Image via Banditdamack/Instagram
A month ago, if you had asked me to locate Hemet on a map, I probably would’ve only been able to pretend I knew what you were talking about. It’s the home to the Hemet Mall and the Ramona Pageant, California’s official outdoor drama theater. A working class, agricultural community that doesn’t boast much excitement. Before speaking with the 951’s own Banditdamack, I rarely had an excuse to travel past the Miller Distillery in Irwindale into inland California.
On the morning of our interview, I left my house without knowing exactly where I was headed. Bandit and I had been going back and forth the week prior, and he told me that once I got to Hemet, he’d drop me a pin for his exact spot. I said “fuck it” and started driving east.
Four hours and over 120 miles later, I reached the fields at the northmost end of San Jacinto and made my way down State Street until I hit Highway 74, Hemet’s main avenue. Eventually I found Bandit in a neighborhood north of downtown. As I turned the last corner, I caught sight of him hopping out of a blacked-out vehicle at the end of a cul-de-sac running parallel to a cluster of apartments wearing a white Pro Club and custom sweats.
At just 20 years old, the artist born Bryce King has carved a niche for himself amidst the new wave of Gen-Z West Coast rappers. Raised by his mother, King spent most of his childhood moving around the San Jacinto Valley. His teenage years were marked by frequent run-ins with the law, which eventually landed him in juvenile hall. It was there, scribbling lyrics onto the tops of school notebooks, that his passion for rap found its footing.
Two years ago, King was working a warehouse job five days a week in Perris, CA, a job he obtained through a “Fresh Out” program. After the program ended, he decided that his days of waking up early for a manual labor job were over. With some financial aid money left over from his FAFSA package, Bandit began investing in studio time and video shoots. He began uploading music videos to Youtube, building a catalog of singles in 2022 that caught heat with the success of regional hits like “Potent.” But it was 2023’s “Squabble N Rap,” a song about what Bandit claims are the only two things to do in juvie, that really placed him in the conversation of “next up.”
Bandit’s flow dances between sharp humor and gritty realism, channeling his own unique streetwise lingo in a post-Drakeo storyteller style. It hits listeners like a sucker punch. He is precise and deliberate, but always ready to bust out that sly grin. You’re not simply hearing the music; you’re being walked through a dark alley in Hemet, experiencing the stark reality of life lived in survival mode.
Bandit’s full debut album, Da Mack, dropped in July of 2023, with features from Spank Nitti James and Lou Deezi. Over nine songs, Bandit delivered a visceral project that signaled his emergence as more than just a local name. With Hemet being a place no one knew, Bandit’s defiant voice suddenly put the small town struggles he grew up with on the map. In a place where opportunities are scarce and local ambition fades under the weight of reality, Bandit’s determination uproots the idea of no one from Hemet making it out.
Da Mack is unapologetically West Coast, featuring beats that echo the thumping basslines and creeping keys that have defined the region’s contemporary sound. Bandit’s verses are filled with a mix of street wisdom and brash humor. The features from Spank and Lou are not just collaborative moments, they’re statements of solidarity that reinforce Bandit’s roots to the 951.
Since his debut, Bandit has turned his underground popularity into a stepping stone to break out of the Inland Empire. With growing confidence, he’s positioning himself as a significant force in the wider Southern California hip-hop scene. Bandit now finds himself making the drive to LA regularly to hit the studio and shoot music videos. He’s collaborating with rising names in the “New LA,” forging a network of producers and artists in the city. Newly signed to Thizzler, Bandit is carrying the momentum needed to end the year on a high note. As he continues to evolve he’s going to prove that a kid from a small town can make a big impact on the culture. – Diego Tapia
How would you spend the day with someone who has never been to Hemet before?
Banditdamack: If it’s like a cousin of mine or something, probably come up over here, smoke, go to the park, go to the Hemet Vista.
What’s that?
Banditdamack: That’s the apartments over there, across the train tracks. That’s like our main section but it’s kind of hot over there so I didn’t want to do this over there. We got food though.
What do you guys got out here?
Banditdamack: Nothing too special. You got Daves Hot Chicken. You ever heard of Tacos & Beer? That’s probably like the best Mexican food out here. I swear to God. You can sit down too. It’s like a little restaurant vibe, but we always get food to go.
Is there much of a nightlife in Hemet?
Banditdamack: So we got a downtown Hemet, but it’s not like an ideal downtown. We got a bar called Shooters, La Taqueria, it’s not a club, but like a little bar type shit. Are you familiar with the city of Riverside? Their downtown, that’s where you want to go for nightlife.
How long has your family lived in this area?
Banditdamack: Since I was like three.They from the IE too. My mom’s from Rio Alto. Moved here when I was like three, then moved to San Jacinto, then we moved to Hemet, and we just bounced around Hemet for like a couple years. We was just in one spot for like 10 years straight. I still got people out there.
What does your mom do?
Banditdamack: She works at a hospital. She do HR.
And your dad?
Banditdamack: To be honest, I don’t know what the fuck he do. He don’t even live in California. He live in Kansas.
Do you see him often?
Banditdamack: No, I haven’t seen him to be honest, I think, since I got out of jail. But we talked and shit. He used to live in the IE right there in Corona, that’s when I would see him and shit. After he moved it’s just been phone contact.
Is he originally from the IE?
Banditdamack: No, he’s from LA County. He was grown when he moved to the IE.
What was it like growing up in Hemet?
Banditdamack: Hemet, to be honest, it was cool, and regular. I played sports, grew up riding skateboards, bikes, scooters. Regular shit, to be honest. Like I said, it’s a big city, so we can do shit. When we play sports, there’s still a lot of kids per team. Some cities are really small, they can’t even do that. They don’t have rec centers or pools and shit like that. I grew up with my mom and shit, so when she would go to work, they would do little programs and shit at the rec center during the summertime, she would drop me off. So that’s how I met a lot of my homies now, through the program.
People that grow up in Hemet, do they typically stay their whole lives, or do a lot of them end up moving away?
Banditdamack: People want to move, but they get kind of stuck. A lot of people’s families don’t move, so it’s like, if your family’s not moving, then you really can’t move. It’s kind of just like a cycle. You Hemet, but you work in Perris, or you work in Beaumont, but you still come back to Hemet. Not a lot of people move out I’m not gonna lie. Some people do though.
Despite Hemet being far removed from other parts of Southern California, you’ve still managed to create a network of producers and artists in places outside of the city. How did you start making all these different connections?
Banditdamack: Probably like a year ago, there was a studio out here I would fuck with. I made a lot of my biggest songs in that studio. That was like the only studio in Hemet, so people we didn’t get along with started going there and it just got burnt out, so then I started just going out the city to studios. I made a lot of connections in LA. In the IE, there’s a couple rappers I made connections with but it’s more film people that I know.
How often are you in LA?
Banditdamack: At least biweekly for something. I got a clothing brand too, and my manager, he’s in Glendale, so it’s like LA County, so I’m always over there for something. I just hate driving out there.
Because of the distance?
Banditdamack: It’s not even the the distance, people out there they drive different.
Before you started recording in proper studios, how were you making music?
Banditdamack: I started on BandLab, but like my first ever studio was in the IE, in Redlands. That was probably like three or four years ago. I was rapping under a whole different name. Then I went to jail, got out, went to jail, and got out again, and started rapping under a different name again. That was the first studio I hit. It’s crazy, one of my biggest songs on Spotify I recorded in my first session out. My mom she had took me.
We picked two of the homies up and she took us to Redlands. I made like “Do Em In” and “Potent.” I made a couple of my biggest songs that session. But to be honest, the IE got some good studios too, but they be booked up, bro.
How do you approach each session? Do you come in with stuff written down already, or do you like to write once you’re in the studio?
Banditdamack: I already got songs locked in on my phone. If I’m coming to the studio I got minimum two songs on my phone. I could write in the studio but it just takes a long time. I like to take my time when I write. I’ve wrote many verses in the studio, but I don’t think I write my hardest shit when I’m in there. Maybe it’s the pressure too, because I’m paying for the time.
What does your writing process look like?
Banditdamack: I pick the beat out, listen to it a couple times, then I’ll start to write to it. Alright… I’ll give you the sauce bro, swear to God. I’ll find the end of the word I want to rhyme with, or like the end of the sentence. So say I wanna say, “Shot him down…We caught him lacking and shot him down.” So I’m gonna write ‘shot him down, got him now, not around.’ All those rhymes just for that rhyme scheme, those four bars, then write another four bars, another four bars. Damn near until the whole song is complete so all I gotta do is just write the space that’s in between. It’s like a puzzle. That shit is fun as fuck when it’s like that, when you get the rhymes out the way first, because that’s like the hardest part.
Did someone teach you how to write like that, or did you come up with that yourself?
Banditdamack: I came up with it in jail, to be honest. I would write the end of the rhymes on the top of my notebook, like in the box where you write your name at. I was watching an Eminem interview, and he damn near does the same shit. He has like a bucket full of like sticky notes with rhymes like that so he never run out of rhymes. I think that’s dope.
Do you pick your own beats?
Banditdamack: I pick my own. I’m hella picky. A producer can send me a beat pack of like 15-20 beats, and I only pick one. Really, I think of like, in the car, or like, at a party how the beat would sound and how I can rap on it. I’ll know in the first 10 seconds whether I’m fucking with it or not.
How would you describe the sound you’re looking for while going through beat packs?
Banditdamack: Just something I could get off to, because at the same time I feel like a beat makes the song. So if you got a hard beat with some hard ass lyrics, I feel like you can’t lose. It don’t even got to be a Cali beat, like I got songs to non-Cali beats.
Is there much of a local rap scene in Hemet?
Banditdamack: Now there is. Before it was like older cats. We like the new generation. I feel like theres more eyes coming out here so more people starting to rap. Not just from from our area, like all over. Like I said, Hemet is big.
When you started out, were you the only one, or were other people from Hemet already rapping?
Banditdamack: People from my section were rapping. My boy Buddha was rapping. They’re from my area, but people outside the area hell no. They ain’t have the courage to do that.
What was it like to see Spank Nitti when he was coming up? What kind of impact did his success have on the community?
Banditdamack: It was cool. That was like eighth grade or ninth grade. Like 2017-2018. He get a lot of love because he don’t beef with anybody, so he get love from everywhere.
How did the two of you meet?
Banditdamack: I met him through J-Lug. He rap too. He from out here. His house in Rancho had a studio there, so I’d book studio time with him. Me and Spank just followed each other and shit. Told him send the verse, he sent it. But I only met him once. He didn’t even do the feature in person, he just sent it to me.
Does seeing Spank find success and make it out of Hemet, inspire you to keep pushing what you’re doing?
Banditdamack: I wouldn’t even say him specifically. Just like my peers I rap with, like the Stinc Team. They young, around my age, going up too. They don’t come from out the best place either, but they making a name for themselves. This shit hard bro. It’s easy, but it’s hard. It’s easy to go in the studio, make a song, shoot a video, but it’s hard to get people to actually fuck with you. No Diddy, you got to touch the people in a way.
How do you touch people with your music?
Banditdamack: I’ll try to spit the shit that not only we can relate too, but everybody can relate too. There’s some shit that only we can relate to. It’d be like the ‘if you know, you know’ bars. It’d be some shit like, you don’t got to gang bang, you don’t gotta be from no street, nothing. You can relate to it. It’s good to tap into every element. If you rap about the same shit over and over again, people are only going to fuck with you for so long.
Are you writing or recording something everyday?
Banditdamack: I write damn near everyday. Just a couple bars sometimes, but everyday. I got some gas in the tank right now, finna go to the studio. I haven’t been in a week or two I’m not even gonna lie. I’ll write or I’ll shoot videos. That’s how I work when I’m not working.
What was happening in your life when you first started to take music seriously? What drove you to actually commit to doing it 100%?
Banditdamack: To be honest with you, I had just got out of jail. I had a little bit of money, so I was maintaining with that little money I had. I was going to the studio and paying for my little videos. I bounced probably with like $7500 cause I was going to college in jail, so I got financial aid. So yeah, I was going to the studio, shooting my videos, but I’m trying to still stay out of trouble, because one, I’m on probation, and two, I’m trying to rap for real now. I was 18, so it’s like, I ain’t going back to juvenile hall, I’m going to big boy jail now. The shit I was doing when I was a minor, they was low key slaps on the wrist. N***** getting real time as adults, so I’m like, it’s this or nothing low key.
I got a job through a fresh out program. It was a program I signed up for when I was in there. The center is right here. It’s across the street from the Hemet Vistas down the street. They help you graduate if you still in school. They help you get a job and shit, like construction or logistics. Like working in a warehouse. So I was working in a warehouse and they pick me up, go to the center right there, six in the morning, every morning, and we shoot off to Perris to the warehouse. Did that for six months then the program ended. I ain’t have a job after that. That’s when I was really rapping.
When did you see the music first start to take off?
Banditdamack: It was so slow low key. Some n***** when they go viral it’s overnight type shit. I feel like our shit was over time. It’s been two years. I’ve been rapping for two years, this September. I dropped my first song, September 25th. I’ll probably say, my first video it hit like 1k in a day on Youtube. That was the shit for me, because I had no subscribers, it was a new channel and shit. That shit was cool.
What do you think is the next step for you?
Banditdamack: Building a catalog. I just signed with Thizzler so I’ll build a catalog with them. Just work though, you gotta work.
What’s the story behind the making of your first project, Da Mack?
Banditdamack: It was not too long after I lost my job. I can’t even say I lost my job. Not too long after I stopped working, I knew I wanted to make a tape. I think one of the songs might have already been out. I already had the feature from Spank, that shit was sitting. I had the Lou Deezi feature probably sitting for a month, and then I only had to record like seven songs. I was dropping singles for a little bit, and then in the midst of that I was like, I’m gonna drop a tape. So I dropped my first lil tape.
Your most recent project is a collab with Blanco from Palm Springs. How did the two of you decide on make a tape together?
Banditdamack: Our neighborhood fucks with his neighborhood. He didn’t really rap, you feel me? He rapped and shit, but he didn’t take it seriously till his homies died. He had to do it because both of them rapped. They was booming out there where they from. They from Palm Springs. How we’re in the Inland Empire, they call that the Desert Empire. You got Palm Springs, Indio, Coachella, all that shit. So when he start taking it seriously, he started going up and shit. He started fucking with OTR. I think we already had a single out, and we start locking in at the Wrecking Spot.
This n***** be at the Wrecking Spot every night, I swear to God. He live in Palm Springs too. That n***** be locked in. That whole tape we did in the studio. There was no verses we had sent though, we did the whole shit in the studio.
How you get introduced to the Stinc Team?
Banditdamack: Through Playerrways they had tapped in. I done met Ralfy also. Instagram play a big part, he [Playerrways] had hit me up. You know on stories, how some people be like, “who should I put on my tape?” Someone had tagged me. I had an open. Sent him the open and he hopped on it the same night. Shit was hard. We got that feature for probably two three months. Me and two of the homies went to Santa Monica to meet with this label at this dinner. He was like, “tap in when you in LA, let’s shoot.” I’m like, we can shoot it on the Santa Monica Pier, so then we shot it that night. He work hard too, like, he quick bro. I told you, he sent the verse back same night, he quick.
Having that workflow is key. Why waste time in a session when you’re the one paying for it?
Banditdamack: It could be hard too. Say you coming up like me, and you sign for a whole lot of money, there could be a whole lot of distractions. You got bitches, you could dress flyer than you was before. You got a whole lot of shit you ain’t have before. You still gotta keep your head on straight. It’s cool to indulge, you don’t just gotta work, work, work, work, work, it’s good to have fun, but you still gotta stay on track though. Everyone is trying to do this music shit. Quick as you come up, you can fall off.
What do you think has been the key to your success so far?
Banditdamack: Consistency. I might have taken one month off since I started. Even that one month I took off, I was still recording and writing, I just wasn’t dropping anything, but I was still working.
What are you currently working on?
Banditdamack: Just singles, but I finna do an album with a deluxe and everything. I want to do like 15 songs for the tape and 10 for the deluxe. That’s 25 songs. 25 is our hood number.
How long does it take you to put together your albums?
Banditdamack: Da Mack might have took me 2-3 weeks. EPs those are’t shit, I can knock those out in like a week. This shit might take me a month because I want different sounds, but I don’t just want different sound’s, I want hard shit at the same time.
What producers do you turn too to get the beats you want?
Banditdamack: C Young On the Beat. My boy named Hex.. He produces for Saviii3rd. He produce a lot for Playerrways. P8 also got no songs with Cypress Moreno but his beats is hard. I got his number and he does send some shit over, but like I said I’m picky. ProdByRoger also. Bro I’m still rocking with Youtube beats. If its like a beat and it’s hard I fuck with it. I’m just picky. That shit might be harder than a whole pack someone send me.
In your music you manage to be funny yet brutally honest at the same time. How to you use humor to supplement the serious themes of your music?
Banditdamack: Like I said bro, it’s shit people can relate to. N***** always gotta have that key bar. Polo G said in one of his interviews you gotta have a key bar. He said in one of his songs, “Only bitch I give a conversation to is Siri.” That’s like a key bar, a memorable bar. You gotta have some of those. I feel like the funny ones are kind of the ones that stick.
What’s a typical day in life look like for you?
Banditdamack: Wake up, write, obviously, food, shower, shit like that. But every day it’d be something different. N***** might wake up, come here, or the homie have a fucking field day in Rancho Cucamonga. A studio day, or like an LA day is what I call it. We shooting videos, going to the studio, for sure. We working when we in LA. Maybe shop a little bit. When we go to LA, if we not at a Peer Space, we looking for spots because theres spots like 10 minutes from everywhere. Find a spot, shoot there, we’ll already had a studio booked at a certain time. So we finish shooting a video, get some food, fuck around. My boy Foolish, he has a team. They vlog, so like, they’ll vlog behind the scenes of what we’re doing.
We’ll hit up a store too, like Chiefin Heavily. The n***** at Chiefin Heavily, his store, the Fairfax studio is right behind it where my boy Hex work at. So if I’m recording there, and it’ll be times bro I’ll just walk in Chiefin Heavily and this n**** Playerrways be at the door. Shake his hand, go to to Hex shit, walk outside, G Money on the stairs. I like LA because you could network way easier. Out here it’s harder. I gotta go to Rancho Cucamonga, Redlands, or Riverside for a studio.
What is it about your lyrics, specifically, that you think puts you above everyone else?
Banditdamack: I feel like my rhymes be hard. Some motherfuckers be off beat. A lot of people hard, don’t get me wrong, I feel like I spit shit people from out here can relate too. I’ll spit shit for my section, for people out here, but everybody can relate to it type shit.
You’ve regarded Remble as an artist that you really look up too. What is it about his style that attracts you to his music?
Banditdamack: He can rap. That’s all I can really say. I don’t know how to explain it. That shit is just hard.
Who do you want to work with that you haven’t worked with yet?
Banditdamack: Mozzy. Me and Peysoh was supposed to lock some shit in. We text and shit, but I’m not really the type to ask for features and shit. That’s one of my pet peeves: people only want to talk about music and shit. Remble, Polo G. I’ll do some shit with G Money. 03 also, and OhGeesy.
How does it feel to be the one representing Hemet right now?
Banditdamack: At first when people would tell me that I feel like, what is you giving me flowers for? We ain’t done shit yet. We not where we need to be, but we know where we need to go. The city on the map for sure though, and I can say I helped with that. We got to go crazy. I want people in Louisiana to know about Hemet.
What do you think you sets yourself apart from other artists coming out of SoCal?
Banditdamack: My sound. I feel like pen and pad wise, there’s not too many people that can really fuck with me. There’s some though, don’t get me wrong. A lot of the people that’s on right now, lyric wise, I don’t think they better, but that’s not really all that matters, though. It’s a big part of it, but this shit is like an image. It’s a brand.
What’s that?
Banditdamack: That’s the apartments over there, across the train tracks. That’s like our main section but it’s kind of hot over there so I didn’t want to do this over there. We got food though.
What do you guys got out here?
Banditdamack: Nothing too special. You got Daves Hot Chicken. You ever heard of Tacos & Beer? That’s probably like the best Mexican food out here. I swear to God. You can sit down too. It’s like a little restaurant vibe, but we always get food to go.
Is there much of a nightlife in Hemet?
Banditdamack: So we got a downtown Hemet, but it’s not like an ideal downtown. We got a bar called Shooters, La Taqueria, it’s not a club, but like a little bar type shit. Are you familiar with the city of Riverside? Their downtown, that’s where you want to go for nightlife.
How long has your family lived in this area?
Banditdamack: Since I was like three.They from the IE too. My mom’s from Rio Alto. Moved here when I was like three, then moved to San Jacinto, then we moved to Hemet, and we just bounced around Hemet for like a couple years. We was just in one spot for like 10 years straight. I still got people out there.
What does your mom do?
Banditdamack: She works at a hospital. She do HR.
And your dad?
Banditdamack: To be honest, I don’t know what the fuck he do. He don’t even live in California. He live in Kansas.
Do you see him often?
Banditdamack: No, I haven’t seen him to be honest, I think, since I got out of jail. But we talked and shit. He used to live in the IE right there in Corona, that’s when I would see him and shit. After he moved it’s just been phone contact.
Is he originally from the IE?
Banditdamack: No, he’s from LA County. He was grown when he moved to the IE.
What was it like growing up in Hemet?
Banditdamack: Hemet, to be honest, it was cool, and regular. I played sports, grew up riding skateboards, bikes, scooters. Regular shit, to be honest. Like I said, it’s a big city, so we can do shit. When we play sports, there’s still a lot of kids per team. Some cities are really small, they can’t even do that. They don’t have rec centers or pools and shit like that. I grew up with my mom and shit, so when she would go to work, they would do little programs and shit at the rec center during the summertime, she would drop me off. So that’s how I met a lot of my homies now, through the program.
People that grow up in Hemet, do they typically stay their whole lives, or do a lot of them end up moving away?
Banditdamack: People want to move, but they get kind of stuck. A lot of people’s families don’t move, so it’s like, if your family’s not moving, then you really can’t move. It’s kind of just like a cycle. You Hemet, but you work in Perris, or you work in Beaumont, but you still come back to Hemet. Not a lot of people move out I’m not gonna lie. Some people do though.
Despite Hemet being far removed from other parts of Southern California, you’ve still managed to create a network of producers and artists in places outside of the city. How did you start making all these different connections?
Banditdamack: Probably like a year ago, there was a studio out here I would fuck with. I made a lot of my biggest songs in that studio. That was like the only studio in Hemet, so people we didn’t get along with started going there and it just got burnt out, so then I started just going out the city to studios. I made a lot of connections in LA. In the IE, there’s a couple rappers I made connections with but it’s more film people that I know.
How often are you in LA?
Banditdamack: At least biweekly for something. I got a clothing brand too, and my manager, he’s in Glendale, so it’s like LA County, so I’m always over there for something. I just hate driving out there.
Because of the distance?
Banditdamack: It’s not even the the distance, people out there they drive different.
Before you started recording in proper studios, how were you making music?
Banditdamack: I started on BandLab, but like my first ever studio was in the IE, in Redlands. That was probably like three or four years ago. I was rapping under a whole different name. Then I went to jail, got out, went to jail, and got out again, and started rapping under a different name again. That was the first studio I hit. It’s crazy, one of my biggest songs on Spotify I recorded in my first session out. My mom she had took me.
We picked two of the homies up and she took us to Redlands. I made like “Do Em In” and “Potent.” I made a couple of my biggest songs that session. But to be honest, the IE got some good studios too, but they be booked up, bro.
How do you approach each session? Do you come in with stuff written down already, or do you like to write once you’re in the studio?
Banditdamack: I already got songs locked in on my phone. If I’m coming to the studio I got minimum two songs on my phone. I could write in the studio but it just takes a long time. I like to take my time when I write. I’ve wrote many verses in the studio, but I don’t think I write my hardest shit when I’m in there. Maybe it’s the pressure too, because I’m paying for the time.
What does your writing process look like?
Banditdamack: I pick the beat out, listen to it a couple times, then I’ll start to write to it. Alright… I’ll give you the sauce bro, swear to God. I’ll find the end of the word I want to rhyme with, or like the end of the sentence. So say I wanna say, “Shot him down…We caught him lacking and shot him down.” So I’m gonna write ‘shot him down, got him now, not around.’ All those rhymes just for that rhyme scheme, those four bars, then write another four bars, another four bars. Damn near until the whole song is complete so all I gotta do is just write the space that’s in between. It’s like a puzzle. That shit is fun as fuck when it’s like that, when you get the rhymes out the way first, because that’s like the hardest part.
Did someone teach you how to write like that, or did you come up with that yourself?
Banditdamack: I came up with it in jail, to be honest. I would write the end of the rhymes on the top of my notebook, like in the box where you write your name at. I was watching an Eminem interview, and he damn near does the same shit. He has like a bucket full of like sticky notes with rhymes like that so he never run out of rhymes. I think that’s dope.
Do you pick your own beats?
Banditdamack: I pick my own. I’m hella picky. A producer can send me a beat pack of like 15-20 beats, and I only pick one. Really, I think of like, in the car, or like, at a party how the beat would sound and how I can rap on it. I’ll know in the first 10 seconds whether I’m fucking with it or not.
How would you describe the sound you’re looking for while going through beat packs?
Banditdamack: Just something I could get off to, because at the same time I feel like a beat makes the song. So if you got a hard beat with some hard ass lyrics, I feel like you can’t lose. It don’t even got to be a Cali beat, like I got songs to non-Cali beats.
Is there much of a local rap scene in Hemet?
Banditdamack: Now there is. Before it was like older cats. We like the new generation. I feel like theres more eyes coming out here so more people starting to rap. Not just from from our area, like all over. Like I said, Hemet is big.
When you started out, were you the only one, or were other people from Hemet already rapping?
Banditdamack: People from my section were rapping. My boy Buddha was rapping. They’re from my area, but people outside the area hell no. They ain’t have the courage to do that.
What was it like to see Spank Nitti when he was coming up? What kind of impact did his success have on the community?
Banditdamack: It was cool. That was like eighth grade or ninth grade. Like 2017-2018. He get a lot of love because he don’t beef with anybody, so he get love from everywhere.
How did the two of you meet?
Banditdamack: I met him through J-Lug. He rap too. He from out here. His house in Rancho had a studio there, so I’d book studio time with him. Me and Spank just followed each other and shit. Told him send the verse, he sent it. But I only met him once. He didn’t even do the feature in person, he just sent it to me.
Does seeing Spank find success and make it out of Hemet, inspire you to keep pushing what you’re doing?
Banditdamack: I wouldn’t even say him specifically. Just like my peers I rap with, like the Stinc Team. They young, around my age, going up too. They don’t come from out the best place either, but they making a name for themselves. This shit hard bro. It’s easy, but it’s hard. It’s easy to go in the studio, make a song, shoot a video, but it’s hard to get people to actually fuck with you. No Diddy, you got to touch the people in a way.
How do you touch people with your music?
Banditdamack: I’ll try to spit the shit that not only we can relate too, but everybody can relate too. There’s some shit that only we can relate to. It’d be like the ‘if you know, you know’ bars. It’d be some shit like, you don’t got to gang bang, you don’t gotta be from no street, nothing. You can relate to it. It’s good to tap into every element. If you rap about the same shit over and over again, people are only going to fuck with you for so long.
Are you writing or recording something everyday?
Banditdamack: I write damn near everyday. Just a couple bars sometimes, but everyday. I got some gas in the tank right now, finna go to the studio. I haven’t been in a week or two I’m not even gonna lie. I’ll write or I’ll shoot videos. That’s how I work when I’m not working.
What was happening in your life when you first started to take music seriously? What drove you to actually commit to doing it 100%?
Banditdamack: To be honest with you, I had just got out of jail. I had a little bit of money, so I was maintaining with that little money I had. I was going to the studio and paying for my little videos. I bounced probably with like $7500 cause I was going to college in jail, so I got financial aid. So yeah, I was going to the studio, shooting my videos, but I’m trying to still stay out of trouble, because one, I’m on probation, and two, I’m trying to rap for real now. I was 18, so it’s like, I ain’t going back to juvenile hall, I’m going to big boy jail now. The shit I was doing when I was a minor, they was low key slaps on the wrist. N***** getting real time as adults, so I’m like, it’s this or nothing low key.
I got a job through a fresh out program. It was a program I signed up for when I was in there. The center is right here. It’s across the street from the Hemet Vistas down the street. They help you graduate if you still in school. They help you get a job and shit, like construction or logistics. Like working in a warehouse. So I was working in a warehouse and they pick me up, go to the center right there, six in the morning, every morning, and we shoot off to Perris to the warehouse. Did that for six months then the program ended. I ain’t have a job after that. That’s when I was really rapping.
When did you see the music first start to take off?
Banditdamack: It was so slow low key. Some n***** when they go viral it’s overnight type shit. I feel like our shit was over time. It’s been two years. I’ve been rapping for two years, this September. I dropped my first song, September 25th. I’ll probably say, my first video it hit like 1k in a day on Youtube. That was the shit for me, because I had no subscribers, it was a new channel and shit. That shit was cool.
What do you think is the next step for you?
Banditdamack: Building a catalog. I just signed with Thizzler so I’ll build a catalog with them. Just work though, you gotta work.
What’s the story behind the making of your first project, Da Mack?
Banditdamack: It was not too long after I lost my job. I can’t even say I lost my job. Not too long after I stopped working, I knew I wanted to make a tape. I think one of the songs might have already been out. I already had the feature from Spank, that shit was sitting. I had the Lou Deezi feature probably sitting for a month, and then I only had to record like seven songs. I was dropping singles for a little bit, and then in the midst of that I was like, I’m gonna drop a tape. So I dropped my first lil tape.
Your most recent project is a collab with Blanco from Palm Springs. How did the two of you decide on make a tape together?
Banditdamack: Our neighborhood fucks with his neighborhood. He didn’t really rap, you feel me? He rapped and shit, but he didn’t take it seriously till his homies died. He had to do it because both of them rapped. They was booming out there where they from. They from Palm Springs. How we’re in the Inland Empire, they call that the Desert Empire. You got Palm Springs, Indio, Coachella, all that shit. So when he start taking it seriously, he started going up and shit. He started fucking with OTR. I think we already had a single out, and we start locking in at the Wrecking Spot.
This n***** be at the Wrecking Spot every night, I swear to God. He live in Palm Springs too. That n***** be locked in. That whole tape we did in the studio. There was no verses we had sent though, we did the whole shit in the studio.
How you get introduced to the Stinc Team?
Banditdamack: Through Playerrways they had tapped in. I done met Ralfy also. Instagram play a big part, he [Playerrways] had hit me up. You know on stories, how some people be like, “who should I put on my tape?” Someone had tagged me. I had an open. Sent him the open and he hopped on it the same night. Shit was hard. We got that feature for probably two three months. Me and two of the homies went to Santa Monica to meet with this label at this dinner. He was like, “tap in when you in LA, let’s shoot.” I’m like, we can shoot it on the Santa Monica Pier, so then we shot it that night. He work hard too, like, he quick bro. I told you, he sent the verse back same night, he quick.
Having that workflow is key. Why waste time in a session when you’re the one paying for it?
Banditdamack: It could be hard too. Say you coming up like me, and you sign for a whole lot of money, there could be a whole lot of distractions. You got bitches, you could dress flyer than you was before. You got a whole lot of shit you ain’t have before. You still gotta keep your head on straight. It’s cool to indulge, you don’t just gotta work, work, work, work, work, it’s good to have fun, but you still gotta stay on track though. Everyone is trying to do this music shit. Quick as you come up, you can fall off.
What do you think has been the key to your success so far?
Banditdamack: Consistency. I might have taken one month off since I started. Even that one month I took off, I was still recording and writing, I just wasn’t dropping anything, but I was still working.
What are you currently working on?
Banditdamack: Just singles, but I finna do an album with a deluxe and everything. I want to do like 15 songs for the tape and 10 for the deluxe. That’s 25 songs. 25 is our hood number.
How long does it take you to put together your albums?
Banditdamack: Da Mack might have took me 2-3 weeks. EPs those are’t shit, I can knock those out in like a week. This shit might take me a month because I want different sounds, but I don’t just want different sound’s, I want hard shit at the same time.
What producers do you turn too to get the beats you want?
Banditdamack: C Young On the Beat. My boy named Hex.. He produces for Saviii3rd. He produce a lot for Playerrways. P8 also got no songs with Cypress Moreno but his beats is hard. I got his number and he does send some shit over, but like I said I’m picky. ProdByRoger also. Bro I’m still rocking with Youtube beats. If its like a beat and it’s hard I fuck with it. I’m just picky. That shit might be harder than a whole pack someone send me.
In your music you manage to be funny yet brutally honest at the same time. How to you use humor to supplement the serious themes of your music?
Banditdamack: Like I said bro, it’s shit people can relate to. N***** always gotta have that key bar. Polo G said in one of his interviews you gotta have a key bar. He said in one of his songs, “Only bitch I give a conversation to is Siri.” That’s like a key bar, a memorable bar. You gotta have some of those. I feel like the funny ones are kind of the ones that stick.
What’s a typical day in life look like for you?
Banditdamack: Wake up, write, obviously, food, shower, shit like that. But every day it’d be something different. N***** might wake up, come here, or the homie have a fucking field day in Rancho Cucamonga. A studio day, or like an LA day is what I call it. We shooting videos, going to the studio, for sure. We working when we in LA. Maybe shop a little bit. When we go to LA, if we not at a Peer Space, we looking for spots because theres spots like 10 minutes from everywhere. Find a spot, shoot there, we’ll already had a studio booked at a certain time. So we finish shooting a video, get some food, fuck around. My boy Foolish, he has a team. They vlog, so like, they’ll vlog behind the scenes of what we’re doing.
We’ll hit up a store too, like Chiefin Heavily. The n***** at Chiefin Heavily, his store, the Fairfax studio is right behind it where my boy Hex work at. So if I’m recording there, and it’ll be times bro I’ll just walk in Chiefin Heavily and this n**** Playerrways be at the door. Shake his hand, go to to Hex shit, walk outside, G Money on the stairs. I like LA because you could network way easier. Out here it’s harder. I gotta go to Rancho Cucamonga, Redlands, or Riverside for a studio.
What is it about your lyrics, specifically, that you think puts you above everyone else?
Banditdamack: I feel like my rhymes be hard. Some motherfuckers be off beat. A lot of people hard, don’t get me wrong, I feel like I spit shit people from out here can relate too. I’ll spit shit for my section, for people out here, but everybody can relate to it type shit.
You’ve regarded Remble as an artist that you really look up too. What is it about his style that attracts you to his music?
Banditdamack: He can rap. That’s all I can really say. I don’t know how to explain it. That shit is just hard.
Who do you want to work with that you haven’t worked with yet?
Banditdamack: Mozzy. Me and Peysoh was supposed to lock some shit in. We text and shit, but I’m not really the type to ask for features and shit. That’s one of my pet peeves: people only want to talk about music and shit. Remble, Polo G. I’ll do some shit with G Money. 03 also, and OhGeesy.
How does it feel to be the one representing Hemet right now?
Banditdamack: At first when people would tell me that I feel like, what is you giving me flowers for? We ain’t done shit yet. We not where we need to be, but we know where we need to go. The city on the map for sure though, and I can say I helped with that. We got to go crazy. I want people in Louisiana to know about Hemet.
What do you think you sets yourself apart from other artists coming out of SoCal?
Banditdamack: My sound. I feel like pen and pad wise, there’s not too many people that can really fuck with me. There’s some though, don’t get me wrong. A lot of the people that’s on right now, lyric wise, I don’t think they better, but that’s not really all that matters, though. It’s a big part of it, but this shit is like an image. It’s a brand.
What do you guys got out here?
Banditdamack: Nothing too special. You got Daves Hot Chicken. You ever heard of Tacos & Beer? That’s probably like the best Mexican food out here. I swear to God. You can sit down too. It’s like a little restaurant vibe, but we always get food to go.
Is there much of a nightlife in Hemet?
Banditdamack: So we got a downtown Hemet, but it’s not like an ideal downtown. We got a bar called Shooters, La Taqueria, it’s not a club, but like a little bar type shit. Are you familiar with the city of Riverside? Their downtown, that’s where you want to go for nightlife.
How long has your family lived in this area?
Banditdamack: Since I was like three.They from the IE too. My mom’s from Rio Alto. Moved here when I was like three, then moved to San Jacinto, then we moved to Hemet, and we just bounced around Hemet for like a couple years. We was just in one spot for like 10 years straight. I still got people out there.
What does your mom do?
Banditdamack: She works at a hospital. She do HR.
And your dad?
Banditdamack: To be honest, I don’t know what the fuck he do. He don’t even live in California. He live in Kansas.
Do you see him often?
Banditdamack: No, I haven’t seen him to be honest, I think, since I got out of jail. But we talked and shit. He used to live in the IE right there in Corona, that’s when I would see him and shit. After he moved it’s just been phone contact.
Is he originally from the IE?
Banditdamack: No, he’s from LA County. He was grown when he moved to the IE.
What was it like growing up in Hemet?
Banditdamack: Hemet, to be honest, it was cool, and regular. I played sports, grew up riding skateboards, bikes, scooters. Regular shit, to be honest. Like I said, it’s a big city, so we can do shit. When we play sports, there’s still a lot of kids per team. Some cities are really small, they can’t even do that. They don’t have rec centers or pools and shit like that. I grew up with my mom and shit, so when she would go to work, they would do little programs and shit at the rec center during the summertime, she would drop me off. So that’s how I met a lot of my homies now, through the program.
People that grow up in Hemet, do they typically stay their whole lives, or do a lot of them end up moving away?
Banditdamack: People want to move, but they get kind of stuck. A lot of people’s families don’t move, so it’s like, if your family’s not moving, then you really can’t move. It’s kind of just like a cycle. You Hemet, but you work in Perris, or you work in Beaumont, but you still come back to Hemet. Not a lot of people move out I’m not gonna lie. Some people do though.
Despite Hemet being far removed from other parts of Southern California, you’ve still managed to create a network of producers and artists in places outside of the city. How did you start making all these different connections?
Banditdamack: Probably like a year ago, there was a studio out here I would fuck with. I made a lot of my biggest songs in that studio. That was like the only studio in Hemet, so people we didn’t get along with started going there and it just got burnt out, so then I started just going out the city to studios. I made a lot of connections in LA. In the IE, there’s a couple rappers I made connections with but it’s more film people that I know.
How often are you in LA?
Banditdamack: At least biweekly for something. I got a clothing brand too, and my manager, he’s in Glendale, so it’s like LA County, so I’m always over there for something. I just hate driving out there.
Because of the distance?
Banditdamack: It’s not even the the distance, people out there they drive different.
Before you started recording in proper studios, how were you making music?
Banditdamack: I started on BandLab, but like my first ever studio was in the IE, in Redlands. That was probably like three or four years ago. I was rapping under a whole different name. Then I went to jail, got out, went to jail, and got out again, and started rapping under a different name again. That was the first studio I hit. It’s crazy, one of my biggest songs on Spotify I recorded in my first session out. My mom she had took me.
We picked two of the homies up and she took us to Redlands. I made like “Do Em In” and “Potent.” I made a couple of my biggest songs that session. But to be honest, the IE got some good studios too, but they be booked up, bro.
How do you approach each session? Do you come in with stuff written down already, or do you like to write once you’re in the studio?
Banditdamack: I already got songs locked in on my phone. If I’m coming to the studio I got minimum two songs on my phone. I could write in the studio but it just takes a long time. I like to take my time when I write. I’ve wrote many verses in the studio, but I don’t think I write my hardest shit when I’m in there. Maybe it’s the pressure too, because I’m paying for the time.
What does your writing process look like?
Banditdamack: I pick the beat out, listen to it a couple times, then I’ll start to write to it. Alright… I’ll give you the sauce bro, swear to God. I’ll find the end of the word I want to rhyme with, or like the end of the sentence. So say I wanna say, “Shot him down…We caught him lacking and shot him down.” So I’m gonna write ‘shot him down, got him now, not around.’ All those rhymes just for that rhyme scheme, those four bars, then write another four bars, another four bars. Damn near until the whole song is complete so all I gotta do is just write the space that’s in between. It’s like a puzzle. That shit is fun as fuck when it’s like that, when you get the rhymes out the way first, because that’s like the hardest part.
Did someone teach you how to write like that, or did you come up with that yourself?
Banditdamack: I came up with it in jail, to be honest. I would write the end of the rhymes on the top of my notebook, like in the box where you write your name at. I was watching an Eminem interview, and he damn near does the same shit. He has like a bucket full of like sticky notes with rhymes like that so he never run out of rhymes. I think that’s dope.
Do you pick your own beats?
Banditdamack: I pick my own. I’m hella picky. A producer can send me a beat pack of like 15-20 beats, and I only pick one. Really, I think of like, in the car, or like, at a party how the beat would sound and how I can rap on it. I’ll know in the first 10 seconds whether I’m fucking with it or not.
How would you describe the sound you’re looking for while going through beat packs?
Banditdamack: Just something I could get off to, because at the same time I feel like a beat makes the song. So if you got a hard beat with some hard ass lyrics, I feel like you can’t lose. It don’t even got to be a Cali beat, like I got songs to non-Cali beats.
Is there much of a local rap scene in Hemet?
Banditdamack: Now there is. Before it was like older cats. We like the new generation. I feel like theres more eyes coming out here so more people starting to rap. Not just from from our area, like all over. Like I said, Hemet is big.
