ScHoolboy Q is a candid — and an extremely funny — rapper.
The artist — a Top Dawg Entertainment label staple on the West Coast — was recently booked to appear at 2024 REVOLT World in Atlanta. At REVOLT, ScHoolboy sat down with Ms. Basketball to discuss the intersection of video games and hip-hop.
ScHoolboy said he’s not very good at video games, but he still plays them often in his free time. When asked what video game he’d like to volunteer his music to, he suggested a more gory game to fit his sound. He said that’s tied to his prior life before becoming a full-time rapper and father, who indulges in golf and video games in his leisure. He said for him to become a good gamer, he’d have to pay less attention to the creation of his music.
That’s when the topic of aspiring content creators and artists came up.
While promoting his latest album, Blue Lips, ScHoolboy vented about seeing content creators make music. He said he was against it and that it watered down the art of hip-hop. The rapper explained why he advises aspiring artists to enter the world of content creation and livestream themselves playing video games instead.
“You’re always fighting an uphill battle if you’re a streamer and then you’re trying to rap,” ScHoolboy said.
He said to feel free to pursue streaming if you also want to be an artist, but understand the waters you’re going into.
“You’re a– going to be stuck there, boy,” ScHoolboy said. “You’re going to have to figure it out. That s—‘s hard. That’s the reality of it. It’s like a kid who’s kind of good at basketball. He may be six feet, but he’s really good at football and he’s the perfect height for the position he plays over ther — but he wants to play basketball. It’s like, ‘Alright. He can probably make it in basketball, but you’ve got a real future in this football s—.’ ”
ScHoolboy then tried to name all of the examples of successful content creators who broke through as successful rappers.
“If you want to do both, figure out how to do both,” ScHoolboy said. “I don’t think it’s- wait, DDG’s done it, right? DDG was like a streamer, and now he’s rapping. So, s—, I think that’s, like, one?”
Since 2015, DDG built up multiple YouTube channels with millions of subscribers. He made over $1 million monthly from YouTube revenue alone. He started making music in 2017, and his November 2017 single, “Givenchy,” took his elevated his music career. He has since released three gold singles, “Arguments,” “Hood Melody (featuring YoungBoy Never Broke Again)” and “I’m Geekin,” in addition to the two-time platinum “Moonwalking in Calabasas (featuring Blueface).”
The audience and Ms. Basketball tried naming other streamers who successfully crossed over. On the other hand, Tee Grizzley didn’t go live on his first Twitch stream until two years after his biggest hits, “First Day Out” and “From The D to the A” came out. T-Pain was also named.
“T-Pain honestly doesn’t even count,” ScHoolboy said. “He’s T-Pain! He’s one of the biggest artists that I could remember from the 2000s. He lowkey does not count … Soulja Boy was already Soulja Boy. It doesn’t count. So, the only person I’ve seen do it was DDG. Tee Grizzley was already crackin’. So, DDG might be the only one. I’m not saying this as a joke; it just seems like he’s the only one who’s done it.”
In addition to the quality, ScHoolboy said the public perception keeps people in boxes.
“It’s just like a rapper acting,” ScHoolboy said. “Like, bruh, we know that’s LL Cool J no matter what he does. Ice T is Ice T no matter what show he’s on, I’m sorry. It’s hard to do it.”
