Following 2023’s WAR2, Drew Famous provides his most personal reflections across his tenth project.
Perspective. A word defined as a particular attitude toward, or way of regarding something. In other words: one’s point of view, frame of mind, or angle. It’s not something that is taught to us academically, but usually takes precedent within the school of life. Through internal and external ups, downs, and changes, each experience can cause our way of thinking to shift in order to gain understanding. This can help us continue to evolve and also to keep our faith in times of turbulence. It takes the right perspective to acknowledge that setbacks can be setups for strong comebacks, and that there’s joy in celebrating small wins while on the way to greater goals. Also, in order to grow, it is important to consider the perspectives of others who may offer differing ideas or strategies, as long as their intentions are pure.
Across Drew Famous’ tenth studio rap project, SEA are themes of grief (‘ought2’), depression, the exploration of new environments (‘oceans+mountains’, ‘clones’, ‘stay afloat’) the facing of fears and perseverance (‘worldkeepspinnin’), and persistence in pursuit of goals (‘wake’). The albums’ acronym stands for two sayings: See Every Angl, and See Every Angel. We address what this means to him and the importance of who inspired the title in our interview below. SEA‘s recording process predominantly involved Drew recording and engineering himself. This allowed him the freedom to not hold back or change lines that felt too personal or too close to home.
From the recent untimely passing of his closest friend, to making music with members of one of the 2010’s greatest rap groups, and maneuvering across the west coast with another close friend and frequent collaborator – producer and musician 48thST – practically living out of studio-adjacent spaces for days on end, Drew’s life has been nonstop. From one calling to the next he is determined to use his musical gifts, strong work ethic, and personable character to carry on the mission supported by those gone and those still here. In order to do that, you have to maintain the right perspective. And in doing so, Drew Famous has created his most vulnerable project to date.
This interview has been slightly edited and condensed for clarity.
G: You kick the album off with “hamster wheel”. Why did it feel necessary to start this project with this?
DF: Because it helps it set sail. The beat sounded like a sailboat going out. I had an intro for that already. The first intro I did was super light, jazzy, and beautiful. It was produced by 48thST, Kyle Stemburger, and Corey Fonville from Butcher Brown. But this one was darker, because [things] got darker. I did half of the song at the beginning of this year and I never finished the part after where my vocals fade out. I knew I wanted that to be the intro because of how it sounded. When I finished everything [for the project] last month, I went in and [completed] that other part. So the second half of that verse is the last thing I did on the whole album. I just left that part open on the intro so I could come and tell about where I’m at now. Because everything else on the album is pretty old.
G: What was the biggest adjustment, moving from the east coast to the west coast?
DF: Everything is slower, kind of. Virginia is comfortably slow, but here [time] lagging. Like, I’m a punctual person. I said I would be on the phone with you at 9am. We didn’t start this until damn near 10am. It (California) is that type of a place. I guess that’s what I’ve gotten used to. Even the way that people drive – it’s chill and slow. The stoplight will turn green, and people will just chill for a couple seconds, and no one will even honk. On the east coast it’s the opposite.
G: What was the inspiration behind the decision to make SEA a double disk?
DF: I just recorded it and re-track-listed it so many different times that the version that my friends know isn’t the album that is out. It doesn’t even sound the same – like this is another side of it. The first side was like “chasing highs.” The beats were happy even if the words weren’t happy. It was way more lighthearted. I wanted to release a deluxe with another 12 [songs], but I’ll probably just leave it. But we’re onto bigger and better things. I have like 3 albums that I have to figure out what I’m doing with.
“I believe, outside of some real moral compass shit, there’s really no real right or wrong. Like, I don’t know anything, I just have a lot of ideas.”
G: Is there anything you did differently on this project that you haven’t done before?
DF: It is easier to make general love songs about women you don’t really know and just think are pretty instead of a girl that you really care about – because then there’s personal layers to it that you. Songs about women are a thing, and I don’t know how people make careers off of them. And to be honest, Kyle was sending me so many beats that were so beautiful, and I was like, what the fuck else am I gonna rap about except this girl I just met yesterday. The production was so beautiful that it reminded me of a beautiful girl I just met and I just acted as if I was talking to her. To be honest I struggled with releasing this project because there are things on here that are so real that I don’t really want them to be out in the world behind my face. But it’s also old material too – that song is from 2022. “chasing highs” is two years old. I started [SEA] in 2022 after I finished Head Held High. While I was recording WAR (2023), I was recording SEA at the same time – it was two different folders: WAR was all of the hard shit, and SEA was the blissful and beautiful, or the more serious stuff.
G: What is it about 48thST’s sound that keeps you guys collaborating with each other?
DF: To be honest, we spend so much time around each other, so it’s easy. There’s always something a little weird about a 48 beat. Something distinct. They’re all perfectly uncomfortable. I’m there when he makes a lot of his beats too, even the ones that I don’t rap on. We’ve constantly worked around each other for years, in a lot of different places and areas and states. Now we’re here. It’s been a long journey, but that’s my dawg.
G: Whose music have you been inspired by during the creation of these records?