When you started out, were you the only one, or were other people from Hemet already rapping?
Banditdamack: People from my section were rapping. My boy Buddha was rapping. They’re from my area, but people outside the area hell no. They ain’t have the courage to do that.
What was it like to see Spank Nitti when he was coming up? What kind of impact did his success have on the community?
Banditdamack: It was cool. That was like eighth grade or ninth grade. Like 2017-2018. He get a lot of love because he don’t beef with anybody, so he get love from everywhere.
How did the two of you meet?
Banditdamack: I met him through J-Lug. He rap too. He from out here. His house in Rancho had a studio there, so I’d book studio time with him. Me and Spank just followed each other and shit. Told him send the verse, he sent it. But I only met him once. He didn’t even do the feature in person, he just sent it to me.
Does seeing Spank find success and make it out of Hemet, inspire you to keep pushing what you’re doing?
Banditdamack: I wouldn’t even say him specifically. Just like my peers I rap with, like the Stinc Team. They young, around my age, going up too. They don’t come from out the best place either, but they making a name for themselves. This shit hard bro. It’s easy, but it’s hard. It’s easy to go in the studio, make a song, shoot a video, but it’s hard to get people to actually fuck with you. No Diddy, you got to touch the people in a way.
How do you touch people with your music?
Banditdamack: I’ll try to spit the shit that not only we can relate too, but everybody can relate too. There’s some shit that only we can relate to. It’d be like the ‘if you know, you know’ bars. It’d be some shit like, you don’t got to gang bang, you don’t gotta be from no street, nothing. You can relate to it. It’s good to tap into every element. If you rap about the same shit over and over again, people are only going to fuck with you for so long.
Are you writing or recording something everyday?
Banditdamack: I write damn near everyday. Just a couple bars sometimes, but everyday. I got some gas in the tank right now, finna go to the studio. I haven’t been in a week or two I’m not even gonna lie. I’ll write or I’ll shoot videos. That’s how I work when I’m not working.
What was happening in your life when you first started to take music seriously? What drove you to actually commit to doing it 100%?
Banditdamack: To be honest with you, I had just got out of jail. I had a little bit of money, so I was maintaining with that little money I had. I was going to the studio and paying for my little videos. I bounced probably with like $7500 cause I was going to college in jail, so I got financial aid. So yeah, I was going to the studio, shooting my videos, but I’m trying to still stay out of trouble, because one, I’m on probation, and two, I’m trying to rap for real now. I was 18, so it’s like, I ain’t going back to juvenile hall, I’m going to big boy jail now. The shit I was doing when I was a minor, they was low key slaps on the wrist. N***** getting real time as adults, so I’m like, it’s this or nothing low key.
I got a job through a fresh out program. It was a program I signed up for when I was in there. The center is right here. It’s across the street from the Hemet Vistas down the street. They help you graduate if you still in school. They help you get a job and shit, like construction or logistics. Like working in a warehouse. So I was working in a warehouse and they pick me up, go to the center right there, six in the morning, every morning, and we shoot off to Perris to the warehouse. Did that for six months then the program ended. I ain’t have a job after that. That’s when I was really rapping.
When did you see the music first start to take off?
Banditdamack: It was so slow low key. Some n***** when they go viral it’s overnight type shit. I feel like our shit was over time. It’s been two years. I’ve been rapping for two years, this September. I dropped my first song, September 25th. I’ll probably say, my first video it hit like 1k in a day on Youtube. That was the shit for me, because I had no subscribers, it was a new channel and shit. That shit was cool.
What do you think is the next step for you?
Banditdamack: Building a catalog. I just signed with Thizzler so I’ll build a catalog with them. Just work though, you gotta work.
What’s the story behind the making of your first project, Da Mack?
Banditdamack: It was not too long after I lost my job. I can’t even say I lost my job. Not too long after I stopped working, I knew I wanted to make a tape. I think one of the songs might have already been out. I already had the feature from Spank, that shit was sitting. I had the Lou Deezi feature probably sitting for a month, and then I only had to record like seven songs. I was dropping singles for a little bit, and then in the midst of that I was like, I’m gonna drop a tape. So I dropped my first lil tape.
Your most recent project is a collab with Blanco from Palm Springs. How did the two of you decide on make a tape together?
Banditdamack: Our neighborhood fucks with his neighborhood. He didn’t really rap, you feel me? He rapped and shit, but he didn’t take it seriously till his homies died. He had to do it because both of them rapped. They was booming out there where they from. They from Palm Springs. How we’re in the Inland Empire, they call that the Desert Empire. You got Palm Springs, Indio, Coachella, all that shit. So when he start taking it seriously, he started going up and shit. He started fucking with OTR. I think we already had a single out, and we start locking in at the Wrecking Spot.
This n***** be at the Wrecking Spot every night, I swear to God. He live in Palm Springs too. That n***** be locked in. That whole tape we did in the studio. There was no verses we had sent though, we did the whole shit in the studio.
How you get introduced to the Stinc Team?
Banditdamack: Through Playerrways they had tapped in. I done met Ralfy also. Instagram play a big part, he [Playerrways] had hit me up. You know on stories, how some people be like, “who should I put on my tape?” Someone had tagged me. I had an open. Sent him the open and he hopped on it the same night. Shit was hard. We got that feature for probably two three months. Me and two of the homies went to Santa Monica to meet with this label at this dinner. He was like, “tap in when you in LA, let’s shoot.” I’m like, we can shoot it on the Santa Monica Pier, so then we shot it that night. He work hard too, like, he quick bro. I told you, he sent the verse back same night, he quick.
Having that workflow is key. Why waste time in a session when you’re the one paying for it?
Banditdamack: It could be hard too. Say you coming up like me, and you sign for a whole lot of money, there could be a whole lot of distractions. You got bitches, you could dress flyer than you was before. You got a whole lot of shit you ain’t have before. You still gotta keep your head on straight. It’s cool to indulge, you don’t just gotta work, work, work, work, work, it’s good to have fun, but you still gotta stay on track though. Everyone is trying to do this music shit. Quick as you come up, you can fall off.
What do you think has been the key to your success so far?
Banditdamack: Consistency. I might have taken one month off since I started. Even that one month I took off, I was still recording and writing, I just wasn’t dropping anything, but I was still working.
What are you currently working on?
Banditdamack: Just singles, but I finna do an album with a deluxe and everything. I want to do like 15 songs for the tape and 10 for the deluxe. That’s 25 songs. 25 is our hood number.
How long does it take you to put together your albums?
Banditdamack: Da Mack might have took me 2-3 weeks. EPs those are’t shit, I can knock those out in like a week. This shit might take me a month because I want different sounds, but I don’t just want different sound’s, I want hard shit at the same time.
What producers do you turn too to get the beats you want?
Banditdamack: C Young On the Beat. My boy named Hex.. He produces for Saviii3rd. He produce a lot for Playerrways. P8 also got no songs with Cypress Moreno but his beats is hard. I got his number and he does send some shit over, but like I said I’m picky. ProdByRoger also. Bro I’m still rocking with Youtube beats. If its like a beat and it’s hard I fuck with it. I’m just picky. That shit might be harder than a whole pack someone send me.
In your music you manage to be funny yet brutally honest at the same time. How to you use humor to supplement the serious themes of your music?
Banditdamack: Like I said bro, it’s shit people can relate to. N***** always gotta have that key bar. Polo G said in one of his interviews you gotta have a key bar. He said in one of his songs, “Only bitch I give a conversation to is Siri.” That’s like a key bar, a memorable bar. You gotta have some of those. I feel like the funny ones are kind of the ones that stick.
What’s a typical day in life look like for you?
Banditdamack: Wake up, write, obviously, food, shower, shit like that. But every day it’d be something different. N***** might wake up, come here, or the homie have a fucking field day in Rancho Cucamonga. A studio day, or like an LA day is what I call it. We shooting videos, going to the studio, for sure. We working when we in LA. Maybe shop a little bit. When we go to LA, if we not at a Peer Space, we looking for spots because theres spots like 10 minutes from everywhere. Find a spot, shoot there, we’ll already had a studio booked at a certain time. So we finish shooting a video, get some food, fuck around. My boy Foolish, he has a team. They vlog, so like, they’ll vlog behind the scenes of what we’re doing.
We’ll hit up a store too, like Chiefin Heavily. The n***** at Chiefin Heavily, his store, the Fairfax studio is right behind it where my boy Hex work at. So if I’m recording there, and it’ll be times bro I’ll just walk in Chiefin Heavily and this n**** Playerrways be at the door. Shake his hand, go to to Hex shit, walk outside, G Money on the stairs. I like LA because you could network way easier. Out here it’s harder. I gotta go to Rancho Cucamonga, Redlands, or Riverside for a studio.
What is it about your lyrics, specifically, that you think puts you above everyone else?
Banditdamack: I feel like my rhymes be hard. Some motherfuckers be off beat. A lot of people hard, don’t get me wrong, I feel like I spit shit people from out here can relate too. I’ll spit shit for my section, for people out here, but everybody can relate to it type shit.
You’ve regarded Remble as an artist that you really look up too. What is it about his style that attracts you to his music?
Banditdamack: He can rap. That’s all I can really say. I don’t know how to explain it. That shit is just hard.
Who do you want to work with that you haven’t worked with yet?
Banditdamack: Mozzy. Me and Peysoh was supposed to lock some shit in. We text and shit, but I’m not really the type to ask for features and shit. That’s one of my pet peeves: people only want to talk about music and shit. Remble, Polo G. I’ll do some shit with G Money. 03 also, and OhGeesy.
How does it feel to be the one representing Hemet right now?
Banditdamack: At first when people would tell me that I feel like, what is you giving me flowers for? We ain’t done shit yet. We not where we need to be, but we know where we need to go. The city on the map for sure though, and I can say I helped with that. We got to go crazy. I want people in Louisiana to know about Hemet.
What do you think you sets yourself apart from other artists coming out of SoCal?
Banditdamack: My sound. I feel like pen and pad wise, there’s not too many people that can really fuck with me. There’s some though, don’t get me wrong. A lot of the people that’s on right now, lyric wise, I don’t think they better, but that’s not really all that matters, though. It’s a big part of it, but this shit is like an image. It’s a brand.
Is there much of a nightlife in Hemet?
Banditdamack: So we got a downtown Hemet, but it’s not like an ideal downtown. We got a bar called Shooters, La Taqueria, it’s not a club, but like a little bar type shit. Are you familiar with the city of Riverside? Their downtown, that’s where you want to go for nightlife.
How long has your family lived in this area?
Banditdamack: Since I was like three.They from the IE too. My mom’s from Rio Alto. Moved here when I was like three, then moved to San Jacinto, then we moved to Hemet, and we just bounced around Hemet for like a couple years. We was just in one spot for like 10 years straight. I still got people out there.
What does your mom do?
Banditdamack: She works at a hospital. She do HR.
And your dad?
Banditdamack: To be honest, I don’t know what the fuck he do. He don’t even live in California. He live in Kansas.
Do you see him often?
Banditdamack: No, I haven’t seen him to be honest, I think, since I got out of jail. But we talked and shit. He used to live in the IE right there in Corona, that’s when I would see him and shit. After he moved it’s just been phone contact.
Is he originally from the IE?
Banditdamack: No, he’s from LA County. He was grown when he moved to the IE.
What was it like growing up in Hemet?
Banditdamack: Hemet, to be honest, it was cool, and regular. I played sports, grew up riding skateboards, bikes, scooters. Regular shit, to be honest. Like I said, it’s a big city, so we can do shit. When we play sports, there’s still a lot of kids per team. Some cities are really small, they can’t even do that. They don’t have rec centers or pools and shit like that. I grew up with my mom and shit, so when she would go to work, they would do little programs and shit at the rec center during the summertime, she would drop me off. So that’s how I met a lot of my homies now, through the program.
People that grow up in Hemet, do they typically stay their whole lives, or do a lot of them end up moving away?
Banditdamack: People want to move, but they get kind of stuck. A lot of people’s families don’t move, so it’s like, if your family’s not moving, then you really can’t move. It’s kind of just like a cycle. You Hemet, but you work in Perris, or you work in Beaumont, but you still come back to Hemet. Not a lot of people move out I’m not gonna lie. Some people do though.
Despite Hemet being far removed from other parts of Southern California, you’ve still managed to create a network of producers and artists in places outside of the city. How did you start making all these different connections?
Banditdamack: Probably like a year ago, there was a studio out here I would fuck with. I made a lot of my biggest songs in that studio. That was like the only studio in Hemet, so people we didn’t get along with started going there and it just got burnt out, so then I started just going out the city to studios. I made a lot of connections in LA. In the IE, there’s a couple rappers I made connections with but it’s more film people that I know.
How often are you in LA?
Banditdamack: At least biweekly for something. I got a clothing brand too, and my manager, he’s in Glendale, so it’s like LA County, so I’m always over there for something. I just hate driving out there.
Because of the distance?
Banditdamack: It’s not even the the distance, people out there they drive different.
Before you started recording in proper studios, how were you making music?
Banditdamack: I started on BandLab, but like my first ever studio was in the IE, in Redlands. That was probably like three or four years ago. I was rapping under a whole different name. Then I went to jail, got out, went to jail, and got out again, and started rapping under a different name again. That was the first studio I hit. It’s crazy, one of my biggest songs on Spotify I recorded in my first session out. My mom she had took me.
We picked two of the homies up and she took us to Redlands. I made like “Do Em In” and “Potent.” I made a couple of my biggest songs that session. But to be honest, the IE got some good studios too, but they be booked up, bro.
How do you approach each session? Do you come in with stuff written down already, or do you like to write once you’re in the studio?
Banditdamack: I already got songs locked in on my phone. If I’m coming to the studio I got minimum two songs on my phone. I could write in the studio but it just takes a long time. I like to take my time when I write. I’ve wrote many verses in the studio, but I don’t think I write my hardest shit when I’m in there. Maybe it’s the pressure too, because I’m paying for the time.
What does your writing process look like?
Banditdamack: I pick the beat out, listen to it a couple times, then I’ll start to write to it. Alright… I’ll give you the sauce bro, swear to God. I’ll find the end of the word I want to rhyme with, or like the end of the sentence. So say I wanna say, “Shot him down…We caught him lacking and shot him down.” So I’m gonna write ‘shot him down, got him now, not around.’ All those rhymes just for that rhyme scheme, those four bars, then write another four bars, another four bars. Damn near until the whole song is complete so all I gotta do is just write the space that’s in between. It’s like a puzzle. That shit is fun as fuck when it’s like that, when you get the rhymes out the way first, because that’s like the hardest part.
Did someone teach you how to write like that, or did you come up with that yourself?
Banditdamack: I came up with it in jail, to be honest. I would write the end of the rhymes on the top of my notebook, like in the box where you write your name at. I was watching an Eminem interview, and he damn near does the same shit. He has like a bucket full of like sticky notes with rhymes like that so he never run out of rhymes. I think that’s dope.
Do you pick your own beats?
Banditdamack: I pick my own. I’m hella picky. A producer can send me a beat pack of like 15-20 beats, and I only pick one. Really, I think of like, in the car, or like, at a party how the beat would sound and how I can rap on it. I’ll know in the first 10 seconds whether I’m fucking with it or not.
How would you describe the sound you’re looking for while going through beat packs?
Banditdamack: Just something I could get off to, because at the same time I feel like a beat makes the song. So if you got a hard beat with some hard ass lyrics, I feel like you can’t lose. It don’t even got to be a Cali beat, like I got songs to non-Cali beats.
Is there much of a local rap scene in Hemet?
Banditdamack: Now there is. Before it was like older cats. We like the new generation. I feel like theres more eyes coming out here so more people starting to rap. Not just from from our area, like all over. Like I said, Hemet is big.
When you started out, were you the only one, or were other people from Hemet already rapping?
Banditdamack: People from my section were rapping. My boy Buddha was rapping. They’re from my area, but people outside the area hell no. They ain’t have the courage to do that.
What was it like to see Spank Nitti when he was coming up? What kind of impact did his success have on the community?
Banditdamack: It was cool. That was like eighth grade or ninth grade. Like 2017-2018. He get a lot of love because he don’t beef with anybody, so he get love from everywhere.
How did the two of you meet?
Banditdamack: I met him through J-Lug. He rap too. He from out here. His house in Rancho had a studio there, so I’d book studio time with him. Me and Spank just followed each other and shit. Told him send the verse, he sent it. But I only met him once. He didn’t even do the feature in person, he just sent it to me.
Does seeing Spank find success and make it out of Hemet, inspire you to keep pushing what you’re doing?
Banditdamack: I wouldn’t even say him specifically. Just like my peers I rap with, like the Stinc Team. They young, around my age, going up too. They don’t come from out the best place either, but they making a name for themselves. This shit hard bro. It’s easy, but it’s hard. It’s easy to go in the studio, make a song, shoot a video, but it’s hard to get people to actually fuck with you. No Diddy, you got to touch the people in a way.
How do you touch people with your music?
Banditdamack: I’ll try to spit the shit that not only we can relate too, but everybody can relate too. There’s some shit that only we can relate to. It’d be like the ‘if you know, you know’ bars. It’d be some shit like, you don’t got to gang bang, you don’t gotta be from no street, nothing. You can relate to it. It’s good to tap into every element. If you rap about the same shit over and over again, people are only going to fuck with you for so long.
Are you writing or recording something everyday?
Banditdamack: I write damn near everyday. Just a couple bars sometimes, but everyday. I got some gas in the tank right now, finna go to the studio. I haven’t been in a week or two I’m not even gonna lie. I’ll write or I’ll shoot videos. That’s how I work when I’m not working.
What was happening in your life when you first started to take music seriously? What drove you to actually commit to doing it 100%?
Banditdamack: To be honest with you, I had just got out of jail. I had a little bit of money, so I was maintaining with that little money I had. I was going to the studio and paying for my little videos. I bounced probably with like $7500 cause I was going to college in jail, so I got financial aid. So yeah, I was going to the studio, shooting my videos, but I’m trying to still stay out of trouble, because one, I’m on probation, and two, I’m trying to rap for real now. I was 18, so it’s like, I ain’t going back to juvenile hall, I’m going to big boy jail now. The shit I was doing when I was a minor, they was low key slaps on the wrist. N***** getting real time as adults, so I’m like, it’s this or nothing low key.
I got a job through a fresh out program. It was a program I signed up for when I was in there. The center is right here. It’s across the street from the Hemet Vistas down the street. They help you graduate if you still in school. They help you get a job and shit, like construction or logistics. Like working in a warehouse. So I was working in a warehouse and they pick me up, go to the center right there, six in the morning, every morning, and we shoot off to Perris to the warehouse. Did that for six months then the program ended. I ain’t have a job after that. That’s when I was really rapping.
When did you see the music first start to take off?
Banditdamack: It was so slow low key. Some n***** when they go viral it’s overnight type shit. I feel like our shit was over time. It’s been two years. I’ve been rapping for two years, this September. I dropped my first song, September 25th. I’ll probably say, my first video it hit like 1k in a day on Youtube. That was the shit for me, because I had no subscribers, it was a new channel and shit. That shit was cool.
What do you think is the next step for you?
Banditdamack: Building a catalog. I just signed with Thizzler so I’ll build a catalog with them. Just work though, you gotta work.
What’s the story behind the making of your first project, Da Mack?
Banditdamack: It was not too long after I lost my job. I can’t even say I lost my job. Not too long after I stopped working, I knew I wanted to make a tape. I think one of the songs might have already been out. I already had the feature from Spank, that shit was sitting. I had the Lou Deezi feature probably sitting for a month, and then I only had to record like seven songs. I was dropping singles for a little bit, and then in the midst of that I was like, I’m gonna drop a tape. So I dropped my first lil tape.
Your most recent project is a collab with Blanco from Palm Springs. How did the two of you decide on make a tape together?
Banditdamack: Our neighborhood fucks with his neighborhood. He didn’t really rap, you feel me? He rapped and shit, but he didn’t take it seriously till his homies died. He had to do it because both of them rapped. They was booming out there where they from. They from Palm Springs. How we’re in the Inland Empire, they call that the Desert Empire. You got Palm Springs, Indio, Coachella, all that shit. So when he start taking it seriously, he started going up and shit. He started fucking with OTR. I think we already had a single out, and we start locking in at the Wrecking Spot.
This n***** be at the Wrecking Spot every night, I swear to God. He live in Palm Springs too. That n***** be locked in. That whole tape we did in the studio. There was no verses we had sent though, we did the whole shit in the studio.
How you get introduced to the Stinc Team?
Banditdamack: Through Playerrways they had tapped in. I done met Ralfy also. Instagram play a big part, he [Playerrways] had hit me up. You know on stories, how some people be like, “who should I put on my tape?” Someone had tagged me. I had an open. Sent him the open and he hopped on it the same night. Shit was hard. We got that feature for probably two three months. Me and two of the homies went to Santa Monica to meet with this label at this dinner. He was like, “tap in when you in LA, let’s shoot.” I’m like, we can shoot it on the Santa Monica Pier, so then we shot it that night. He work hard too, like, he quick bro. I told you, he sent the verse back same night, he quick.
Having that workflow is key. Why waste time in a session when you’re the one paying for it?
Banditdamack: It could be hard too. Say you coming up like me, and you sign for a whole lot of money, there could be a whole lot of distractions. You got bitches, you could dress flyer than you was before. You got a whole lot of shit you ain’t have before. You still gotta keep your head on straight. It’s cool to indulge, you don’t just gotta work, work, work, work, work, it’s good to have fun, but you still gotta stay on track though. Everyone is trying to do this music shit. Quick as you come up, you can fall off.
What do you think has been the key to your success so far?
Banditdamack: Consistency. I might have taken one month off since I started. Even that one month I took off, I was still recording and writing, I just wasn’t dropping anything, but I was still working.
What are you currently working on?
Banditdamack: Just singles, but I finna do an album with a deluxe and everything. I want to do like 15 songs for the tape and 10 for the deluxe. That’s 25 songs. 25 is our hood number.
How long does it take you to put together your albums?
Banditdamack: Da Mack might have took me 2-3 weeks. EPs those are’t shit, I can knock those out in like a week. This shit might take me a month because I want different sounds, but I don’t just want different sound’s, I want hard shit at the same time.
What producers do you turn too to get the beats you want?
Banditdamack: C Young On the Beat. My boy named Hex.. He produces for Saviii3rd. He produce a lot for Playerrways. P8 also got no songs with Cypress Moreno but his beats is hard. I got his number and he does send some shit over, but like I said I’m picky. ProdByRoger also. Bro I’m still rocking with Youtube beats. If its like a beat and it’s hard I fuck with it. I’m just picky. That shit might be harder than a whole pack someone send me.
In your music you manage to be funny yet brutally honest at the same time. How to you use humor to supplement the serious themes of your music?
Banditdamack: Like I said bro, it’s shit people can relate to. N***** always gotta have that key bar. Polo G said in one of his interviews you gotta have a key bar. He said in one of his songs, “Only bitch I give a conversation to is Siri.” That’s like a key bar, a memorable bar. You gotta have some of those. I feel like the funny ones are kind of the ones that stick.
What’s a typical day in life look like for you?
Banditdamack: Wake up, write, obviously, food, shower, shit like that. But every day it’d be something different. N***** might wake up, come here, or the homie have a fucking field day in Rancho Cucamonga. A studio day, or like an LA day is what I call it. We shooting videos, going to the studio, for sure. We working when we in LA. Maybe shop a little bit. When we go to LA, if we not at a Peer Space, we looking for spots because theres spots like 10 minutes from everywhere. Find a spot, shoot there, we’ll already had a studio booked at a certain time. So we finish shooting a video, get some food, fuck around. My boy Foolish, he has a team. They vlog, so like, they’ll vlog behind the scenes of what we’re doing.
We’ll hit up a store too, like Chiefin Heavily. The n***** at Chiefin Heavily, his store, the Fairfax studio is right behind it where my boy Hex work at. So if I’m recording there, and it’ll be times bro I’ll just walk in Chiefin Heavily and this n**** Playerrways be at the door. Shake his hand, go to to Hex shit, walk outside, G Money on the stairs. I like LA because you could network way easier. Out here it’s harder. I gotta go to Rancho Cucamonga, Redlands, or Riverside for a studio.
What is it about your lyrics, specifically, that you think puts you above everyone else?
Banditdamack: I feel like my rhymes be hard. Some motherfuckers be off beat. A lot of people hard, don’t get me wrong, I feel like I spit shit people from out here can relate too. I’ll spit shit for my section, for people out here, but everybody can relate to it type shit.
You’ve regarded Remble as an artist that you really look up too. What is it about his style that attracts you to his music?
Banditdamack: He can rap. That’s all I can really say. I don’t know how to explain it. That shit is just hard.
Who do you want to work with that you haven’t worked with yet?
Banditdamack: Mozzy. Me and Peysoh was supposed to lock some shit in. We text and shit, but I’m not really the type to ask for features and shit. That’s one of my pet peeves: people only want to talk about music and shit. Remble, Polo G. I’ll do some shit with G Money. 03 also, and OhGeesy.
How does it feel to be the one representing Hemet right now?
Banditdamack: At first when people would tell me that I feel like, what is you giving me flowers for? We ain’t done shit yet. We not where we need to be, but we know where we need to go. The city on the map for sure though, and I can say I helped with that. We got to go crazy. I want people in Louisiana to know about Hemet.
What do you think you sets yourself apart from other artists coming out of SoCal?
Banditdamack: My sound. I feel like pen and pad wise, there’s not too many people that can really fuck with me. There’s some though, don’t get me wrong. A lot of the people that’s on right now, lyric wise, I don’t think they better, but that’s not really all that matters, though. It’s a big part of it, but this shit is like an image. It’s a brand.
How long has your family lived in this area?
Banditdamack: Since I was like three.They from the IE too. My mom’s from Rio Alto. Moved here when I was like three, then moved to San Jacinto, then we moved to Hemet, and we just bounced around Hemet for like a couple years. We was just in one spot for like 10 years straight. I still got people out there.
What does your mom do?
Banditdamack: She works at a hospital. She do HR.
And your dad?
Banditdamack: To be honest, I don’t know what the fuck he do. He don’t even live in California. He live in Kansas.
Do you see him often?
Banditdamack: No, I haven’t seen him to be honest, I think, since I got out of jail. But we talked and shit. He used to live in the IE right there in Corona, that’s when I would see him and shit. After he moved it’s just been phone contact.
Is he originally from the IE?
Banditdamack: No, he’s from LA County. He was grown when he moved to the IE.
What was it like growing up in Hemet?
Banditdamack: Hemet, to be honest, it was cool, and regular. I played sports, grew up riding skateboards, bikes, scooters. Regular shit, to be honest. Like I said, it’s a big city, so we can do shit. When we play sports, there’s still a lot of kids per team. Some cities are really small, they can’t even do that. They don’t have rec centers or pools and shit like that. I grew up with my mom and shit, so when she would go to work, they would do little programs and shit at the rec center during the summertime, she would drop me off. So that’s how I met a lot of my homies now, through the program.
People that grow up in Hemet, do they typically stay their whole lives, or do a lot of them end up moving away?
Banditdamack: People want to move, but they get kind of stuck. A lot of people’s families don’t move, so it’s like, if your family’s not moving, then you really can’t move. It’s kind of just like a cycle. You Hemet, but you work in Perris, or you work in Beaumont, but you still come back to Hemet. Not a lot of people move out I’m not gonna lie. Some people do though.
Despite Hemet being far removed from other parts of Southern California, you’ve still managed to create a network of producers and artists in places outside of the city. How did you start making all these different connections?
Banditdamack: Probably like a year ago, there was a studio out here I would fuck with. I made a lot of my biggest songs in that studio. That was like the only studio in Hemet, so people we didn’t get along with started going there and it just got burnt out, so then I started just going out the city to studios. I made a lot of connections in LA. In the IE, there’s a couple rappers I made connections with but it’s more film people that I know.
How often are you in LA?
Banditdamack: At least biweekly for something. I got a clothing brand too, and my manager, he’s in Glendale, so it’s like LA County, so I’m always over there for something. I just hate driving out there.
Because of the distance?
Banditdamack: It’s not even the the distance, people out there they drive different.
Before you started recording in proper studios, how were you making music?
Banditdamack: I started on BandLab, but like my first ever studio was in the IE, in Redlands. That was probably like three or four years ago. I was rapping under a whole different name. Then I went to jail, got out, went to jail, and got out again, and started rapping under a different name again. That was the first studio I hit. It’s crazy, one of my biggest songs on Spotify I recorded in my first session out. My mom she had took me.
We picked two of the homies up and she took us to Redlands. I made like “Do Em In” and “Potent.” I made a couple of my biggest songs that session. But to be honest, the IE got some good studios too, but they be booked up, bro.
How do you approach each session? Do you come in with stuff written down already, or do you like to write once you’re in the studio?
Banditdamack: I already got songs locked in on my phone. If I’m coming to the studio I got minimum two songs on my phone. I could write in the studio but it just takes a long time. I like to take my time when I write. I’ve wrote many verses in the studio, but I don’t think I write my hardest shit when I’m in there. Maybe it’s the pressure too, because I’m paying for the time.
What does your writing process look like?
Banditdamack: I pick the beat out, listen to it a couple times, then I’ll start to write to it. Alright… I’ll give you the sauce bro, swear to God. I’ll find the end of the word I want to rhyme with, or like the end of the sentence. So say I wanna say, “Shot him down…We caught him lacking and shot him down.” So I’m gonna write ‘shot him down, got him now, not around.’ All those rhymes just for that rhyme scheme, those four bars, then write another four bars, another four bars. Damn near until the whole song is complete so all I gotta do is just write the space that’s in between. It’s like a puzzle. That shit is fun as fuck when it’s like that, when you get the rhymes out the way first, because that’s like the hardest part.
Did someone teach you how to write like that, or did you come up with that yourself?
Banditdamack: I came up with it in jail, to be honest. I would write the end of the rhymes on the top of my notebook, like in the box where you write your name at. I was watching an Eminem interview, and he damn near does the same shit. He has like a bucket full of like sticky notes with rhymes like that so he never run out of rhymes. I think that’s dope.
Do you pick your own beats?
Banditdamack: I pick my own. I’m hella picky. A producer can send me a beat pack of like 15-20 beats, and I only pick one. Really, I think of like, in the car, or like, at a party how the beat would sound and how I can rap on it. I’ll know in the first 10 seconds whether I’m fucking with it or not.
How would you describe the sound you’re looking for while going through beat packs?
Banditdamack: Just something I could get off to, because at the same time I feel like a beat makes the song. So if you got a hard beat with some hard ass lyrics, I feel like you can’t lose. It don’t even got to be a Cali beat, like I got songs to non-Cali beats.
Is there much of a local rap scene in Hemet?
Banditdamack: Now there is. Before it was like older cats. We like the new generation. I feel like theres more eyes coming out here so more people starting to rap. Not just from from our area, like all over. Like I said, Hemet is big.
When you started out, were you the only one, or were other people from Hemet already rapping?
Banditdamack: People from my section were rapping. My boy Buddha was rapping. They’re from my area, but people outside the area hell no. They ain’t have the courage to do that.
What was it like to see Spank Nitti when he was coming up? What kind of impact did his success have on the community?
Banditdamack: It was cool. That was like eighth grade or ninth grade. Like 2017-2018. He get a lot of love because he don’t beef with anybody, so he get love from everywhere.
How did the two of you meet?
Banditdamack: I met him through J-Lug. He rap too. He from out here. His house in Rancho had a studio there, so I’d book studio time with him. Me and Spank just followed each other and shit. Told him send the verse, he sent it. But I only met him once. He didn’t even do the feature in person, he just sent it to me.
Does seeing Spank find success and make it out of Hemet, inspire you to keep pushing what you’re doing?
Banditdamack: I wouldn’t even say him specifically. Just like my peers I rap with, like the Stinc Team. They young, around my age, going up too. They don’t come from out the best place either, but they making a name for themselves. This shit hard bro. It’s easy, but it’s hard. It’s easy to go in the studio, make a song, shoot a video, but it’s hard to get people to actually fuck with you. No Diddy, you got to touch the people in a way.
How do you touch people with your music?
Banditdamack: I’ll try to spit the shit that not only we can relate too, but everybody can relate too. There’s some shit that only we can relate to. It’d be like the ‘if you know, you know’ bars. It’d be some shit like, you don’t got to gang bang, you don’t gotta be from no street, nothing. You can relate to it. It’s good to tap into every element. If you rap about the same shit over and over again, people are only going to fuck with you for so long.
Are you writing or recording something everyday?
Banditdamack: I write damn near everyday. Just a couple bars sometimes, but everyday. I got some gas in the tank right now, finna go to the studio. I haven’t been in a week or two I’m not even gonna lie. I’ll write or I’ll shoot videos. That’s how I work when I’m not working.
What was happening in your life when you first started to take music seriously? What drove you to actually commit to doing it 100%?
Banditdamack: To be honest with you, I had just got out of jail. I had a little bit of money, so I was maintaining with that little money I had. I was going to the studio and paying for my little videos. I bounced probably with like $7500 cause I was going to college in jail, so I got financial aid. So yeah, I was going to the studio, shooting my videos, but I’m trying to still stay out of trouble, because one, I’m on probation, and two, I’m trying to rap for real now. I was 18, so it’s like, I ain’t going back to juvenile hall, I’m going to big boy jail now. The shit I was doing when I was a minor, they was low key slaps on the wrist. N***** getting real time as adults, so I’m like, it’s this or nothing low key.
I got a job through a fresh out program. It was a program I signed up for when I was in there. The center is right here. It’s across the street from the Hemet Vistas down the street. They help you graduate if you still in school. They help you get a job and shit, like construction or logistics. Like working in a warehouse. So I was working in a warehouse and they pick me up, go to the center right there, six in the morning, every morning, and we shoot off to Perris to the warehouse. Did that for six months then the program ended. I ain’t have a job after that. That’s when I was really rapping.
When did you see the music first start to take off?
Banditdamack: It was so slow low key. Some n***** when they go viral it’s overnight type shit. I feel like our shit was over time. It’s been two years. I’ve been rapping for two years, this September. I dropped my first song, September 25th. I’ll probably say, my first video it hit like 1k in a day on Youtube. That was the shit for me, because I had no subscribers, it was a new channel and shit. That shit was cool.
What do you think is the next step for you?
Banditdamack: Building a catalog. I just signed with Thizzler so I’ll build a catalog with them. Just work though, you gotta work.
What’s the story behind the making of your first project, Da Mack?
Banditdamack: It was not too long after I lost my job. I can’t even say I lost my job. Not too long after I stopped working, I knew I wanted to make a tape. I think one of the songs might have already been out. I already had the feature from Spank, that shit was sitting. I had the Lou Deezi feature probably sitting for a month, and then I only had to record like seven songs. I was dropping singles for a little bit, and then in the midst of that I was like, I’m gonna drop a tape. So I dropped my first lil tape.
Your most recent project is a collab with Blanco from Palm Springs. How did the two of you decide on make a tape together?
Banditdamack: Our neighborhood fucks with his neighborhood. He didn’t really rap, you feel me? He rapped and shit, but he didn’t take it seriously till his homies died. He had to do it because both of them rapped. They was booming out there where they from. They from Palm Springs. How we’re in the Inland Empire, they call that the Desert Empire. You got Palm Springs, Indio, Coachella, all that shit. So when he start taking it seriously, he started going up and shit. He started fucking with OTR. I think we already had a single out, and we start locking in at the Wrecking Spot.
This n***** be at the Wrecking Spot every night, I swear to God. He live in Palm Springs too. That n***** be locked in. That whole tape we did in the studio. There was no verses we had sent though, we did the whole shit in the studio.
How you get introduced to the Stinc Team?
Banditdamack: Through Playerrways they had tapped in. I done met Ralfy also. Instagram play a big part, he [Playerrways] had hit me up. You know on stories, how some people be like, “who should I put on my tape?” Someone had tagged me. I had an open. Sent him the open and he hopped on it the same night. Shit was hard. We got that feature for probably two three months. Me and two of the homies went to Santa Monica to meet with this label at this dinner. He was like, “tap in when you in LA, let’s shoot.” I’m like, we can shoot it on the Santa Monica Pier, so then we shot it that night. He work hard too, like, he quick bro. I told you, he sent the verse back same night, he quick.
Having that workflow is key. Why waste time in a session when you’re the one paying for it?
Banditdamack: It could be hard too. Say you coming up like me, and you sign for a whole lot of money, there could be a whole lot of distractions. You got bitches, you could dress flyer than you was before. You got a whole lot of shit you ain’t have before. You still gotta keep your head on straight. It’s cool to indulge, you don’t just gotta work, work, work, work, work, it’s good to have fun, but you still gotta stay on track though. Everyone is trying to do this music shit. Quick as you come up, you can fall off.
What do you think has been the key to your success so far?
Banditdamack: Consistency. I might have taken one month off since I started. Even that one month I took off, I was still recording and writing, I just wasn’t dropping anything, but I was still working.
What are you currently working on?
Banditdamack: Just singles, but I finna do an album with a deluxe and everything. I want to do like 15 songs for the tape and 10 for the deluxe. That’s 25 songs. 25 is our hood number.
How long does it take you to put together your albums?
Banditdamack: Da Mack might have took me 2-3 weeks. EPs those are’t shit, I can knock those out in like a week. This shit might take me a month because I want different sounds, but I don’t just want different sound’s, I want hard shit at the same time.
What producers do you turn too to get the beats you want?
Banditdamack: C Young On the Beat. My boy named Hex.. He produces for Saviii3rd. He produce a lot for Playerrways. P8 also got no songs with Cypress Moreno but his beats is hard. I got his number and he does send some shit over, but like I said I’m picky. ProdByRoger also. Bro I’m still rocking with Youtube beats. If its like a beat and it’s hard I fuck with it. I’m just picky. That shit might be harder than a whole pack someone send me.
In your music you manage to be funny yet brutally honest at the same time. How to you use humor to supplement the serious themes of your music?
Banditdamack: Like I said bro, it’s shit people can relate to. N***** always gotta have that key bar. Polo G said in one of his interviews you gotta have a key bar. He said in one of his songs, “Only bitch I give a conversation to is Siri.” That’s like a key bar, a memorable bar. You gotta have some of those. I feel like the funny ones are kind of the ones that stick.
What’s a typical day in life look like for you?
Banditdamack: Wake up, write, obviously, food, shower, shit like that. But every day it’d be something different. N***** might wake up, come here, or the homie have a fucking field day in Rancho Cucamonga. A studio day, or like an LA day is what I call it. We shooting videos, going to the studio, for sure. We working when we in LA. Maybe shop a little bit. When we go to LA, if we not at a Peer Space, we looking for spots because theres spots like 10 minutes from everywhere. Find a spot, shoot there, we’ll already had a studio booked at a certain time. So we finish shooting a video, get some food, fuck around. My boy Foolish, he has a team. They vlog, so like, they’ll vlog behind the scenes of what we’re doing.
We’ll hit up a store too, like Chiefin Heavily. The n***** at Chiefin Heavily, his store, the Fairfax studio is right behind it where my boy Hex work at. So if I’m recording there, and it’ll be times bro I’ll just walk in Chiefin Heavily and this n**** Playerrways be at the door. Shake his hand, go to to Hex shit, walk outside, G Money on the stairs. I like LA because you could network way easier. Out here it’s harder. I gotta go to Rancho Cucamonga, Redlands, or Riverside for a studio.
What is it about your lyrics, specifically, that you think puts you above everyone else?
Banditdamack: I feel like my rhymes be hard. Some motherfuckers be off beat. A lot of people hard, don’t get me wrong, I feel like I spit shit people from out here can relate too. I’ll spit shit for my section, for people out here, but everybody can relate to it type shit.
You’ve regarded Remble as an artist that you really look up too. What is it about his style that attracts you to his music?
Banditdamack: He can rap. That’s all I can really say. I don’t know how to explain it. That shit is just hard.
Who do you want to work with that you haven’t worked with yet?
Banditdamack: Mozzy. Me and Peysoh was supposed to lock some shit in. We text and shit, but I’m not really the type to ask for features and shit. That’s one of my pet peeves: people only want to talk about music and shit. Remble, Polo G. I’ll do some shit with G Money. 03 also, and OhGeesy.
How does it feel to be the one representing Hemet right now?
Banditdamack: At first when people would tell me that I feel like, what is you giving me flowers for? We ain’t done shit yet. We not where we need to be, but we know where we need to go. The city on the map for sure though, and I can say I helped with that. We got to go crazy. I want people in Louisiana to know about Hemet.
What do you think you sets yourself apart from other artists coming out of SoCal?
Banditdamack: My sound. I feel like pen and pad wise, there’s not too many people that can really fuck with me. There’s some though, don’t get me wrong. A lot of the people that’s on right now, lyric wise, I don’t think they better, but that’s not really all that matters, though. It’s a big part of it, but this shit is like an image. It’s a brand.
What does your mom do?
Banditdamack: She works at a hospital. She do HR.
And your dad?
Banditdamack: To be honest, I don’t know what the fuck he do. He don’t even live in California. He live in Kansas.
Do you see him often?
Banditdamack: No, I haven’t seen him to be honest, I think, since I got out of jail. But we talked and shit. He used to live in the IE right there in Corona, that’s when I would see him and shit. After he moved it’s just been phone contact.
Is he originally from the IE?
Banditdamack: No, he’s from LA County. He was grown when he moved to the IE.
What was it like growing up in Hemet?
