- Red Bull Music Academy’s United States of Bass - July 19, 2016
- Red Bull Sound Select: Adrian Younge, No ID, Joey Dosik - April 14, 2016
- LA Red Bull Sound Select: Stormzy, Lizzo, and Kauf - March 28, 2016
Ready to have his music and message played Loud As F***, West Coast rapper LAF is back with his second mixtape. He spoke with GroundSounds about the new project, living loud, and being true to oneself.
Whatup LAF, how you been homie?
I’ve been great bro. Just working hard and maintaining a free mind and sprit. I’m on my hippie shit hahaha
Now you first mixtape was called Competitor right? Why did you consider yourself a late bloomer compared to these other cats in rap game?
Yea my last mixtape was the competitor. The competitor was a stamp on my career as true artist and that I am a true student of the game by being able to create original music, and still being able to show my lyrical ability on other artists beats is how I’m showing that I’m able to compete with the best. In order to compete in hip hop today, you have to be able to be diverse but at the same time you have to show u can compete with other artists in what they specialize in or what they bring to the table. If I’m giving you bar spitting hi energy on the competitor and then still have the ability to sit down and tell u a story that relates to your life.
What is it that inspired you to start rapping even though you were college grad, and had already starting a career in a different industry?
Well I originally had desires to play pro football, basically the reason I went to college in the first place. Thinking I was going to play football and find myself in life, and I ended up getting in some trouble and deciding football wasn’t for me anymore. That’s when the process of finding myself stopped and I began to create myself with doing things I’m passionate about like creative writing, political studies, etc. which lead me to making music.
So how did you come up with the stage name LAF, and how do you pronounce it lol?
Well I didn’t really come up with LAF it’s just kinda like a nickname or abbreviation to my giving name Lafayette. Now as we are started to see success as a complete entertainer we are branding the name with words you can spell LAF wit like “Live Always Forever or like my new tape Loud As F$&@.
Your new mixtape Loud As F@#! is about to drop. What does it mean to be lous as F***, and what can the people expect to hear?
Man it’s finally here and I’m so proud of it! This has been a crazy year in my personal/business life as far as whom I do business with and who is a friend. So I feel like this mixtape alone was a journey, but I’m excited for how it came out. What it means to be Loud is like a way of life for my fellow hippies and me. There’s so much that my generation can see and know its wrong doing, but no one is able to just talk about it freely so with this mixtape, everything is Loud not in the sense of volume, but more of like your thoughts, your ideas, your clothes, your opinions, your Love, your marijuana everything Loud! And just with some of the things I just named you can see how diverse this mixtape is. No two tracks sound the same and that is a great accomplishment that my team and me strived for from the beginning of the Loud movement. On this mixtape, you can’t expect everything every kinda LAF there is from the bar spitting on “Walk On By,” to conscious LAF on “Half On a Dream,” and I got the “Hippies Over Stoners,” anthem on there. Just expect a total package of quality music. Every track is a single.
I really like a lot of the production on Loud As F@#!. That Walk On By sample is pretty dope. Who produced the beats on the project?
Well as far as the production, I personally work with Dee Knight, Stationed in LA. And from the start of my career Dee and me have been attempting to create our own sound as far as a rapper producer agreement, we want to be able to distinguish ourselves from other rapper/producer combos. Like “Love Song,” or “Pretty Candles,” those are the type of sounds you get from us, and we wanna keep that going. Although I mainly work with Dee Knight, I still drive off being diverse and I keep great up and coming producers in my circle like, Teo Beats out of Sac, who produced “Walk On By,” which well defiantly stand out on this mixtape. Also, Cito On The Beat was a friend of one of my engineers, Ckass, who also was a big part of this tape. Cito showed love to the project by putting a verse on the first single “Live It Up,” which he killed! And also blessing us with the “Hippies Over Stoners,” track one of my favorites” which supported the hippies over stoners movement. And of course Paper Boi, who I recently started a production company with, Kamp Music, is on the mixtape. Paper Boi produced the signature track “Loud As F***,” and also got a crazy sample on need somebody. Hands down he’s one of thee best producer in Las Vegas.
Who are your biggest influences?
I’m influenced by everyone bro. When I first started actually making music, I stopped listening to certain types of hip hop/ rap music, like I wasn’t into trap music at all or the swagg music. I just stop listening to it and turned to ppl who I related to the most like Wale, Joe Buddens, Kendrick and J Cole all artist that talk about their personal journeys in a creative way. So those artists are my biggest recent influences, but the biggest influence as a rapper period would be Lil Wayne Tupac and Joe Budden.
Where do you see yourself in 5 or 10 years?
5 years, I’ll be on tour across the world reading, partying, and smoking legal weed hahahaha. Ten years I’ll prolly take a year or two break from music and travel across the world with my family studying different ways of life, religions, and finding a deeper connection in life. Hippies over stoners.
If you were on a deserted island and only had 3 albums to bring with you, what 3 albums would they be and why?
The Competitor, Loud As Fuck, and Quarter Life Crisis…No, I’m playing lol, but it would be 12 Play by R-Kelly because if I am stuck on stranded island there will be a woman with me, Get Rich or Die Tryin by 50 cent, since it was one of the first albums that I really sat down and listened to, and any one of the Jay-Z albums because they are all dope.
