By Odeisel
A few weeks ago, The Planet caught wind o fa track by the homey Ski Beatz featuring a cat by the name of 20 Grand Pikaso. We’d never heard of the guy so we gave the track a listen. At the planet we are notoriously hard on new dudes but he got passed the ball and did not turn it over. While we weren’t blown away by duke we weren’t turned off and we posted the track and tweeted it. Pikaso responded, saying we misquoted him but after a little back and forth, it was peace. So we decided to get to know him further and set up an interview. Pikaso’s got some friends in the industry and has seen a few things despite being a new jack on the circuit. We’ll let him tell it. Enjoy.
Planet Ill: You’ve been in this Hip-Hop game for how long?
20 Grand Pikaso: Since a youngin. I’ve been in Hip-Hop since I was 5 years old.
Planet Ill: We’re like the first generation that grew up under that umbrella; the first generation to have grown up with rap music as the dominant music. How has that contributed to your style and life?
20 Grand Pikaso: Back in that time coming up in that era you got into it younger. Now dudes is getting into it at 18 and 19 and they learning from what they see as an 18 r 19 year old. That’s like a young dude trying to teach another generation the game when they never got the game. I got the game from old timers. They showed me the game.
It raised me. The music was raising you. Jay-Z raised you. Biggie raised you. Nas raised you. I knew if I sold crack how much to put on the scale. What’s the repercussions behind it? What came with it. They gave you all of that and everything you needed. It guided you, especially if you were in the streets.
Planet Ill: What happens when the streets dry up and everybody is looking for a different way? Do you think a lot of people are using the music the way they used to use dope as far as trying to get out?
20 Grand Pikaso: It’s different now. Everything is just fun but the streets will never go nowhere because it’s the origin and it’s coming back to that. The streets are built on samples and rhythmatic stuff so when the game became digital, that’s when you see the weird stuff going on that’s not street. Once things become digital and it don’t go on the algorithms, you take the soul out of it. You can never fade the origin. Everything in between can be faded out but you still gonna have to go back to the root regardless. Everything now is just trends man.
Planet Ill: What’s the first album you ever bought?
20 Grand Pikaso: The first album I ever bought would be Illmatic.
Planet Ill: I had that tape before they even shot the art to it. So there is a myth to it that not only connects to the album itself but connects to the era. The album becomes bigger because of the way we got it. Before the internet, you couldn’t download it, you had to have those connects you had to get gully and get it. In this era, how do you attach that kind of gravity to your music? How do you create your own myth?
20 Grand Pikaso: Just keeping it authentic. Keeping me; keeping my stand point. Every dude you hear right now basically sounds like each other. They don’t really know how to rap until another person shows them how to rap. Drake, the new beat that he’s on, “Started From The Bottom.” He took that beat. Now if that beat was sent to those rappers, 9 times out of 10 they wouldn’t be able to rap on that beat because they don’t know how.
Now it’s like okay. Let Kanye or Drake or somebody rap on a beat, they’ll show you how to rap on it, and then next thing you know, you jack the style and then you rapping the same way on it. Me, I just keep my authenticity. That’s it. Stay with what I’m doing. Normalcy is the new weird. I’m probably weird right now. And I’m fine with that.
Planet Ill: Who are some of the people that you’ve worked with so far?
20 Grand Pikaso: Right now I have a Clarence Casino joint on there. Right now it’s basically picking joints. SO I had Ski Beatz, a joint from Clams Casino. I had some Bink tracks I gotta go through to get approval for the project. It don’t matter to me, if it’s fire, it’s fire. But as far as any features, right now on the project, I don’t have any features on the project. I feel like this is my first project; it don’t need to be features. The stuff that I’m saying is more relevant to me and my lifestyle. I can’t really bring in no strangers into my life right now and this is what I’m giving people: My life. First.
Me getting with strangers and other rappers, I have no problem with, but to bring them into this project is like okay, you’re a stranger entering my life. Because everything I’m putting down is real shit. There’s nothing fabricated.