DF: RXKNephew bro. It’s also who I record around, a lot. We have songs together too. He actually the only rapper who I’ve been around during this process. I recorded around ZeroTheGxd a couple of times. But Neph, for real – he pulled up at the end of Head Held High which was the beginning of this. [Since then] he’s been around. I don’t engineer for people, but he’s the only person I’ve ever engineered for. We’ve been in New York and now out here.
So that’s the inspiration. It’s in the moment. No writing. “wait til” would not exist and it’s a perfect example of that. It wouldn’t exist if I had to write it. Most of this album I didn’t write at all. And 48’s shit. I’m around it all the time and it’s just an inspiring sound. Those are the two artists I’m around the most.
Who else do I listen to on a daily [basis]? Myself. I listen to so much of me, now, because I’m constantly working on things.
“So….you have to keep it going. Yeah, the relationship [with music] becomes more personal because of how many things are involved within it.”
G: What is your relationship to music? When did it shift from something you just listen to, into something that you believed that you could do and pursue?
DF: Absolutely. Someone recently from out here told me this. They were LA born and raised. They said ‘the first thing you need to know about art is that art kills.’ I think that throughout my life, I’ve lost a good amount of people. Everybody that I’ve lost and that we’ve lost – our conversations around music [were everything]. Like, Tradey hitting me up and telling me we needed to collaborate and bring our worlds together. Or Cole. The whole reason Cole and I were friends was because he found out that I rapped from somebody who went to the [Jefferson Center] music lab with me. Prior to, I hadn’t told anybody at school that I rapped. Cole came up to me and said “You’re fucking fire dude”. That’s the whole reason that I know him. So everything happening now is from them. And it was genuine, whether they made music or not. So….you have to keep it going. Yeah, the relationship [with music] becomes more personal because of how many things are involved within it.
G: Do you listen back to these songs after dropping the album, or since they acted as therapy sessions, is there more of a sense of relief?
DF: Both. I don’t listen to all of them. Some of them are hard as fuck. I don’t listen to “wait til” and “ought2.”
G: Talk to us about track 10, “wake.” There’s someone speaking who provides a message towards the end of the song (right before the beat switch). Who is that and why did you feel that was an appropriate addition?
DF: Two different beats. I made the first half on the first beat, and that is probably the oldest [section] on the whole album. A year ago, I was playing 48thST songs that I had recorded for the album and asked his opinion. He’s like, ‘you need to keep that one’ (referring to the first part of “wake”). That’s the one that he was most interested in. I asked why, and he said because it’s real and people don’t usually say things like that – so I should keep it. A couple of weeks later I was going through instrumentals and found the second beat with the same sample, just different drums. I spliced it and updated it, so I came in with a different energy – because it was a different time period.
When I was in Richmond a few months ago, I was playing the album for one of my homegirls. Right when the break in the song came, she was scrolling on Instagram and read this caption, and I’m like, “Please get on the mic right now.” It was so random and I’m so glad that it happened. It all lined up. She didn’t even know she was on the album when it dropped.
All these songs really are for me. They are literally my personal therapy sessions. That’s why it’s so personal. This is the realest thing I can tell you about this whole thing: on every song, I am in a room alone, talking to myself. Except for “week/end.”
“Who else do I listen to on a daily [basis]? Myself. I listen to so much of me, now, because I’m constantly working on things.”
G: Looking back, which was the most memorable recording session?
DF: We made “allllllblu” in Roanoke. The beat was made downtown in the Music Lab, which is a studio I grew up going to. I took Zack (48thST) back home with me. He made that beat with another dude that works at the Music Lab. So it was some hometown shit. I took the beat and wrote the first verse at the Calm Jungle house in the woods in Roanoke the next day. That night I went to the studio, recorded the verse that I had written in one take, then punched the rest of it in. That was cool because I got a chance to live with that beat.
“oceans+mountains” was recorded in four different places. We made the beat, while tripping me. Me, 48, and Calm Jungle were all out at the Calm Jungle crib. I called my best friend from when I was a kid. He’s a music director for a church now. He pulls up, and plays his acoustic guitar for us. 48 then takes that, flips it, and makes the beat. A couple months later, I went on a fishing trip to Wyoming with my dad and my sister for a couple days. I took my handheld microphone with me. I went out into the middle of the woods, recorded the first verse there – punched it in. I came back on my normal microphone in Richmond to do the second half of it. When I was in L.A., Mimi did vocals for it too.
G: What does see every angl mean to you?
DF: Listen to every perspective. See every angle – see every angel. To keep the blessings going. It’s honestly the state of mind that Cole gave to me. The title was chosen way before any of this. To be around a lot of different minds, ideas, and perspectives. I believe, outside of some moral compass shit, there’s no real right or wrong. Like, I don’t know anything, I just have a lot of ideas. The only thing I know is that I don’t know shit. So balance as many opinions as you can.
UPDATE: Since our interview with Drew Famous, he’s been featured 4 times on Left Brain’s new album, performed at this year’s Camp Flog Gnaw Carnival, released a 3-pack titled Rotate, and has a collaborative tape with Left Brain on the way.