with Steven, his brother, and Swank, who’s a writer and one of they best friends. One of my good friends.

At the time, I didn’t have a kid. Donald didn’t have a kid. Donald was grown. He was older than me. I think he was 29. I was 19. I don’t think that there was ever any responsibility conversations that we had about how to treat your girl or anything. It was kind of like he was on tour, I was on tour, we’re turning up shit.

I got suspended for smoking weed, for flipping somebody, for all types of dumb shit. My main suspension was the one that I rapped about for 10 Day was for weed. I had weed in my backpack. But I wasn’t even at the school. That’s a whole ‘nother story. That’s so long ago. But at the time when I was finishing high school, I made 10 Day and I put it up online and in ended up on datpiff, ended up on Fakeshore Drive, on Ill Roots, on all these different platforms and I had gotten some notoriety. But I didn’t have the money to match that. Keef was blowing up. Everybody in the city was rapping. It was a million rappers, so it didn’t mean shit to be a rapper. But I wasn’t advancing as a artist 'cause I felt a weight of like, “Okay, I’m doing something. People are recognizing me.” But it was over rapping about school. I’m in not even in fucking college. I’m not doing shit with my life. My raps were very basic. I didn’t have enough inspiration at that time to really advance.

So, Dro city is a neighborhood in Chicago, just like everywhere has neighborhoods in Chicago. Its named after Dro, and it can be rough over there.

If you from Chicago, you know where that is. I was just saying, wasn’t a lot of shit out there for me to be. There was no moment of me being, “Oh, I’m bout to be real about this shit. I need to go get a job at the fuckin' car wash down the street.” It wasn’t shit for me over there. We weren’t supposed to grow there. I definitely, beyond even my parents, me and my girl, I would say, came from humble beginnings, ‘cause her sister had the smarts and the money saved at the time to purchase a house to rent out to other people. My girl had three jobs that she was working.

I didn’t have shit going on but I was working on being a rapper. But we had to try and flip that shit and make it in to something. At the time I felt like there was nothing out there for me in the neighborhood. I was going downtown to do anything. I wasn’t trying to kick it in Dro city.