Planet ill: What do you want your music to say about you?
20 Grand Pikaso: This is who I am, this is how I get down, but in the midst of it, it’s served to you dressed properly. There’s no ratchetness. I don’t spend my time in the studio all day. I don’t make up shit. So I can’t be in the studio every day. When do you live? I go live my life and THEN I go to the studio. I don’t hang out in the studio.
It’s just me basically giving you daily experiences. If I go to the club tonight I might feel inspired to do something, write about what I experienced last night in the club. It’s just properly showing when I’m in tune with the universe. Putting down what I’m going through in the universe and sometimes people gravitate towards that because you’re going through the same experiences that the next person may be going through and they correlate and the relate to that.
That’s just my whole marketing scheme for me. It’s just to bring stuff that people relate to. Everything is not a party. Life ain’t a party; life ain’t about doing drugs all day. It’s about circumstances and tribulations. I think people can identify with everyday life. We all breathing.
Planet Ill: You have a jini who blesses your album and he guarantees you that everyone who hears your album gets one message. What would that message be?
20 Grand Pikaso: That this kid is dope and he’s going to be the next King of New York if given the right platform.
Planet Ill: You got any shout outs or anything that you want to promote? How can people get in contact with you and hear your music?
20 Grand Pikaso: My Twitter is @20grandpikaso and that’s basically where you can find all my music links and keep updated on what I’m doing. And also my Instagram, you can see everything that Twitter don’t show you, you can see behind the scenes or how I live every day, how I wake up and what I do in between time. So that’s my Instagram, 20Grand Pikaso. Also my Tumblr; all my videos , my YouTube page. Everything is 20 Grand Pikaso. No Napoleon is coming soon. It’s a project I’ve been working on just explaining how I’m myself. I have no Napoleon Complex. I’m 100% sure of who I am and what I do. In this game today, there are a lot of people that are unsure of who they are and they want to be other people. Me, I’m 100% sure and this is where I’m going with it. Big up Sicko, Cash In Cash Out, the big homie J Electronica. That’s it. Everything else is just action and bringing forth to the light for people to see and hear.
Planet Ill: How did you get down with J Electronica?
20 Grand Pikaso: That’s just running the streets in Brooklyn. Through a mutual person. M man in the street was like, “Yo, we bout to run by this kid crib, I fuck with him go blow it down>” It just happened to be J Elect But I didn’t know. I already had some insight on him, but I was already hearing him because I had the video game that had “Exhibit A” on it. So when I heard that, I’m like ,”Who the fuck is this kid?” and then ironically I had just bought that game two days before I met J Elec. So ironically, I ran into my man and we go to J Elec crib and we sitting there playing the game and the song comes on. We smoking and shit, getting high. So the song comes on, I’m like, “Yo, this kid is dope. Who is this kid?” And J Elec was like, “Yo, that’s me!” I’m like, “Get the fuck outta here, that ain’t you!” I was like damn.
After that, we just clicked. I would hang with him every day. Then next thing you know, I lived with him. He told me don’t ever leave him. Don’t go nowhere, stay here. And then I went around the world with him. Went to Africa with him, where I recorded joints for this new project, No Napoleon. Got a lot of insight from him. Got insight from Jay-Z.
Planet Ill: No Napoleon, is this going to be your mixtape or your album?
20 Grand Pikaso: I don’t even want to call it a mixtape. I just want to call it a project because It’s going to be all original music. I don’t want to call it an album, because it’s free. So it’s just like a body of work that I really want to put out and introduce myself and just let people know I’m dead serious about this. About my craft I really sat there and took time with my craft a long time. And now it’s being perfected. I’m not perfect but it’s being perfected. As I go on, I’m only going to get better. Where I’m at now, the better I get, it’s going to be a problem for everybody else that’s competition in the game, because i’m a competitive person. I’m very competitive.