Banditdamack: Hemet, to be honest, it was cool, and regular. I played sports, grew up riding skateboards, bikes, scooters. Regular shit, to be honest. Like I said, it’s a big city, so we can do shit. When we play sports, there’s still a lot of kids per team. Some cities are really small, they can’t even do that. They don’t have rec centers or pools and shit like that. I grew up with my mom and shit, so when she would go to work, they would do little programs and shit at the rec center during the summertime, she would drop me off. So that’s how I met a lot of my homies now, through the program.
People that grow up in Hemet, do they typically stay their whole lives, or do a lot of them end up moving away?
Banditdamack: People want to move, but they get kind of stuck. A lot of people’s families don’t move, so it’s like, if your family’s not moving, then you really can’t move. It’s kind of just like a cycle. You Hemet, but you work in Perris, or you work in Beaumont, but you still come back to Hemet. Not a lot of people move out I’m not gonna lie. Some people do though.
Despite Hemet being far removed from other parts of Southern California, you’ve still managed to create a network of producers and artists in places outside of the city. How did you start making all these different connections?
Banditdamack: Probably like a year ago, there was a studio out here I would fuck with. I made a lot of my biggest songs in that studio. That was like the only studio in Hemet, so people we didn’t get along with started going there and it just got burnt out, so then I started just going out the city to studios. I made a lot of connections in LA. In the IE, there’s a couple rappers I made connections with but it’s more film people that I know.
How often are you in LA?
Banditdamack: At least biweekly for something. I got a clothing brand too, and my manager, he’s in Glendale, so it’s like LA County, so I’m always over there for something. I just hate driving out there.
Because of the distance?
Banditdamack: It’s not even the the distance, people out there they drive different.
Before you started recording in proper studios, how were you making music?
Banditdamack: I started on BandLab, but like my first ever studio was in the IE, in Redlands. That was probably like three or four years ago. I was rapping under a whole different name. Then I went to jail, got out, went to jail, and got out again, and started rapping under a different name again. That was the first studio I hit. It’s crazy, one of my biggest songs on Spotify I recorded in my first session out. My mom she had took me.
We picked two of the homies up and she took us to Redlands. I made like “Do Em In” and “Potent.” I made a couple of my biggest songs that session. But to be honest, the IE got some good studios too, but they be booked up, bro.
How do you approach each session? Do you come in with stuff written down already, or do you like to write once you’re in the studio?
Banditdamack: I already got songs locked in on my phone. If I’m coming to the studio I got minimum two songs on my phone. I could write in the studio but it just takes a long time. I like to take my time when I write. I’ve wrote many verses in the studio, but I don’t think I write my hardest shit when I’m in there. Maybe it’s the pressure too, because I’m paying for the time.
What does your writing process look like?
Banditdamack: I pick the beat out, listen to it a couple times, then I’ll start to write to it. Alright… I’ll give you the sauce bro, swear to God. I’ll find the end of the word I want to rhyme with, or like the end of the sentence. So say I wanna say, “Shot him down…We caught him lacking and shot him down.” So I’m gonna write ‘shot him down, got him now, not around.’ All those rhymes just for that rhyme scheme, those four bars, then write another four bars, another four bars. Damn near until the whole song is complete so all I gotta do is just write the space that’s in between. It’s like a puzzle. That shit is fun as fuck when it’s like that, when you get the rhymes out the way first, because that’s like the hardest part.
Did someone teach you how to write like that, or did you come up with that yourself?
Banditdamack: I came up with it in jail, to be honest. I would write the end of the rhymes on the top of my notebook, like in the box where you write your name at. I was watching an Eminem interview, and he damn near does the same shit. He has like a bucket full of like sticky notes with rhymes like that so he never run out of rhymes. I think that’s dope.
Do you pick your own beats?
Banditdamack: I pick my own. I’m hella picky. A producer can send me a beat pack of like 15-20 beats, and I only pick one. Really, I think of like, in the car, or like, at a party how the beat would sound and how I can rap on it. I’ll know in the first 10 seconds whether I’m fucking with it or not.
How would you describe the sound you’re looking for while going through beat packs?
Banditdamack: Just something I could get off to, because at the same time I feel like a beat makes the song. So if you got a hard beat with some hard ass lyrics, I feel like you can’t lose. It don’t even got to be a Cali beat, like I got songs to non-Cali beats.
Is there much of a local rap scene in Hemet?
Banditdamack: Now there is. Before it was like older cats. We like the new generation. I feel like theres more eyes coming out here so more people starting to rap. Not just from from our area, like all over. Like I said, Hemet is big.
When you started out, were you the only one, or were other people from Hemet already rapping?
Banditdamack: People from my section were rapping. My boy Buddha was rapping. They’re from my area, but people outside the area hell no. They ain’t have the courage to do that.
What was it like to see Spank Nitti when he was coming up? What kind of impact did his success have on the community?
Banditdamack: It was cool. That was like eighth grade or ninth grade. Like 2017-2018. He get a lot of love because he don’t beef with anybody, so he get love from everywhere.
How did the two of you meet?
Banditdamack: I met him through J-Lug. He rap too. He from out here. His house in Rancho had a studio there, so I’d book studio time with him. Me and Spank just followed each other and shit. Told him send the verse, he sent it. But I only met him once. He didn’t even do the feature in person, he just sent it to me.
Does seeing Spank find success and make it out of Hemet, inspire you to keep pushing what you’re doing?
Banditdamack: I wouldn’t even say him specifically. Just like my peers I rap with, like the Stinc Team. They young, around my age, going up too. They don’t come from out the best place either, but they making a name for themselves. This shit hard bro. It’s easy, but it’s hard. It’s easy to go in the studio, make a song, shoot a video, but it’s hard to get people to actually fuck with you. No Diddy, you got to touch the people in a way.
How do you touch people with your music?
Banditdamack: I’ll try to spit the shit that not only we can relate too, but everybody can relate too. There’s some shit that only we can relate to. It’d be like the ‘if you know, you know’ bars. It’d be some shit like, you don’t got to gang bang, you don’t gotta be from no street, nothing. You can relate to it. It’s good to tap into every element. If you rap about the same shit over and over again, people are only going to fuck with you for so long.
Are you writing or recording something everyday?
Banditdamack: I write damn near everyday. Just a couple bars sometimes, but everyday. I got some gas in the tank right now, finna go to the studio. I haven’t been in a week or two I’m not even gonna lie. I’ll write or I’ll shoot videos. That’s how I work when I’m not working.
What was happening in your life when you first started to take music seriously? What drove you to actually commit to doing it 100%?
Banditdamack: To be honest with you, I had just got out of jail. I had a little bit of money, so I was maintaining with that little money I had. I was going to the studio and paying for my little videos. I bounced probably with like $7500 cause I was going to college in jail, so I got financial aid. So yeah, I was going to the studio, shooting my videos, but I’m trying to still stay out of trouble, because one, I’m on probation, and two, I’m trying to rap for real now. I was 18, so it’s like, I ain’t going back to juvenile hall, I’m going to big boy jail now. The shit I was doing when I was a minor, they was low key slaps on the wrist. N***** getting real time as adults, so I’m like, it’s this or nothing low key.
I got a job through a fresh out program. It was a program I signed up for when I was in there. The center is right here. It’s across the street from the Hemet Vistas down the street. They help you graduate if you still in school. They help you get a job and shit, like construction or logistics. Like working in a warehouse. So I was working in a warehouse and they pick me up, go to the center right there, six in the morning, every morning, and we shoot off to Perris to the warehouse. Did that for six months then the program ended. I ain’t have a job after that. That’s when I was really rapping.
When did you see the music first start to take off?
Banditdamack: It was so slow low key. Some n***** when they go viral it’s overnight type shit. I feel like our shit was over time. It’s been two years. I’ve been rapping for two years, this September. I dropped my first song, September 25th. I’ll probably say, my first video it hit like 1k in a day on Youtube. That was the shit for me, because I had no subscribers, it was a new channel and shit. That shit was cool.
What do you think is the next step for you?
Banditdamack: Building a catalog. I just signed with Thizzler so I’ll build a catalog with them. Just work though, you gotta work.
What’s the story behind the making of your first project, Da Mack?
Banditdamack: It was not too long after I lost my job. I can’t even say I lost my job. Not too long after I stopped working, I knew I wanted to make a tape. I think one of the songs might have already been out. I already had the feature from Spank, that shit was sitting. I had the Lou Deezi feature probably sitting for a month, and then I only had to record like seven songs. I was dropping singles for a little bit, and then in the midst of that I was like, I’m gonna drop a tape. So I dropped my first lil tape.
Your most recent project is a collab with Blanco from Palm Springs. How did the two of you decide on make a tape together?
Banditdamack: Our neighborhood fucks with his neighborhood. He didn’t really rap, you feel me? He rapped and shit, but he didn’t take it seriously till his homies died. He had to do it because both of them rapped. They was booming out there where they from. They from Palm Springs. How we’re in the Inland Empire, they call that the Desert Empire. You got Palm Springs, Indio, Coachella, all that shit. So when he start taking it seriously, he started going up and shit. He started fucking with OTR. I think we already had a single out, and we start locking in at the Wrecking Spot.
This n***** be at the Wrecking Spot every night, I swear to God. He live in Palm Springs too. That n***** be locked in. That whole tape we did in the studio. There was no verses we had sent though, we did the whole shit in the studio.
How you get introduced to the Stinc Team?
Banditdamack: Through Playerrways they had tapped in. I done met Ralfy also. Instagram play a big part, he [Playerrways] had hit me up. You know on stories, how some people be like, “who should I put on my tape?” Someone had tagged me. I had an open. Sent him the open and he hopped on it the same night. Shit was hard. We got that feature for probably two three months. Me and two of the homies went to Santa Monica to meet with this label at this dinner. He was like, “tap in when you in LA, let’s shoot.” I’m like, we can shoot it on the Santa Monica Pier, so then we shot it that night. He work hard too, like, he quick bro. I told you, he sent the verse back same night, he quick.
Having that workflow is key. Why waste time in a session when you’re the one paying for it?
Banditdamack: It could be hard too. Say you coming up like me, and you sign for a whole lot of money, there could be a whole lot of distractions. You got bitches, you could dress flyer than you was before. You got a whole lot of shit you ain’t have before. You still gotta keep your head on straight. It’s cool to indulge, you don’t just gotta work, work, work, work, work, it’s good to have fun, but you still gotta stay on track though. Everyone is trying to do this music shit. Quick as you come up, you can fall off.
What do you think has been the key to your success so far?
Banditdamack: Consistency. I might have taken one month off since I started. Even that one month I took off, I was still recording and writing, I just wasn’t dropping anything, but I was still working.
What are you currently working on?
Banditdamack: Just singles, but I finna do an album with a deluxe and everything. I want to do like 15 songs for the tape and 10 for the deluxe. That’s 25 songs. 25 is our hood number.
How long does it take you to put together your albums?
Banditdamack: Da Mack might have took me 2-3 weeks. EPs those are’t shit, I can knock those out in like a week. This shit might take me a month because I want different sounds, but I don’t just want different sound’s, I want hard shit at the same time.
What producers do you turn too to get the beats you want?
Banditdamack: C Young On the Beat. My boy named Hex.. He produces for Saviii3rd. He produce a lot for Playerrways. P8 also got no songs with Cypress Moreno but his beats is hard. I got his number and he does send some shit over, but like I said I’m picky. ProdByRoger also. Bro I’m still rocking with Youtube beats. If its like a beat and it’s hard I fuck with it. I’m just picky. That shit might be harder than a whole pack someone send me.
In your music you manage to be funny yet brutally honest at the same time. How to you use humor to supplement the serious themes of your music?
Banditdamack: Like I said bro, it’s shit people can relate to. N***** always gotta have that key bar. Polo G said in one of his interviews you gotta have a key bar. He said in one of his songs, “Only bitch I give a conversation to is Siri.” That’s like a key bar, a memorable bar. You gotta have some of those. I feel like the funny ones are kind of the ones that stick.
What’s a typical day in life look like for you?
Banditdamack: Wake up, write, obviously, food, shower, shit like that. But every day it’d be something different. N***** might wake up, come here, or the homie have a fucking field day in Rancho Cucamonga. A studio day, or like an LA day is what I call it. We shooting videos, going to the studio, for sure. We working when we in LA. Maybe shop a little bit. When we go to LA, if we not at a Peer Space, we looking for spots because theres spots like 10 minutes from everywhere. Find a spot, shoot there, we’ll already had a studio booked at a certain time. So we finish shooting a video, get some food, fuck around. My boy Foolish, he has a team. They vlog, so like, they’ll vlog behind the scenes of what we’re doing.
We’ll hit up a store too, like Chiefin Heavily. The n***** at Chiefin Heavily, his store, the Fairfax studio is right behind it where my boy Hex work at. So if I’m recording there, and it’ll be times bro I’ll just walk in Chiefin Heavily and this n**** Playerrways be at the door. Shake his hand, go to to Hex shit, walk outside, G Money on the stairs. I like LA because you could network way easier. Out here it’s harder. I gotta go to Rancho Cucamonga, Redlands, or Riverside for a studio.
What is it about your lyrics, specifically, that you think puts you above everyone else?
Banditdamack: I feel like my rhymes be hard. Some motherfuckers be off beat. A lot of people hard, don’t get me wrong, I feel like I spit shit people from out here can relate too. I’ll spit shit for my section, for people out here, but everybody can relate to it type shit.
You’ve regarded Remble as an artist that you really look up too. What is it about his style that attracts you to his music?
Banditdamack: He can rap. That’s all I can really say. I don’t know how to explain it. That shit is just hard.
Who do you want to work with that you haven’t worked with yet?
Banditdamack: Mozzy. Me and Peysoh was supposed to lock some shit in. We text and shit, but I’m not really the type to ask for features and shit. That’s one of my pet peeves: people only want to talk about music and shit. Remble, Polo G. I’ll do some shit with G Money. 03 also, and OhGeesy.
How does it feel to be the one representing Hemet right now?
Banditdamack: At first when people would tell me that I feel like, what is you giving me flowers for? We ain’t done shit yet. We not where we need to be, but we know where we need to go. The city on the map for sure though, and I can say I helped with that. We got to go crazy. I want people in Louisiana to know about Hemet.
What do you think you sets yourself apart from other artists coming out of SoCal?
Banditdamack: My sound. I feel like pen and pad wise, there’s not too many people that can really fuck with me. There’s some though, don’t get me wrong. A lot of the people that’s on right now, lyric wise, I don’t think they better, but that’s not really all that matters, though. It’s a big part of it, but this shit is like an image. It’s a brand.
And your dad?
Banditdamack: To be honest, I don’t know what the fuck he do. He don’t even live in California. He live in Kansas.
Do you see him often?
Banditdamack: No, I haven’t seen him to be honest, I think, since I got out of jail. But we talked and shit. He used to live in the IE right there in Corona, that’s when I would see him and shit. After he moved it’s just been phone contact.
Is he originally from the IE?
Banditdamack: No, he’s from LA County. He was grown when he moved to the IE.
What was it like growing up in Hemet?
Banditdamack: Hemet, to be honest, it was cool, and regular. I played sports, grew up riding skateboards, bikes, scooters. Regular shit, to be honest. Like I said, it’s a big city, so we can do shit. When we play sports, there’s still a lot of kids per team. Some cities are really small, they can’t even do that. They don’t have rec centers or pools and shit like that. I grew up with my mom and shit, so when she would go to work, they would do little programs and shit at the rec center during the summertime, she would drop me off. So that’s how I met a lot of my homies now, through the program.
People that grow up in Hemet, do they typically stay their whole lives, or do a lot of them end up moving away?
Banditdamack: People want to move, but they get kind of stuck. A lot of people’s families don’t move, so it’s like, if your family’s not moving, then you really can’t move. It’s kind of just like a cycle. You Hemet, but you work in Perris, or you work in Beaumont, but you still come back to Hemet. Not a lot of people move out I’m not gonna lie. Some people do though.
Despite Hemet being far removed from other parts of Southern California, you’ve still managed to create a network of producers and artists in places outside of the city. How did you start making all these different connections?
Banditdamack: Probably like a year ago, there was a studio out here I would fuck with. I made a lot of my biggest songs in that studio. That was like the only studio in Hemet, so people we didn’t get along with started going there and it just got burnt out, so then I started just going out the city to studios. I made a lot of connections in LA. In the IE, there’s a couple rappers I made connections with but it’s more film people that I know.
How often are you in LA?
Banditdamack: At least biweekly for something. I got a clothing brand too, and my manager, he’s in Glendale, so it’s like LA County, so I’m always over there for something. I just hate driving out there.
Because of the distance?
Banditdamack: It’s not even the the distance, people out there they drive different.
Before you started recording in proper studios, how were you making music?
Banditdamack: I started on BandLab, but like my first ever studio was in the IE, in Redlands. That was probably like three or four years ago. I was rapping under a whole different name. Then I went to jail, got out, went to jail, and got out again, and started rapping under a different name again. That was the first studio I hit. It’s crazy, one of my biggest songs on Spotify I recorded in my first session out. My mom she had took me.
We picked two of the homies up and she took us to Redlands. I made like “Do Em In” and “Potent.” I made a couple of my biggest songs that session. But to be honest, the IE got some good studios too, but they be booked up, bro.
How do you approach each session? Do you come in with stuff written down already, or do you like to write once you’re in the studio?
Banditdamack: I already got songs locked in on my phone. If I’m coming to the studio I got minimum two songs on my phone. I could write in the studio but it just takes a long time. I like to take my time when I write. I’ve wrote many verses in the studio, but I don’t think I write my hardest shit when I’m in there. Maybe it’s the pressure too, because I’m paying for the time.
What does your writing process look like?
Banditdamack: I pick the beat out, listen to it a couple times, then I’ll start to write to it. Alright… I’ll give you the sauce bro, swear to God. I’ll find the end of the word I want to rhyme with, or like the end of the sentence. So say I wanna say, “Shot him down…We caught him lacking and shot him down.” So I’m gonna write ‘shot him down, got him now, not around.’ All those rhymes just for that rhyme scheme, those four bars, then write another four bars, another four bars. Damn near until the whole song is complete so all I gotta do is just write the space that’s in between. It’s like a puzzle. That shit is fun as fuck when it’s like that, when you get the rhymes out the way first, because that’s like the hardest part.
Did someone teach you how to write like that, or did you come up with that yourself?
Banditdamack: I came up with it in jail, to be honest. I would write the end of the rhymes on the top of my notebook, like in the box where you write your name at. I was watching an Eminem interview, and he damn near does the same shit. He has like a bucket full of like sticky notes with rhymes like that so he never run out of rhymes. I think that’s dope.
Do you pick your own beats?
Banditdamack: I pick my own. I’m hella picky. A producer can send me a beat pack of like 15-20 beats, and I only pick one. Really, I think of like, in the car, or like, at a party how the beat would sound and how I can rap on it. I’ll know in the first 10 seconds whether I’m fucking with it or not.
How would you describe the sound you’re looking for while going through beat packs?
Banditdamack: Just something I could get off to, because at the same time I feel like a beat makes the song. So if you got a hard beat with some hard ass lyrics, I feel like you can’t lose. It don’t even got to be a Cali beat, like I got songs to non-Cali beats.
Is there much of a local rap scene in Hemet?
Banditdamack: Now there is. Before it was like older cats. We like the new generation. I feel like theres more eyes coming out here so more people starting to rap. Not just from from our area, like all over. Like I said, Hemet is big.
When you started out, were you the only one, or were other people from Hemet already rapping?
Banditdamack: People from my section were rapping. My boy Buddha was rapping. They’re from my area, but people outside the area hell no. They ain’t have the courage to do that.
What was it like to see Spank Nitti when he was coming up? What kind of impact did his success have on the community?
Banditdamack: It was cool. That was like eighth grade or ninth grade. Like 2017-2018. He get a lot of love because he don’t beef with anybody, so he get love from everywhere.
How did the two of you meet?
Banditdamack: I met him through J-Lug. He rap too. He from out here. His house in Rancho had a studio there, so I’d book studio time with him. Me and Spank just followed each other and shit. Told him send the verse, he sent it. But I only met him once. He didn’t even do the feature in person, he just sent it to me.
Does seeing Spank find success and make it out of Hemet, inspire you to keep pushing what you’re doing?
Banditdamack: I wouldn’t even say him specifically. Just like my peers I rap with, like the Stinc Team. They young, around my age, going up too. They don’t come from out the best place either, but they making a name for themselves. This shit hard bro. It’s easy, but it’s hard. It’s easy to go in the studio, make a song, shoot a video, but it’s hard to get people to actually fuck with you. No Diddy, you got to touch the people in a way.
How do you touch people with your music?
Banditdamack: I’ll try to spit the shit that not only we can relate too, but everybody can relate too. There’s some shit that only we can relate to. It’d be like the ‘if you know, you know’ bars. It’d be some shit like, you don’t got to gang bang, you don’t gotta be from no street, nothing. You can relate to it. It’s good to tap into every element. If you rap about the same shit over and over again, people are only going to fuck with you for so long.
Are you writing or recording something everyday?
Banditdamack: I write damn near everyday. Just a couple bars sometimes, but everyday. I got some gas in the tank right now, finna go to the studio. I haven’t been in a week or two I’m not even gonna lie. I’ll write or I’ll shoot videos. That’s how I work when I’m not working.
What was happening in your life when you first started to take music seriously? What drove you to actually commit to doing it 100%?
Banditdamack: To be honest with you, I had just got out of jail. I had a little bit of money, so I was maintaining with that little money I had. I was going to the studio and paying for my little videos. I bounced probably with like $7500 cause I was going to college in jail, so I got financial aid. So yeah, I was going to the studio, shooting my videos, but I’m trying to still stay out of trouble, because one, I’m on probation, and two, I’m trying to rap for real now. I was 18, so it’s like, I ain’t going back to juvenile hall, I’m going to big boy jail now. The shit I was doing when I was a minor, they was low key slaps on the wrist. N***** getting real time as adults, so I’m like, it’s this or nothing low key.
I got a job through a fresh out program. It was a program I signed up for when I was in there. The center is right here. It’s across the street from the Hemet Vistas down the street. They help you graduate if you still in school. They help you get a job and shit, like construction or logistics. Like working in a warehouse. So I was working in a warehouse and they pick me up, go to the center right there, six in the morning, every morning, and we shoot off to Perris to the warehouse. Did that for six months then the program ended. I ain’t have a job after that. That’s when I was really rapping.
When did you see the music first start to take off?
Banditdamack: It was so slow low key. Some n***** when they go viral it’s overnight type shit. I feel like our shit was over time. It’s been two years. I’ve been rapping for two years, this September. I dropped my first song, September 25th. I’ll probably say, my first video it hit like 1k in a day on Youtube. That was the shit for me, because I had no subscribers, it was a new channel and shit. That shit was cool.
What do you think is the next step for you?
Banditdamack: Building a catalog. I just signed with Thizzler so I’ll build a catalog with them. Just work though, you gotta work.
What’s the story behind the making of your first project, Da Mack?
Banditdamack: It was not too long after I lost my job. I can’t even say I lost my job. Not too long after I stopped working, I knew I wanted to make a tape. I think one of the songs might have already been out. I already had the feature from Spank, that shit was sitting. I had the Lou Deezi feature probably sitting for a month, and then I only had to record like seven songs. I was dropping singles for a little bit, and then in the midst of that I was like, I’m gonna drop a tape. So I dropped my first lil tape.
Your most recent project is a collab with Blanco from Palm Springs. How did the two of you decide on make a tape together?
Banditdamack: Our neighborhood fucks with his neighborhood. He didn’t really rap, you feel me? He rapped and shit, but he didn’t take it seriously till his homies died. He had to do it because both of them rapped. They was booming out there where they from. They from Palm Springs. How we’re in the Inland Empire, they call that the Desert Empire. You got Palm Springs, Indio, Coachella, all that shit. So when he start taking it seriously, he started going up and shit. He started fucking with OTR. I think we already had a single out, and we start locking in at the Wrecking Spot.
This n***** be at the Wrecking Spot every night, I swear to God. He live in Palm Springs too. That n***** be locked in. That whole tape we did in the studio. There was no verses we had sent though, we did the whole shit in the studio.
How you get introduced to the Stinc Team?
Banditdamack: Through Playerrways they had tapped in. I done met Ralfy also. Instagram play a big part, he [Playerrways] had hit me up. You know on stories, how some people be like, “who should I put on my tape?” Someone had tagged me. I had an open. Sent him the open and he hopped on it the same night. Shit was hard. We got that feature for probably two three months. Me and two of the homies went to Santa Monica to meet with this label at this dinner. He was like, “tap in when you in LA, let’s shoot.” I’m like, we can shoot it on the Santa Monica Pier, so then we shot it that night. He work hard too, like, he quick bro. I told you, he sent the verse back same night, he quick.
Having that workflow is key. Why waste time in a session when you’re the one paying for it?
Banditdamack: It could be hard too. Say you coming up like me, and you sign for a whole lot of money, there could be a whole lot of distractions. You got bitches, you could dress flyer than you was before. You got a whole lot of shit you ain’t have before. You still gotta keep your head on straight. It’s cool to indulge, you don’t just gotta work, work, work, work, work, it’s good to have fun, but you still gotta stay on track though. Everyone is trying to do this music shit. Quick as you come up, you can fall off.
What do you think has been the key to your success so far?
Banditdamack: Consistency. I might have taken one month off since I started. Even that one month I took off, I was still recording and writing, I just wasn’t dropping anything, but I was still working.
What are you currently working on?
Banditdamack: Just singles, but I finna do an album with a deluxe and everything. I want to do like 15 songs for the tape and 10 for the deluxe. That’s 25 songs. 25 is our hood number.
How long does it take you to put together your albums?
Banditdamack: Da Mack might have took me 2-3 weeks. EPs those are’t shit, I can knock those out in like a week. This shit might take me a month because I want different sounds, but I don’t just want different sound’s, I want hard shit at the same time.
What producers do you turn too to get the beats you want?
Banditdamack: C Young On the Beat. My boy named Hex.. He produces for Saviii3rd. He produce a lot for Playerrways. P8 also got no songs with Cypress Moreno but his beats is hard. I got his number and he does send some shit over, but like I said I’m picky. ProdByRoger also. Bro I’m still rocking with Youtube beats. If its like a beat and it’s hard I fuck with it. I’m just picky. That shit might be harder than a whole pack someone send me.
In your music you manage to be funny yet brutally honest at the same time. How to you use humor to supplement the serious themes of your music?
Banditdamack: Like I said bro, it’s shit people can relate to. N***** always gotta have that key bar. Polo G said in one of his interviews you gotta have a key bar. He said in one of his songs, “Only bitch I give a conversation to is Siri.” That’s like a key bar, a memorable bar. You gotta have some of those. I feel like the funny ones are kind of the ones that stick.
What’s a typical day in life look like for you?
Banditdamack: Wake up, write, obviously, food, shower, shit like that. But every day it’d be something different. N***** might wake up, come here, or the homie have a fucking field day in Rancho Cucamonga. A studio day, or like an LA day is what I call it. We shooting videos, going to the studio, for sure. We working when we in LA. Maybe shop a little bit. When we go to LA, if we not at a Peer Space, we looking for spots because theres spots like 10 minutes from everywhere. Find a spot, shoot there, we’ll already had a studio booked at a certain time. So we finish shooting a video, get some food, fuck around. My boy Foolish, he has a team. They vlog, so like, they’ll vlog behind the scenes of what we’re doing.
We’ll hit up a store too, like Chiefin Heavily. The n***** at Chiefin Heavily, his store, the Fairfax studio is right behind it where my boy Hex work at. So if I’m recording there, and it’ll be times bro I’ll just walk in Chiefin Heavily and this n**** Playerrways be at the door. Shake his hand, go to to Hex shit, walk outside, G Money on the stairs. I like LA because you could network way easier. Out here it’s harder. I gotta go to Rancho Cucamonga, Redlands, or Riverside for a studio.
What is it about your lyrics, specifically, that you think puts you above everyone else?
Banditdamack: I feel like my rhymes be hard. Some motherfuckers be off beat. A lot of people hard, don’t get me wrong, I feel like I spit shit people from out here can relate too. I’ll spit shit for my section, for people out here, but everybody can relate to it type shit.
You’ve regarded Remble as an artist that you really look up too. What is it about his style that attracts you to his music?
Banditdamack: He can rap. That’s all I can really say. I don’t know how to explain it. That shit is just hard.
Who do you want to work with that you haven’t worked with yet?
Banditdamack: Mozzy. Me and Peysoh was supposed to lock some shit in. We text and shit, but I’m not really the type to ask for features and shit. That’s one of my pet peeves: people only want to talk about music and shit. Remble, Polo G. I’ll do some shit with G Money. 03 also, and OhGeesy.
How does it feel to be the one representing Hemet right now?
Banditdamack: At first when people would tell me that I feel like, what is you giving me flowers for? We ain’t done shit yet. We not where we need to be, but we know where we need to go. The city on the map for sure though, and I can say I helped with that. We got to go crazy. I want people in Louisiana to know about Hemet.
What do you think you sets yourself apart from other artists coming out of SoCal?
Banditdamack: My sound. I feel like pen and pad wise, there’s not too many people that can really fuck with me. There’s some though, don’t get me wrong. A lot of the people that’s on right now, lyric wise, I don’t think they better, but that’s not really all that matters, though. It’s a big part of it, but this shit is like an image. It’s a brand.
Do you see him often?
Banditdamack: No, I haven’t seen him to be honest, I think, since I got out of jail. But we talked and shit. He used to live in the IE right there in Corona, that’s when I would see him and shit. After he moved it’s just been phone contact.
Is he originally from the IE?
Banditdamack: No, he’s from LA County. He was grown when he moved to the IE.
What was it like growing up in Hemet?
Banditdamack: Hemet, to be honest, it was cool, and regular. I played sports, grew up riding skateboards, bikes, scooters. Regular shit, to be honest. Like I said, it’s a big city, so we can do shit. When we play sports, there’s still a lot of kids per team. Some cities are really small, they can’t even do that. They don’t have rec centers or pools and shit like that. I grew up with my mom and shit, so when she would go to work, they would do little programs and shit at the rec center during the summertime, she would drop me off. So that’s how I met a lot of my homies now, through the program.
People that grow up in Hemet, do they typically stay their whole lives, or do a lot of them end up moving away?
Banditdamack: People want to move, but they get kind of stuck. A lot of people’s families don’t move, so it’s like, if your family’s not moving, then you really can’t move. It’s kind of just like a cycle. You Hemet, but you work in Perris, or you work in Beaumont, but you still come back to Hemet. Not a lot of people move out I’m not gonna lie. Some people do though.
Despite Hemet being far removed from other parts of Southern California, you’ve still managed to create a network of producers and artists in places outside of the city. How did you start making all these different connections?
Banditdamack: Probably like a year ago, there was a studio out here I would fuck with. I made a lot of my biggest songs in that studio. That was like the only studio in Hemet, so people we didn’t get along with started going there and it just got burnt out, so then I started just going out the city to studios. I made a lot of connections in LA. In the IE, there’s a couple rappers I made connections with but it’s more film people that I know.
How often are you in LA?
Banditdamack: At least biweekly for something. I got a clothing brand too, and my manager, he’s in Glendale, so it’s like LA County, so I’m always over there for something. I just hate driving out there.
Because of the distance?
Banditdamack: It’s not even the the distance, people out there they drive different.
Before you started recording in proper studios, how were you making music?
Banditdamack: I started on BandLab, but like my first ever studio was in the IE, in Redlands. That was probably like three or four years ago. I was rapping under a whole different name. Then I went to jail, got out, went to jail, and got out again, and started rapping under a different name again. That was the first studio I hit. It’s crazy, one of my biggest songs on Spotify I recorded in my first session out. My mom she had took me.
We picked two of the homies up and she took us to Redlands. I made like “Do Em In” and “Potent.” I made a couple of my biggest songs that session. But to be honest, the IE got some good studios too, but they be booked up, bro.
How do you approach each session? Do you come in with stuff written down already, or do you like to write once you’re in the studio?
Banditdamack: I already got songs locked in on my phone. If I’m coming to the studio I got minimum two songs on my phone. I could write in the studio but it just takes a long time. I like to take my time when I write. I’ve wrote many verses in the studio, but I don’t think I write my hardest shit when I’m in there. Maybe it’s the pressure too, because I’m paying for the time.
What does your writing process look like?
Banditdamack: I pick the beat out, listen to it a couple times, then I’ll start to write to it. Alright… I’ll give you the sauce bro, swear to God. I’ll find the end of the word I want to rhyme with, or like the end of the sentence. So say I wanna say, “Shot him down…We caught him lacking and shot him down.” So I’m gonna write ‘shot him down, got him now, not around.’ All those rhymes just for that rhyme scheme, those four bars, then write another four bars, another four bars. Damn near until the whole song is complete so all I gotta do is just write the space that’s in between. It’s like a puzzle. That shit is fun as fuck when it’s like that, when you get the rhymes out the way first, because that’s like the hardest part.
Did someone teach you how to write like that, or did you come up with that yourself?
Banditdamack: I came up with it in jail, to be honest. I would write the end of the rhymes on the top of my notebook, like in the box where you write your name at. I was watching an Eminem interview, and he damn near does the same shit. He has like a bucket full of like sticky notes with rhymes like that so he never run out of rhymes. I think that’s dope.
Do you pick your own beats?
Banditdamack: I pick my own. I’m hella picky. A producer can send me a beat pack of like 15-20 beats, and I only pick one. Really, I think of like, in the car, or like, at a party how the beat would sound and how I can rap on it. I’ll know in the first 10 seconds whether I’m fucking with it or not.
How would you describe the sound you’re looking for while going through beat packs?
Banditdamack: Just something I could get off to, because at the same time I feel like a beat makes the song. So if you got a hard beat with some hard ass lyrics, I feel like you can’t lose. It don’t even got to be a Cali beat, like I got songs to non-Cali beats.
Is there much of a local rap scene in Hemet?
Banditdamack: Now there is. Before it was like older cats. We like the new generation. I feel like theres more eyes coming out here so more people starting to rap. Not just from from our area, like all over. Like I said, Hemet is big.
When you started out, were you the only one, or were other people from Hemet already rapping?
Banditdamack: People from my section were rapping. My boy Buddha was rapping. They’re from my area, but people outside the area hell no. They ain’t have the courage to do that.
What was it like to see Spank Nitti when he was coming up? What kind of impact did his success have on the community?
Banditdamack: It was cool. That was like eighth grade or ninth grade. Like 2017-2018. He get a lot of love because he don’t beef with anybody, so he get love from everywhere.
How did the two of you meet?
Banditdamack: I met him through J-Lug. He rap too. He from out here. His house in Rancho had a studio there, so I’d book studio time with him. Me and Spank just followed each other and shit. Told him send the verse, he sent it. But I only met him once. He didn’t even do the feature in person, he just sent it to me.
Does seeing Spank find success and make it out of Hemet, inspire you to keep pushing what you’re doing?
Banditdamack: I wouldn’t even say him specifically. Just like my peers I rap with, like the Stinc Team. They young, around my age, going up too. They don’t come from out the best place either, but they making a name for themselves. This shit hard bro. It’s easy, but it’s hard. It’s easy to go in the studio, make a song, shoot a video, but it’s hard to get people to actually fuck with you. No Diddy, you got to touch the people in a way.
How do you touch people with your music?
Banditdamack: I’ll try to spit the shit that not only we can relate too, but everybody can relate too. There’s some shit that only we can relate to. It’d be like the ‘if you know, you know’ bars. It’d be some shit like, you don’t got to gang bang, you don’t gotta be from no street, nothing. You can relate to it. It’s good to tap into every element. If you rap about the same shit over and over again, people are only going to fuck with you for so long.
Are you writing or recording something everyday?
Banditdamack: I write damn near everyday. Just a couple bars sometimes, but everyday. I got some gas in the tank right now, finna go to the studio. I haven’t been in a week or two I’m not even gonna lie. I’ll write or I’ll shoot videos. That’s how I work when I’m not working.
What was happening in your life when you first started to take music seriously? What drove you to actually commit to doing it 100%?
Banditdamack: To be honest with you, I had just got out of jail. I had a little bit of money, so I was maintaining with that little money I had. I was going to the studio and paying for my little videos. I bounced probably with like $7500 cause I was going to college in jail, so I got financial aid. So yeah, I was going to the studio, shooting my videos, but I’m trying to still stay out of trouble, because one, I’m on probation, and two, I’m trying to rap for real now. I was 18, so it’s like, I ain’t going back to juvenile hall, I’m going to big boy jail now. The shit I was doing when I was a minor, they was low key slaps on the wrist. N***** getting real time as adults, so I’m like, it’s this or nothing low key.
I got a job through a fresh out program. It was a program I signed up for when I was in there. The center is right here. It’s across the street from the Hemet Vistas down the street. They help you graduate if you still in school. They help you get a job and shit, like construction or logistics. Like working in a warehouse. So I was working in a warehouse and they pick me up, go to the center right there, six in the morning, every morning, and we shoot off to Perris to the warehouse. Did that for six months then the program ended. I ain’t have a job after that. That’s when I was really rapping.
When did you see the music first start to take off?
Banditdamack: It was so slow low key. Some n***** when they go viral it’s overnight type shit. I feel like our shit was over time. It’s been two years. I’ve been rapping for two years, this September. I dropped my first song, September 25th. I’ll probably say, my first video it hit like 1k in a day on Youtube. That was the shit for me, because I had no subscribers, it was a new channel and shit. That shit was cool.
What do you think is the next step for you?
Banditdamack: Building a catalog. I just signed with Thizzler so I’ll build a catalog with them. Just work though, you gotta work.
What’s the story behind the making of your first project, Da Mack?
Banditdamack: It was not too long after I lost my job. I can’t even say I lost my job. Not too long after I stopped working, I knew I wanted to make a tape. I think one of the songs might have already been out. I already had the feature from Spank, that shit was sitting. I had the Lou Deezi feature probably sitting for a month, and then I only had to record like seven songs. I was dropping singles for a little bit, and then in the midst of that I was like, I’m gonna drop a tape. So I dropped my first lil tape.
Your most recent project is a collab with Blanco from Palm Springs. How did the two of you decide on make a tape together?
Banditdamack: Our neighborhood fucks with his neighborhood. He didn’t really rap, you feel me? He rapped and shit, but he didn’t take it seriously till his homies died. He had to do it because both of them rapped. They was booming out there where they from. They from Palm Springs. How we’re in the Inland Empire, they call that the Desert Empire. You got Palm Springs, Indio, Coachella, all that shit. So when he start taking it seriously, he started going up and shit. He started fucking with OTR. I think we already had a single out, and we start locking in at the Wrecking Spot.
This n***** be at the Wrecking Spot every night, I swear to God. He live in Palm Springs too. That n***** be locked in. That whole tape we did in the studio. There was no verses we had sent though, we did the whole shit in the studio.
How you get introduced to the Stinc Team?
Banditdamack: Through Playerrways they had tapped in. I done met Ralfy also. Instagram play a big part, he [Playerrways] had hit me up. You know on stories, how some people be like, “who should I put on my tape?” Someone had tagged me. I had an open. Sent him the open and he hopped on it the same night. Shit was hard. We got that feature for probably two three months. Me and two of the homies went to Santa Monica to meet with this label at this dinner. He was like, “tap in when you in LA, let’s shoot.” I’m like, we can shoot it on the Santa Monica Pier, so then we shot it that night. He work hard too, like, he quick bro. I told you, he sent the verse back same night, he quick.
Having that workflow is key. Why waste time in a session when you’re the one paying for it?
Banditdamack: It could be hard too. Say you coming up like me, and you sign for a whole lot of money, there could be a whole lot of distractions. You got bitches, you could dress flyer than you was before. You got a whole lot of shit you ain’t have before. You still gotta keep your head on straight. It’s cool to indulge, you don’t just gotta work, work, work, work, work, it’s good to have fun, but you still gotta stay on track though. Everyone is trying to do this music shit. Quick as you come up, you can fall off.
What do you think has been the key to your success so far?
Banditdamack: Consistency. I might have taken one month off since I started. Even that one month I took off, I was still recording and writing, I just wasn’t dropping anything, but I was still working.
What are you currently working on?
Banditdamack: Just singles, but I finna do an album with a deluxe and everything. I want to do like 15 songs for the tape and 10 for the deluxe. That’s 25 songs. 25 is our hood number.
How long does it take you to put together your albums?
Banditdamack: Da Mack might have took me 2-3 weeks. EPs those are’t shit, I can knock those out in like a week. This shit might take me a month because I want different sounds, but I don’t just want different sound’s, I want hard shit at the same time.
What producers do you turn too to get the beats you want?
Banditdamack: C Young On the Beat. My boy named Hex.. He produces for Saviii3rd. He produce a lot for Playerrways. P8 also got no songs with Cypress Moreno but his beats is hard. I got his number and he does send some shit over, but like I said I’m picky. ProdByRoger also. Bro I’m still rocking with Youtube beats. If its like a beat and it’s hard I fuck with it. I’m just picky. That shit might be harder than a whole pack someone send me.
In your music you manage to be funny yet brutally honest at the same time. How to you use humor to supplement the serious themes of your music?
Banditdamack: Like I said bro, it’s shit people can relate to. N***** always gotta have that key bar. Polo G said in one of his interviews you gotta have a key bar. He said in one of his songs, “Only bitch I give a conversation to is Siri.” That’s like a key bar, a memorable bar. You gotta have some of those. I feel like the funny ones are kind of the ones that stick.
