Find people whose morals and vision align with yours, and follow that.
NWA was all-American; Wu-Tang was all-American. It was just a part of America you may not have seen at the time.
I don't want to be that artist who's doing the teenage angst thing and draw it out my whole career.
Me just existing and being myself is making change and making things easier for other young queer kids. I want to be me and express that and break new ground along the way.
The underground always has the best ideas. Sometimes those underground artists transcend and make it to the mainstream, but most of the time, the big guys just steal from us.
I don't really have a blueprint to follow besides watching interviews. Well, I guess the blueprint I do follow is Def Jam, in a way, just because it started in a small space, which is so similar to how we started.
I just wanted to have my own dynasty. I wanted my own Cash Money or Roc-A-Fella. Outside of that, I also wanted my own media company.
In order to make a change, I have to exist in a traditionally homophobic space such as hip-hop. If I were to just be this queer rapper who only spoke to queer kids... I don't think I could as effectively make a change for another young, black, queer kid growing up in Texas.
The Kevin Abstract project kind of represents being socially awkward in high school, which I'm low-key kind of tired of.
I wrote 'Echo' a few months after moving out of my sister's apartment in Atlanta. I was 17 and just finished high school. I didn't go to prom and didn't walk the stage. I just dipped.
I always used to say, at the end of the day, I want Brockhampton to be like Paramount or something, and you don't really know who's behind it. You just think about Brockhampton and all the types of content we provide.
I figured it out at a young age: I could meet as many young people online and try to form my own family or my own record label group.
I'm just super into redefining things.
For some reason, being gay can be such a sad thing in media, so it's really cool to see someone like me who doesn't look like, I guess, the stereotypical gay guy.
I believe that self-discovery is an ongoing thing.
A lot of my music is about self-discovery because I focus on my teenage years.
Whatever we were saying in our music had to represent something and really stand for something. I just wanted to do something with purpose.
Most of the time, with artists like me who go on to become superstars, you never see them when they are still lost and trying to figure life out.
As soon as I left Georgia, my narrative became about taking risks and the fight for creative bedroom artists with no platform.
I think the most important part of the teenage years is wondering.
