Guapdad 4000 is certainly one of the rising artist to watch in 2020.
From his huge internet personality to gaining cosigns from artists like J.Cole and Drake to being one of the featured artist on the Grammy-nominated album “Revenge of The Dreamers III,” Guapdad is gaining buzz and notoriety from all over the industry. The artist has since dropped his own album. “Dior Deposits,” with a visual and EP following.
Read More: Steven Canals talks ‘Pose,’ success and Afro-Latin identity
theGrio spoke with the rapper on Instagram Live on Tuesday to discuss some of his upcoming projects, the visual to “Little Scammer That Could,” his merch line and getting cosigns from some of the biggest rappers in the game.
Guapdad released a visual to his single, “Lil Scammer That Could,” featuring Denzel Curry. Although the visual was definitely entertaining, he included an underlying message regarding policing.
“We really wanted to speak on what was going on. I was out protesting a lot and even my mom, my sister, like the whole team, [I] took the whole team out there,” Guapdad explained when asked why he chose to include the messaging. “So I felt that it was weird for me to be like fighting for Black lives to matter and then just drop a music video without doing anything. So we took some time to change some lyrics and added more components to the video just to make it more relevant.”
Guapdad went on to reveal his feelings on the recent killings of Black men and women at the hands of police and how angry he felt looking at their deaths.
“I just started getting hot,” he said. “And this crazy cause they’ll let you keep up the videos and you could watch these people die. These people look like my uncles, my little cousins, you know, seeing my aunties–you could just watch them die. It’s all by the police.”
The rapper also released another mixtape, “Platinum Falcon Tape Vol. 1”, of which he produced half of the tracks. Guapdad told theGrio he believes the EP is his best work.
“To be honest, I really like it a lot. I d**n near like it more than ‘Dior Deposits,’ the shared. ‘So if y’all want new Guapdad music to listen to, since it’s the EP, we didn’t, like, promo it forever. A lot of people might have missed it. So go listen to ‘Platinum Falcon. Tape Vol. 1’ because that is amazing.”
Like previously mentioned, the rapper has gained headnods from Grammy-winning artists Drake and J.Cole. Guapdad spoke on what it has been like getting their approval.
“Somebody like J. Cole, who’s considered one of the greatest rappers of all time, currently in the big three,” he said about the North Carolina rapper. “You know of this whole generation, and maybe like two generations under us…Drake, J. Cole and Kendrick Lamar are the big three for everybody alive that consumes hip-hop outside of, like, the older generations.”
He continued, “Then you get into the legends and just the n***as before, but like, it’s just those three. So if you can get approval from these n****s who literally run the game and have had no reason to lie to you at all, who else do you need to tell you that [it’s] tight?”
In addition to the music, Guapdad talked his new merch line, Scamboy, and finally being able to sell it years after its creation.
Read More: 2 men, 2 teens charged in death of rapper Pop Smoke
“After being so consistent for hella long, for the last three years, just dropping music and having merch available now, I feel like I garnered enough fans to be able to sell some T-shirts and sell out hoodies,” he explained. “People loved the merch, and people love posting it. People love the designs. I’m working with the merch team to make all of it here.”
There is no sign of Guapdad easing up on his work anytime soon. He will be releasing new music this Friday, as well as another body of work in late August. Fans can support him on social media @Guapdad4000 and stream his music on all streaming platforms. Merch can be purchased at guapdad4000.com.
Have you subscribed to theGrio’s new podcast “Dear Culture”? Download our newest episodes now!