What’s a typical day in life look like for you?
Banditdamack: Wake up, write, obviously, food, shower, shit like that. But every day it’d be something different. N***** might wake up, come here, or the homie have a fucking field day in Rancho Cucamonga. A studio day, or like an LA day is what I call it. We shooting videos, going to the studio, for sure. We working when we in LA. Maybe shop a little bit. When we go to LA, if we not at a Peer Space, we looking for spots because theres spots like 10 minutes from everywhere. Find a spot, shoot there, we’ll already had a studio booked at a certain time. So we finish shooting a video, get some food, fuck around. My boy Foolish, he has a team. They vlog, so like, they’ll vlog behind the scenes of what we’re doing.
We’ll hit up a store too, like Chiefin Heavily. The n***** at Chiefin Heavily, his store, the Fairfax studio is right behind it where my boy Hex work at. So if I’m recording there, and it’ll be times bro I’ll just walk in Chiefin Heavily and this n**** Playerrways be at the door. Shake his hand, go to to Hex shit, walk outside, G Money on the stairs. I like LA because you could network way easier. Out here it’s harder. I gotta go to Rancho Cucamonga, Redlands, or Riverside for a studio.
What is it about your lyrics, specifically, that you think puts you above everyone else?
Banditdamack: I feel like my rhymes be hard. Some motherfuckers be off beat. A lot of people hard, don’t get me wrong, I feel like I spit shit people from out here can relate too. I’ll spit shit for my section, for people out here, but everybody can relate to it type shit.
You’ve regarded Remble as an artist that you really look up too. What is it about his style that attracts you to his music?
Banditdamack: He can rap. That’s all I can really say. I don’t know how to explain it. That shit is just hard.
Who do you want to work with that you haven’t worked with yet?
Banditdamack: Mozzy. Me and Peysoh was supposed to lock some shit in. We text and shit, but I’m not really the type to ask for features and shit. That’s one of my pet peeves: people only want to talk about music and shit. Remble, Polo G. I’ll do some shit with G Money. 03 also, and OhGeesy.
How does it feel to be the one representing Hemet right now?
Banditdamack: At first when people would tell me that I feel like, what is you giving me flowers for? We ain’t done shit yet. We not where we need to be, but we know where we need to go. The city on the map for sure though, and I can say I helped with that. We got to go crazy. I want people in Louisiana to know about Hemet.
What do you think you sets yourself apart from other artists coming out of SoCal?
Banditdamack: My sound. I feel like pen and pad wise, there’s not too many people that can really fuck with me. There’s some though, don’t get me wrong. A lot of the people that’s on right now, lyric wise, I don’t think they better, but that’s not really all that matters, though. It’s a big part of it, but this shit is like an image. It’s a brand.
Is he originally from the IE?
Banditdamack: No, he’s from LA County. He was grown when he moved to the IE.
What was it like growing up in Hemet?
Banditdamack: Hemet, to be honest, it was cool, and regular. I played sports, grew up riding skateboards, bikes, scooters. Regular shit, to be honest. Like I said, it’s a big city, so we can do shit. When we play sports, there’s still a lot of kids per team. Some cities are really small, they can’t even do that. They don’t have rec centers or pools and shit like that. I grew up with my mom and shit, so when she would go to work, they would do little programs and shit at the rec center during the summertime, she would drop me off. So that’s how I met a lot of my homies now, through the program.
People that grow up in Hemet, do they typically stay their whole lives, or do a lot of them end up moving away?
Banditdamack: People want to move, but they get kind of stuck. A lot of people’s families don’t move, so it’s like, if your family’s not moving, then you really can’t move. It’s kind of just like a cycle. You Hemet, but you work in Perris, or you work in Beaumont, but you still come back to Hemet. Not a lot of people move out I’m not gonna lie. Some people do though.
Despite Hemet being far removed from other parts of Southern California, you’ve still managed to create a network of producers and artists in places outside of the city. How did you start making all these different connections?
Banditdamack: Probably like a year ago, there was a studio out here I would fuck with. I made a lot of my biggest songs in that studio. That was like the only studio in Hemet, so people we didn’t get along with started going there and it just got burnt out, so then I started just going out the city to studios. I made a lot of connections in LA. In the IE, there’s a couple rappers I made connections with but it’s more film people that I know.
How often are you in LA?
Banditdamack: At least biweekly for something. I got a clothing brand too, and my manager, he’s in Glendale, so it’s like LA County, so I’m always over there for something. I just hate driving out there.
Because of the distance?
Banditdamack: It’s not even the the distance, people out there they drive different.
Before you started recording in proper studios, how were you making music?
Banditdamack: I started on BandLab, but like my first ever studio was in the IE, in Redlands. That was probably like three or four years ago. I was rapping under a whole different name. Then I went to jail, got out, went to jail, and got out again, and started rapping under a different name again. That was the first studio I hit. It’s crazy, one of my biggest songs on Spotify I recorded in my first session out. My mom she had took me.
We picked two of the homies up and she took us to Redlands. I made like “Do Em In” and “Potent.” I made a couple of my biggest songs that session. But to be honest, the IE got some good studios too, but they be booked up, bro.
How do you approach each session? Do you come in with stuff written down already, or do you like to write once you’re in the studio?
Banditdamack: I already got songs locked in on my phone. If I’m coming to the studio I got minimum two songs on my phone. I could write in the studio but it just takes a long time. I like to take my time when I write. I’ve wrote many verses in the studio, but I don’t think I write my hardest shit when I’m in there. Maybe it’s the pressure too, because I’m paying for the time.
What does your writing process look like?
Banditdamack: I pick the beat out, listen to it a couple times, then I’ll start to write to it. Alright… I’ll give you the sauce bro, swear to God. I’ll find the end of the word I want to rhyme with, or like the end of the sentence. So say I wanna say, “Shot him down…We caught him lacking and shot him down.” So I’m gonna write ‘shot him down, got him now, not around.’ All those rhymes just for that rhyme scheme, those four bars, then write another four bars, another four bars. Damn near until the whole song is complete so all I gotta do is just write the space that’s in between. It’s like a puzzle. That shit is fun as fuck when it’s like that, when you get the rhymes out the way first, because that’s like the hardest part.
Did someone teach you how to write like that, or did you come up with that yourself?
Banditdamack: I came up with it in jail, to be honest. I would write the end of the rhymes on the top of my notebook, like in the box where you write your name at. I was watching an Eminem interview, and he damn near does the same shit. He has like a bucket full of like sticky notes with rhymes like that so he never run out of rhymes. I think that’s dope.
Do you pick your own beats?
Banditdamack: I pick my own. I’m hella picky. A producer can send me a beat pack of like 15-20 beats, and I only pick one. Really, I think of like, in the car, or like, at a party how the beat would sound and how I can rap on it. I’ll know in the first 10 seconds whether I’m fucking with it or not.
How would you describe the sound you’re looking for while going through beat packs?
Banditdamack: Just something I could get off to, because at the same time I feel like a beat makes the song. So if you got a hard beat with some hard ass lyrics, I feel like you can’t lose. It don’t even got to be a Cali beat, like I got songs to non-Cali beats.
Is there much of a local rap scene in Hemet?
Banditdamack: Now there is. Before it was like older cats. We like the new generation. I feel like theres more eyes coming out here so more people starting to rap. Not just from from our area, like all over. Like I said, Hemet is big.
When you started out, were you the only one, or were other people from Hemet already rapping?
Banditdamack: People from my section were rapping. My boy Buddha was rapping. They’re from my area, but people outside the area hell no. They ain’t have the courage to do that.
What was it like to see Spank Nitti when he was coming up? What kind of impact did his success have on the community?
Banditdamack: It was cool. That was like eighth grade or ninth grade. Like 2017-2018. He get a lot of love because he don’t beef with anybody, so he get love from everywhere.
How did the two of you meet?
Banditdamack: I met him through J-Lug. He rap too. He from out here. His house in Rancho had a studio there, so I’d book studio time with him. Me and Spank just followed each other and shit. Told him send the verse, he sent it. But I only met him once. He didn’t even do the feature in person, he just sent it to me.
Does seeing Spank find success and make it out of Hemet, inspire you to keep pushing what you’re doing?
Banditdamack: I wouldn’t even say him specifically. Just like my peers I rap with, like the Stinc Team. They young, around my age, going up too. They don’t come from out the best place either, but they making a name for themselves. This shit hard bro. It’s easy, but it’s hard. It’s easy to go in the studio, make a song, shoot a video, but it’s hard to get people to actually fuck with you. No Diddy, you got to touch the people in a way.
How do you touch people with your music?
Banditdamack: I’ll try to spit the shit that not only we can relate too, but everybody can relate too. There’s some shit that only we can relate to. It’d be like the ‘if you know, you know’ bars. It’d be some shit like, you don’t got to gang bang, you don’t gotta be from no street, nothing. You can relate to it. It’s good to tap into every element. If you rap about the same shit over and over again, people are only going to fuck with you for so long.
Are you writing or recording something everyday?
Banditdamack: I write damn near everyday. Just a couple bars sometimes, but everyday. I got some gas in the tank right now, finna go to the studio. I haven’t been in a week or two I’m not even gonna lie. I’ll write or I’ll shoot videos. That’s how I work when I’m not working.
What was happening in your life when you first started to take music seriously? What drove you to actually commit to doing it 100%?
Banditdamack: To be honest with you, I had just got out of jail. I had a little bit of money, so I was maintaining with that little money I had. I was going to the studio and paying for my little videos. I bounced probably with like $7500 cause I was going to college in jail, so I got financial aid. So yeah, I was going to the studio, shooting my videos, but I’m trying to still stay out of trouble, because one, I’m on probation, and two, I’m trying to rap for real now. I was 18, so it’s like, I ain’t going back to juvenile hall, I’m going to big boy jail now. The shit I was doing when I was a minor, they was low key slaps on the wrist. N***** getting real time as adults, so I’m like, it’s this or nothing low key.
I got a job through a fresh out program. It was a program I signed up for when I was in there. The center is right here. It’s across the street from the Hemet Vistas down the street. They help you graduate if you still in school. They help you get a job and shit, like construction or logistics. Like working in a warehouse. So I was working in a warehouse and they pick me up, go to the center right there, six in the morning, every morning, and we shoot off to Perris to the warehouse. Did that for six months then the program ended. I ain’t have a job after that. That’s when I was really rapping.
When did you see the music first start to take off?
Banditdamack: It was so slow low key. Some n***** when they go viral it’s overnight type shit. I feel like our shit was over time. It’s been two years. I’ve been rapping for two years, this September. I dropped my first song, September 25th. I’ll probably say, my first video it hit like 1k in a day on Youtube. That was the shit for me, because I had no subscribers, it was a new channel and shit. That shit was cool.
What do you think is the next step for you?
Banditdamack: Building a catalog. I just signed with Thizzler so I’ll build a catalog with them. Just work though, you gotta work.
What’s the story behind the making of your first project, Da Mack?
Banditdamack: It was not too long after I lost my job. I can’t even say I lost my job. Not too long after I stopped working, I knew I wanted to make a tape. I think one of the songs might have already been out. I already had the feature from Spank, that shit was sitting. I had the Lou Deezi feature probably sitting for a month, and then I only had to record like seven songs. I was dropping singles for a little bit, and then in the midst of that I was like, I’m gonna drop a tape. So I dropped my first lil tape.
Your most recent project is a collab with Blanco from Palm Springs. How did the two of you decide on make a tape together?
Banditdamack: Our neighborhood fucks with his neighborhood. He didn’t really rap, you feel me? He rapped and shit, but he didn’t take it seriously till his homies died. He had to do it because both of them rapped. They was booming out there where they from. They from Palm Springs. How we’re in the Inland Empire, they call that the Desert Empire. You got Palm Springs, Indio, Coachella, all that shit. So when he start taking it seriously, he started going up and shit. He started fucking with OTR. I think we already had a single out, and we start locking in at the Wrecking Spot.
This n***** be at the Wrecking Spot every night, I swear to God. He live in Palm Springs too. That n***** be locked in. That whole tape we did in the studio. There was no verses we had sent though, we did the whole shit in the studio.
How you get introduced to the Stinc Team?
Banditdamack: Through Playerrways they had tapped in. I done met Ralfy also. Instagram play a big part, he [Playerrways] had hit me up. You know on stories, how some people be like, “who should I put on my tape?” Someone had tagged me. I had an open. Sent him the open and he hopped on it the same night. Shit was hard. We got that feature for probably two three months. Me and two of the homies went to Santa Monica to meet with this label at this dinner. He was like, “tap in when you in LA, let’s shoot.” I’m like, we can shoot it on the Santa Monica Pier, so then we shot it that night. He work hard too, like, he quick bro. I told you, he sent the verse back same night, he quick.
Having that workflow is key. Why waste time in a session when you’re the one paying for it?
Banditdamack: It could be hard too. Say you coming up like me, and you sign for a whole lot of money, there could be a whole lot of distractions. You got bitches, you could dress flyer than you was before. You got a whole lot of shit you ain’t have before. You still gotta keep your head on straight. It’s cool to indulge, you don’t just gotta work, work, work, work, work, it’s good to have fun, but you still gotta stay on track though. Everyone is trying to do this music shit. Quick as you come up, you can fall off.
What do you think has been the key to your success so far?
Banditdamack: Consistency. I might have taken one month off since I started. Even that one month I took off, I was still recording and writing, I just wasn’t dropping anything, but I was still working.
What are you currently working on?
Banditdamack: Just singles, but I finna do an album with a deluxe and everything. I want to do like 15 songs for the tape and 10 for the deluxe. That’s 25 songs. 25 is our hood number.
How long does it take you to put together your albums?
Banditdamack: Da Mack might have took me 2-3 weeks. EPs those are’t shit, I can knock those out in like a week. This shit might take me a month because I want different sounds, but I don’t just want different sound’s, I want hard shit at the same time.
What producers do you turn too to get the beats you want?
Banditdamack: C Young On the Beat. My boy named Hex.. He produces for Saviii3rd. He produce a lot for Playerrways. P8 also got no songs with Cypress Moreno but his beats is hard. I got his number and he does send some shit over, but like I said I’m picky. ProdByRoger also. Bro I’m still rocking with Youtube beats. If its like a beat and it’s hard I fuck with it. I’m just picky. That shit might be harder than a whole pack someone send me.
In your music you manage to be funny yet brutally honest at the same time. How to you use humor to supplement the serious themes of your music?
Banditdamack: Like I said bro, it’s shit people can relate to. N***** always gotta have that key bar. Polo G said in one of his interviews you gotta have a key bar. He said in one of his songs, “Only bitch I give a conversation to is Siri.” That’s like a key bar, a memorable bar. You gotta have some of those. I feel like the funny ones are kind of the ones that stick.
What’s a typical day in life look like for you?
Banditdamack: Wake up, write, obviously, food, shower, shit like that. But every day it’d be something different. N***** might wake up, come here, or the homie have a fucking field day in Rancho Cucamonga. A studio day, or like an LA day is what I call it. We shooting videos, going to the studio, for sure. We working when we in LA. Maybe shop a little bit. When we go to LA, if we not at a Peer Space, we looking for spots because theres spots like 10 minutes from everywhere. Find a spot, shoot there, we’ll already had a studio booked at a certain time. So we finish shooting a video, get some food, fuck around. My boy Foolish, he has a team. They vlog, so like, they’ll vlog behind the scenes of what we’re doing.
We’ll hit up a store too, like Chiefin Heavily. The n***** at Chiefin Heavily, his store, the Fairfax studio is right behind it where my boy Hex work at. So if I’m recording there, and it’ll be times bro I’ll just walk in Chiefin Heavily and this n**** Playerrways be at the door. Shake his hand, go to to Hex shit, walk outside, G Money on the stairs. I like LA because you could network way easier. Out here it’s harder. I gotta go to Rancho Cucamonga, Redlands, or Riverside for a studio.
What is it about your lyrics, specifically, that you think puts you above everyone else?
Banditdamack: I feel like my rhymes be hard. Some motherfuckers be off beat. A lot of people hard, don’t get me wrong, I feel like I spit shit people from out here can relate too. I’ll spit shit for my section, for people out here, but everybody can relate to it type shit.
You’ve regarded Remble as an artist that you really look up too. What is it about his style that attracts you to his music?
Banditdamack: He can rap. That’s all I can really say. I don’t know how to explain it. That shit is just hard.
Who do you want to work with that you haven’t worked with yet?
Banditdamack: Mozzy. Me and Peysoh was supposed to lock some shit in. We text and shit, but I’m not really the type to ask for features and shit. That’s one of my pet peeves: people only want to talk about music and shit. Remble, Polo G. I’ll do some shit with G Money. 03 also, and OhGeesy.
How does it feel to be the one representing Hemet right now?
Banditdamack: At first when people would tell me that I feel like, what is you giving me flowers for? We ain’t done shit yet. We not where we need to be, but we know where we need to go. The city on the map for sure though, and I can say I helped with that. We got to go crazy. I want people in Louisiana to know about Hemet.
What do you think you sets yourself apart from other artists coming out of SoCal?
Banditdamack: My sound. I feel like pen and pad wise, there’s not too many people that can really fuck with me. There’s some though, don’t get me wrong. A lot of the people that’s on right now, lyric wise, I don’t think they better, but that’s not really all that matters, though. It’s a big part of it, but this shit is like an image. It’s a brand.
What was it like growing up in Hemet?
Banditdamack: Hemet, to be honest, it was cool, and regular. I played sports, grew up riding skateboards, bikes, scooters. Regular shit, to be honest. Like I said, it’s a big city, so we can do shit. When we play sports, there’s still a lot of kids per team. Some cities are really small, they can’t even do that. They don’t have rec centers or pools and shit like that. I grew up with my mom and shit, so when she would go to work, they would do little programs and shit at the rec center during the summertime, she would drop me off. So that’s how I met a lot of my homies now, through the program.
People that grow up in Hemet, do they typically stay their whole lives, or do a lot of them end up moving away?
Banditdamack: People want to move, but they get kind of stuck. A lot of people’s families don’t move, so it’s like, if your family’s not moving, then you really can’t move. It’s kind of just like a cycle. You Hemet, but you work in Perris, or you work in Beaumont, but you still come back to Hemet. Not a lot of people move out I’m not gonna lie. Some people do though.
Despite Hemet being far removed from other parts of Southern California, you’ve still managed to create a network of producers and artists in places outside of the city. How did you start making all these different connections?
Banditdamack: Probably like a year ago, there was a studio out here I would fuck with. I made a lot of my biggest songs in that studio. That was like the only studio in Hemet, so people we didn’t get along with started going there and it just got burnt out, so then I started just going out the city to studios. I made a lot of connections in LA. In the IE, there’s a couple rappers I made connections with but it’s more film people that I know.
How often are you in LA?
Banditdamack: At least biweekly for something. I got a clothing brand too, and my manager, he’s in Glendale, so it’s like LA County, so I’m always over there for something. I just hate driving out there.
Because of the distance?
Banditdamack: It’s not even the the distance, people out there they drive different.
Before you started recording in proper studios, how were you making music?
Banditdamack: I started on BandLab, but like my first ever studio was in the IE, in Redlands. That was probably like three or four years ago. I was rapping under a whole different name. Then I went to jail, got out, went to jail, and got out again, and started rapping under a different name again. That was the first studio I hit. It’s crazy, one of my biggest songs on Spotify I recorded in my first session out. My mom she had took me.
We picked two of the homies up and she took us to Redlands. I made like “Do Em In” and “Potent.” I made a couple of my biggest songs that session. But to be honest, the IE got some good studios too, but they be booked up, bro.
How do you approach each session? Do you come in with stuff written down already, or do you like to write once you’re in the studio?
Banditdamack: I already got songs locked in on my phone. If I’m coming to the studio I got minimum two songs on my phone. I could write in the studio but it just takes a long time. I like to take my time when I write. I’ve wrote many verses in the studio, but I don’t think I write my hardest shit when I’m in there. Maybe it’s the pressure too, because I’m paying for the time.
What does your writing process look like?
Banditdamack: I pick the beat out, listen to it a couple times, then I’ll start to write to it. Alright… I’ll give you the sauce bro, swear to God. I’ll find the end of the word I want to rhyme with, or like the end of the sentence. So say I wanna say, “Shot him down…We caught him lacking and shot him down.” So I’m gonna write ‘shot him down, got him now, not around.’ All those rhymes just for that rhyme scheme, those four bars, then write another four bars, another four bars. Damn near until the whole song is complete so all I gotta do is just write the space that’s in between. It’s like a puzzle. That shit is fun as fuck when it’s like that, when you get the rhymes out the way first, because that’s like the hardest part.
Did someone teach you how to write like that, or did you come up with that yourself?
Banditdamack: I came up with it in jail, to be honest. I would write the end of the rhymes on the top of my notebook, like in the box where you write your name at. I was watching an Eminem interview, and he damn near does the same shit. He has like a bucket full of like sticky notes with rhymes like that so he never run out of rhymes. I think that’s dope.
Do you pick your own beats?
Banditdamack: I pick my own. I’m hella picky. A producer can send me a beat pack of like 15-20 beats, and I only pick one. Really, I think of like, in the car, or like, at a party how the beat would sound and how I can rap on it. I’ll know in the first 10 seconds whether I’m fucking with it or not.
How would you describe the sound you’re looking for while going through beat packs?
Banditdamack: Just something I could get off to, because at the same time I feel like a beat makes the song. So if you got a hard beat with some hard ass lyrics, I feel like you can’t lose. It don’t even got to be a Cali beat, like I got songs to non-Cali beats.
Is there much of a local rap scene in Hemet?
Banditdamack: Now there is. Before it was like older cats. We like the new generation. I feel like theres more eyes coming out here so more people starting to rap. Not just from from our area, like all over. Like I said, Hemet is big.
When you started out, were you the only one, or were other people from Hemet already rapping?
Banditdamack: People from my section were rapping. My boy Buddha was rapping. They’re from my area, but people outside the area hell no. They ain’t have the courage to do that.
What was it like to see Spank Nitti when he was coming up? What kind of impact did his success have on the community?
Banditdamack: It was cool. That was like eighth grade or ninth grade. Like 2017-2018. He get a lot of love because he don’t beef with anybody, so he get love from everywhere.
How did the two of you meet?
Banditdamack: I met him through J-Lug. He rap too. He from out here. His house in Rancho had a studio there, so I’d book studio time with him. Me and Spank just followed each other and shit. Told him send the verse, he sent it. But I only met him once. He didn’t even do the feature in person, he just sent it to me.
Does seeing Spank find success and make it out of Hemet, inspire you to keep pushing what you’re doing?
Banditdamack: I wouldn’t even say him specifically. Just like my peers I rap with, like the Stinc Team. They young, around my age, going up too. They don’t come from out the best place either, but they making a name for themselves. This shit hard bro. It’s easy, but it’s hard. It’s easy to go in the studio, make a song, shoot a video, but it’s hard to get people to actually fuck with you. No Diddy, you got to touch the people in a way.
How do you touch people with your music?
Banditdamack: I’ll try to spit the shit that not only we can relate too, but everybody can relate too. There’s some shit that only we can relate to. It’d be like the ‘if you know, you know’ bars. It’d be some shit like, you don’t got to gang bang, you don’t gotta be from no street, nothing. You can relate to it. It’s good to tap into every element. If you rap about the same shit over and over again, people are only going to fuck with you for so long.
Are you writing or recording something everyday?
Banditdamack: I write damn near everyday. Just a couple bars sometimes, but everyday. I got some gas in the tank right now, finna go to the studio. I haven’t been in a week or two I’m not even gonna lie. I’ll write or I’ll shoot videos. That’s how I work when I’m not working.
What was happening in your life when you first started to take music seriously? What drove you to actually commit to doing it 100%?
Banditdamack: To be honest with you, I had just got out of jail. I had a little bit of money, so I was maintaining with that little money I had. I was going to the studio and paying for my little videos. I bounced probably with like $7500 cause I was going to college in jail, so I got financial aid. So yeah, I was going to the studio, shooting my videos, but I’m trying to still stay out of trouble, because one, I’m on probation, and two, I’m trying to rap for real now. I was 18, so it’s like, I ain’t going back to juvenile hall, I’m going to big boy jail now. The shit I was doing when I was a minor, they was low key slaps on the wrist. N***** getting real time as adults, so I’m like, it’s this or nothing low key.
I got a job through a fresh out program. It was a program I signed up for when I was in there. The center is right here. It’s across the street from the Hemet Vistas down the street. They help you graduate if you still in school. They help you get a job and shit, like construction or logistics. Like working in a warehouse. So I was working in a warehouse and they pick me up, go to the center right there, six in the morning, every morning, and we shoot off to Perris to the warehouse. Did that for six months then the program ended. I ain’t have a job after that. That’s when I was really rapping.
When did you see the music first start to take off?
Banditdamack: It was so slow low key. Some n***** when they go viral it’s overnight type shit. I feel like our shit was over time. It’s been two years. I’ve been rapping for two years, this September. I dropped my first song, September 25th. I’ll probably say, my first video it hit like 1k in a day on Youtube. That was the shit for me, because I had no subscribers, it was a new channel and shit. That shit was cool.
What do you think is the next step for you?
Banditdamack: Building a catalog. I just signed with Thizzler so I’ll build a catalog with them. Just work though, you gotta work.
What’s the story behind the making of your first project, Da Mack?
Banditdamack: It was not too long after I lost my job. I can’t even say I lost my job. Not too long after I stopped working, I knew I wanted to make a tape. I think one of the songs might have already been out. I already had the feature from Spank, that shit was sitting. I had the Lou Deezi feature probably sitting for a month, and then I only had to record like seven songs. I was dropping singles for a little bit, and then in the midst of that I was like, I’m gonna drop a tape. So I dropped my first lil tape.
Your most recent project is a collab with Blanco from Palm Springs. How did the two of you decide on make a tape together?
Banditdamack: Our neighborhood fucks with his neighborhood. He didn’t really rap, you feel me? He rapped and shit, but he didn’t take it seriously till his homies died. He had to do it because both of them rapped. They was booming out there where they from. They from Palm Springs. How we’re in the Inland Empire, they call that the Desert Empire. You got Palm Springs, Indio, Coachella, all that shit. So when he start taking it seriously, he started going up and shit. He started fucking with OTR. I think we already had a single out, and we start locking in at the Wrecking Spot.
This n***** be at the Wrecking Spot every night, I swear to God. He live in Palm Springs too. That n***** be locked in. That whole tape we did in the studio. There was no verses we had sent though, we did the whole shit in the studio.
How you get introduced to the Stinc Team?
Banditdamack: Through Playerrways they had tapped in. I done met Ralfy also. Instagram play a big part, he [Playerrways] had hit me up. You know on stories, how some people be like, “who should I put on my tape?” Someone had tagged me. I had an open. Sent him the open and he hopped on it the same night. Shit was hard. We got that feature for probably two three months. Me and two of the homies went to Santa Monica to meet with this label at this dinner. He was like, “tap in when you in LA, let’s shoot.” I’m like, we can shoot it on the Santa Monica Pier, so then we shot it that night. He work hard too, like, he quick bro. I told you, he sent the verse back same night, he quick.
Having that workflow is key. Why waste time in a session when you’re the one paying for it?
Banditdamack: It could be hard too. Say you coming up like me, and you sign for a whole lot of money, there could be a whole lot of distractions. You got bitches, you could dress flyer than you was before. You got a whole lot of shit you ain’t have before. You still gotta keep your head on straight. It’s cool to indulge, you don’t just gotta work, work, work, work, work, it’s good to have fun, but you still gotta stay on track though. Everyone is trying to do this music shit. Quick as you come up, you can fall off.
What do you think has been the key to your success so far?
Banditdamack: Consistency. I might have taken one month off since I started. Even that one month I took off, I was still recording and writing, I just wasn’t dropping anything, but I was still working.
What are you currently working on?
Banditdamack: Just singles, but I finna do an album with a deluxe and everything. I want to do like 15 songs for the tape and 10 for the deluxe. That’s 25 songs. 25 is our hood number.
How long does it take you to put together your albums?
Banditdamack: Da Mack might have took me 2-3 weeks. EPs those are’t shit, I can knock those out in like a week. This shit might take me a month because I want different sounds, but I don’t just want different sound’s, I want hard shit at the same time.
What producers do you turn too to get the beats you want?
Banditdamack: C Young On the Beat. My boy named Hex.. He produces for Saviii3rd. He produce a lot for Playerrways. P8 also got no songs with Cypress Moreno but his beats is hard. I got his number and he does send some shit over, but like I said I’m picky. ProdByRoger also. Bro I’m still rocking with Youtube beats. If its like a beat and it’s hard I fuck with it. I’m just picky. That shit might be harder than a whole pack someone send me.
In your music you manage to be funny yet brutally honest at the same time. How to you use humor to supplement the serious themes of your music?
Banditdamack: Like I said bro, it’s shit people can relate to. N***** always gotta have that key bar. Polo G said in one of his interviews you gotta have a key bar. He said in one of his songs, “Only bitch I give a conversation to is Siri.” That’s like a key bar, a memorable bar. You gotta have some of those. I feel like the funny ones are kind of the ones that stick.
What’s a typical day in life look like for you?
Banditdamack: Wake up, write, obviously, food, shower, shit like that. But every day it’d be something different. N***** might wake up, come here, or the homie have a fucking field day in Rancho Cucamonga. A studio day, or like an LA day is what I call it. We shooting videos, going to the studio, for sure. We working when we in LA. Maybe shop a little bit. When we go to LA, if we not at a Peer Space, we looking for spots because theres spots like 10 minutes from everywhere. Find a spot, shoot there, we’ll already had a studio booked at a certain time. So we finish shooting a video, get some food, fuck around. My boy Foolish, he has a team. They vlog, so like, they’ll vlog behind the scenes of what we’re doing.
We’ll hit up a store too, like Chiefin Heavily. The n***** at Chiefin Heavily, his store, the Fairfax studio is right behind it where my boy Hex work at. So if I’m recording there, and it’ll be times bro I’ll just walk in Chiefin Heavily and this n**** Playerrways be at the door. Shake his hand, go to to Hex shit, walk outside, G Money on the stairs. I like LA because you could network way easier. Out here it’s harder. I gotta go to Rancho Cucamonga, Redlands, or Riverside for a studio.
What is it about your lyrics, specifically, that you think puts you above everyone else?
Banditdamack: I feel like my rhymes be hard. Some motherfuckers be off beat. A lot of people hard, don’t get me wrong, I feel like I spit shit people from out here can relate too. I’ll spit shit for my section, for people out here, but everybody can relate to it type shit.
You’ve regarded Remble as an artist that you really look up too. What is it about his style that attracts you to his music?
Banditdamack: He can rap. That’s all I can really say. I don’t know how to explain it. That shit is just hard.
Who do you want to work with that you haven’t worked with yet?
Banditdamack: Mozzy. Me and Peysoh was supposed to lock some shit in. We text and shit, but I’m not really the type to ask for features and shit. That’s one of my pet peeves: people only want to talk about music and shit. Remble, Polo G. I’ll do some shit with G Money. 03 also, and OhGeesy.
How does it feel to be the one representing Hemet right now?
Banditdamack: At first when people would tell me that I feel like, what is you giving me flowers for? We ain’t done shit yet. We not where we need to be, but we know where we need to go. The city on the map for sure though, and I can say I helped with that. We got to go crazy. I want people in Louisiana to know about Hemet.
What do you think you sets yourself apart from other artists coming out of SoCal?
Banditdamack: My sound. I feel like pen and pad wise, there’s not too many people that can really fuck with me. There’s some though, don’t get me wrong. A lot of the people that’s on right now, lyric wise, I don’t think they better, but that’s not really all that matters, though. It’s a big part of it, but this shit is like an image. It’s a brand.
People that grow up in Hemet, do they typically stay their whole lives, or do a lot of them end up moving away?
Banditdamack: People want to move, but they get kind of stuck. A lot of people’s families don’t move, so it’s like, if your family’s not moving, then you really can’t move. It’s kind of just like a cycle. You Hemet, but you work in Perris, or you work in Beaumont, but you still come back to Hemet. Not a lot of people move out I’m not gonna lie. Some people do though.
Despite Hemet being far removed from other parts of Southern California, you’ve still managed to create a network of producers and artists in places outside of the city. How did you start making all these different connections?
Banditdamack: Probably like a year ago, there was a studio out here I would fuck with. I made a lot of my biggest songs in that studio. That was like the only studio in Hemet, so people we didn’t get along with started going there and it just got burnt out, so then I started just going out the city to studios. I made a lot of connections in LA. In the IE, there’s a couple rappers I made connections with but it’s more film people that I know.
How often are you in LA?
Banditdamack: At least biweekly for something. I got a clothing brand too, and my manager, he’s in Glendale, so it’s like LA County, so I’m always over there for something. I just hate driving out there.
Because of the distance?
Banditdamack: It’s not even the the distance, people out there they drive different.
Before you started recording in proper studios, how were you making music?
Banditdamack: I started on BandLab, but like my first ever studio was in the IE, in Redlands. That was probably like three or four years ago. I was rapping under a whole different name. Then I went to jail, got out, went to jail, and got out again, and started rapping under a different name again. That was the first studio I hit. It’s crazy, one of my biggest songs on Spotify I recorded in my first session out. My mom she had took me.
We picked two of the homies up and she took us to Redlands. I made like “Do Em In” and “Potent.” I made a couple of my biggest songs that session. But to be honest, the IE got some good studios too, but they be booked up, bro.
How do you approach each session? Do you come in with stuff written down already, or do you like to write once you’re in the studio?
Banditdamack: I already got songs locked in on my phone. If I’m coming to the studio I got minimum two songs on my phone. I could write in the studio but it just takes a long time. I like to take my time when I write. I’ve wrote many verses in the studio, but I don’t think I write my hardest shit when I’m in there. Maybe it’s the pressure too, because I’m paying for the time.
What does your writing process look like?
Banditdamack: I pick the beat out, listen to it a couple times, then I’ll start to write to it. Alright… I’ll give you the sauce bro, swear to God. I’ll find the end of the word I want to rhyme with, or like the end of the sentence. So say I wanna say, “Shot him down…We caught him lacking and shot him down.” So I’m gonna write ‘shot him down, got him now, not around.’ All those rhymes just for that rhyme scheme, those four bars, then write another four bars, another four bars. Damn near until the whole song is complete so all I gotta do is just write the space that’s in between. It’s like a puzzle. That shit is fun as fuck when it’s like that, when you get the rhymes out the way first, because that’s like the hardest part.
Did someone teach you how to write like that, or did you come up with that yourself?
Banditdamack: I came up with it in jail, to be honest. I would write the end of the rhymes on the top of my notebook, like in the box where you write your name at. I was watching an Eminem interview, and he damn near does the same shit. He has like a bucket full of like sticky notes with rhymes like that so he never run out of rhymes. I think that’s dope.
Do you pick your own beats?
Banditdamack: I pick my own. I’m hella picky. A producer can send me a beat pack of like 15-20 beats, and I only pick one. Really, I think of like, in the car, or like, at a party how the beat would sound and how I can rap on it. I’ll know in the first 10 seconds whether I’m fucking with it or not.
How would you describe the sound you’re looking for while going through beat packs?
Banditdamack: Just something I could get off to, because at the same time I feel like a beat makes the song. So if you got a hard beat with some hard ass lyrics, I feel like you can’t lose. It don’t even got to be a Cali beat, like I got songs to non-Cali beats.
Is there much of a local rap scene in Hemet?
Banditdamack: Now there is. Before it was like older cats. We like the new generation. I feel like theres more eyes coming out here so more people starting to rap. Not just from from our area, like all over. Like I said, Hemet is big.
When you started out, were you the only one, or were other people from Hemet already rapping?
Banditdamack: People from my section were rapping. My boy Buddha was rapping. They’re from my area, but people outside the area hell no. They ain’t have the courage to do that.
What was it like to see Spank Nitti when he was coming up? What kind of impact did his success have on the community?
Banditdamack: It was cool. That was like eighth grade or ninth grade. Like 2017-2018. He get a lot of love because he don’t beef with anybody, so he get love from everywhere.
How did the two of you meet?
Banditdamack: I met him through J-Lug. He rap too. He from out here. His house in Rancho had a studio there, so I’d book studio time with him. Me and Spank just followed each other and shit. Told him send the verse, he sent it. But I only met him once. He didn’t even do the feature in person, he just sent it to me.
Does seeing Spank find success and make it out of Hemet, inspire you to keep pushing what you’re doing?
Banditdamack: I wouldn’t even say him specifically. Just like my peers I rap with, like the Stinc Team. They young, around my age, going up too. They don’t come from out the best place either, but they making a name for themselves. This shit hard bro. It’s easy, but it’s hard. It’s easy to go in the studio, make a song, shoot a video, but it’s hard to get people to actually fuck with you. No Diddy, you got to touch the people in a way.
How do you touch people with your music?
Banditdamack: I’ll try to spit the shit that not only we can relate too, but everybody can relate too. There’s some shit that only we can relate to. It’d be like the ‘if you know, you know’ bars. It’d be some shit like, you don’t got to gang bang, you don’t gotta be from no street, nothing. You can relate to it. It’s good to tap into every element. If you rap about the same shit over and over again, people are only going to fuck with you for so long.
Are you writing or recording something everyday?
Banditdamack: I write damn near everyday. Just a couple bars sometimes, but everyday. I got some gas in the tank right now, finna go to the studio. I haven’t been in a week or two I’m not even gonna lie. I’ll write or I’ll shoot videos. That’s how I work when I’m not working.
What was happening in your life when you first started to take music seriously? What drove you to actually commit to doing it 100%?
Banditdamack: To be honest with you, I had just got out of jail. I had a little bit of money, so I was maintaining with that little money I had. I was going to the studio and paying for my little videos. I bounced probably with like $7500 cause I was going to college in jail, so I got financial aid. So yeah, I was going to the studio, shooting my videos, but I’m trying to still stay out of trouble, because one, I’m on probation, and two, I’m trying to rap for real now. I was 18, so it’s like, I ain’t going back to juvenile hall, I’m going to big boy jail now. The shit I was doing when I was a minor, they was low key slaps on the wrist. N***** getting real time as adults, so I’m like, it’s this or nothing low key.
I got a job through a fresh out program. It was a program I signed up for when I was in there. The center is right here. It’s across the street from the Hemet Vistas down the street. They help you graduate if you still in school. They help you get a job and shit, like construction or logistics. Like working in a warehouse. So I was working in a warehouse and they pick me up, go to the center right there, six in the morning, every morning, and we shoot off to Perris to the warehouse. Did that for six months then the program ended. I ain’t have a job after that. That’s when I was really rapping.
When did you see the music first start to take off?
Banditdamack: It was so slow low key. Some n***** when they go viral it’s overnight type shit. I feel like our shit was over time. It’s been two years. I’ve been rapping for two years, this September. I dropped my first song, September 25th. I’ll probably say, my first video it hit like 1k in a day on Youtube. That was the shit for me, because I had no subscribers, it was a new channel and shit. That shit was cool.
What do you think is the next step for you?
Banditdamack: Building a catalog. I just signed with Thizzler so I’ll build a catalog with them. Just work though, you gotta work.
What’s the story behind the making of your first project, Da Mack?
Banditdamack: It was not too long after I lost my job. I can’t even say I lost my job. Not too long after I stopped working, I knew I wanted to make a tape. I think one of the songs might have already been out. I already had the feature from Spank, that shit was sitting. I had the Lou Deezi feature probably sitting for a month, and then I only had to record like seven songs. I was dropping singles for a little bit, and then in the midst of that I was like, I’m gonna drop a tape. So I dropped my first lil tape.
Your most recent project is a collab with Blanco from Palm Springs. How did the two of you decide on make a tape together?
Banditdamack: Our neighborhood fucks with his neighborhood. He didn’t really rap, you feel me? He rapped and shit, but he didn’t take it seriously till his homies died. He had to do it because both of them rapped. They was booming out there where they from. They from Palm Springs. How we’re in the Inland Empire, they call that the Desert Empire. You got Palm Springs, Indio, Coachella, all that shit. So when he start taking it seriously, he started going up and shit. He started fucking with OTR. I think we already had a single out, and we start locking in at the Wrecking Spot.
This n***** be at the Wrecking Spot every night, I swear to God. He live in Palm Springs too. That n***** be locked in. That whole tape we did in the studio. There was no verses we had sent though, we did the whole shit in the studio.
How you get introduced to the Stinc Team?
Banditdamack: Through Playerrways they had tapped in. I done met Ralfy also. Instagram play a big part, he [Playerrways] had hit me up. You know on stories, how some people be like, “who should I put on my tape?” Someone had tagged me. I had an open. Sent him the open and he hopped on it the same night. Shit was hard. We got that feature for probably two three months. Me and two of the homies went to Santa Monica to meet with this label at this dinner. He was like, “tap in when you in LA, let’s shoot.” I’m like, we can shoot it on the Santa Monica Pier, so then we shot it that night. He work hard too, like, he quick bro. I told you, he sent the verse back same night, he quick.
Having that workflow is key. Why waste time in a session when you’re the one paying for it?
Banditdamack: It could be hard too. Say you coming up like me, and you sign for a whole lot of money, there could be a whole lot of distractions. You got bitches, you could dress flyer than you was before. You got a whole lot of shit you ain’t have before. You still gotta keep your head on straight. It’s cool to indulge, you don’t just gotta work, work, work, work, work, it’s good to have fun, but you still gotta stay on track though. Everyone is trying to do this music shit. Quick as you come up, you can fall off.
What do you think has been the key to your success so far?
Banditdamack: Consistency. I might have taken one month off since I started. Even that one month I took off, I was still recording and writing, I just wasn’t dropping anything, but I was still working.
What are you currently working on?
Banditdamack: Just singles, but I finna do an album with a deluxe and everything. I want to do like 15 songs for the tape and 10 for the deluxe. That’s 25 songs. 25 is our hood number.
How long does it take you to put together your albums?
Banditdamack: Da Mack might have took me 2-3 weeks. EPs those are’t shit, I can knock those out in like a week. This shit might take me a month because I want different sounds, but I don’t just want different sound’s, I want hard shit at the same time.
What producers do you turn too to get the beats you want?
Banditdamack: C Young On the Beat. My boy named Hex.. He produces for Saviii3rd. He produce a lot for Playerrways. P8 also got no songs with Cypress Moreno but his beats is hard. I got his number and he does send some shit over, but like I said I’m picky. ProdByRoger also. Bro I’m still rocking with Youtube beats. If its like a beat and it’s hard I fuck with it. I’m just picky. That shit might be harder than a whole pack someone send me.
In your music you manage to be funny yet brutally honest at the same time. How to you use humor to supplement the serious themes of your music?
Banditdamack: Like I said bro, it’s shit people can relate to. N***** always gotta have that key bar. Polo G said in one of his interviews you gotta have a key bar. He said in one of his songs, “Only bitch I give a conversation to is Siri.” That’s like a key bar, a memorable bar. You gotta have some of those. I feel like the funny ones are kind of the ones that stick.
What’s a typical day in life look like for you?
Banditdamack: Wake up, write, obviously, food, shower, shit like that. But every day it’d be something different. N***** might wake up, come here, or the homie have a fucking field day in Rancho Cucamonga. A studio day, or like an LA day is what I call it. We shooting videos, going to the studio, for sure. We working when we in LA. Maybe shop a little bit. When we go to LA, if we not at a Peer Space, we looking for spots because theres spots like 10 minutes from everywhere. Find a spot, shoot there, we’ll already had a studio booked at a certain time. So we finish shooting a video, get some food, fuck around. My boy Foolish, he has a team. They vlog, so like, they’ll vlog behind the scenes of what we’re doing.
We’ll hit up a store too, like Chiefin Heavily. The n***** at Chiefin Heavily, his store, the Fairfax studio is right behind it where my boy Hex work at. So if I’m recording there, and it’ll be times bro I’ll just walk in Chiefin Heavily and this n**** Playerrways be at the door. Shake his hand, go to to Hex shit, walk outside, G Money on the stairs. I like LA because you could network way easier. Out here it’s harder. I gotta go to Rancho Cucamonga, Redlands, or Riverside for a studio.
What is it about your lyrics, specifically, that you think puts you above everyone else?
Banditdamack: I feel like my rhymes be hard. Some motherfuckers be off beat. A lot of people hard, don’t get me wrong, I feel like I spit shit people from out here can relate too. I’ll spit shit for my section, for people out here, but everybody can relate to it type shit.
You’ve regarded Remble as an artist that you really look up too. What is it about his style that attracts you to his music?
Banditdamack: He can rap. That’s all I can really say. I don’t know how to explain it. That shit is just hard.
Who do you want to work with that you haven’t worked with yet?
Banditdamack: Mozzy. Me and Peysoh was supposed to lock some shit in. We text and shit, but I’m not really the type to ask for features and shit. That’s one of my pet peeves: people only want to talk about music and shit. Remble, Polo G. I’ll do some shit with G Money. 03 also, and OhGeesy.
How does it feel to be the one representing Hemet right now?
Banditdamack: At first when people would tell me that I feel like, what is you giving me flowers for? We ain’t done shit yet. We not where we need to be, but we know where we need to go. The city on the map for sure though, and I can say I helped with that. We got to go crazy. I want people in Louisiana to know about Hemet.
What do you think you sets yourself apart from other artists coming out of SoCal?
Banditdamack: My sound. I feel like pen and pad wise, there’s not too many people that can really fuck with me. There’s some though, don’t get me wrong. A lot of the people that’s on right now, lyric wise, I don’t think they better, but that’s not really all that matters, though. It’s a big part of it, but this shit is like an image. It’s a brand.
Despite Hemet being far removed from other parts of Southern California, you’ve still managed to create a network of producers and artists in places outside of the city. How did you start making all these different connections?
Banditdamack: Probably like a year ago, there was a studio out here I would fuck with. I made a lot of my biggest songs in that studio. That was like the only studio in Hemet, so people we didn’t get along with started going there and it just got burnt out, so then I started just going out the city to studios. I made a lot of connections in LA. In the IE, there’s a couple rappers I made connections with but it’s more film people that I know.
How often are you in LA?
Banditdamack: At least biweekly for something. I got a clothing brand too, and my manager, he’s in Glendale, so it’s like LA County, so I’m always over there for something. I just hate driving out there.
Because of the distance?
Banditdamack: It’s not even the the distance, people out there they drive different.
Before you started recording in proper studios, how were you making music?
Banditdamack: I started on BandLab, but like my first ever studio was in the IE, in Redlands. That was probably like three or four years ago. I was rapping under a whole different name. Then I went to jail, got out, went to jail, and got out again, and started rapping under a different name again. That was the first studio I hit. It’s crazy, one of my biggest songs on Spotify I recorded in my first session out. My mom she had took me.
We picked two of the homies up and she took us to Redlands. I made like “Do Em In” and “Potent.” I made a couple of my biggest songs that session. But to be honest, the IE got some good studios too, but they be booked up, bro.
How do you approach each session? Do you come in with stuff written down already, or do you like to write once you’re in the studio?
Banditdamack: I already got songs locked in on my phone. If I’m coming to the studio I got minimum two songs on my phone. I could write in the studio but it just takes a long time. I like to take my time when I write. I’ve wrote many verses in the studio, but I don’t think I write my hardest shit when I’m in there. Maybe it’s the pressure too, because I’m paying for the time.
What does your writing process look like?
Banditdamack: I pick the beat out, listen to it a couple times, then I’ll start to write to it. Alright… I’ll give you the sauce bro, swear to God. I’ll find the end of the word I want to rhyme with, or like the end of the sentence. So say I wanna say, “Shot him down…We caught him lacking and shot him down.” So I’m gonna write ‘shot him down, got him now, not around.’ All those rhymes just for that rhyme scheme, those four bars, then write another four bars, another four bars. Damn near until the whole song is complete so all I gotta do is just write the space that’s in between. It’s like a puzzle. That shit is fun as fuck when it’s like that, when you get the rhymes out the way first, because that’s like the hardest part.
Did someone teach you how to write like that, or did you come up with that yourself?
Banditdamack: I came up with it in jail, to be honest. I would write the end of the rhymes on the top of my notebook, like in the box where you write your name at. I was watching an Eminem interview, and he damn near does the same shit. He has like a bucket full of like sticky notes with rhymes like that so he never run out of rhymes. I think that’s dope.
Do you pick your own beats?
Banditdamack: I pick my own. I’m hella picky. A producer can send me a beat pack of like 15-20 beats, and I only pick one. Really, I think of like, in the car, or like, at a party how the beat would sound and how I can rap on it. I’ll know in the first 10 seconds whether I’m fucking with it or not.
How would you describe the sound you’re looking for while going through beat packs?
Banditdamack: Just something I could get off to, because at the same time I feel like a beat makes the song. So if you got a hard beat with some hard ass lyrics, I feel like you can’t lose. It don’t even got to be a Cali beat, like I got songs to non-Cali beats.
Is there much of a local rap scene in Hemet?
Banditdamack: Now there is. Before it was like older cats. We like the new generation. I feel like theres more eyes coming out here so more people starting to rap. Not just from from our area, like all over. Like I said, Hemet is big.
When you started out, were you the only one, or were other people from Hemet already rapping?
Banditdamack: People from my section were rapping. My boy Buddha was rapping. They’re from my area, but people outside the area hell no. They ain’t have the courage to do that.
What was it like to see Spank Nitti when he was coming up? What kind of impact did his success have on the community?
Banditdamack: It was cool. That was like eighth grade or ninth grade. Like 2017-2018. He get a lot of love because he don’t beef with anybody, so he get love from everywhere.
How did the two of you meet?
Banditdamack: I met him through J-Lug. He rap too. He from out here. His house in Rancho had a studio there, so I’d book studio time with him. Me and Spank just followed each other and shit. Told him send the verse, he sent it. But I only met him once. He didn’t even do the feature in person, he just sent it to me.
Does seeing Spank find success and make it out of Hemet, inspire you to keep pushing what you’re doing?
Banditdamack: I wouldn’t even say him specifically. Just like my peers I rap with, like the Stinc Team. They young, around my age, going up too. They don’t come from out the best place either, but they making a name for themselves. This shit hard bro. It’s easy, but it’s hard. It’s easy to go in the studio, make a song, shoot a video, but it’s hard to get people to actually fuck with you. No Diddy, you got to touch the people in a way.
How do you touch people with your music?
Banditdamack: I’ll try to spit the shit that not only we can relate too, but everybody can relate too. There’s some shit that only we can relate to. It’d be like the ‘if you know, you know’ bars. It’d be some shit like, you don’t got to gang bang, you don’t gotta be from no street, nothing. You can relate to it. It’s good to tap into every element. If you rap about the same shit over and over again, people are only going to fuck with you for so long.
Are you writing or recording something everyday?
Banditdamack: I write damn near everyday. Just a couple bars sometimes, but everyday. I got some gas in the tank right now, finna go to the studio. I haven’t been in a week or two I’m not even gonna lie. I’ll write or I’ll shoot videos. That’s how I work when I’m not working.
What was happening in your life when you first started to take music seriously? What drove you to actually commit to doing it 100%?
Banditdamack: To be honest with you, I had just got out of jail. I had a little bit of money, so I was maintaining with that little money I had. I was going to the studio and paying for my little videos. I bounced probably with like $7500 cause I was going to college in jail, so I got financial aid. So yeah, I was going to the studio, shooting my videos, but I’m trying to still stay out of trouble, because one, I’m on probation, and two, I’m trying to rap for real now. I was 18, so it’s like, I ain’t going back to juvenile hall, I’m going to big boy jail now. The shit I was doing when I was a minor, they was low key slaps on the wrist. N***** getting real time as adults, so I’m like, it’s this or nothing low key.
I got a job through a fresh out program. It was a program I signed up for when I was in there. The center is right here. It’s across the street from the Hemet Vistas down the street. They help you graduate if you still in school. They help you get a job and shit, like construction or logistics. Like working in a warehouse. So I was working in a warehouse and they pick me up, go to the center right there, six in the morning, every morning, and we shoot off to Perris to the warehouse. Did that for six months then the program ended. I ain’t have a job after that. That’s when I was really rapping.
When did you see the music first start to take off?
Banditdamack: It was so slow low key. Some n***** when they go viral it’s overnight type shit. I feel like our shit was over time. It’s been two years. I’ve been rapping for two years, this September. I dropped my first song, September 25th. I’ll probably say, my first video it hit like 1k in a day on Youtube. That was the shit for me, because I had no subscribers, it was a new channel and shit. That shit was cool.
What do you think is the next step for you?
Banditdamack: Building a catalog. I just signed with Thizzler so I’ll build a catalog with them. Just work though, you gotta work.
What’s the story behind the making of your first project, Da Mack?
Banditdamack: It was not too long after I lost my job. I can’t even say I lost my job. Not too long after I stopped working, I knew I wanted to make a tape. I think one of the songs might have already been out. I already had the feature from Spank, that shit was sitting. I had the Lou Deezi feature probably sitting for a month, and then I only had to record like seven songs. I was dropping singles for a little bit, and then in the midst of that I was like, I’m gonna drop a tape. So I dropped my first lil tape.
Your most recent project is a collab with Blanco from Palm Springs. How did the two of you decide on make a tape together?
Banditdamack: Our neighborhood fucks with his neighborhood. He didn’t really rap, you feel me? He rapped and shit, but he didn’t take it seriously till his homies died. He had to do it because both of them rapped. They was booming out there where they from. They from Palm Springs. How we’re in the Inland Empire, they call that the Desert Empire. You got Palm Springs, Indio, Coachella, all that shit. So when he start taking it seriously, he started going up and shit. He started fucking with OTR. I think we already had a single out, and we start locking in at the Wrecking Spot.
This n***** be at the Wrecking Spot every night, I swear to God. He live in Palm Springs too. That n***** be locked in. That whole tape we did in the studio. There was no verses we had sent though, we did the whole shit in the studio.
How you get introduced to the Stinc Team?
Banditdamack: Through Playerrways they had tapped in. I done met Ralfy also. Instagram play a big part, he [Playerrways] had hit me up. You know on stories, how some people be like, “who should I put on my tape?” Someone had tagged me. I had an open. Sent him the open and he hopped on it the same night. Shit was hard. We got that feature for probably two three months. Me and two of the homies went to Santa Monica to meet with this label at this dinner. He was like, “tap in when you in LA, let’s shoot.” I’m like, we can shoot it on the Santa Monica Pier, so then we shot it that night. He work hard too, like, he quick bro. I told you, he sent the verse back same night, he quick.
Having that workflow is key. Why waste time in a session when you’re the one paying for it?
Banditdamack: It could be hard too. Say you coming up like me, and you sign for a whole lot of money, there could be a whole lot of distractions. You got bitches, you could dress flyer than you was before. You got a whole lot of shit you ain’t have before. You still gotta keep your head on straight. It’s cool to indulge, you don’t just gotta work, work, work, work, work, it’s good to have fun, but you still gotta stay on track though. Everyone is trying to do this music shit. Quick as you come up, you can fall off.
What do you think has been the key to your success so far?
Banditdamack: Consistency. I might have taken one month off since I started. Even that one month I took off, I was still recording and writing, I just wasn’t dropping anything, but I was still working.
What are you currently working on?
Banditdamack: Just singles, but I finna do an album with a deluxe and everything. I want to do like 15 songs for the tape and 10 for the deluxe. That’s 25 songs. 25 is our hood number.
How long does it take you to put together your albums?
Banditdamack: Da Mack might have took me 2-3 weeks. EPs those are’t shit, I can knock those out in like a week. This shit might take me a month because I want different sounds, but I don’t just want different sound’s, I want hard shit at the same time.
What producers do you turn too to get the beats you want?
Banditdamack: C Young On the Beat. My boy named Hex.. He produces for Saviii3rd. He produce a lot for Playerrways. P8 also got no songs with Cypress Moreno but his beats is hard. I got his number and he does send some shit over, but like I said I’m picky. ProdByRoger also. Bro I’m still rocking with Youtube beats. If its like a beat and it’s hard I fuck with it. I’m just picky. That shit might be harder than a whole pack someone send me.
In your music you manage to be funny yet brutally honest at the same time. How to you use humor to supplement the serious themes of your music?
Banditdamack: Like I said bro, it’s shit people can relate to. N***** always gotta have that key bar. Polo G said in one of his interviews you gotta have a key bar. He said in one of his songs, “Only bitch I give a conversation to is Siri.” That’s like a key bar, a memorable bar. You gotta have some of those. I feel like the funny ones are kind of the ones that stick.
What’s a typical day in life look like for you?
Banditdamack: Wake up, write, obviously, food, shower, shit like that. But every day it’d be something different. N***** might wake up, come here, or the homie have a fucking field day in Rancho Cucamonga. A studio day, or like an LA day is what I call it. We shooting videos, going to the studio, for sure. We working when we in LA. Maybe shop a little bit. When we go to LA, if we not at a Peer Space, we looking for spots because theres spots like 10 minutes from everywhere. Find a spot, shoot there, we’ll already had a studio booked at a certain time. So we finish shooting a video, get some food, fuck around. My boy Foolish, he has a team. They vlog, so like, they’ll vlog behind the scenes of what we’re doing.
We’ll hit up a store too, like Chiefin Heavily. The n***** at Chiefin Heavily, his store, the Fairfax studio is right behind it where my boy Hex work at. So if I’m recording there, and it’ll be times bro I’ll just walk in Chiefin Heavily and this n**** Playerrways be at the door. Shake his hand, go to to Hex shit, walk outside, G Money on the stairs. I like LA because you could network way easier. Out here it’s harder. I gotta go to Rancho Cucamonga, Redlands, or Riverside for a studio.
What is it about your lyrics, specifically, that you think puts you above everyone else?
Banditdamack: I feel like my rhymes be hard. Some motherfuckers be off beat. A lot of people hard, don’t get me wrong, I feel like I spit shit people from out here can relate too. I’ll spit shit for my section, for people out here, but everybody can relate to it type shit.
You’ve regarded Remble as an artist that you really look up too. What is it about his style that attracts you to his music?
Banditdamack: He can rap. That’s all I can really say. I don’t know how to explain it. That shit is just hard.
Who do you want to work with that you haven’t worked with yet?
Banditdamack: Mozzy. Me and Peysoh was supposed to lock some shit in. We text and shit, but I’m not really the type to ask for features and shit. That’s one of my pet peeves: people only want to talk about music and shit. Remble, Polo G. I’ll do some shit with G Money. 03 also, and OhGeesy.
How does it feel to be the one representing Hemet right now?
Banditdamack: At first when people would tell me that I feel like, what is you giving me flowers for? We ain’t done shit yet. We not where we need to be, but we know where we need to go. The city on the map for sure though, and I can say I helped with that. We got to go crazy. I want people in Louisiana to know about Hemet.
What do you think you sets yourself apart from other artists coming out of SoCal?
Banditdamack: My sound. I feel like pen and pad wise, there’s not too many people that can really fuck with me. There’s some though, don’t get me wrong. A lot of the people that’s on right now, lyric wise, I don’t think they better, but that’s not really all that matters, though. It’s a big part of it, but this shit is like an image. It’s a brand.
How often are you in LA?
Banditdamack: At least biweekly for something. I got a clothing brand too, and my manager, he’s in Glendale, so it’s like LA County, so I’m always over there for something. I just hate driving out there.
Because of the distance?
Banditdamack: It’s not even the the distance, people out there they drive different.
Before you started recording in proper studios, how were you making music?
Banditdamack: I started on BandLab, but like my first ever studio was in the IE, in Redlands. That was probably like three or four years ago. I was rapping under a whole different name. Then I went to jail, got out, went to jail, and got out again, and started rapping under a different name again. That was the first studio I hit. It’s crazy, one of my biggest songs on Spotify I recorded in my first session out. My mom she had took me.
We picked two of the homies up and she took us to Redlands. I made like “Do Em In” and “Potent.” I made a couple of my biggest songs that session. But to be honest, the IE got some good studios too, but they be booked up, bro.
How do you approach each session? Do you come in with stuff written down already, or do you like to write once you’re in the studio?
Banditdamack: I already got songs locked in on my phone. If I’m coming to the studio I got minimum two songs on my phone. I could write in the studio but it just takes a long time. I like to take my time when I write. I’ve wrote many verses in the studio, but I don’t think I write my hardest shit when I’m in there. Maybe it’s the pressure too, because I’m paying for the time.
What does your writing process look like?
Banditdamack: I pick the beat out, listen to it a couple times, then I’ll start to write to it. Alright… I’ll give you the sauce bro, swear to God. I’ll find the end of the word I want to rhyme with, or like the end of the sentence. So say I wanna say, “Shot him down…We caught him lacking and shot him down.” So I’m gonna write ‘shot him down, got him now, not around.’ All those rhymes just for that rhyme scheme, those four bars, then write another four bars, another four bars. Damn near until the whole song is complete so all I gotta do is just write the space that’s in between. It’s like a puzzle. That shit is fun as fuck when it’s like that, when you get the rhymes out the way first, because that’s like the hardest part.
Did someone teach you how to write like that, or did you come up with that yourself?
Banditdamack: I came up with it in jail, to be honest. I would write the end of the rhymes on the top of my notebook, like in the box where you write your name at. I was watching an Eminem interview, and he damn near does the same shit. He has like a bucket full of like sticky notes with rhymes like that so he never run out of rhymes. I think that’s dope.
Do you pick your own beats?
Banditdamack: I pick my own. I’m hella picky. A producer can send me a beat pack of like 15-20 beats, and I only pick one. Really, I think of like, in the car, or like, at a party how the beat would sound and how I can rap on it. I’ll know in the first 10 seconds whether I’m fucking with it or not.
How would you describe the sound you’re looking for while going through beat packs?
Banditdamack: Just something I could get off to, because at the same time I feel like a beat makes the song. So if you got a hard beat with some hard ass lyrics, I feel like you can’t lose. It don’t even got to be a Cali beat, like I got songs to non-Cali beats.
Is there much of a local rap scene in Hemet?
Banditdamack: Now there is. Before it was like older cats. We like the new generation. I feel like theres more eyes coming out here so more people starting to rap. Not just from from our area, like all over. Like I said, Hemet is big.
When you started out, were you the only one, or were other people from Hemet already rapping?
Banditdamack: People from my section were rapping. My boy Buddha was rapping. They’re from my area, but people outside the area hell no. They ain’t have the courage to do that.
What was it like to see Spank Nitti when he was coming up? What kind of impact did his success have on the community?
Banditdamack: It was cool. That was like eighth grade or ninth grade. Like 2017-2018. He get a lot of love because he don’t beef with anybody, so he get love from everywhere.
How did the two of you meet?
Banditdamack: I met him through J-Lug. He rap too. He from out here. His house in Rancho had a studio there, so I’d book studio time with him. Me and Spank just followed each other and shit. Told him send the verse, he sent it. But I only met him once. He didn’t even do the feature in person, he just sent it to me.
Does seeing Spank find success and make it out of Hemet, inspire you to keep pushing what you’re doing?
Banditdamack: I wouldn’t even say him specifically. Just like my peers I rap with, like the Stinc Team. They young, around my age, going up too. They don’t come from out the best place either, but they making a name for themselves. This shit hard bro. It’s easy, but it’s hard. It’s easy to go in the studio, make a song, shoot a video, but it’s hard to get people to actually fuck with you. No Diddy, you got to touch the people in a way.
How do you touch people with your music?
Banditdamack: I’ll try to spit the shit that not only we can relate too, but everybody can relate too. There’s some shit that only we can relate to. It’d be like the ‘if you know, you know’ bars. It’d be some shit like, you don’t got to gang bang, you don’t gotta be from no street, nothing. You can relate to it. It’s good to tap into every element. If you rap about the same shit over and over again, people are only going to fuck with you for so long.
Are you writing or recording something everyday?
Banditdamack: I write damn near everyday. Just a couple bars sometimes, but everyday. I got some gas in the tank right now, finna go to the studio. I haven’t been in a week or two I’m not even gonna lie. I’ll write or I’ll shoot videos. That’s how I work when I’m not working.
What was happening in your life when you first started to take music seriously? What drove you to actually commit to doing it 100%?
Banditdamack: To be honest with you, I had just got out of jail. I had a little bit of money, so I was maintaining with that little money I had. I was going to the studio and paying for my little videos. I bounced probably with like $7500 cause I was going to college in jail, so I got financial aid. So yeah, I was going to the studio, shooting my videos, but I’m trying to still stay out of trouble, because one, I’m on probation, and two, I’m trying to rap for real now. I was 18, so it’s like, I ain’t going back to juvenile hall, I’m going to big boy jail now. The shit I was doing when I was a minor, they was low key slaps on the wrist. N***** getting real time as adults, so I’m like, it’s this or nothing low key.
I got a job through a fresh out program. It was a program I signed up for when I was in there. The center is right here. It’s across the street from the Hemet Vistas down the street. They help you graduate if you still in school. They help you get a job and shit, like construction or logistics. Like working in a warehouse. So I was working in a warehouse and they pick me up, go to the center right there, six in the morning, every morning, and we shoot off to Perris to the warehouse. Did that for six months then the program ended. I ain’t have a job after that. That’s when I was really rapping.
When did you see the music first start to take off?
Banditdamack: It was so slow low key. Some n***** when they go viral it’s overnight type shit. I feel like our shit was over time. It’s been two years. I’ve been rapping for two years, this September. I dropped my first song, September 25th. I’ll probably say, my first video it hit like 1k in a day on Youtube. That was the shit for me, because I had no subscribers, it was a new channel and shit. That shit was cool.
What do you think is the next step for you?
Banditdamack: Building a catalog. I just signed with Thizzler so I’ll build a catalog with them. Just work though, you gotta work.
What’s the story behind the making of your first project, Da Mack?
Banditdamack: It was not too long after I lost my job. I can’t even say I lost my job. Not too long after I stopped working, I knew I wanted to make a tape. I think one of the songs might have already been out. I already had the feature from Spank, that shit was sitting. I had the Lou Deezi feature probably sitting for a month, and then I only had to record like seven songs. I was dropping singles for a little bit, and then in the midst of that I was like, I’m gonna drop a tape. So I dropped my first lil tape.
Your most recent project is a collab with Blanco from Palm Springs. How did the two of you decide on make a tape together?
Banditdamack: Our neighborhood fucks with his neighborhood. He didn’t really rap, you feel me? He rapped and shit, but he didn’t take it seriously till his homies died. He had to do it because both of them rapped. They was booming out there where they from. They from Palm Springs. How we’re in the Inland Empire, they call that the Desert Empire. You got Palm Springs, Indio, Coachella, all that shit. So when he start taking it seriously, he started going up and shit. He started fucking with OTR. I think we already had a single out, and we start locking in at the Wrecking Spot.
This n***** be at the Wrecking Spot every night, I swear to God. He live in Palm Springs too. That n***** be locked in. That whole tape we did in the studio. There was no verses we had sent though, we did the whole shit in the studio.
How you get introduced to the Stinc Team?
Banditdamack: Through Playerrways they had tapped in. I done met Ralfy also. Instagram play a big part, he [Playerrways] had hit me up. You know on stories, how some people be like, “who should I put on my tape?” Someone had tagged me. I had an open. Sent him the open and he hopped on it the same night. Shit was hard. We got that feature for probably two three months. Me and two of the homies went to Santa Monica to meet with this label at this dinner. He was like, “tap in when you in LA, let’s shoot.” I’m like, we can shoot it on the Santa Monica Pier, so then we shot it that night. He work hard too, like, he quick bro. I told you, he sent the verse back same night, he quick.
Having that workflow is key. Why waste time in a session when you’re the one paying for it?
Banditdamack: It could be hard too. Say you coming up like me, and you sign for a whole lot of money, there could be a whole lot of distractions. You got bitches, you could dress flyer than you was before. You got a whole lot of shit you ain’t have before. You still gotta keep your head on straight. It’s cool to indulge, you don’t just gotta work, work, work, work, work, it’s good to have fun, but you still gotta stay on track though. Everyone is trying to do this music shit. Quick as you come up, you can fall off.
What do you think has been the key to your success so far?
Banditdamack: Consistency. I might have taken one month off since I started. Even that one month I took off, I was still recording and writing, I just wasn’t dropping anything, but I was still working.
What are you currently working on?
Banditdamack: Just singles, but I finna do an album with a deluxe and everything. I want to do like 15 songs for the tape and 10 for the deluxe. That’s 25 songs. 25 is our hood number.
How long does it take you to put together your albums?
Banditdamack: Da Mack might have took me 2-3 weeks. EPs those are’t shit, I can knock those out in like a week. This shit might take me a month because I want different sounds, but I don’t just want different sound’s, I want hard shit at the same time.
What producers do you turn too to get the beats you want?
Banditdamack: C Young On the Beat. My boy named Hex.. He produces for Saviii3rd. He produce a lot for Playerrways. P8 also got no songs with Cypress Moreno but his beats is hard. I got his number and he does send some shit over, but like I said I’m picky. ProdByRoger also. Bro I’m still rocking with Youtube beats. If its like a beat and it’s hard I fuck with it. I’m just picky. That shit might be harder than a whole pack someone send me.
In your music you manage to be funny yet brutally honest at the same time. How to you use humor to supplement the serious themes of your music?
Banditdamack: Like I said bro, it’s shit people can relate to. N***** always gotta have that key bar. Polo G said in one of his interviews you gotta have a key bar. He said in one of his songs, “Only bitch I give a conversation to is Siri.” That’s like a key bar, a memorable bar. You gotta have some of those. I feel like the funny ones are kind of the ones that stick.
What’s a typical day in life look like for you?
Banditdamack: Wake up, write, obviously, food, shower, shit like that. But every day it’d be something different. N***** might wake up, come here, or the homie have a fucking field day in Rancho Cucamonga. A studio day, or like an LA day is what I call it. We shooting videos, going to the studio, for sure. We working when we in LA. Maybe shop a little bit. When we go to LA, if we not at a Peer Space, we looking for spots because theres spots like 10 minutes from everywhere. Find a spot, shoot there, we’ll already had a studio booked at a certain time. So we finish shooting a video, get some food, fuck around. My boy Foolish, he has a team. They vlog, so like, they’ll vlog behind the scenes of what we’re doing.
We’ll hit up a store too, like Chiefin Heavily. The n***** at Chiefin Heavily, his store, the Fairfax studio is right behind it where my boy Hex work at. So if I’m recording there, and it’ll be times bro I’ll just walk in Chiefin Heavily and this n**** Playerrways be at the door. Shake his hand, go to to Hex shit, walk outside, G Money on the stairs. I like LA because you could network way easier. Out here it’s harder. I gotta go to Rancho Cucamonga, Redlands, or Riverside for a studio.
What is it about your lyrics, specifically, that you think puts you above everyone else?
Banditdamack: I feel like my rhymes be hard. Some motherfuckers be off beat. A lot of people hard, don’t get me wrong, I feel like I spit shit people from out here can relate too. I’ll spit shit for my section, for people out here, but everybody can relate to it type shit.
You’ve regarded Remble as an artist that you really look up too. What is it about his style that attracts you to his music?
Banditdamack: He can rap. That’s all I can really say. I don’t know how to explain it. That shit is just hard.
Who do you want to work with that you haven’t worked with yet?
Banditdamack: Mozzy. Me and Peysoh was supposed to lock some shit in. We text and shit, but I’m not really the type to ask for features and shit. That’s one of my pet peeves: people only want to talk about music and shit. Remble, Polo G. I’ll do some shit with G Money. 03 also, and OhGeesy.
How does it feel to be the one representing Hemet right now?
Banditdamack: At first when people would tell me that I feel like, what is you giving me flowers for? We ain’t done shit yet. We not where we need to be, but we know where we need to go. The city on the map for sure though, and I can say I helped with that. We got to go crazy. I want people in Louisiana to know about Hemet.
What do you think you sets yourself apart from other artists coming out of SoCal?
Banditdamack: My sound. I feel like pen and pad wise, there’s not too many people that can really fuck with me. There’s some though, don’t get me wrong. A lot of the people that’s on right now, lyric wise, I don’t think they better, but that’s not really all that matters, though. It’s a big part of it, but this shit is like an image. It’s a brand.
Because of the distance?
Banditdamack: It’s not even the the distance, people out there they drive different.
Before you started recording in proper studios, how were you making music?
Banditdamack: I started on BandLab, but like my first ever studio was in the IE, in Redlands. That was probably like three or four years ago. I was rapping under a whole different name. Then I went to jail, got out, went to jail, and got out again, and started rapping under a different name again. That was the first studio I hit. It’s crazy, one of my biggest songs on Spotify I recorded in my first session out. My mom she had took me.
We picked two of the homies up and she took us to Redlands. I made like “Do Em In” and “Potent.” I made a couple of my biggest songs that session. But to be honest, the IE got some good studios too, but they be booked up, bro.
How do you approach each session? Do you come in with stuff written down already, or do you like to write once you’re in the studio?
Banditdamack: I already got songs locked in on my phone. If I’m coming to the studio I got minimum two songs on my phone. I could write in the studio but it just takes a long time. I like to take my time when I write. I’ve wrote many verses in the studio, but I don’t think I write my hardest shit when I’m in there. Maybe it’s the pressure too, because I’m paying for the time.
What does your writing process look like?
Banditdamack: I pick the beat out, listen to it a couple times, then I’ll start to write to it. Alright… I’ll give you the sauce bro, swear to God. I’ll find the end of the word I want to rhyme with, or like the end of the sentence. So say I wanna say, “Shot him down…We caught him lacking and shot him down.” So I’m gonna write ‘shot him down, got him now, not around.’ All those rhymes just for that rhyme scheme, those four bars, then write another four bars, another four bars. Damn near until the whole song is complete so all I gotta do is just write the space that’s in between. It’s like a puzzle. That shit is fun as fuck when it’s like that, when you get the rhymes out the way first, because that’s like the hardest part.
Did someone teach you how to write like that, or did you come up with that yourself?
Banditdamack: I came up with it in jail, to be honest. I would write the end of the rhymes on the top of my notebook, like in the box where you write your name at. I was watching an Eminem interview, and he damn near does the same shit. He has like a bucket full of like sticky notes with rhymes like that so he never run out of rhymes. I think that’s dope.
Do you pick your own beats?
Banditdamack: I pick my own. I’m hella picky. A producer can send me a beat pack of like 15-20 beats, and I only pick one. Really, I think of like, in the car, or like, at a party how the beat would sound and how I can rap on it. I’ll know in the first 10 seconds whether I’m fucking with it or not.
How would you describe the sound you’re looking for while going through beat packs?
Banditdamack: Just something I could get off to, because at the same time I feel like a beat makes the song. So if you got a hard beat with some hard ass lyrics, I feel like you can’t lose. It don’t even got to be a Cali beat, like I got songs to non-Cali beats.
Is there much of a local rap scene in Hemet?
Banditdamack: Now there is. Before it was like older cats. We like the new generation. I feel like theres more eyes coming out here so more people starting to rap. Not just from from our area, like all over. Like I said, Hemet is big.
When you started out, were you the only one, or were other people from Hemet already rapping?
Banditdamack: People from my section were rapping. My boy Buddha was rapping. They’re from my area, but people outside the area hell no. They ain’t have the courage to do that.
What was it like to see Spank Nitti when he was coming up? What kind of impact did his success have on the community?
Banditdamack: It was cool. That was like eighth grade or ninth grade. Like 2017-2018. He get a lot of love because he don’t beef with anybody, so he get love from everywhere.
How did the two of you meet?
Banditdamack: I met him through J-Lug. He rap too. He from out here. His house in Rancho had a studio there, so I’d book studio time with him. Me and Spank just followed each other and shit. Told him send the verse, he sent it. But I only met him once. He didn’t even do the feature in person, he just sent it to me.
Does seeing Spank find success and make it out of Hemet, inspire you to keep pushing what you’re doing?
Banditdamack: I wouldn’t even say him specifically. Just like my peers I rap with, like the Stinc Team. They young, around my age, going up too. They don’t come from out the best place either, but they making a name for themselves. This shit hard bro. It’s easy, but it’s hard. It’s easy to go in the studio, make a song, shoot a video, but it’s hard to get people to actually fuck with you. No Diddy, you got to touch the people in a way.
How do you touch people with your music?
Banditdamack: I’ll try to spit the shit that not only we can relate too, but everybody can relate too. There’s some shit that only we can relate to. It’d be like the ‘if you know, you know’ bars. It’d be some shit like, you don’t got to gang bang, you don’t gotta be from no street, nothing. You can relate to it. It’s good to tap into every element. If you rap about the same shit over and over again, people are only going to fuck with you for so long.
Are you writing or recording something everyday?
Banditdamack: I write damn near everyday. Just a couple bars sometimes, but everyday. I got some gas in the tank right now, finna go to the studio. I haven’t been in a week or two I’m not even gonna lie. I’ll write or I’ll shoot videos. That’s how I work when I’m not working.
What was happening in your life when you first started to take music seriously? What drove you to actually commit to doing it 100%?
Banditdamack: To be honest with you, I had just got out of jail. I had a little bit of money, so I was maintaining with that little money I had. I was going to the studio and paying for my little videos. I bounced probably with like $7500 cause I was going to college in jail, so I got financial aid. So yeah, I was going to the studio, shooting my videos, but I’m trying to still stay out of trouble, because one, I’m on probation, and two, I’m trying to rap for real now. I was 18, so it’s like, I ain’t going back to juvenile hall, I’m going to big boy jail now. The shit I was doing when I was a minor, they was low key slaps on the wrist. N***** getting real time as adults, so I’m like, it’s this or nothing low key.
I got a job through a fresh out program. It was a program I signed up for when I was in there. The center is right here. It’s across the street from the Hemet Vistas down the street. They help you graduate if you still in school. They help you get a job and shit, like construction or logistics. Like working in a warehouse. So I was working in a warehouse and they pick me up, go to the center right there, six in the morning, every morning, and we shoot off to Perris to the warehouse. Did that for six months then the program ended. I ain’t have a job after that. That’s when I was really rapping.
When did you see the music first start to take off?
Banditdamack: It was so slow low key. Some n***** when they go viral it’s overnight type shit. I feel like our shit was over time. It’s been two years. I’ve been rapping for two years, this September. I dropped my first song, September 25th. I’ll probably say, my first video it hit like 1k in a day on Youtube. That was the shit for me, because I had no subscribers, it was a new channel and shit. That shit was cool.
What do you think is the next step for you?
Banditdamack: Building a catalog. I just signed with Thizzler so I’ll build a catalog with them. Just work though, you gotta work.
What’s the story behind the making of your first project, Da Mack?
Banditdamack: It was not too long after I lost my job. I can’t even say I lost my job. Not too long after I stopped working, I knew I wanted to make a tape. I think one of the songs might have already been out. I already had the feature from Spank, that shit was sitting. I had the Lou Deezi feature probably sitting for a month, and then I only had to record like seven songs. I was dropping singles for a little bit, and then in the midst of that I was like, I’m gonna drop a tape. So I dropped my first lil tape.
Your most recent project is a collab with Blanco from Palm Springs. How did the two of you decide on make a tape together?
Banditdamack: Our neighborhood fucks with his neighborhood. He didn’t really rap, you feel me? He rapped and shit, but he didn’t take it seriously till his homies died. He had to do it because both of them rapped. They was booming out there where they from. They from Palm Springs. How we’re in the Inland Empire, they call that the Desert Empire. You got Palm Springs, Indio, Coachella, all that shit. So when he start taking it seriously, he started going up and shit. He started fucking with OTR. I think we already had a single out, and we start locking in at the Wrecking Spot.
This n***** be at the Wrecking Spot every night, I swear to God. He live in Palm Springs too. That n***** be locked in. That whole tape we did in the studio. There was no verses we had sent though, we did the whole shit in the studio.
How you get introduced to the Stinc Team?
Banditdamack: Through Playerrways they had tapped in. I done met Ralfy also. Instagram play a big part, he [Playerrways] had hit me up. You know on stories, how some people be like, “who should I put on my tape?” Someone had tagged me. I had an open. Sent him the open and he hopped on it the same night. Shit was hard. We got that feature for probably two three months. Me and two of the homies went to Santa Monica to meet with this label at this dinner. He was like, “tap in when you in LA, let’s shoot.” I’m like, we can shoot it on the Santa Monica Pier, so then we shot it that night. He work hard too, like, he quick bro. I told you, he sent the verse back same night, he quick.
Having that workflow is key. Why waste time in a session when you’re the one paying for it?
Banditdamack: It could be hard too. Say you coming up like me, and you sign for a whole lot of money, there could be a whole lot of distractions. You got bitches, you could dress flyer than you was before. You got a whole lot of shit you ain’t have before. You still gotta keep your head on straight. It’s cool to indulge, you don’t just gotta work, work, work, work, work, it’s good to have fun, but you still gotta stay on track though. Everyone is trying to do this music shit. Quick as you come up, you can fall off.
What do you think has been the key to your success so far?
Banditdamack: Consistency. I might have taken one month off since I started. Even that one month I took off, I was still recording and writing, I just wasn’t dropping anything, but I was still working.
What are you currently working on?
Banditdamack: Just singles, but I finna do an album with a deluxe and everything. I want to do like 15 songs for the tape and 10 for the deluxe. That’s 25 songs. 25 is our hood number.
How long does it take you to put together your albums?
Banditdamack: Da Mack might have took me 2-3 weeks. EPs those are’t shit, I can knock those out in like a week. This shit might take me a month because I want different sounds, but I don’t just want different sound’s, I want hard shit at the same time.
What producers do you turn too to get the beats you want?
Banditdamack: C Young On the Beat. My boy named Hex.. He produces for Saviii3rd. He produce a lot for Playerrways. P8 also got no songs with Cypress Moreno but his beats is hard. I got his number and he does send some shit over, but like I said I’m picky. ProdByRoger also. Bro I’m still rocking with Youtube beats. If its like a beat and it’s hard I fuck with it. I’m just picky. That shit might be harder than a whole pack someone send me.
In your music you manage to be funny yet brutally honest at the same time. How to you use humor to supplement the serious themes of your music?
Banditdamack: Like I said bro, it’s shit people can relate to. N***** always gotta have that key bar. Polo G said in one of his interviews you gotta have a key bar. He said in one of his songs, “Only bitch I give a conversation to is Siri.” That’s like a key bar, a memorable bar. You gotta have some of those. I feel like the funny ones are kind of the ones that stick.
What’s a typical day in life look like for you?
Banditdamack: Wake up, write, obviously, food, shower, shit like that. But every day it’d be something different. N***** might wake up, come here, or the homie have a fucking field day in Rancho Cucamonga. A studio day, or like an LA day is what I call it. We shooting videos, going to the studio, for sure. We working when we in LA. Maybe shop a little bit. When we go to LA, if we not at a Peer Space, we looking for spots because theres spots like 10 minutes from everywhere. Find a spot, shoot there, we’ll already had a studio booked at a certain time. So we finish shooting a video, get some food, fuck around. My boy Foolish, he has a team. They vlog, so like, they’ll vlog behind the scenes of what we’re doing.
We’ll hit up a store too, like Chiefin Heavily. The n***** at Chiefin Heavily, his store, the Fairfax studio is right behind it where my boy Hex work at. So if I’m recording there, and it’ll be times bro I’ll just walk in Chiefin Heavily and this n**** Playerrways be at the door. Shake his hand, go to to Hex shit, walk outside, G Money on the stairs. I like LA because you could network way easier. Out here it’s harder. I gotta go to Rancho Cucamonga, Redlands, or Riverside for a studio.
What is it about your lyrics, specifically, that you think puts you above everyone else?
Banditdamack: I feel like my rhymes be hard. Some motherfuckers be off beat. A lot of people hard, don’t get me wrong, I feel like I spit shit people from out here can relate too. I’ll spit shit for my section, for people out here, but everybody can relate to it type shit.
You’ve regarded Remble as an artist that you really look up too. What is it about his style that attracts you to his music?
Banditdamack: He can rap. That’s all I can really say. I don’t know how to explain it. That shit is just hard.
Who do you want to work with that you haven’t worked with yet?
Banditdamack: Mozzy. Me and Peysoh was supposed to lock some shit in. We text and shit, but I’m not really the type to ask for features and shit. That’s one of my pet peeves: people only want to talk about music and shit. Remble, Polo G. I’ll do some shit with G Money. 03 also, and OhGeesy.
How does it feel to be the one representing Hemet right now?
Banditdamack: At first when people would tell me that I feel like, what is you giving me flowers for? We ain’t done shit yet. We not where we need to be, but we know where we need to go. The city on the map for sure though, and I can say I helped with that. We got to go crazy. I want people in Louisiana to know about Hemet.
What do you think you sets yourself apart from other artists coming out of SoCal?
Banditdamack: My sound. I feel like pen and pad wise, there’s not too many people that can really fuck with me. There’s some though, don’t get me wrong. A lot of the people that’s on right now, lyric wise, I don’t think they better, but that’s not really all that matters, though. It’s a big part of it, but this shit is like an image. It’s a brand.
Before you started recording in proper studios, how were you making music?
Banditdamack: I started on BandLab, but like my first ever studio was in the IE, in Redlands. That was probably like three or four years ago. I was rapping under a whole different name. Then I went to jail, got out, went to jail, and got out again, and started rapping under a different name again. That was the first studio I hit. It’s crazy, one of my biggest songs on Spotify I recorded in my first session out. My mom she had took me.
We picked two of the homies up and she took us to Redlands. I made like “Do Em In” and “Potent.” I made a couple of my biggest songs that session. But to be honest, the IE got some good studios too, but they be booked up, bro.
How do you approach each session? Do you come in with stuff written down already, or do you like to write once you’re in the studio?
Banditdamack: I already got songs locked in on my phone. If I’m coming to the studio I got minimum two songs on my phone. I could write in the studio but it just takes a long time. I like to take my time when I write. I’ve wrote many verses in the studio, but I don’t think I write my hardest shit when I’m in there. Maybe it’s the pressure too, because I’m paying for the time.
What does your writing process look like?
Banditdamack: I pick the beat out, listen to it a couple times, then I’ll start to write to it. Alright… I’ll give you the sauce bro, swear to God. I’ll find the end of the word I want to rhyme with, or like the end of the sentence. So say I wanna say, “Shot him down…We caught him lacking and shot him down.” So I’m gonna write ‘shot him down, got him now, not around.’ All those rhymes just for that rhyme scheme, those four bars, then write another four bars, another four bars. Damn near until the whole song is complete so all I gotta do is just write the space that’s in between. It’s like a puzzle. That shit is fun as fuck when it’s like that, when you get the rhymes out the way first, because that’s like the hardest part.
Did someone teach you how to write like that, or did you come up with that yourself?
Banditdamack: I came up with it in jail, to be honest. I would write the end of the rhymes on the top of my notebook, like in the box where you write your name at. I was watching an Eminem interview, and he damn near does the same shit. He has like a bucket full of like sticky notes with rhymes like that so he never run out of rhymes. I think that’s dope.
Do you pick your own beats?
Banditdamack: I pick my own. I’m hella picky. A producer can send me a beat pack of like 15-20 beats, and I only pick one. Really, I think of like, in the car, or like, at a party how the beat would sound and how I can rap on it. I’ll know in the first 10 seconds whether I’m fucking with it or not.
How would you describe the sound you’re looking for while going through beat packs?
Banditdamack: Just something I could get off to, because at the same time I feel like a beat makes the song. So if you got a hard beat with some hard ass lyrics, I feel like you can’t lose. It don’t even got to be a Cali beat, like I got songs to non-Cali beats.
Is there much of a local rap scene in Hemet?
Banditdamack: Now there is. Before it was like older cats. We like the new generation. I feel like theres more eyes coming out here so more people starting to rap. Not just from from our area, like all over. Like I said, Hemet is big.
When you started out, were you the only one, or were other people from Hemet already rapping?
Banditdamack: People from my section were rapping. My boy Buddha was rapping. They’re from my area, but people outside the area hell no. They ain’t have the courage to do that.
What was it like to see Spank Nitti when he was coming up? What kind of impact did his success have on the community?
Banditdamack: It was cool. That was like eighth grade or ninth grade. Like 2017-2018. He get a lot of love because he don’t beef with anybody, so he get love from everywhere.
How did the two of you meet?
Banditdamack: I met him through J-Lug. He rap too. He from out here. His house in Rancho had a studio there, so I’d book studio time with him. Me and Spank just followed each other and shit. Told him send the verse, he sent it. But I only met him once. He didn’t even do the feature in person, he just sent it to me.
Does seeing Spank find success and make it out of Hemet, inspire you to keep pushing what you’re doing?
Banditdamack: I wouldn’t even say him specifically. Just like my peers I rap with, like the Stinc Team. They young, around my age, going up too. They don’t come from out the best place either, but they making a name for themselves. This shit hard bro. It’s easy, but it’s hard. It’s easy to go in the studio, make a song, shoot a video, but it’s hard to get people to actually fuck with you. No Diddy, you got to touch the people in a way.
How do you touch people with your music?
Banditdamack: I’ll try to spit the shit that not only we can relate too, but everybody can relate too. There’s some shit that only we can relate to. It’d be like the ‘if you know, you know’ bars. It’d be some shit like, you don’t got to gang bang, you don’t gotta be from no street, nothing. You can relate to it. It’s good to tap into every element. If you rap about the same shit over and over again, people are only going to fuck with you for so long.
Are you writing or recording something everyday?
Banditdamack: I write damn near everyday. Just a couple bars sometimes, but everyday. I got some gas in the tank right now, finna go to the studio. I haven’t been in a week or two I’m not even gonna lie. I’ll write or I’ll shoot videos. That’s how I work when I’m not working.
What was happening in your life when you first started to take music seriously? What drove you to actually commit to doing it 100%?
Banditdamack: To be honest with you, I had just got out of jail. I had a little bit of money, so I was maintaining with that little money I had. I was going to the studio and paying for my little videos. I bounced probably with like $7500 cause I was going to college in jail, so I got financial aid. So yeah, I was going to the studio, shooting my videos, but I’m trying to still stay out of trouble, because one, I’m on probation, and two, I’m trying to rap for real now. I was 18, so it’s like, I ain’t going back to juvenile hall, I’m going to big boy jail now. The shit I was doing when I was a minor, they was low key slaps on the wrist. N***** getting real time as adults, so I’m like, it’s this or nothing low key.
I got a job through a fresh out program. It was a program I signed up for when I was in there. The center is right here. It’s across the street from the Hemet Vistas down the street. They help you graduate if you still in school. They help you get a job and shit, like construction or logistics. Like working in a warehouse. So I was working in a warehouse and they pick me up, go to the center right there, six in the morning, every morning, and we shoot off to Perris to the warehouse. Did that for six months then the program ended. I ain’t have a job after that. That’s when I was really rapping.
When did you see the music first start to take off?
Banditdamack: It was so slow low key. Some n***** when they go viral it’s overnight type shit. I feel like our shit was over time. It’s been two years. I’ve been rapping for two years, this September. I dropped my first song, September 25th. I’ll probably say, my first video it hit like 1k in a day on Youtube. That was the shit for me, because I had no subscribers, it was a new channel and shit. That shit was cool.
What do you think is the next step for you?
Banditdamack: Building a catalog. I just signed with Thizzler so I’ll build a catalog with them. Just work though, you gotta work.
What’s the story behind the making of your first project, Da Mack?
Banditdamack: It was not too long after I lost my job. I can’t even say I lost my job. Not too long after I stopped working, I knew I wanted to make a tape. I think one of the songs might have already been out. I already had the feature from Spank, that shit was sitting. I had the Lou Deezi feature probably sitting for a month, and then I only had to record like seven songs. I was dropping singles for a little bit, and then in the midst of that I was like, I’m gonna drop a tape. So I dropped my first lil tape.
Your most recent project is a collab with Blanco from Palm Springs. How did the two of you decide on make a tape together?
Banditdamack: Our neighborhood fucks with his neighborhood. He didn’t really rap, you feel me? He rapped and shit, but he didn’t take it seriously till his homies died. He had to do it because both of them rapped. They was booming out there where they from. They from Palm Springs. How we’re in the Inland Empire, they call that the Desert Empire. You got Palm Springs, Indio, Coachella, all that shit. So when he start taking it seriously, he started going up and shit. He started fucking with OTR. I think we already had a single out, and we start locking in at the Wrecking Spot.
This n***** be at the Wrecking Spot every night, I swear to God. He live in Palm Springs too. That n***** be locked in. That whole tape we did in the studio. There was no verses we had sent though, we did the whole shit in the studio.
How you get introduced to the Stinc Team?
Banditdamack: Through Playerrways they had tapped in. I done met Ralfy also. Instagram play a big part, he [Playerrways] had hit me up. You know on stories, how some people be like, “who should I put on my tape?” Someone had tagged me. I had an open. Sent him the open and he hopped on it the same night. Shit was hard. We got that feature for probably two three months. Me and two of the homies went to Santa Monica to meet with this label at this dinner. He was like, “tap in when you in LA, let’s shoot.” I’m like, we can shoot it on the Santa Monica Pier, so then we shot it that night. He work hard too, like, he quick bro. I told you, he sent the verse back same night, he quick.
Having that workflow is key. Why waste time in a session when you’re the one paying for it?
Banditdamack: It could be hard too. Say you coming up like me, and you sign for a whole lot of money, there could be a whole lot of distractions. You got bitches, you could dress flyer than you was before. You got a whole lot of shit you ain’t have before. You still gotta keep your head on straight. It’s cool to indulge, you don’t just gotta work, work, work, work, work, it’s good to have fun, but you still gotta stay on track though. Everyone is trying to do this music shit. Quick as you come up, you can fall off.
What do you think has been the key to your success so far?
Banditdamack: Consistency. I might have taken one month off since I started. Even that one month I took off, I was still recording and writing, I just wasn’t dropping anything, but I was still working.
What are you currently working on?
Banditdamack: Just singles, but I finna do an album with a deluxe and everything. I want to do like 15 songs for the tape and 10 for the deluxe. That’s 25 songs. 25 is our hood number.
How long does it take you to put together your albums?
Banditdamack: Da Mack might have took me 2-3 weeks. EPs those are’t shit, I can knock those out in like a week. This shit might take me a month because I want different sounds, but I don’t just want different sound’s, I want hard shit at the same time.
What producers do you turn too to get the beats you want?
Banditdamack: C Young On the Beat. My boy named Hex.. He produces for Saviii3rd. He produce a lot for Playerrways. P8 also got no songs with Cypress Moreno but his beats is hard. I got his number and he does send some shit over, but like I said I’m picky. ProdByRoger also. Bro I’m still rocking with Youtube beats. If its like a beat and it’s hard I fuck with it. I’m just picky. That shit might be harder than a whole pack someone send me.
In your music you manage to be funny yet brutally honest at the same time. How to you use humor to supplement the serious themes of your music?
Banditdamack: Like I said bro, it’s shit people can relate to. N***** always gotta have that key bar. Polo G said in one of his interviews you gotta have a key bar. He said in one of his songs, “Only bitch I give a conversation to is Siri.” That’s like a key bar, a memorable bar. You gotta have some of those. I feel like the funny ones are kind of the ones that stick.
What’s a typical day in life look like for you?
Banditdamack: Wake up, write, obviously, food, shower, shit like that. But every day it’d be something different. N***** might wake up, come here, or the homie have a fucking field day in Rancho Cucamonga. A studio day, or like an LA day is what I call it. We shooting videos, going to the studio, for sure. We working when we in LA. Maybe shop a little bit. When we go to LA, if we not at a Peer Space, we looking for spots because theres spots like 10 minutes from everywhere. Find a spot, shoot there, we’ll already had a studio booked at a certain time. So we finish shooting a video, get some food, fuck around. My boy Foolish, he has a team. They vlog, so like, they’ll vlog behind the scenes of what we’re doing.
We’ll hit up a store too, like Chiefin Heavily. The n***** at Chiefin Heavily, his store, the Fairfax studio is right behind it where my boy Hex work at. So if I’m recording there, and it’ll be times bro I’ll just walk in Chiefin Heavily and this n**** Playerrways be at the door. Shake his hand, go to to Hex shit, walk outside, G Money on the stairs. I like LA because you could network way easier. Out here it’s harder. I gotta go to Rancho Cucamonga, Redlands, or Riverside for a studio.
What is it about your lyrics, specifically, that you think puts you above everyone else?
Banditdamack: I feel like my rhymes be hard. Some motherfuckers be off beat. A lot of people hard, don’t get me wrong, I feel like I spit shit people from out here can relate too. I’ll spit shit for my section, for people out here, but everybody can relate to it type shit.
You’ve regarded Remble as an artist that you really look up too. What is it about his style that attracts you to his music?
Banditdamack: He can rap. That’s all I can really say. I don’t know how to explain it. That shit is just hard.
Who do you want to work with that you haven’t worked with yet?
Banditdamack: Mozzy. Me and Peysoh was supposed to lock some shit in. We text and shit, but I’m not really the type to ask for features and shit. That’s one of my pet peeves: people only want to talk about music and shit. Remble, Polo G. I’ll do some shit with G Money. 03 also, and OhGeesy.
How does it feel to be the one representing Hemet right now?
Banditdamack: At first when people would tell me that I feel like, what is you giving me flowers for? We ain’t done shit yet. We not where we need to be, but we know where we need to go. The city on the map for sure though, and I can say I helped with that. We got to go crazy. I want people in Louisiana to know about Hemet.
What do you think you sets yourself apart from other artists coming out of SoCal?
Banditdamack: My sound. I feel like pen and pad wise, there’s not too many people that can really fuck with me. There’s some though, don’t get me wrong. A lot of the people that’s on right now, lyric wise, I don’t think they better, but that’s not really all that matters, though. It’s a big part of it, but this shit is like an image. It’s a brand.
We picked two of the homies up and she took us to Redlands. I made like “Do Em In” and “Potent.” I made a couple of my biggest songs that session. But to be honest, the IE got some good studios too, but they be booked up, bro.
How do you approach each session? Do you come in with stuff written down already, or do you like to write once you’re in the studio?
Banditdamack: I already got songs locked in on my phone. If I’m coming to the studio I got minimum two songs on my phone. I could write in the studio but it just takes a long time. I like to take my time when I write. I’ve wrote many verses in the studio, but I don’t think I write my hardest shit when I’m in there. Maybe it’s the pressure too, because I’m paying for the time.
What does your writing process look like?
Banditdamack: I pick the beat out, listen to it a couple times, then I’ll start to write to it. Alright… I’ll give you the sauce bro, swear to God. I’ll find the end of the word I want to rhyme with, or like the end of the sentence. So say I wanna say, “Shot him down…We caught him lacking and shot him down.” So I’m gonna write ‘shot him down, got him now, not around.’ All those rhymes just for that rhyme scheme, those four bars, then write another four bars, another four bars. Damn near until the whole song is complete so all I gotta do is just write the space that’s in between. It’s like a puzzle. That shit is fun as fuck when it’s like that, when you get the rhymes out the way first, because that’s like the hardest part.
Did someone teach you how to write like that, or did you come up with that yourself?
Banditdamack: I came up with it in jail, to be honest. I would write the end of the rhymes on the top of my notebook, like in the box where you write your name at. I was watching an Eminem interview, and he damn near does the same shit. He has like a bucket full of like sticky notes with rhymes like that so he never run out of rhymes. I think that’s dope.
Do you pick your own beats?
Banditdamack: I pick my own. I’m hella picky. A producer can send me a beat pack of like 15-20 beats, and I only pick one. Really, I think of like, in the car, or like, at a party how the beat would sound and how I can rap on it. I’ll know in the first 10 seconds whether I’m fucking with it or not.
How would you describe the sound you’re looking for while going through beat packs?
Banditdamack: Just something I could get off to, because at the same time I feel like a beat makes the song. So if you got a hard beat with some hard ass lyrics, I feel like you can’t lose. It don’t even got to be a Cali beat, like I got songs to non-Cali beats.
Is there much of a local rap scene in Hemet?
Banditdamack: Now there is. Before it was like older cats. We like the new generation. I feel like theres more eyes coming out here so more people starting to rap. Not just from from our area, like all over. Like I said, Hemet is big.
When you started out, were you the only one, or were other people from Hemet already rapping?
Banditdamack: People from my section were rapping. My boy Buddha was rapping. They’re from my area, but people outside the area hell no. They ain’t have the courage to do that.
What was it like to see Spank Nitti when he was coming up? What kind of impact did his success have on the community?
Banditdamack: It was cool. That was like eighth grade or ninth grade. Like 2017-2018. He get a lot of love because he don’t beef with anybody, so he get love from everywhere.
How did the two of you meet?
Banditdamack: I met him through J-Lug. He rap too. He from out here. His house in Rancho had a studio there, so I’d book studio time with him. Me and Spank just followed each other and shit. Told him send the verse, he sent it. But I only met him once. He didn’t even do the feature in person, he just sent it to me.
Does seeing Spank find success and make it out of Hemet, inspire you to keep pushing what you’re doing?
Banditdamack: I wouldn’t even say him specifically. Just like my peers I rap with, like the Stinc Team. They young, around my age, going up too. They don’t come from out the best place either, but they making a name for themselves. This shit hard bro. It’s easy, but it’s hard. It’s easy to go in the studio, make a song, shoot a video, but it’s hard to get people to actually fuck with you. No Diddy, you got to touch the people in a way.
How do you touch people with your music?
Banditdamack: I’ll try to spit the shit that not only we can relate too, but everybody can relate too. There’s some shit that only we can relate to. It’d be like the ‘if you know, you know’ bars. It’d be some shit like, you don’t got to gang bang, you don’t gotta be from no street, nothing. You can relate to it. It’s good to tap into every element. If you rap about the same shit over and over again, people are only going to fuck with you for so long.
Are you writing or recording something everyday?
Banditdamack: I write damn near everyday. Just a couple bars sometimes, but everyday. I got some gas in the tank right now, finna go to the studio. I haven’t been in a week or two I’m not even gonna lie. I’ll write or I’ll shoot videos. That’s how I work when I’m not working.
What was happening in your life when you first started to take music seriously? What drove you to actually commit to doing it 100%?
Banditdamack: To be honest with you, I had just got out of jail. I had a little bit of money, so I was maintaining with that little money I had. I was going to the studio and paying for my little videos. I bounced probably with like $7500 cause I was going to college in jail, so I got financial aid. So yeah, I was going to the studio, shooting my videos, but I’m trying to still stay out of trouble, because one, I’m on probation, and two, I’m trying to rap for real now. I was 18, so it’s like, I ain’t going back to juvenile hall, I’m going to big boy jail now. The shit I was doing when I was a minor, they was low key slaps on the wrist. N***** getting real time as adults, so I’m like, it’s this or nothing low key.
I got a job through a fresh out program. It was a program I signed up for when I was in there. The center is right here. It’s across the street from the Hemet Vistas down the street. They help you graduate if you still in school. They help you get a job and shit, like construction or logistics. Like working in a warehouse. So I was working in a warehouse and they pick me up, go to the center right there, six in the morning, every morning, and we shoot off to Perris to the warehouse. Did that for six months then the program ended. I ain’t have a job after that. That’s when I was really rapping.
When did you see the music first start to take off?
Banditdamack: It was so slow low key. Some n***** when they go viral it’s overnight type shit. I feel like our shit was over time. It’s been two years. I’ve been rapping for two years, this September. I dropped my first song, September 25th. I’ll probably say, my first video it hit like 1k in a day on Youtube. That was the shit for me, because I had no subscribers, it was a new channel and shit. That shit was cool.
What do you think is the next step for you?
Banditdamack: Building a catalog. I just signed with Thizzler so I’ll build a catalog with them. Just work though, you gotta work.
What’s the story behind the making of your first project, Da Mack?
Banditdamack: It was not too long after I lost my job. I can’t even say I lost my job. Not too long after I stopped working, I knew I wanted to make a tape. I think one of the songs might have already been out. I already had the feature from Spank, that shit was sitting. I had the Lou Deezi feature probably sitting for a month, and then I only had to record like seven songs. I was dropping singles for a little bit, and then in the midst of that I was like, I’m gonna drop a tape. So I dropped my first lil tape.
Your most recent project is a collab with Blanco from Palm Springs. How did the two of you decide on make a tape together?
Banditdamack: Our neighborhood fucks with his neighborhood. He didn’t really rap, you feel me? He rapped and shit, but he didn’t take it seriously till his homies died. He had to do it because both of them rapped. They was booming out there where they from. They from Palm Springs. How we’re in the Inland Empire, they call that the Desert Empire. You got Palm Springs, Indio, Coachella, all that shit. So when he start taking it seriously, he started going up and shit. He started fucking with OTR. I think we already had a single out, and we start locking in at the Wrecking Spot.
This n***** be at the Wrecking Spot every night, I swear to God. He live in Palm Springs too. That n***** be locked in. That whole tape we did in the studio. There was no verses we had sent though, we did the whole shit in the studio.
How you get introduced to the Stinc Team?
Banditdamack: Through Playerrways they had tapped in. I done met Ralfy also. Instagram play a big part, he [Playerrways] had hit me up. You know on stories, how some people be like, “who should I put on my tape?” Someone had tagged me. I had an open. Sent him the open and he hopped on it the same night. Shit was hard. We got that feature for probably two three months. Me and two of the homies went to Santa Monica to meet with this label at this dinner. He was like, “tap in when you in LA, let’s shoot.” I’m like, we can shoot it on the Santa Monica Pier, so then we shot it that night. He work hard too, like, he quick bro. I told you, he sent the verse back same night, he quick.
Having that workflow is key. Why waste time in a session when you’re the one paying for it?
Banditdamack: It could be hard too. Say you coming up like me, and you sign for a whole lot of money, there could be a whole lot of distractions. You got bitches, you could dress flyer than you was before. You got a whole lot of shit you ain’t have before. You still gotta keep your head on straight. It’s cool to indulge, you don’t just gotta work, work, work, work, work, it’s good to have fun, but you still gotta stay on track though. Everyone is trying to do this music shit. Quick as you come up, you can fall off.
What do you think has been the key to your success so far?
Banditdamack: Consistency. I might have taken one month off since I started. Even that one month I took off, I was still recording and writing, I just wasn’t dropping anything, but I was still working.
What are you currently working on?
Banditdamack: Just singles, but I finna do an album with a deluxe and everything. I want to do like 15 songs for the tape and 10 for the deluxe. That’s 25 songs. 25 is our hood number.
How long does it take you to put together your albums?
Banditdamack: Da Mack might have took me 2-3 weeks. EPs those are’t shit, I can knock those out in like a week. This shit might take me a month because I want different sounds, but I don’t just want different sound’s, I want hard shit at the same time.
What producers do you turn too to get the beats you want?
Banditdamack: C Young On the Beat. My boy named Hex.. He produces for Saviii3rd. He produce a lot for Playerrways. P8 also got no songs with Cypress Moreno but his beats is hard. I got his number and he does send some shit over, but like I said I’m picky. ProdByRoger also. Bro I’m still rocking with Youtube beats. If its like a beat and it’s hard I fuck with it. I’m just picky. That shit might be harder than a whole pack someone send me.
In your music you manage to be funny yet brutally honest at the same time. How to you use humor to supplement the serious themes of your music?
Banditdamack: Like I said bro, it’s shit people can relate to. N***** always gotta have that key bar. Polo G said in one of his interviews you gotta have a key bar. He said in one of his songs, “Only bitch I give a conversation to is Siri.” That’s like a key bar, a memorable bar. You gotta have some of those. I feel like the funny ones are kind of the ones that stick.
What’s a typical day in life look like for you?
Banditdamack: Wake up, write, obviously, food, shower, shit like that. But every day it’d be something different. N***** might wake up, come here, or the homie have a fucking field day in Rancho Cucamonga. A studio day, or like an LA day is what I call it. We shooting videos, going to the studio, for sure. We working when we in LA. Maybe shop a little bit. When we go to LA, if we not at a Peer Space, we looking for spots because theres spots like 10 minutes from everywhere. Find a spot, shoot there, we’ll already had a studio booked at a certain time. So we finish shooting a video, get some food, fuck around. My boy Foolish, he has a team. They vlog, so like, they’ll vlog behind the scenes of what we’re doing.
We’ll hit up a store too, like Chiefin Heavily. The n***** at Chiefin Heavily, his store, the Fairfax studio is right behind it where my boy Hex work at. So if I’m recording there, and it’ll be times bro I’ll just walk in Chiefin Heavily and this n**** Playerrways be at the door. Shake his hand, go to to Hex shit, walk outside, G Money on the stairs. I like LA because you could network way easier. Out here it’s harder. I gotta go to Rancho Cucamonga, Redlands, or Riverside for a studio.
What is it about your lyrics, specifically, that you think puts you above everyone else?
Banditdamack: I feel like my rhymes be hard. Some motherfuckers be off beat. A lot of people hard, don’t get me wrong, I feel like I spit shit people from out here can relate too. I’ll spit shit for my section, for people out here, but everybody can relate to it type shit.
You’ve regarded Remble as an artist that you really look up too. What is it about his style that attracts you to his music?
Banditdamack: He can rap. That’s all I can really say. I don’t know how to explain it. That shit is just hard.
Who do you want to work with that you haven’t worked with yet?
Banditdamack: Mozzy. Me and Peysoh was supposed to lock some shit in. We text and shit, but I’m not really the type to ask for features and shit. That’s one of my pet peeves: people only want to talk about music and shit. Remble, Polo G. I’ll do some shit with G Money. 03 also, and OhGeesy.
How does it feel to be the one representing Hemet right now?
Banditdamack: At first when people would tell me that I feel like, what is you giving me flowers for? We ain’t done shit yet. We not where we need to be, but we know where we need to go. The city on the map for sure though, and I can say I helped with that. We got to go crazy. I want people in Louisiana to know about Hemet.
What do you think you sets yourself apart from other artists coming out of SoCal?
Banditdamack: My sound. I feel like pen and pad wise, there’s not too many people that can really fuck with me. There’s some though, don’t get me wrong. A lot of the people that’s on right now, lyric wise, I don’t think they better, but that’s not really all that matters, though. It’s a big part of it, but this shit is like an image. It’s a brand.
What does your writing process look like?
Banditdamack: I pick the beat out, listen to it a couple times, then I’ll start to write to it. Alright… I’ll give you the sauce bro, swear to God. I’ll find the end of the word I want to rhyme with, or like the end of the sentence. So say I wanna say, “Shot him down…We caught him lacking and shot him down.” So I’m gonna write ‘shot him down, got him now, not around.’ All those rhymes just for that rhyme scheme, those four bars, then write another four bars, another four bars. Damn near until the whole song is complete so all I gotta do is just write the space that’s in between. It’s like a puzzle. That shit is fun as fuck when it’s like that, when you get the rhymes out the way first, because that’s like the hardest part.
Did someone teach you how to write like that, or did you come up with that yourself?
Banditdamack: I came up with it in jail, to be honest. I would write the end of the rhymes on the top of my notebook, like in the box where you write your name at. I was watching an Eminem interview, and he damn near does the same shit. He has like a bucket full of like sticky notes with rhymes like that so he never run out of rhymes. I think that’s dope.
Do you pick your own beats?
Banditdamack: I pick my own. I’m hella picky. A producer can send me a beat pack of like 15-20 beats, and I only pick one. Really, I think of like, in the car, or like, at a party how the beat would sound and how I can rap on it. I’ll know in the first 10 seconds whether I’m fucking with it or not.
How would you describe the sound you’re looking for while going through beat packs?
Banditdamack: Just something I could get off to, because at the same time I feel like a beat makes the song. So if you got a hard beat with some hard ass lyrics, I feel like you can’t lose. It don’t even got to be a Cali beat, like I got songs to non-Cali beats.
Is there much of a local rap scene in Hemet?
Banditdamack: Now there is. Before it was like older cats. We like the new generation. I feel like theres more eyes coming out here so more people starting to rap. Not just from from our area, like all over. Like I said, Hemet is big.
When you started out, were you the only one, or were other people from Hemet already rapping?
Banditdamack: People from my section were rapping. My boy Buddha was rapping. They’re from my area, but people outside the area hell no. They ain’t have the courage to do that.
What was it like to see Spank Nitti when he was coming up? What kind of impact did his success have on the community?
Banditdamack: It was cool. That was like eighth grade or ninth grade. Like 2017-2018. He get a lot of love because he don’t beef with anybody, so he get love from everywhere.
How did the two of you meet?
Banditdamack: I met him through J-Lug. He rap too. He from out here. His house in Rancho had a studio there, so I’d book studio time with him. Me and Spank just followed each other and shit. Told him send the verse, he sent it. But I only met him once. He didn’t even do the feature in person, he just sent it to me.
Does seeing Spank find success and make it out of Hemet, inspire you to keep pushing what you’re doing?
Banditdamack: I wouldn’t even say him specifically. Just like my peers I rap with, like the Stinc Team. They young, around my age, going up too. They don’t come from out the best place either, but they making a name for themselves. This shit hard bro. It’s easy, but it’s hard. It’s easy to go in the studio, make a song, shoot a video, but it’s hard to get people to actually fuck with you. No Diddy, you got to touch the people in a way.
How do you touch people with your music?
Banditdamack: I’ll try to spit the shit that not only we can relate too, but everybody can relate too. There’s some shit that only we can relate to. It’d be like the ‘if you know, you know’ bars. It’d be some shit like, you don’t got to gang bang, you don’t gotta be from no street, nothing. You can relate to it. It’s good to tap into every element. If you rap about the same shit over and over again, people are only going to fuck with you for so long.
Are you writing or recording something everyday?
Banditdamack: I write damn near everyday. Just a couple bars sometimes, but everyday. I got some gas in the tank right now, finna go to the studio. I haven’t been in a week or two I’m not even gonna lie. I’ll write or I’ll shoot videos. That’s how I work when I’m not working.
What was happening in your life when you first started to take music seriously? What drove you to actually commit to doing it 100%?
Banditdamack: To be honest with you, I had just got out of jail. I had a little bit of money, so I was maintaining with that little money I had. I was going to the studio and paying for my little videos. I bounced probably with like $7500 cause I was going to college in jail, so I got financial aid. So yeah, I was going to the studio, shooting my videos, but I’m trying to still stay out of trouble, because one, I’m on probation, and two, I’m trying to rap for real now. I was 18, so it’s like, I ain’t going back to juvenile hall, I’m going to big boy jail now. The shit I was doing when I was a minor, they was low key slaps on the wrist. N***** getting real time as adults, so I’m like, it’s this or nothing low key.
I got a job through a fresh out program. It was a program I signed up for when I was in there. The center is right here. It’s across the street from the Hemet Vistas down the street. They help you graduate if you still in school. They help you get a job and shit, like construction or logistics. Like working in a warehouse. So I was working in a warehouse and they pick me up, go to the center right there, six in the morning, every morning, and we shoot off to Perris to the warehouse. Did that for six months then the program ended. I ain’t have a job after that. That’s when I was really rapping.
When did you see the music first start to take off?
Banditdamack: It was so slow low key. Some n***** when they go viral it’s overnight type shit. I feel like our shit was over time. It’s been two years. I’ve been rapping for two years, this September. I dropped my first song, September 25th. I’ll probably say, my first video it hit like 1k in a day on Youtube. That was the shit for me, because I had no subscribers, it was a new channel and shit. That shit was cool.
What do you think is the next step for you?
Banditdamack: Building a catalog. I just signed with Thizzler so I’ll build a catalog with them. Just work though, you gotta work.
What’s the story behind the making of your first project, Da Mack?
Banditdamack: It was not too long after I lost my job. I can’t even say I lost my job. Not too long after I stopped working, I knew I wanted to make a tape. I think one of the songs might have already been out. I already had the feature from Spank, that shit was sitting. I had the Lou Deezi feature probably sitting for a month, and then I only had to record like seven songs. I was dropping singles for a little bit, and then in the midst of that I was like, I’m gonna drop a tape. So I dropped my first lil tape.
Your most recent project is a collab with Blanco from Palm Springs. How did the two of you decide on make a tape together?
Banditdamack: Our neighborhood fucks with his neighborhood. He didn’t really rap, you feel me? He rapped and shit, but he didn’t take it seriously till his homies died. He had to do it because both of them rapped. They was booming out there where they from. They from Palm Springs. How we’re in the Inland Empire, they call that the Desert Empire. You got Palm Springs, Indio, Coachella, all that shit. So when he start taking it seriously, he started going up and shit. He started fucking with OTR. I think we already had a single out, and we start locking in at the Wrecking Spot.
This n***** be at the Wrecking Spot every night, I swear to God. He live in Palm Springs too. That n***** be locked in. That whole tape we did in the studio. There was no verses we had sent though, we did the whole shit in the studio.
How you get introduced to the Stinc Team?
Banditdamack: Through Playerrways they had tapped in. I done met Ralfy also. Instagram play a big part, he [Playerrways] had hit me up. You know on stories, how some people be like, “who should I put on my tape?” Someone had tagged me. I had an open. Sent him the open and he hopped on it the same night. Shit was hard. We got that feature for probably two three months. Me and two of the homies went to Santa Monica to meet with this label at this dinner. He was like, “tap in when you in LA, let’s shoot.” I’m like, we can shoot it on the Santa Monica Pier, so then we shot it that night. He work hard too, like, he quick bro. I told you, he sent the verse back same night, he quick.
Having that workflow is key. Why waste time in a session when you’re the one paying for it?
Banditdamack: It could be hard too. Say you coming up like me, and you sign for a whole lot of money, there could be a whole lot of distractions. You got bitches, you could dress flyer than you was before. You got a whole lot of shit you ain’t have before. You still gotta keep your head on straight. It’s cool to indulge, you don’t just gotta work, work, work, work, work, it’s good to have fun, but you still gotta stay on track though. Everyone is trying to do this music shit. Quick as you come up, you can fall off.
What do you think has been the key to your success so far?
Banditdamack: Consistency. I might have taken one month off since I started. Even that one month I took off, I was still recording and writing, I just wasn’t dropping anything, but I was still working.
What are you currently working on?
Banditdamack: Just singles, but I finna do an album with a deluxe and everything. I want to do like 15 songs for the tape and 10 for the deluxe. That’s 25 songs. 25 is our hood number.
How long does it take you to put together your albums?
Banditdamack: Da Mack might have took me 2-3 weeks. EPs those are’t shit, I can knock those out in like a week. This shit might take me a month because I want different sounds, but I don’t just want different sound’s, I want hard shit at the same time.
What producers do you turn too to get the beats you want?
Banditdamack: C Young On the Beat. My boy named Hex.. He produces for Saviii3rd. He produce a lot for Playerrways. P8 also got no songs with Cypress Moreno but his beats is hard. I got his number and he does send some shit over, but like I said I’m picky. ProdByRoger also. Bro I’m still rocking with Youtube beats. If its like a beat and it’s hard I fuck with it. I’m just picky. That shit might be harder than a whole pack someone send me.
In your music you manage to be funny yet brutally honest at the same time. How to you use humor to supplement the serious themes of your music?
Banditdamack: Like I said bro, it’s shit people can relate to. N***** always gotta have that key bar. Polo G said in one of his interviews you gotta have a key bar. He said in one of his songs, “Only bitch I give a conversation to is Siri.” That’s like a key bar, a memorable bar. You gotta have some of those. I feel like the funny ones are kind of the ones that stick.
What’s a typical day in life look like for you?
Banditdamack: Wake up, write, obviously, food, shower, shit like that. But every day it’d be something different. N***** might wake up, come here, or the homie have a fucking field day in Rancho Cucamonga. A studio day, or like an LA day is what I call it. We shooting videos, going to the studio, for sure. We working when we in LA. Maybe shop a little bit. When we go to LA, if we not at a Peer Space, we looking for spots because theres spots like 10 minutes from everywhere. Find a spot, shoot there, we’ll already had a studio booked at a certain time. So we finish shooting a video, get some food, fuck around. My boy Foolish, he has a team. They vlog, so like, they’ll vlog behind the scenes of what we’re doing.
We’ll hit up a store too, like Chiefin Heavily. The n***** at Chiefin Heavily, his store, the Fairfax studio is right behind it where my boy Hex work at. So if I’m recording there, and it’ll be times bro I’ll just walk in Chiefin Heavily and this n**** Playerrways be at the door. Shake his hand, go to to Hex shit, walk outside, G Money on the stairs. I like LA because you could network way easier. Out here it’s harder. I gotta go to Rancho Cucamonga, Redlands, or Riverside for a studio.
What is it about your lyrics, specifically, that you think puts you above everyone else?
Banditdamack: I feel like my rhymes be hard. Some motherfuckers be off beat. A lot of people hard, don’t get me wrong, I feel like I spit shit people from out here can relate too. I’ll spit shit for my section, for people out here, but everybody can relate to it type shit.
You’ve regarded Remble as an artist that you really look up too. What is it about his style that attracts you to his music?
Banditdamack: He can rap. That’s all I can really say. I don’t know how to explain it. That shit is just hard.
Who do you want to work with that you haven’t worked with yet?
Banditdamack: Mozzy. Me and Peysoh was supposed to lock some shit in. We text and shit, but I’m not really the type to ask for features and shit. That’s one of my pet peeves: people only want to talk about music and shit. Remble, Polo G. I’ll do some shit with G Money. 03 also, and OhGeesy.
How does it feel to be the one representing Hemet right now?
Banditdamack: At first when people would tell me that I feel like, what is you giving me flowers for? We ain’t done shit yet. We not where we need to be, but we know where we need to go. The city on the map for sure though, and I can say I helped with that. We got to go crazy. I want people in Louisiana to know about Hemet.
What do you think you sets yourself apart from other artists coming out of SoCal?
Banditdamack: My sound. I feel like pen and pad wise, there’s not too many people that can really fuck with me. There’s some though, don’t get me wrong. A lot of the people that’s on right now, lyric wise, I don’t think they better, but that’s not really all that matters, though. It’s a big part of it, but this shit is like an image. It’s a brand.
Did someone teach you how to write like that, or did you come up with that yourself?
Banditdamack: I came up with it in jail, to be honest. I would write the end of the rhymes on the top of my notebook, like in the box where you write your name at. I was watching an Eminem interview, and he damn near does the same shit. He has like a bucket full of like sticky notes with rhymes like that so he never run out of rhymes. I think that’s dope.
Do you pick your own beats?
Banditdamack: I pick my own. I’m hella picky. A producer can send me a beat pack of like 15-20 beats, and I only pick one. Really, I think of like, in the car, or like, at a party how the beat would sound and how I can rap on it. I’ll know in the first 10 seconds whether I’m fucking with it or not.
How would you describe the sound you’re looking for while going through beat packs?
Banditdamack: Just something I could get off to, because at the same time I feel like a beat makes the song. So if you got a hard beat with some hard ass lyrics, I feel like you can’t lose. It don’t even got to be a Cali beat, like I got songs to non-Cali beats.
Is there much of a local rap scene in Hemet?
Banditdamack: Now there is. Before it was like older cats. We like the new generation. I feel like theres more eyes coming out here so more people starting to rap. Not just from from our area, like all over. Like I said, Hemet is big.
When you started out, were you the only one, or were other people from Hemet already rapping?
Banditdamack: People from my section were rapping. My boy Buddha was rapping. They’re from my area, but people outside the area hell no. They ain’t have the courage to do that.
What was it like to see Spank Nitti when he was coming up? What kind of impact did his success have on the community?
Banditdamack: It was cool. That was like eighth grade or ninth grade. Like 2017-2018. He get a lot of love because he don’t beef with anybody, so he get love from everywhere.
How did the two of you meet?
Banditdamack: I met him through J-Lug. He rap too. He from out here. His house in Rancho had a studio there, so I’d book studio time with him. Me and Spank just followed each other and shit. Told him send the verse, he sent it. But I only met him once. He didn’t even do the feature in person, he just sent it to me.
Does seeing Spank find success and make it out of Hemet, inspire you to keep pushing what you’re doing?
Banditdamack: I wouldn’t even say him specifically. Just like my peers I rap with, like the Stinc Team. They young, around my age, going up too. They don’t come from out the best place either, but they making a name for themselves. This shit hard bro. It’s easy, but it’s hard. It’s easy to go in the studio, make a song, shoot a video, but it’s hard to get people to actually fuck with you. No Diddy, you got to touch the people in a way.
How do you touch people with your music?
Banditdamack: I’ll try to spit the shit that not only we can relate too, but everybody can relate too. There’s some shit that only we can relate to. It’d be like the ‘if you know, you know’ bars. It’d be some shit like, you don’t got to gang bang, you don’t gotta be from no street, nothing. You can relate to it. It’s good to tap into every element. If you rap about the same shit over and over again, people are only going to fuck with you for so long.
Are you writing or recording something everyday?
Banditdamack: I write damn near everyday. Just a couple bars sometimes, but everyday. I got some gas in the tank right now, finna go to the studio. I haven’t been in a week or two I’m not even gonna lie. I’ll write or I’ll shoot videos. That’s how I work when I’m not working.
What was happening in your life when you first started to take music seriously? What drove you to actually commit to doing it 100%?
Banditdamack: To be honest with you, I had just got out of jail. I had a little bit of money, so I was maintaining with that little money I had. I was going to the studio and paying for my little videos. I bounced probably with like $7500 cause I was going to college in jail, so I got financial aid. So yeah, I was going to the studio, shooting my videos, but I’m trying to still stay out of trouble, because one, I’m on probation, and two, I’m trying to rap for real now. I was 18, so it’s like, I ain’t going back to juvenile hall, I’m going to big boy jail now. The shit I was doing when I was a minor, they was low key slaps on the wrist. N***** getting real time as adults, so I’m like, it’s this or nothing low key.
I got a job through a fresh out program. It was a program I signed up for when I was in there. The center is right here. It’s across the street from the Hemet Vistas down the street. They help you graduate if you still in school. They help you get a job and shit, like construction or logistics. Like working in a warehouse. So I was working in a warehouse and they pick me up, go to the center right there, six in the morning, every morning, and we shoot off to Perris to the warehouse. Did that for six months then the program ended. I ain’t have a job after that. That’s when I was really rapping.
When did you see the music first start to take off?
Banditdamack: It was so slow low key. Some n***** when they go viral it’s overnight type shit. I feel like our shit was over time. It’s been two years. I’ve been rapping for two years, this September. I dropped my first song, September 25th. I’ll probably say, my first video it hit like 1k in a day on Youtube. That was the shit for me, because I had no subscribers, it was a new channel and shit. That shit was cool.
What do you think is the next step for you?
Banditdamack: Building a catalog. I just signed with Thizzler so I’ll build a catalog with them. Just work though, you gotta work.
What’s the story behind the making of your first project, Da Mack?
Banditdamack: It was not too long after I lost my job. I can’t even say I lost my job. Not too long after I stopped working, I knew I wanted to make a tape. I think one of the songs might have already been out. I already had the feature from Spank, that shit was sitting. I had the Lou Deezi feature probably sitting for a month, and then I only had to record like seven songs. I was dropping singles for a little bit, and then in the midst of that I was like, I’m gonna drop a tape. So I dropped my first lil tape.
Your most recent project is a collab with Blanco from Palm Springs. How did the two of you decide on make a tape together?
Banditdamack: Our neighborhood fucks with his neighborhood. He didn’t really rap, you feel me? He rapped and shit, but he didn’t take it seriously till his homies died. He had to do it because both of them rapped. They was booming out there where they from. They from Palm Springs. How we’re in the Inland Empire, they call that the Desert Empire. You got Palm Springs, Indio, Coachella, all that shit. So when he start taking it seriously, he started going up and shit. He started fucking with OTR. I think we already had a single out, and we start locking in at the Wrecking Spot.
This n***** be at the Wrecking Spot every night, I swear to God. He live in Palm Springs too. That n***** be locked in. That whole tape we did in the studio. There was no verses we had sent though, we did the whole shit in the studio.
How you get introduced to the Stinc Team?
Banditdamack: Through Playerrways they had tapped in. I done met Ralfy also. Instagram play a big part, he [Playerrways] had hit me up. You know on stories, how some people be like, “who should I put on my tape?” Someone had tagged me. I had an open. Sent him the open and he hopped on it the same night. Shit was hard. We got that feature for probably two three months. Me and two of the homies went to Santa Monica to meet with this label at this dinner. He was like, “tap in when you in LA, let’s shoot.” I’m like, we can shoot it on the Santa Monica Pier, so then we shot it that night. He work hard too, like, he quick bro. I told you, he sent the verse back same night, he quick.
Having that workflow is key. Why waste time in a session when you’re the one paying for it?
Banditdamack: It could be hard too. Say you coming up like me, and you sign for a whole lot of money, there could be a whole lot of distractions. You got bitches, you could dress flyer than you was before. You got a whole lot of shit you ain’t have before. You still gotta keep your head on straight. It’s cool to indulge, you don’t just gotta work, work, work, work, work, it’s good to have fun, but you still gotta stay on track though. Everyone is trying to do this music shit. Quick as you come up, you can fall off.
What do you think has been the key to your success so far?
Banditdamack: Consistency. I might have taken one month off since I started. Even that one month I took off, I was still recording and writing, I just wasn’t dropping anything, but I was still working.
What are you currently working on?
Banditdamack: Just singles, but I finna do an album with a deluxe and everything. I want to do like 15 songs for the tape and 10 for the deluxe. That’s 25 songs. 25 is our hood number.
How long does it take you to put together your albums?
Banditdamack: Da Mack might have took me 2-3 weeks. EPs those are’t shit, I can knock those out in like a week. This shit might take me a month because I want different sounds, but I don’t just want different sound’s, I want hard shit at the same time.
What producers do you turn too to get the beats you want?
Banditdamack: C Young On the Beat. My boy named Hex.. He produces for Saviii3rd. He produce a lot for Playerrways. P8 also got no songs with Cypress Moreno but his beats is hard. I got his number and he does send some shit over, but like I said I’m picky. ProdByRoger also. Bro I’m still rocking with Youtube beats. If its like a beat and it’s hard I fuck with it. I’m just picky. That shit might be harder than a whole pack someone send me.
In your music you manage to be funny yet brutally honest at the same time. How to you use humor to supplement the serious themes of your music?
Banditdamack: Like I said bro, it’s shit people can relate to. N***** always gotta have that key bar. Polo G said in one of his interviews you gotta have a key bar. He said in one of his songs, “Only bitch I give a conversation to is Siri.” That’s like a key bar, a memorable bar. You gotta have some of those. I feel like the funny ones are kind of the ones that stick.
What’s a typical day in life look like for you?
Banditdamack: Wake up, write, obviously, food, shower, shit like that. But every day it’d be something different. N***** might wake up, come here, or the homie have a fucking field day in Rancho Cucamonga. A studio day, or like an LA day is what I call it. We shooting videos, going to the studio, for sure. We working when we in LA. Maybe shop a little bit. When we go to LA, if we not at a Peer Space, we looking for spots because theres spots like 10 minutes from everywhere. Find a spot, shoot there, we’ll already had a studio booked at a certain time. So we finish shooting a video, get some food, fuck around. My boy Foolish, he has a team. They vlog, so like, they’ll vlog behind the scenes of what we’re doing.
We’ll hit up a store too, like Chiefin Heavily. The n***** at Chiefin Heavily, his store, the Fairfax studio is right behind it where my boy Hex work at. So if I’m recording there, and it’ll be times bro I’ll just walk in Chiefin Heavily and this n**** Playerrways be at the door. Shake his hand, go to to Hex shit, walk outside, G Money on the stairs. I like LA because you could network way easier. Out here it’s harder. I gotta go to Rancho Cucamonga, Redlands, or Riverside for a studio.
What is it about your lyrics, specifically, that you think puts you above everyone else?
Banditdamack: I feel like my rhymes be hard. Some motherfuckers be off beat. A lot of people hard, don’t get me wrong, I feel like I spit shit people from out here can relate too. I’ll spit shit for my section, for people out here, but everybody can relate to it type shit.
You’ve regarded Remble as an artist that you really look up too. What is it about his style that attracts you to his music?
Banditdamack: He can rap. That’s all I can really say. I don’t know how to explain it. That shit is just hard.
Who do you want to work with that you haven’t worked with yet?
Banditdamack: Mozzy. Me and Peysoh was supposed to lock some shit in. We text and shit, but I’m not really the type to ask for features and shit. That’s one of my pet peeves: people only want to talk about music and shit. Remble, Polo G. I’ll do some shit with G Money. 03 also, and OhGeesy.
How does it feel to be the one representing Hemet right now?
Banditdamack: At first when people would tell me that I feel like, what is you giving me flowers for? We ain’t done shit yet. We not where we need to be, but we know where we need to go. The city on the map for sure though, and I can say I helped with that. We got to go crazy. I want people in Louisiana to know about Hemet.
What do you think you sets yourself apart from other artists coming out of SoCal?
Banditdamack: My sound. I feel like pen and pad wise, there’s not too many people that can really fuck with me. There’s some though, don’t get me wrong. A lot of the people that’s on right now, lyric wise, I don’t think they better, but that’s not really all that matters, though. It’s a big part of it, but this shit is like an image. It’s a brand.
Do you pick your own beats?
Banditdamack: I pick my own. I’m hella picky. A producer can send me a beat pack of like 15-20 beats, and I only pick one. Really, I think of like, in the car, or like, at a party how the beat would sound and how I can rap on it. I’ll know in the first 10 seconds whether I’m fucking with it or not.
How would you describe the sound you’re looking for while going through beat packs?
Banditdamack: Just something I could get off to, because at the same time I feel like a beat makes the song. So if you got a hard beat with some hard ass lyrics, I feel like you can’t lose. It don’t even got to be a Cali beat, like I got songs to non-Cali beats.
Is there much of a local rap scene in Hemet?
Banditdamack: Now there is. Before it was like older cats. We like the new generation. I feel like theres more eyes coming out here so more people starting to rap. Not just from from our area, like all over. Like I said, Hemet is big.
When you started out, were you the only one, or were other people from Hemet already rapping?
Banditdamack: People from my section were rapping. My boy Buddha was rapping. They’re from my area, but people outside the area hell no. They ain’t have the courage to do that.
What was it like to see Spank Nitti when he was coming up? What kind of impact did his success have on the community?
Banditdamack: It was cool. That was like eighth grade or ninth grade. Like 2017-2018. He get a lot of love because he don’t beef with anybody, so he get love from everywhere.
How did the two of you meet?
Banditdamack: I met him through J-Lug. He rap too. He from out here. His house in Rancho had a studio there, so I’d book studio time with him. Me and Spank just followed each other and shit. Told him send the verse, he sent it. But I only met him once. He didn’t even do the feature in person, he just sent it to me.
Does seeing Spank find success and make it out of Hemet, inspire you to keep pushing what you’re doing?
Banditdamack: I wouldn’t even say him specifically. Just like my peers I rap with, like the Stinc Team. They young, around my age, going up too. They don’t come from out the best place either, but they making a name for themselves. This shit hard bro. It’s easy, but it’s hard. It’s easy to go in the studio, make a song, shoot a video, but it’s hard to get people to actually fuck with you. No Diddy, you got to touch the people in a way.
How do you touch people with your music?
Banditdamack: I’ll try to spit the shit that not only we can relate too, but everybody can relate too. There’s some shit that only we can relate to. It’d be like the ‘if you know, you know’ bars. It’d be some shit like, you don’t got to gang bang, you don’t gotta be from no street, nothing. You can relate to it. It’s good to tap into every element. If you rap about the same shit over and over again, people are only going to fuck with you for so long.
Are you writing or recording something everyday?
Banditdamack: I write damn near everyday. Just a couple bars sometimes, but everyday. I got some gas in the tank right now, finna go to the studio. I haven’t been in a week or two I’m not even gonna lie. I’ll write or I’ll shoot videos. That’s how I work when I’m not working.
What was happening in your life when you first started to take music seriously? What drove you to actually commit to doing it 100%?
Banditdamack: To be honest with you, I had just got out of jail. I had a little bit of money, so I was maintaining with that little money I had. I was going to the studio and paying for my little videos. I bounced probably with like $7500 cause I was going to college in jail, so I got financial aid. So yeah, I was going to the studio, shooting my videos, but I’m trying to still stay out of trouble, because one, I’m on probation, and two, I’m trying to rap for real now. I was 18, so it’s like, I ain’t going back to juvenile hall, I’m going to big boy jail now. The shit I was doing when I was a minor, they was low key slaps on the wrist. N***** getting real time as adults, so I’m like, it’s this or nothing low key.
I got a job through a fresh out program. It was a program I signed up for when I was in there. The center is right here. It’s across the street from the Hemet Vistas down the street. They help you graduate if you still in school. They help you get a job and shit, like construction or logistics. Like working in a warehouse. So I was working in a warehouse and they pick me up, go to the center right there, six in the morning, every morning, and we shoot off to Perris to the warehouse. Did that for six months then the program ended. I ain’t have a job after that. That’s when I was really rapping.
When did you see the music first start to take off?
Banditdamack: It was so slow low key. Some n***** when they go viral it’s overnight type shit. I feel like our shit was over time. It’s been two years. I’ve been rapping for two years, this September. I dropped my first song, September 25th. I’ll probably say, my first video it hit like 1k in a day on Youtube. That was the shit for me, because I had no subscribers, it was a new channel and shit. That shit was cool.
What do you think is the next step for you?
Banditdamack: Building a catalog. I just signed with Thizzler so I’ll build a catalog with them. Just work though, you gotta work.
What’s the story behind the making of your first project, Da Mack?
Banditdamack: It was not too long after I lost my job. I can’t even say I lost my job. Not too long after I stopped working, I knew I wanted to make a tape. I think one of the songs might have already been out. I already had the feature from Spank, that shit was sitting. I had the Lou Deezi feature probably sitting for a month, and then I only had to record like seven songs. I was dropping singles for a little bit, and then in the midst of that I was like, I’m gonna drop a tape. So I dropped my first lil tape.
Your most recent project is a collab with Blanco from Palm Springs. How did the two of you decide on make a tape together?
Banditdamack: Our neighborhood fucks with his neighborhood. He didn’t really rap, you feel me? He rapped and shit, but he didn’t take it seriously till his homies died. He had to do it because both of them rapped. They was booming out there where they from. They from Palm Springs. How we’re in the Inland Empire, they call that the Desert Empire. You got Palm Springs, Indio, Coachella, all that shit. So when he start taking it seriously, he started going up and shit. He started fucking with OTR. I think we already had a single out, and we start locking in at the Wrecking Spot.
This n***** be at the Wrecking Spot every night, I swear to God. He live in Palm Springs too. That n***** be locked in. That whole tape we did in the studio. There was no verses we had sent though, we did the whole shit in the studio.
How you get introduced to the Stinc Team?
Banditdamack: Through Playerrways they had tapped in. I done met Ralfy also. Instagram play a big part, he [Playerrways] had hit me up. You know on stories, how some people be like, “who should I put on my tape?” Someone had tagged me. I had an open. Sent him the open and he hopped on it the same night. Shit was hard. We got that feature for probably two three months. Me and two of the homies went to Santa Monica to meet with this label at this dinner. He was like, “tap in when you in LA, let’s shoot.” I’m like, we can shoot it on the Santa Monica Pier, so then we shot it that night. He work hard too, like, he quick bro. I told you, he sent the verse back same night, he quick.
Having that workflow is key. Why waste time in a session when you’re the one paying for it?
Banditdamack: It could be hard too. Say you coming up like me, and you sign for a whole lot of money, there could be a whole lot of distractions. You got bitches, you could dress flyer than you was before. You got a whole lot of shit you ain’t have before. You still gotta keep your head on straight. It’s cool to indulge, you don’t just gotta work, work, work, work, work, it’s good to have fun, but you still gotta stay on track though. Everyone is trying to do this music shit. Quick as you come up, you can fall off.
What do you think has been the key to your success so far?
Banditdamack: Consistency. I might have taken one month off since I started. Even that one month I took off, I was still recording and writing, I just wasn’t dropping anything, but I was still working.
What are you currently working on?
Banditdamack: Just singles, but I finna do an album with a deluxe and everything. I want to do like 15 songs for the tape and 10 for the deluxe. That’s 25 songs. 25 is our hood number.
How long does it take you to put together your albums?
Banditdamack: Da Mack might have took me 2-3 weeks. EPs those are’t shit, I can knock those out in like a week. This shit might take me a month because I want different sounds, but I don’t just want different sound’s, I want hard shit at the same time.
What producers do you turn too to get the beats you want?
Banditdamack: C Young On the Beat. My boy named Hex.. He produces for Saviii3rd. He produce a lot for Playerrways. P8 also got no songs with Cypress Moreno but his beats is hard. I got his number and he does send some shit over, but like I said I’m picky. ProdByRoger also. Bro I’m still rocking with Youtube beats. If its like a beat and it’s hard I fuck with it. I’m just picky. That shit might be harder than a whole pack someone send me.
In your music you manage to be funny yet brutally honest at the same time. How to you use humor to supplement the serious themes of your music?
Banditdamack: Like I said bro, it’s shit people can relate to. N***** always gotta have that key bar. Polo G said in one of his interviews you gotta have a key bar. He said in one of his songs, “Only bitch I give a conversation to is Siri.” That’s like a key bar, a memorable bar. You gotta have some of those. I feel like the funny ones are kind of the ones that stick.
What’s a typical day in life look like for you?
Banditdamack: Wake up, write, obviously, food, shower, shit like that. But every day it’d be something different. N***** might wake up, come here, or the homie have a fucking field day in Rancho Cucamonga. A studio day, or like an LA day is what I call it. We shooting videos, going to the studio, for sure. We working when we in LA. Maybe shop a little bit. When we go to LA, if we not at a Peer Space, we looking for spots because theres spots like 10 minutes from everywhere. Find a spot, shoot there, we’ll already had a studio booked at a certain time. So we finish shooting a video, get some food, fuck around. My boy Foolish, he has a team. They vlog, so like, they’ll vlog behind the scenes of what we’re doing.
We’ll hit up a store too, like Chiefin Heavily. The n***** at Chiefin Heavily, his store, the Fairfax studio is right behind it where my boy Hex work at. So if I’m recording there, and it’ll be times bro I’ll just walk in Chiefin Heavily and this n**** Playerrways be at the door. Shake his hand, go to to Hex shit, walk outside, G Money on the stairs. I like LA because you could network way easier. Out here it’s harder. I gotta go to Rancho Cucamonga, Redlands, or Riverside for a studio.
What is it about your lyrics, specifically, that you think puts you above everyone else?
Banditdamack: I feel like my rhymes be hard. Some motherfuckers be off beat. A lot of people hard, don’t get me wrong, I feel like I spit shit people from out here can relate too. I’ll spit shit for my section, for people out here, but everybody can relate to it type shit.
You’ve regarded Remble as an artist that you really look up too. What is it about his style that attracts you to his music?
Banditdamack: He can rap. That’s all I can really say. I don’t know how to explain it. That shit is just hard.
Who do you want to work with that you haven’t worked with yet?
Banditdamack: Mozzy. Me and Peysoh was supposed to lock some shit in. We text and shit, but I’m not really the type to ask for features and shit. That’s one of my pet peeves: people only want to talk about music and shit. Remble, Polo G. I’ll do some shit with G Money. 03 also, and OhGeesy.
How does it feel to be the one representing Hemet right now?
Banditdamack: At first when people would tell me that I feel like, what is you giving me flowers for? We ain’t done shit yet. We not where we need to be, but we know where we need to go. The city on the map for sure though, and I can say I helped with that. We got to go crazy. I want people in Louisiana to know about Hemet.
What do you think you sets yourself apart from other artists coming out of SoCal?
Banditdamack: My sound. I feel like pen and pad wise, there’s not too many people that can really fuck with me. There’s some though, don’t get me wrong. A lot of the people that’s on right now, lyric wise, I don’t think they better, but that’s not really all that matters, though. It’s a big part of it, but this shit is like an image. It’s a brand.
How would you describe the sound you’re looking for while going through beat packs?
Banditdamack: Just something I could get off to, because at the same time I feel like a beat makes the song. So if you got a hard beat with some hard ass lyrics, I feel like you can’t lose. It don’t even got to be a Cali beat, like I got songs to non-Cali beats.
Is there much of a local rap scene in Hemet?
Banditdamack: Now there is. Before it was like older cats. We like the new generation. I feel like theres more eyes coming out here so more people starting to rap. Not just from from our area, like all over. Like I said, Hemet is big.
When you started out, were you the only one, or were other people from Hemet already rapping?
Banditdamack: People from my section were rapping. My boy Buddha was rapping. They’re from my area, but people outside the area hell no. They ain’t have the courage to do that.
What was it like to see Spank Nitti when he was coming up? What kind of impact did his success have on the community?
Banditdamack: It was cool. That was like eighth grade or ninth grade. Like 2017-2018. He get a lot of love because he don’t beef with anybody, so he get love from everywhere.
How did the two of you meet?
Banditdamack: I met him through J-Lug. He rap too. He from out here. His house in Rancho had a studio there, so I’d book studio time with him. Me and Spank just followed each other and shit. Told him send the verse, he sent it. But I only met him once. He didn’t even do the feature in person, he just sent it to me.
Does seeing Spank find success and make it out of Hemet, inspire you to keep pushing what you’re doing?
Banditdamack: I wouldn’t even say him specifically. Just like my peers I rap with, like the Stinc Team. They young, around my age, going up too. They don’t come from out the best place either, but they making a name for themselves. This shit hard bro. It’s easy, but it’s hard. It’s easy to go in the studio, make a song, shoot a video, but it’s hard to get people to actually fuck with you. No Diddy, you got to touch the people in a way.
How do you touch people with your music?
Banditdamack: I’ll try to spit the shit that not only we can relate too, but everybody can relate too. There’s some shit that only we can relate to. It’d be like the ‘if you know, you know’ bars. It’d be some shit like, you don’t got to gang bang, you don’t gotta be from no street, nothing. You can relate to it. It’s good to tap into every element. If you rap about the same shit over and over again, people are only going to fuck with you for so long.
Are you writing or recording something everyday?
Banditdamack: I write damn near everyday. Just a couple bars sometimes, but everyday. I got some gas in the tank right now, finna go to the studio. I haven’t been in a week or two I’m not even gonna lie. I’ll write or I’ll shoot videos. That’s how I work when I’m not working.
What was happening in your life when you first started to take music seriously? What drove you to actually commit to doing it 100%?
Banditdamack: To be honest with you, I had just got out of jail. I had a little bit of money, so I was maintaining with that little money I had. I was going to the studio and paying for my little videos. I bounced probably with like $7500 cause I was going to college in jail, so I got financial aid. So yeah, I was going to the studio, shooting my videos, but I’m trying to still stay out of trouble, because one, I’m on probation, and two, I’m trying to rap for real now. I was 18, so it’s like, I ain’t going back to juvenile hall, I’m going to big boy jail now. The shit I was doing when I was a minor, they was low key slaps on the wrist. N***** getting real time as adults, so I’m like, it’s this or nothing low key.
I got a job through a fresh out program. It was a program I signed up for when I was in there. The center is right here. It’s across the street from the Hemet Vistas down the street. They help you graduate if you still in school. They help you get a job and shit, like construction or logistics. Like working in a warehouse. So I was working in a warehouse and they pick me up, go to the center right there, six in the morning, every morning, and we shoot off to Perris to the warehouse. Did that for six months then the program ended. I ain’t have a job after that. That’s when I was really rapping.
When did you see the music first start to take off?
Banditdamack: It was so slow low key. Some n***** when they go viral it’s overnight type shit. I feel like our shit was over time. It’s been two years. I’ve been rapping for two years, this September. I dropped my first song, September 25th. I’ll probably say, my first video it hit like 1k in a day on Youtube. That was the shit for me, because I had no subscribers, it was a new channel and shit. That shit was cool.
What do you think is the next step for you?
Banditdamack: Building a catalog. I just signed with Thizzler so I’ll build a catalog with them. Just work though, you gotta work.
What’s the story behind the making of your first project, Da Mack?
Banditdamack: It was not too long after I lost my job. I can’t even say I lost my job. Not too long after I stopped working, I knew I wanted to make a tape. I think one of the songs might have already been out. I already had the feature from Spank, that shit was sitting. I had the Lou Deezi feature probably sitting for a month, and then I only had to record like seven songs. I was dropping singles for a little bit, and then in the midst of that I was like, I’m gonna drop a tape. So I dropped my first lil tape.
Your most recent project is a collab with Blanco from Palm Springs. How did the two of you decide on make a tape together?
Banditdamack: Our neighborhood fucks with his neighborhood. He didn’t really rap, you feel me? He rapped and shit, but he didn’t take it seriously till his homies died. He had to do it because both of them rapped. They was booming out there where they from. They from Palm Springs. How we’re in the Inland Empire, they call that the Desert Empire. You got Palm Springs, Indio, Coachella, all that shit. So when he start taking it seriously, he started going up and shit. He started fucking with OTR. I think we already had a single out, and we start locking in at the Wrecking Spot.
This n***** be at the Wrecking Spot every night, I swear to God. He live in Palm Springs too. That n***** be locked in. That whole tape we did in the studio. There was no verses we had sent though, we did the whole shit in the studio.
How you get introduced to the Stinc Team?
Banditdamack: Through Playerrways they had tapped in. I done met Ralfy also. Instagram play a big part, he [Playerrways] had hit me up. You know on stories, how some people be like, “who should I put on my tape?” Someone had tagged me. I had an open. Sent him the open and he hopped on it the same night. Shit was hard. We got that feature for probably two three months. Me and two of the homies went to Santa Monica to meet with this label at this dinner. He was like, “tap in when you in LA, let’s shoot.” I’m like, we can shoot it on the Santa Monica Pier, so then we shot it that night. He work hard too, like, he quick bro. I told you, he sent the verse back same night, he quick.
Having that workflow is key. Why waste time in a session when you’re the one paying for it?
Banditdamack: It could be hard too. Say you coming up like me, and you sign for a whole lot of money, there could be a whole lot of distractions. You got bitches, you could dress flyer than you was before. You got a whole lot of shit you ain’t have before. You still gotta keep your head on straight. It’s cool to indulge, you don’t just gotta work, work, work, work, work, it’s good to have fun, but you still gotta stay on track though. Everyone is trying to do this music shit. Quick as you come up, you can fall off.
What do you think has been the key to your success so far?
Banditdamack: Consistency. I might have taken one month off since I started. Even that one month I took off, I was still recording and writing, I just wasn’t dropping anything, but I was still working.
What are you currently working on?
Banditdamack: Just singles, but I finna do an album with a deluxe and everything. I want to do like 15 songs for the tape and 10 for the deluxe. That’s 25 songs. 25 is our hood number.
How long does it take you to put together your albums?
Banditdamack: Da Mack might have took me 2-3 weeks. EPs those are’t shit, I can knock those out in like a week. This shit might take me a month because I want different sounds, but I don’t just want different sound’s, I want hard shit at the same time.
What producers do you turn too to get the beats you want?
Banditdamack: C Young On the Beat. My boy named Hex.. He produces for Saviii3rd. He produce a lot for Playerrways. P8 also got no songs with Cypress Moreno but his beats is hard. I got his number and he does send some shit over, but like I said I’m picky. ProdByRoger also. Bro I’m still rocking with Youtube beats. If its like a beat and it’s hard I fuck with it. I’m just picky. That shit might be harder than a whole pack someone send me.
In your music you manage to be funny yet brutally honest at the same time. How to you use humor to supplement the serious themes of your music?
Banditdamack: Like I said bro, it’s shit people can relate to. N***** always gotta have that key bar. Polo G said in one of his interviews you gotta have a key bar. He said in one of his songs, “Only bitch I give a conversation to is Siri.” That’s like a key bar, a memorable bar. You gotta have some of those. I feel like the funny ones are kind of the ones that stick.
What’s a typical day in life look like for you?
Banditdamack: Wake up, write, obviously, food, shower, shit like that. But every day it’d be something different. N***** might wake up, come here, or the homie have a fucking field day in Rancho Cucamonga. A studio day, or like an LA day is what I call it. We shooting videos, going to the studio, for sure. We working when we in LA. Maybe shop a little bit. When we go to LA, if we not at a Peer Space, we looking for spots because theres spots like 10 minutes from everywhere. Find a spot, shoot there, we’ll already had a studio booked at a certain time. So we finish shooting a video, get some food, fuck around. My boy Foolish, he has a team. They vlog, so like, they’ll vlog behind the scenes of what we’re doing.
We’ll hit up a store too, like Chiefin Heavily. The n***** at Chiefin Heavily, his store, the Fairfax studio is right behind it where my boy Hex work at. So if I’m recording there, and it’ll be times bro I’ll just walk in Chiefin Heavily and this n**** Playerrways be at the door. Shake his hand, go to to Hex shit, walk outside, G Money on the stairs. I like LA because you could network way easier. Out here it’s harder. I gotta go to Rancho Cucamonga, Redlands, or Riverside for a studio.
What is it about your lyrics, specifically, that you think puts you above everyone else?
Banditdamack: I feel like my rhymes be hard. Some motherfuckers be off beat. A lot of people hard, don’t get me wrong, I feel like I spit shit people from out here can relate too. I’ll spit shit for my section, for people out here, but everybody can relate to it type shit.
You’ve regarded Remble as an artist that you really look up too. What is it about his style that attracts you to his music?
Banditdamack: He can rap. That’s all I can really say. I don’t know how to explain it. That shit is just hard.
Who do you want to work with that you haven’t worked with yet?
Banditdamack: Mozzy. Me and Peysoh was supposed to lock some shit in. We text and shit, but I’m not really the type to ask for features and shit. That’s one of my pet peeves: people only want to talk about music and shit. Remble, Polo G. I’ll do some shit with G Money. 03 also, and OhGeesy.
How does it feel to be the one representing Hemet right now?
Banditdamack: At first when people would tell me that I feel like, what is you giving me flowers for? We ain’t done shit yet. We not where we need to be, but we know where we need to go. The city on the map for sure though, and I can say I helped with that. We got to go crazy. I want people in Louisiana to know about Hemet.
What do you think you sets yourself apart from other artists coming out of SoCal?
Banditdamack: My sound. I feel like pen and pad wise, there’s not too many people that can really fuck with me. There’s some though, don’t get me wrong. A lot of the people that’s on right now, lyric wise, I don’t think they better, but that’s not really all that matters, though. It’s a big part of it, but this shit is like an image. It’s a brand.
Is there much of a local rap scene in Hemet?
Banditdamack: Now there is. Before it was like older cats. We like the new generation. I feel like theres more eyes coming out here so more people starting to rap. Not just from from our area, like all over. Like I said, Hemet is big.
When you started out, were you the only one, or were other people from Hemet already rapping?
Banditdamack: People from my section were rapping. My boy Buddha was rapping. They’re from my area, but people outside the area hell no. They ain’t have the courage to do that.
What was it like to see Spank Nitti when he was coming up? What kind of impact did his success have on the community?
Banditdamack: It was cool. That was like eighth grade or ninth grade. Like 2017-2018. He get a lot of love because he don’t beef with anybody, so he get love from everywhere.
How did the two of you meet?
Banditdamack: I met him through J-Lug. He rap too. He from out here. His house in Rancho had a studio there, so I’d book studio time with him. Me and Spank just followed each other and shit. Told him send the verse, he sent it. But I only met him once. He didn’t even do the feature in person, he just sent it to me.
Does seeing Spank find success and make it out of Hemet, inspire you to keep pushing what you’re doing?
Banditdamack: I wouldn’t even say him specifically. Just like my peers I rap with, like the Stinc Team. They young, around my age, going up too. They don’t come from out the best place either, but they making a name for themselves. This shit hard bro. It’s easy, but it’s hard. It’s easy to go in the studio, make a song, shoot a video, but it’s hard to get people to actually fuck with you. No Diddy, you got to touch the people in a way.
How do you touch people with your music?
Banditdamack: I’ll try to spit the shit that not only we can relate too, but everybody can relate too. There’s some shit that only we can relate to. It’d be like the ‘if you know, you know’ bars. It’d be some shit like, you don’t got to gang bang, you don’t gotta be from no street, nothing. You can relate to it. It’s good to tap into every element. If you rap about the same shit over and over again, people are only going to fuck with you for so long.
Are you writing or recording something everyday?
Banditdamack: I write damn near everyday. Just a couple bars sometimes, but everyday. I got some gas in the tank right now, finna go to the studio. I haven’t been in a week or two I’m not even gonna lie. I’ll write or I’ll shoot videos. That’s how I work when I’m not working.
What was happening in your life when you first started to take music seriously? What drove you to actually commit to doing it 100%?
Banditdamack: To be honest with you, I had just got out of jail. I had a little bit of money, so I was maintaining with that little money I had. I was going to the studio and paying for my little videos. I bounced probably with like $7500 cause I was going to college in jail, so I got financial aid. So yeah, I was going to the studio, shooting my videos, but I’m trying to still stay out of trouble, because one, I’m on probation, and two, I’m trying to rap for real now. I was 18, so it’s like, I ain’t going back to juvenile hall, I’m going to big boy jail now. The shit I was doing when I was a minor, they was low key slaps on the wrist. N***** getting real time as adults, so I’m like, it’s this or nothing low key.
I got a job through a fresh out program. It was a program I signed up for when I was in there. The center is right here. It’s across the street from the Hemet Vistas down the street. They help you graduate if you still in school. They help you get a job and shit, like construction or logistics. Like working in a warehouse. So I was working in a warehouse and they pick me up, go to the center right there, six in the morning, every morning, and we shoot off to Perris to the warehouse. Did that for six months then the program ended. I ain’t have a job after that. That’s when I was really rapping.
When did you see the music first start to take off?
Banditdamack: It was so slow low key. Some n***** when they go viral it’s overnight type shit. I feel like our shit was over time. It’s been two years. I’ve been rapping for two years, this September. I dropped my first song, September 25th. I’ll probably say, my first video it hit like 1k in a day on Youtube. That was the shit for me, because I had no subscribers, it was a new channel and shit. That shit was cool.
What do you think is the next step for you?
Banditdamack: Building a catalog. I just signed with Thizzler so I’ll build a catalog with them. Just work though, you gotta work.
What’s the story behind the making of your first project, Da Mack?
Banditdamack: It was not too long after I lost my job. I can’t even say I lost my job. Not too long after I stopped working, I knew I wanted to make a tape. I think one of the songs might have already been out. I already had the feature from Spank, that shit was sitting. I had the Lou Deezi feature probably sitting for a month, and then I only had to record like seven songs. I was dropping singles for a little bit, and then in the midst of that I was like, I’m gonna drop a tape. So I dropped my first lil tape.
Your most recent project is a collab with Blanco from Palm Springs. How did the two of you decide on make a tape together?
Banditdamack: Our neighborhood fucks with his neighborhood. He didn’t really rap, you feel me? He rapped and shit, but he didn’t take it seriously till his homies died. He had to do it because both of them rapped. They was booming out there where they from. They from Palm Springs. How we’re in the Inland Empire, they call that the Desert Empire. You got Palm Springs, Indio, Coachella, all that shit. So when he start taking it seriously, he started going up and shit. He started fucking with OTR. I think we already had a single out, and we start locking in at the Wrecking Spot.
This n***** be at the Wrecking Spot every night, I swear to God. He live in Palm Springs too. That n***** be locked in. That whole tape we did in the studio. There was no verses we had sent though, we did the whole shit in the studio.
How you get introduced to the Stinc Team?
Banditdamack: Through Playerrways they had tapped in. I done met Ralfy also. Instagram play a big part, he [Playerrways] had hit me up. You know on stories, how some people be like, “who should I put on my tape?” Someone had tagged me. I had an open. Sent him the open and he hopped on it the same night. Shit was hard. We got that feature for probably two three months. Me and two of the homies went to Santa Monica to meet with this label at this dinner. He was like, “tap in when you in LA, let’s shoot.” I’m like, we can shoot it on the Santa Monica Pier, so then we shot it that night. He work hard too, like, he quick bro. I told you, he sent the verse back same night, he quick.
Having that workflow is key. Why waste time in a session when you’re the one paying for it?
Banditdamack: It could be hard too. Say you coming up like me, and you sign for a whole lot of money, there could be a whole lot of distractions. You got bitches, you could dress flyer than you was before. You got a whole lot of shit you ain’t have before. You still gotta keep your head on straight. It’s cool to indulge, you don’t just gotta work, work, work, work, work, it’s good to have fun, but you still gotta stay on track though. Everyone is trying to do this music shit. Quick as you come up, you can fall off.
What do you think has been the key to your success so far?
Banditdamack: Consistency. I might have taken one month off since I started. Even that one month I took off, I was still recording and writing, I just wasn’t dropping anything, but I was still working.
What are you currently working on?
Banditdamack: Just singles, but I finna do an album with a deluxe and everything. I want to do like 15 songs for the tape and 10 for the deluxe. That’s 25 songs. 25 is our hood number.
How long does it take you to put together your albums?
Banditdamack: Da Mack might have took me 2-3 weeks. EPs those are’t shit, I can knock those out in like a week. This shit might take me a month because I want different sounds, but I don’t just want different sound’s, I want hard shit at the same time.
What producers do you turn too to get the beats you want?
Banditdamack: C Young On the Beat. My boy named Hex.. He produces for Saviii3rd. He produce a lot for Playerrways. P8 also got no songs with Cypress Moreno but his beats is hard. I got his number and he does send some shit over, but like I said I’m picky. ProdByRoger also. Bro I’m still rocking with Youtube beats. If its like a beat and it’s hard I fuck with it. I’m just picky. That shit might be harder than a whole pack someone send me.
In your music you manage to be funny yet brutally honest at the same time. How to you use humor to supplement the serious themes of your music?
Banditdamack: Like I said bro, it’s shit people can relate to. N***** always gotta have that key bar. Polo G said in one of his interviews you gotta have a key bar. He said in one of his songs, “Only bitch I give a conversation to is Siri.” That’s like a key bar, a memorable bar. You gotta have some of those. I feel like the funny ones are kind of the ones that stick.
What’s a typical day in life look like for you?
Banditdamack: Wake up, write, obviously, food, shower, shit like that. But every day it’d be something different. N***** might wake up, come here, or the homie have a fucking field day in Rancho Cucamonga. A studio day, or like an LA day is what I call it. We shooting videos, going to the studio, for sure. We working when we in LA. Maybe shop a little bit. When we go to LA, if we not at a Peer Space, we looking for spots because theres spots like 10 minutes from everywhere. Find a spot, shoot there, we’ll already had a studio booked at a certain time. So we finish shooting a video, get some food, fuck around. My boy Foolish, he has a team. They vlog, so like, they’ll vlog behind the scenes of what we’re doing.
We’ll hit up a store too, like Chiefin Heavily. The n***** at Chiefin Heavily, his store, the Fairfax studio is right behind it where my boy Hex work at. So if I’m recording there, and it’ll be times bro I’ll just walk in Chiefin Heavily and this n**** Playerrways be at the door. Shake his hand, go to to Hex shit, walk outside, G Money on the stairs. I like LA because you could network way easier. Out here it’s harder. I gotta go to Rancho Cucamonga, Redlands, or Riverside for a studio.
What is it about your lyrics, specifically, that you think puts you above everyone else?
Banditdamack: I feel like my rhymes be hard. Some motherfuckers be off beat. A lot of people hard, don’t get me wrong, I feel like I spit shit people from out here can relate too. I’ll spit shit for my section, for people out here, but everybody can relate to it type shit.
You’ve regarded Remble as an artist that you really look up too. What is it about his style that attracts you to his music?
Banditdamack: He can rap. That’s all I can really say. I don’t know how to explain it. That shit is just hard.
Who do you want to work with that you haven’t worked with yet?
Banditdamack: Mozzy. Me and Peysoh was supposed to lock some shit in. We text and shit, but I’m not really the type to ask for features and shit. That’s one of my pet peeves: people only want to talk about music and shit. Remble, Polo G. I’ll do some shit with G Money. 03 also, and OhGeesy.
How does it feel to be the one representing Hemet right now?
Banditdamack: At first when people would tell me that I feel like, what is you giving me flowers for? We ain’t done shit yet. We not where we need to be, but we know where we need to go. The city on the map for sure though, and I can say I helped with that. We got to go crazy. I want people in Louisiana to know about Hemet.
What do you think you sets yourself apart from other artists coming out of SoCal?
Banditdamack: My sound. I feel like pen and pad wise, there’s not too many people that can really fuck with me. There’s some though, don’t get me wrong. A lot of the people that’s on right now, lyric wise, I don’t think they better, but that’s not really all that matters, though. It’s a big part of it, but this shit is like an image. It’s a brand.
When you started out, were you the only one, or were other people from Hemet already rapping?
Banditdamack: People from my section were rapping. My boy Buddha was rapping. They’re from my area, but people outside the area hell no. They ain’t have the courage to do that.
What was it like to see Spank Nitti when he was coming up? What kind of impact did his success have on the community?
Banditdamack: It was cool. That was like eighth grade or ninth grade. Like 2017-2018. He get a lot of love because he don’t beef with anybody, so he get love from everywhere.
How did the two of you meet?
Banditdamack: I met him through J-Lug. He rap too. He from out here. His house in Rancho had a studio there, so I’d book studio time with him. Me and Spank just followed each other and shit. Told him send the verse, he sent it. But I only met him once. He didn’t even do the feature in person, he just sent it to me.
Does seeing Spank find success and make it out of Hemet, inspire you to keep pushing what you’re doing?
Banditdamack: I wouldn’t even say him specifically. Just like my peers I rap with, like the Stinc Team. They young, around my age, going up too. They don’t come from out the best place either, but they making a name for themselves. This shit hard bro. It’s easy, but it’s hard. It’s easy to go in the studio, make a song, shoot a video, but it’s hard to get people to actually fuck with you. No Diddy, you got to touch the people in a way.
How do you touch people with your music?
Banditdamack: I’ll try to spit the shit that not only we can relate too, but everybody can relate too. There’s some shit that only we can relate to. It’d be like the ‘if you know, you know’ bars. It’d be some shit like, you don’t got to gang bang, you don’t gotta be from no street, nothing. You can relate to it. It’s good to tap into every element. If you rap about the same shit over and over again, people are only going to fuck with you for so long.
Are you writing or recording something everyday?
Banditdamack: I write damn near everyday. Just a couple bars sometimes, but everyday. I got some gas in the tank right now, finna go to the studio. I haven’t been in a week or two I’m not even gonna lie. I’ll write or I’ll shoot videos. That’s how I work when I’m not working.
What was happening in your life when you first started to take music seriously? What drove you to actually commit to doing it 100%?
Banditdamack: To be honest with you, I had just got out of jail. I had a little bit of money, so I was maintaining with that little money I had. I was going to the studio and paying for my little videos. I bounced probably with like $7500 cause I was going to college in jail, so I got financial aid. So yeah, I was going to the studio, shooting my videos, but I’m trying to still stay out of trouble, because one, I’m on probation, and two, I’m trying to rap for real now. I was 18, so it’s like, I ain’t going back to juvenile hall, I’m going to big boy jail now. The shit I was doing when I was a minor, they was low key slaps on the wrist. N***** getting real time as adults, so I’m like, it’s this or nothing low key.
I got a job through a fresh out program. It was a program I signed up for when I was in there. The center is right here. It’s across the street from the Hemet Vistas down the street. They help you graduate if you still in school. They help you get a job and shit, like construction or logistics. Like working in a warehouse. So I was working in a warehouse and they pick me up, go to the center right there, six in the morning, every morning, and we shoot off to Perris to the warehouse. Did that for six months then the program ended. I ain’t have a job after that. That’s when I was really rapping.
When did you see the music first start to take off?
Banditdamack: It was so slow low key. Some n***** when they go viral it’s overnight type shit. I feel like our shit was over time. It’s been two years. I’ve been rapping for two years, this September. I dropped my first song, September 25th. I’ll probably say, my first video it hit like 1k in a day on Youtube. That was the shit for me, because I had no subscribers, it was a new channel and shit. That shit was cool.
What do you think is the next step for you?
Banditdamack: Building a catalog. I just signed with Thizzler so I’ll build a catalog with them. Just work though, you gotta work.
What’s the story behind the making of your first project, Da Mack?
Banditdamack: It was not too long after I lost my job. I can’t even say I lost my job. Not too long after I stopped working, I knew I wanted to make a tape. I think one of the songs might have already been out. I already had the feature from Spank, that shit was sitting. I had the Lou Deezi feature probably sitting for a month, and then I only had to record like seven songs. I was dropping singles for a little bit, and then in the midst of that I was like, I’m gonna drop a tape. So I dropped my first lil tape.
Your most recent project is a collab with Blanco from Palm Springs. How did the two of you decide on make a tape together?
Banditdamack: Our neighborhood fucks with his neighborhood. He didn’t really rap, you feel me? He rapped and shit, but he didn’t take it seriously till his homies died. He had to do it because both of them rapped. They was booming out there where they from. They from Palm Springs. How we’re in the Inland Empire, they call that the Desert Empire. You got Palm Springs, Indio, Coachella, all that shit. So when he start taking it seriously, he started going up and shit. He started fucking with OTR. I think we already had a single out, and we start locking in at the Wrecking Spot.
This n***** be at the Wrecking Spot every night, I swear to God. He live in Palm Springs too. That n***** be locked in. That whole tape we did in the studio. There was no verses we had sent though, we did the whole shit in the studio.
How you get introduced to the Stinc Team?
Banditdamack: Through Playerrways they had tapped in. I done met Ralfy also. Instagram play a big part, he [Playerrways] had hit me up. You know on stories, how some people be like, “who should I put on my tape?” Someone had tagged me. I had an open. Sent him the open and he hopped on it the same night. Shit was hard. We got that feature for probably two three months. Me and two of the homies went to Santa Monica to meet with this label at this dinner. He was like, “tap in when you in LA, let’s shoot.” I’m like, we can shoot it on the Santa Monica Pier, so then we shot it that night. He work hard too, like, he quick bro. I told you, he sent the verse back same night, he quick.
Having that workflow is key. Why waste time in a session when you’re the one paying for it?
Banditdamack: It could be hard too. Say you coming up like me, and you sign for a whole lot of money, there could be a whole lot of distractions. You got bitches, you could dress flyer than you was before. You got a whole lot of shit you ain’t have before. You still gotta keep your head on straight. It’s cool to indulge, you don’t just gotta work, work, work, work, work, it’s good to have fun, but you still gotta stay on track though. Everyone is trying to do this music shit. Quick as you come up, you can fall off.
What do you think has been the key to your success so far?
Banditdamack: Consistency. I might have taken one month off since I started. Even that one month I took off, I was still recording and writing, I just wasn’t dropping anything, but I was still working.
What are you currently working on?
Banditdamack: Just singles, but I finna do an album with a deluxe and everything. I want to do like 15 songs for the tape and 10 for the deluxe. That’s 25 songs. 25 is our hood number.
How long does it take you to put together your albums?
Banditdamack: Da Mack might have took me 2-3 weeks. EPs those are’t shit, I can knock those out in like a week. This shit might take me a month because I want different sounds, but I don’t just want different sound’s, I want hard shit at the same time.
What producers do you turn too to get the beats you want?
Banditdamack: C Young On the Beat. My boy named Hex.. He produces for Saviii3rd. He produce a lot for Playerrways. P8 also got no songs with Cypress Moreno but his beats is hard. I got his number and he does send some shit over, but like I said I’m picky. ProdByRoger also. Bro I’m still rocking with Youtube beats. If its like a beat and it’s hard I fuck with it. I’m just picky. That shit might be harder than a whole pack someone send me.
In your music you manage to be funny yet brutally honest at the same time. How to you use humor to supplement the serious themes of your music?
Banditdamack: Like I said bro, it’s shit people can relate to. N***** always gotta have that key bar. Polo G said in one of his interviews you gotta have a key bar. He said in one of his songs, “Only bitch I give a conversation to is Siri.” That’s like a key bar, a memorable bar. You gotta have some of those. I feel like the funny ones are kind of the ones that stick.
What’s a typical day in life look like for you?
Banditdamack: Wake up, write, obviously, food, shower, shit like that. But every day it’d be something different. N***** might wake up, come here, or the homie have a fucking field day in Rancho Cucamonga. A studio day, or like an LA day is what I call it. We shooting videos, going to the studio, for sure. We working when we in LA. Maybe shop a little bit. When we go to LA, if we not at a Peer Space, we looking for spots because theres spots like 10 minutes from everywhere. Find a spot, shoot there, we’ll already had a studio booked at a certain time. So we finish shooting a video, get some food, fuck around. My boy Foolish, he has a team. They vlog, so like, they’ll vlog behind the scenes of what we’re doing.
We’ll hit up a store too, like Chiefin Heavily. The n***** at Chiefin Heavily, his store, the Fairfax studio is right behind it where my boy Hex work at. So if I’m recording there, and it’ll be times bro I’ll just walk in Chiefin Heavily and this n**** Playerrways be at the door. Shake his hand, go to to Hex shit, walk outside, G Money on the stairs. I like LA because you could network way easier. Out here it’s harder. I gotta go to Rancho Cucamonga, Redlands, or Riverside for a studio.
What is it about your lyrics, specifically, that you think puts you above everyone else?
Banditdamack: I feel like my rhymes be hard. Some motherfuckers be off beat. A lot of people hard, don’t get me wrong, I feel like I spit shit people from out here can relate too. I’ll spit shit for my section, for people out here, but everybody can relate to it type shit.
You’ve regarded Remble as an artist that you really look up too. What is it about his style that attracts you to his music?
Banditdamack: He can rap. That’s all I can really say. I don’t know how to explain it. That shit is just hard.
Who do you want to work with that you haven’t worked with yet?
Banditdamack: Mozzy. Me and Peysoh was supposed to lock some shit in. We text and shit, but I’m not really the type to ask for features and shit. That’s one of my pet peeves: people only want to talk about music and shit. Remble, Polo G. I’ll do some shit with G Money. 03 also, and OhGeesy.
How does it feel to be the one representing Hemet right now?
Banditdamack: At first when people would tell me that I feel like, what is you giving me flowers for? We ain’t done shit yet. We not where we need to be, but we know where we need to go. The city on the map for sure though, and I can say I helped with that. We got to go crazy. I want people in Louisiana to know about Hemet.
What do you think you sets yourself apart from other artists coming out of SoCal?
Banditdamack: My sound. I feel like pen and pad wise, there’s not too many people that can really fuck with me. There’s some though, don’t get me wrong. A lot of the people that’s on right now, lyric wise, I don’t think they better, but that’s not really all that matters, though. It’s a big part of it, but this shit is like an image. It’s a brand.
What was it like to see Spank Nitti when he was coming up? What kind of impact did his success have on the community?
Banditdamack: It was cool. That was like eighth grade or ninth grade. Like 2017-2018. He get a lot of love because he don’t beef with anybody, so he get love from everywhere.
How did the two of you meet?
Banditdamack: I met him through J-Lug. He rap too. He from out here. His house in Rancho had a studio there, so I’d book studio time with him. Me and Spank just followed each other and shit. Told him send the verse, he sent it. But I only met him once. He didn’t even do the feature in person, he just sent it to me.
Does seeing Spank find success and make it out of Hemet, inspire you to keep pushing what you’re doing?
Banditdamack: I wouldn’t even say him specifically. Just like my peers I rap with, like the Stinc Team. They young, around my age, going up too. They don’t come from out the best place either, but they making a name for themselves. This shit hard bro. It’s easy, but it’s hard. It’s easy to go in the studio, make a song, shoot a video, but it’s hard to get people to actually fuck with you. No Diddy, you got to touch the people in a way.
How do you touch people with your music?
Banditdamack: I’ll try to spit the shit that not only we can relate too, but everybody can relate too. There’s some shit that only we can relate to. It’d be like the ‘if you know, you know’ bars. It’d be some shit like, you don’t got to gang bang, you don’t gotta be from no street, nothing. You can relate to it. It’s good to tap into every element. If you rap about the same shit over and over again, people are only going to fuck with you for so long.
Are you writing or recording something everyday?
Banditdamack: I write damn near everyday. Just a couple bars sometimes, but everyday. I got some gas in the tank right now, finna go to the studio. I haven’t been in a week or two I’m not even gonna lie. I’ll write or I’ll shoot videos. That’s how I work when I’m not working.
What was happening in your life when you first started to take music seriously? What drove you to actually commit to doing it 100%?
Banditdamack: To be honest with you, I had just got out of jail. I had a little bit of money, so I was maintaining with that little money I had. I was going to the studio and paying for my little videos. I bounced probably with like $7500 cause I was going to college in jail, so I got financial aid. So yeah, I was going to the studio, shooting my videos, but I’m trying to still stay out of trouble, because one, I’m on probation, and two, I’m trying to rap for real now. I was 18, so it’s like, I ain’t going back to juvenile hall, I’m going to big boy jail now. The shit I was doing when I was a minor, they was low key slaps on the wrist. N***** getting real time as adults, so I’m like, it’s this or nothing low key.
I got a job through a fresh out program. It was a program I signed up for when I was in there. The center is right here. It’s across the street from the Hemet Vistas down the street. They help you graduate if you still in school. They help you get a job and shit, like construction or logistics. Like working in a warehouse. So I was working in a warehouse and they pick me up, go to the center right there, six in the morning, every morning, and we shoot off to Perris to the warehouse. Did that for six months then the program ended. I ain’t have a job after that. That’s when I was really rapping.
When did you see the music first start to take off?
Banditdamack: It was so slow low key. Some n***** when they go viral it’s overnight type shit. I feel like our shit was over time. It’s been two years. I’ve been rapping for two years, this September. I dropped my first song, September 25th. I’ll probably say, my first video it hit like 1k in a day on Youtube. That was the shit for me, because I had no subscribers, it was a new channel and shit. That shit was cool.
What do you think is the next step for you?
Banditdamack: Building a catalog. I just signed with Thizzler so I’ll build a catalog with them. Just work though, you gotta work.
What’s the story behind the making of your first project, Da Mack?
Banditdamack: It was not too long after I lost my job. I can’t even say I lost my job. Not too long after I stopped working, I knew I wanted to make a tape. I think one of the songs might have already been out. I already had the feature from Spank, that shit was sitting. I had the Lou Deezi feature probably sitting for a month, and then I only had to record like seven songs. I was dropping singles for a little bit, and then in the midst of that I was like, I’m gonna drop a tape. So I dropped my first lil tape.
Your most recent project is a collab with Blanco from Palm Springs. How did the two of you decide on make a tape together?
Banditdamack: Our neighborhood fucks with his neighborhood. He didn’t really rap, you feel me? He rapped and shit, but he didn’t take it seriously till his homies died. He had to do it because both of them rapped. They was booming out there where they from. They from Palm Springs. How we’re in the Inland Empire, they call that the Desert Empire. You got Palm Springs, Indio, Coachella, all that shit. So when he start taking it seriously, he started going up and shit. He started fucking with OTR. I think we already had a single out, and we start locking in at the Wrecking Spot.
This n***** be at the Wrecking Spot every night, I swear to God. He live in Palm Springs too. That n***** be locked in. That whole tape we did in the studio. There was no verses we had sent though, we did the whole shit in the studio.
How you get introduced to the Stinc Team?
Banditdamack: Through Playerrways they had tapped in. I done met Ralfy also. Instagram play a big part, he [Playerrways] had hit me up. You know on stories, how some people be like, “who should I put on my tape?” Someone had tagged me. I had an open. Sent him the open and he hopped on it the same night. Shit was hard. We got that feature for probably two three months. Me and two of the homies went to Santa Monica to meet with this label at this dinner. He was like, “tap in when you in LA, let’s shoot.” I’m like, we can shoot it on the Santa Monica Pier, so then we shot it that night. He work hard too, like, he quick bro. I told you, he sent the verse back same night, he quick.
Having that workflow is key. Why waste time in a session when you’re the one paying for it?
Banditdamack: It could be hard too. Say you coming up like me, and you sign for a whole lot of money, there could be a whole lot of distractions. You got bitches, you could dress flyer than you was before. You got a whole lot of shit you ain’t have before. You still gotta keep your head on straight. It’s cool to indulge, you don’t just gotta work, work, work, work, work, it’s good to have fun, but you still gotta stay on track though. Everyone is trying to do this music shit. Quick as you come up, you can fall off.
What do you think has been the key to your success so far?
Banditdamack: Consistency. I might have taken one month off since I started. Even that one month I took off, I was still recording and writing, I just wasn’t dropping anything, but I was still working.
What are you currently working on?
Banditdamack: Just singles, but I finna do an album with a deluxe and everything. I want to do like 15 songs for the tape and 10 for the deluxe. That’s 25 songs. 25 is our hood number.
How long does it take you to put together your albums?
Banditdamack: Da Mack might have took me 2-3 weeks. EPs those are’t shit, I can knock those out in like a week. This shit might take me a month because I want different sounds, but I don’t just want different sound’s, I want hard shit at the same time.
What producers do you turn too to get the beats you want?
Banditdamack: C Young On the Beat. My boy named Hex.. He produces for Saviii3rd. He produce a lot for Playerrways. P8 also got no songs with Cypress Moreno but his beats is hard. I got his number and he does send some shit over, but like I said I’m picky. ProdByRoger also. Bro I’m still rocking with Youtube beats. If its like a beat and it’s hard I fuck with it. I’m just picky. That shit might be harder than a whole pack someone send me.
In your music you manage to be funny yet brutally honest at the same time. How to you use humor to supplement the serious themes of your music?
Banditdamack: Like I said bro, it’s shit people can relate to. N***** always gotta have that key bar. Polo G said in one of his interviews you gotta have a key bar. He said in one of his songs, “Only bitch I give a conversation to is Siri.” That’s like a key bar, a memorable bar. You gotta have some of those. I feel like the funny ones are kind of the ones that stick.
What’s a typical day in life look like for you?
Banditdamack: Wake up, write, obviously, food, shower, shit like that. But every day it’d be something different. N***** might wake up, come here, or the homie have a fucking field day in Rancho Cucamonga. A studio day, or like an LA day is what I call it. We shooting videos, going to the studio, for sure. We working when we in LA. Maybe shop a little bit. When we go to LA, if we not at a Peer Space, we looking for spots because theres spots like 10 minutes from everywhere. Find a spot, shoot there, we’ll already had a studio booked at a certain time. So we finish shooting a video, get some food, fuck around. My boy Foolish, he has a team. They vlog, so like, they’ll vlog behind the scenes of what we’re doing.
We’ll hit up a store too, like Chiefin Heavily. The n***** at Chiefin Heavily, his store, the Fairfax studio is right behind it where my boy Hex work at. So if I’m recording there, and it’ll be times bro I’ll just walk in Chiefin Heavily and this n**** Playerrways be at the door. Shake his hand, go to to Hex shit, walk outside, G Money on the stairs. I like LA because you could network way easier. Out here it’s harder. I gotta go to Rancho Cucamonga, Redlands, or Riverside for a studio.
What is it about your lyrics, specifically, that you think puts you above everyone else?
Banditdamack: I feel like my rhymes be hard. Some motherfuckers be off beat. A lot of people hard, don’t get me wrong, I feel like I spit shit people from out here can relate too. I’ll spit shit for my section, for people out here, but everybody can relate to it type shit.
You’ve regarded Remble as an artist that you really look up too. What is it about his style that attracts you to his music?
Banditdamack: He can rap. That’s all I can really say. I don’t know how to explain it. That shit is just hard.
Who do you want to work with that you haven’t worked with yet?
Banditdamack: Mozzy. Me and Peysoh was supposed to lock some shit in. We text and shit, but I’m not really the type to ask for features and shit. That’s one of my pet peeves: people only want to talk about music and shit. Remble, Polo G. I’ll do some shit with G Money. 03 also, and OhGeesy.
How does it feel to be the one representing Hemet right now?
Banditdamack: At first when people would tell me that I feel like, what is you giving me flowers for? We ain’t done shit yet. We not where we need to be, but we know where we need to go. The city on the map for sure though, and I can say I helped with that. We got to go crazy. I want people in Louisiana to know about Hemet.
What do you think you sets yourself apart from other artists coming out of SoCal?
Banditdamack: My sound. I feel like pen and pad wise, there’s not too many people that can really fuck with me. There’s some though, don’t get me wrong. A lot of the people that’s on right now, lyric wise, I don’t think they better, but that’s not really all that matters, though. It’s a big part of it, but this shit is like an image. It’s a brand.
How did the two of you meet?
Banditdamack: I met him through J-Lug. He rap too. He from out here. His house in Rancho had a studio there, so I’d book studio time with him. Me and Spank just followed each other and shit. Told him send the verse, he sent it. But I only met him once. He didn’t even do the feature in person, he just sent it to me.
Does seeing Spank find success and make it out of Hemet, inspire you to keep pushing what you’re doing?
Banditdamack: I wouldn’t even say him specifically. Just like my peers I rap with, like the Stinc Team. They young, around my age, going up too. They don’t come from out the best place either, but they making a name for themselves. This shit hard bro. It’s easy, but it’s hard. It’s easy to go in the studio, make a song, shoot a video, but it’s hard to get people to actually fuck with you. No Diddy, you got to touch the people in a way.
How do you touch people with your music?
Banditdamack: I’ll try to spit the shit that not only we can relate too, but everybody can relate too. There’s some shit that only we can relate to. It’d be like the ‘if you know, you know’ bars. It’d be some shit like, you don’t got to gang bang, you don’t gotta be from no street, nothing. You can relate to it. It’s good to tap into every element. If you rap about the same shit over and over again, people are only going to fuck with you for so long.
Are you writing or recording something everyday?
Banditdamack: I write damn near everyday. Just a couple bars sometimes, but everyday. I got some gas in the tank right now, finna go to the studio. I haven’t been in a week or two I’m not even gonna lie. I’ll write or I’ll shoot videos. That’s how I work when I’m not working.
What was happening in your life when you first started to take music seriously? What drove you to actually commit to doing it 100%?
Banditdamack: To be honest with you, I had just got out of jail. I had a little bit of money, so I was maintaining with that little money I had. I was going to the studio and paying for my little videos. I bounced probably with like $7500 cause I was going to college in jail, so I got financial aid. So yeah, I was going to the studio, shooting my videos, but I’m trying to still stay out of trouble, because one, I’m on probation, and two, I’m trying to rap for real now. I was 18, so it’s like, I ain’t going back to juvenile hall, I’m going to big boy jail now. The shit I was doing when I was a minor, they was low key slaps on the wrist. N***** getting real time as adults, so I’m like, it’s this or nothing low key.
I got a job through a fresh out program. It was a program I signed up for when I was in there. The center is right here. It’s across the street from the Hemet Vistas down the street. They help you graduate if you still in school. They help you get a job and shit, like construction or logistics. Like working in a warehouse. So I was working in a warehouse and they pick me up, go to the center right there, six in the morning, every morning, and we shoot off to Perris to the warehouse. Did that for six months then the program ended. I ain’t have a job after that. That’s when I was really rapping.
When did you see the music first start to take off?
Banditdamack: It was so slow low key. Some n***** when they go viral it’s overnight type shit. I feel like our shit was over time. It’s been two years. I’ve been rapping for two years, this September. I dropped my first song, September 25th. I’ll probably say, my first video it hit like 1k in a day on Youtube. That was the shit for me, because I had no subscribers, it was a new channel and shit. That shit was cool.
What do you think is the next step for you?
Banditdamack: Building a catalog. I just signed with Thizzler so I’ll build a catalog with them. Just work though, you gotta work.
What’s the story behind the making of your first project, Da Mack?
Banditdamack: It was not too long after I lost my job. I can’t even say I lost my job. Not too long after I stopped working, I knew I wanted to make a tape. I think one of the songs might have already been out. I already had the feature from Spank, that shit was sitting. I had the Lou Deezi feature probably sitting for a month, and then I only had to record like seven songs. I was dropping singles for a little bit, and then in the midst of that I was like, I’m gonna drop a tape. So I dropped my first lil tape.
Your most recent project is a collab with Blanco from Palm Springs. How did the two of you decide on make a tape together?
Banditdamack: Our neighborhood fucks with his neighborhood. He didn’t really rap, you feel me? He rapped and shit, but he didn’t take it seriously till his homies died. He had to do it because both of them rapped. They was booming out there where they from. They from Palm Springs. How we’re in the Inland Empire, they call that the Desert Empire. You got Palm Springs, Indio, Coachella, all that shit. So when he start taking it seriously, he started going up and shit. He started fucking with OTR. I think we already had a single out, and we start locking in at the Wrecking Spot.
This n***** be at the Wrecking Spot every night, I swear to God. He live in Palm Springs too. That n***** be locked in. That whole tape we did in the studio. There was no verses we had sent though, we did the whole shit in the studio.
How you get introduced to the Stinc Team?
Banditdamack: Through Playerrways they had tapped in. I done met Ralfy also. Instagram play a big part, he [Playerrways] had hit me up. You know on stories, how some people be like, “who should I put on my tape?” Someone had tagged me. I had an open. Sent him the open and he hopped on it the same night. Shit was hard. We got that feature for probably two three months. Me and two of the homies went to Santa Monica to meet with this label at this dinner. He was like, “tap in when you in LA, let’s shoot.” I’m like, we can shoot it on the Santa Monica Pier, so then we shot it that night. He work hard too, like, he quick bro. I told you, he sent the verse back same night, he quick.
Having that workflow is key. Why waste time in a session when you’re the one paying for it?
Banditdamack: It could be hard too. Say you coming up like me, and you sign for a whole lot of money, there could be a whole lot of distractions. You got bitches, you could dress flyer than you was before. You got a whole lot of shit you ain’t have before. You still gotta keep your head on straight. It’s cool to indulge, you don’t just gotta work, work, work, work, work, it’s good to have fun, but you still gotta stay on track though. Everyone is trying to do this music shit. Quick as you come up, you can fall off.
What do you think has been the key to your success so far?
Banditdamack: Consistency. I might have taken one month off since I started. Even that one month I took off, I was still recording and writing, I just wasn’t dropping anything, but I was still working.
What are you currently working on?
Banditdamack: Just singles, but I finna do an album with a deluxe and everything. I want to do like 15 songs for the tape and 10 for the deluxe. That’s 25 songs. 25 is our hood number.
How long does it take you to put together your albums?
Banditdamack: Da Mack might have took me 2-3 weeks. EPs those are’t shit, I can knock those out in like a week. This shit might take me a month because I want different sounds, but I don’t just want different sound’s, I want hard shit at the same time.
What producers do you turn too to get the beats you want?
Banditdamack: C Young On the Beat. My boy named Hex.. He produces for Saviii3rd. He produce a lot for Playerrways. P8 also got no songs with Cypress Moreno but his beats is hard. I got his number and he does send some shit over, but like I said I’m picky. ProdByRoger also. Bro I’m still rocking with Youtube beats. If its like a beat and it’s hard I fuck with it. I’m just picky. That shit might be harder than a whole pack someone send me.
In your music you manage to be funny yet brutally honest at the same time. How to you use humor to supplement the serious themes of your music?
Banditdamack: Like I said bro, it’s shit people can relate to. N***** always gotta have that key bar. Polo G said in one of his interviews you gotta have a key bar. He said in one of his songs, “Only bitch I give a conversation to is Siri.” That’s like a key bar, a memorable bar. You gotta have some of those. I feel like the funny ones are kind of the ones that stick.
What’s a typical day in life look like for you?
Banditdamack: Wake up, write, obviously, food, shower, shit like that. But every day it’d be something different. N***** might wake up, come here, or the homie have a fucking field day in Rancho Cucamonga. A studio day, or like an LA day is what I call it. We shooting videos, going to the studio, for sure. We working when we in LA. Maybe shop a little bit. When we go to LA, if we not at a Peer Space, we looking for spots because theres spots like 10 minutes from everywhere. Find a spot, shoot there, we’ll already had a studio booked at a certain time. So we finish shooting a video, get some food, fuck around. My boy Foolish, he has a team. They vlog, so like, they’ll vlog behind the scenes of what we’re doing.
We’ll hit up a store too, like Chiefin Heavily. The n***** at Chiefin Heavily, his store, the Fairfax studio is right behind it where my boy Hex work at. So if I’m recording there, and it’ll be times bro I’ll just walk in Chiefin Heavily and this n**** Playerrways be at the door. Shake his hand, go to to Hex shit, walk outside, G Money on the stairs. I like LA because you could network way easier. Out here it’s harder. I gotta go to Rancho Cucamonga, Redlands, or Riverside for a studio.
What is it about your lyrics, specifically, that you think puts you above everyone else?
Banditdamack: I feel like my rhymes be hard. Some motherfuckers be off beat. A lot of people hard, don’t get me wrong, I feel like I spit shit people from out here can relate too. I’ll spit shit for my section, for people out here, but everybody can relate to it type shit.
You’ve regarded Remble as an artist that you really look up too. What is it about his style that attracts you to his music?
Banditdamack: He can rap. That’s all I can really say. I don’t know how to explain it. That shit is just hard.
Who do you want to work with that you haven’t worked with yet?
Banditdamack: Mozzy. Me and Peysoh was supposed to lock some shit in. We text and shit, but I’m not really the type to ask for features and shit. That’s one of my pet peeves: people only want to talk about music and shit. Remble, Polo G. I’ll do some shit with G Money. 03 also, and OhGeesy.
How does it feel to be the one representing Hemet right now?
Banditdamack: At first when people would tell me that I feel like, what is you giving me flowers for? We ain’t done shit yet. We not where we need to be, but we know where we need to go. The city on the map for sure though, and I can say I helped with that. We got to go crazy. I want people in Louisiana to know about Hemet.
What do you think you sets yourself apart from other artists coming out of SoCal?
Banditdamack: My sound. I feel like pen and pad wise, there’s not too many people that can really fuck with me. There’s some though, don’t get me wrong. A lot of the people that’s on right now, lyric wise, I don’t think they better, but that’s not really all that matters, though. It’s a big part of it, but this shit is like an image. It’s a brand.
Does seeing Spank find success and make it out of Hemet, inspire you to keep pushing what you’re doing?
Banditdamack: I wouldn’t even say him specifically. Just like my peers I rap with, like the Stinc Team. They young, around my age, going up too. They don’t come from out the best place either, but they making a name for themselves. This shit hard bro. It’s easy, but it’s hard. It’s easy to go in the studio, make a song, shoot a video, but it’s hard to get people to actually fuck with you. No Diddy, you got to touch the people in a way.
How do you touch people with your music?
Banditdamack: I’ll try to spit the shit that not only we can relate too, but everybody can relate too. There’s some shit that only we can relate to. It’d be like the ‘if you know, you know’ bars. It’d be some shit like, you don’t got to gang bang, you don’t gotta be from no street, nothing. You can relate to it. It’s good to tap into every element. If you rap about the same shit over and over again, people are only going to fuck with you for so long.
Are you writing or recording something everyday?
Banditdamack: I write damn near everyday. Just a couple bars sometimes, but everyday. I got some gas in the tank right now, finna go to the studio. I haven’t been in a week or two I’m not even gonna lie. I’ll write or I’ll shoot videos. That’s how I work when I’m not working.
What was happening in your life when you first started to take music seriously? What drove you to actually commit to doing it 100%?
Banditdamack: To be honest with you, I had just got out of jail. I had a little bit of money, so I was maintaining with that little money I had. I was going to the studio and paying for my little videos. I bounced probably with like $7500 cause I was going to college in jail, so I got financial aid. So yeah, I was going to the studio, shooting my videos, but I’m trying to still stay out of trouble, because one, I’m on probation, and two, I’m trying to rap for real now. I was 18, so it’s like, I ain’t going back to juvenile hall, I’m going to big boy jail now. The shit I was doing when I was a minor, they was low key slaps on the wrist. N***** getting real time as adults, so I’m like, it’s this or nothing low key.
I got a job through a fresh out program. It was a program I signed up for when I was in there. The center is right here. It’s across the street from the Hemet Vistas down the street. They help you graduate if you still in school. They help you get a job and shit, like construction or logistics. Like working in a warehouse. So I was working in a warehouse and they pick me up, go to the center right there, six in the morning, every morning, and we shoot off to Perris to the warehouse. Did that for six months then the program ended. I ain’t have a job after that. That’s when I was really rapping.
When did you see the music first start to take off?
Banditdamack: It was so slow low key. Some n***** when they go viral it’s overnight type shit. I feel like our shit was over time. It’s been two years. I’ve been rapping for two years, this September. I dropped my first song, September 25th. I’ll probably say, my first video it hit like 1k in a day on Youtube. That was the shit for me, because I had no subscribers, it was a new channel and shit. That shit was cool.
What do you think is the next step for you?
Banditdamack: Building a catalog. I just signed with Thizzler so I’ll build a catalog with them. Just work though, you gotta work.
What’s the story behind the making of your first project, Da Mack?
Banditdamack: It was not too long after I lost my job. I can’t even say I lost my job. Not too long after I stopped working, I knew I wanted to make a tape. I think one of the songs might have already been out. I already had the feature from Spank, that shit was sitting. I had the Lou Deezi feature probably sitting for a month, and then I only had to record like seven songs. I was dropping singles for a little bit, and then in the midst of that I was like, I’m gonna drop a tape. So I dropped my first lil tape.
Your most recent project is a collab with Blanco from Palm Springs. How did the two of you decide on make a tape together?
Banditdamack: Our neighborhood fucks with his neighborhood. He didn’t really rap, you feel me? He rapped and shit, but he didn’t take it seriously till his homies died. He had to do it because both of them rapped. They was booming out there where they from. They from Palm Springs. How we’re in the Inland Empire, they call that the Desert Empire. You got Palm Springs, Indio, Coachella, all that shit. So when he start taking it seriously, he started going up and shit. He started fucking with OTR. I think we already had a single out, and we start locking in at the Wrecking Spot.
This n***** be at the Wrecking Spot every night, I swear to God. He live in Palm Springs too. That n***** be locked in. That whole tape we did in the studio. There was no verses we had sent though, we did the whole shit in the studio.
How you get introduced to the Stinc Team?
Banditdamack: Through Playerrways they had tapped in. I done met Ralfy also. Instagram play a big part, he [Playerrways] had hit me up. You know on stories, how some people be like, “who should I put on my tape?” Someone had tagged me. I had an open. Sent him the open and he hopped on it the same night. Shit was hard. We got that feature for probably two three months. Me and two of the homies went to Santa Monica to meet with this label at this dinner. He was like, “tap in when you in LA, let’s shoot.” I’m like, we can shoot it on the Santa Monica Pier, so then we shot it that night. He work hard too, like, he quick bro. I told you, he sent the verse back same night, he quick.
Having that workflow is key. Why waste time in a session when you’re the one paying for it?
Banditdamack: It could be hard too. Say you coming up like me, and you sign for a whole lot of money, there could be a whole lot of distractions. You got bitches, you could dress flyer than you was before. You got a whole lot of shit you ain’t have before. You still gotta keep your head on straight. It’s cool to indulge, you don’t just gotta work, work, work, work, work, it’s good to have fun, but you still gotta stay on track though. Everyone is trying to do this music shit. Quick as you come up, you can fall off.
What do you think has been the key to your success so far?
Banditdamack: Consistency. I might have taken one month off since I started. Even that one month I took off, I was still recording and writing, I just wasn’t dropping anything, but I was still working.
What are you currently working on?
Banditdamack: Just singles, but I finna do an album with a deluxe and everything. I want to do like 15 songs for the tape and 10 for the deluxe. That’s 25 songs. 25 is our hood number.
How long does it take you to put together your albums?
Banditdamack: Da Mack might have took me 2-3 weeks. EPs those are’t shit, I can knock those out in like a week. This shit might take me a month because I want different sounds, but I don’t just want different sound’s, I want hard shit at the same time.
What producers do you turn too to get the beats you want?
Banditdamack: C Young On the Beat. My boy named Hex.. He produces for Saviii3rd. He produce a lot for Playerrways. P8 also got no songs with Cypress Moreno but his beats is hard. I got his number and he does send some shit over, but like I said I’m picky. ProdByRoger also. Bro I’m still rocking with Youtube beats. If its like a beat and it’s hard I fuck with it. I’m just picky. That shit might be harder than a whole pack someone send me.
In your music you manage to be funny yet brutally honest at the same time. How to you use humor to supplement the serious themes of your music?
Banditdamack: Like I said bro, it’s shit people can relate to. N***** always gotta have that key bar. Polo G said in one of his interviews you gotta have a key bar. He said in one of his songs, “Only bitch I give a conversation to is Siri.” That’s like a key bar, a memorable bar. You gotta have some of those. I feel like the funny ones are kind of the ones that stick.
What’s a typical day in life look like for you?
Banditdamack: Wake up, write, obviously, food, shower, shit like that. But every day it’d be something different. N***** might wake up, come here, or the homie have a fucking field day in Rancho Cucamonga. A studio day, or like an LA day is what I call it. We shooting videos, going to the studio, for sure. We working when we in LA. Maybe shop a little bit. When we go to LA, if we not at a Peer Space, we looking for spots because theres spots like 10 minutes from everywhere. Find a spot, shoot there, we’ll already had a studio booked at a certain time. So we finish shooting a video, get some food, fuck around. My boy Foolish, he has a team. They vlog, so like, they’ll vlog behind the scenes of what we’re doing.
We’ll hit up a store too, like Chiefin Heavily. The n***** at Chiefin Heavily, his store, the Fairfax studio is right behind it where my boy Hex work at. So if I’m recording there, and it’ll be times bro I’ll just walk in Chiefin Heavily and this n**** Playerrways be at the door. Shake his hand, go to to Hex shit, walk outside, G Money on the stairs. I like LA because you could network way easier. Out here it’s harder. I gotta go to Rancho Cucamonga, Redlands, or Riverside for a studio.
What is it about your lyrics, specifically, that you think puts you above everyone else?
Banditdamack: I feel like my rhymes be hard. Some motherfuckers be off beat. A lot of people hard, don’t get me wrong, I feel like I spit shit people from out here can relate too. I’ll spit shit for my section, for people out here, but everybody can relate to it type shit.
You’ve regarded Remble as an artist that you really look up too. What is it about his style that attracts you to his music?
Banditdamack: He can rap. That’s all I can really say. I don’t know how to explain it. That shit is just hard.
Who do you want to work with that you haven’t worked with yet?
Banditdamack: Mozzy. Me and Peysoh was supposed to lock some shit in. We text and shit, but I’m not really the type to ask for features and shit. That’s one of my pet peeves: people only want to talk about music and shit. Remble, Polo G. I’ll do some shit with G Money. 03 also, and OhGeesy.
How does it feel to be the one representing Hemet right now?
Banditdamack: At first when people would tell me that I feel like, what is you giving me flowers for? We ain’t done shit yet. We not where we need to be, but we know where we need to go. The city on the map for sure though, and I can say I helped with that. We got to go crazy. I want people in Louisiana to know about Hemet.
What do you think you sets yourself apart from other artists coming out of SoCal?
Banditdamack: My sound. I feel like pen and pad wise, there’s not too many people that can really fuck with me. There’s some though, don’t get me wrong. A lot of the people that’s on right now, lyric wise, I don’t think they better, but that’s not really all that matters, though. It’s a big part of it, but this shit is like an image. It’s a brand.
How do you touch people with your music?
Banditdamack: I’ll try to spit the shit that not only we can relate too, but everybody can relate too. There’s some shit that only we can relate to. It’d be like the ‘if you know, you know’ bars. It’d be some shit like, you don’t got to gang bang, you don’t gotta be from no street, nothing. You can relate to it. It’s good to tap into every element. If you rap about the same shit over and over again, people are only going to fuck with you for so long.
Are you writing or recording something everyday?
Banditdamack: I write damn near everyday. Just a couple bars sometimes, but everyday. I got some gas in the tank right now, finna go to the studio. I haven’t been in a week or two I’m not even gonna lie. I’ll write or I’ll shoot videos. That’s how I work when I’m not working.
What was happening in your life when you first started to take music seriously? What drove you to actually commit to doing it 100%?
Banditdamack: To be honest with you, I had just got out of jail. I had a little bit of money, so I was maintaining with that little money I had. I was going to the studio and paying for my little videos. I bounced probably with like $7500 cause I was going to college in jail, so I got financial aid. So yeah, I was going to the studio, shooting my videos, but I’m trying to still stay out of trouble, because one, I’m on probation, and two, I’m trying to rap for real now. I was 18, so it’s like, I ain’t going back to juvenile hall, I’m going to big boy jail now. The shit I was doing when I was a minor, they was low key slaps on the wrist. N***** getting real time as adults, so I’m like, it’s this or nothing low key.
I got a job through a fresh out program. It was a program I signed up for when I was in there. The center is right here. It’s across the street from the Hemet Vistas down the street. They help you graduate if you still in school. They help you get a job and shit, like construction or logistics. Like working in a warehouse. So I was working in a warehouse and they pick me up, go to the center right there, six in the morning, every morning, and we shoot off to Perris to the warehouse. Did that for six months then the program ended. I ain’t have a job after that. That’s when I was really rapping.
When did you see the music first start to take off?
Banditdamack: It was so slow low key. Some n***** when they go viral it’s overnight type shit. I feel like our shit was over time. It’s been two years. I’ve been rapping for two years, this September. I dropped my first song, September 25th. I’ll probably say, my first video it hit like 1k in a day on Youtube. That was the shit for me, because I had no subscribers, it was a new channel and shit. That shit was cool.
What do you think is the next step for you?
Banditdamack: Building a catalog. I just signed with Thizzler so I’ll build a catalog with them. Just work though, you gotta work.
What’s the story behind the making of your first project, Da Mack?
Banditdamack: It was not too long after I lost my job. I can’t even say I lost my job. Not too long after I stopped working, I knew I wanted to make a tape. I think one of the songs might have already been out. I already had the feature from Spank, that shit was sitting. I had the Lou Deezi feature probably sitting for a month, and then I only had to record like seven songs. I was dropping singles for a little bit, and then in the midst of that I was like, I’m gonna drop a tape. So I dropped my first lil tape.
Your most recent project is a collab with Blanco from Palm Springs. How did the two of you decide on make a tape together?
Banditdamack: Our neighborhood fucks with his neighborhood. He didn’t really rap, you feel me? He rapped and shit, but he didn’t take it seriously till his homies died. He had to do it because both of them rapped. They was booming out there where they from. They from Palm Springs. How we’re in the Inland Empire, they call that the Desert Empire. You got Palm Springs, Indio, Coachella, all that shit. So when he start taking it seriously, he started going up and shit. He started fucking with OTR. I think we already had a single out, and we start locking in at the Wrecking Spot.
This n***** be at the Wrecking Spot every night, I swear to God. He live in Palm Springs too. That n***** be locked in. That whole tape we did in the studio. There was no verses we had sent though, we did the whole shit in the studio.
How you get introduced to the Stinc Team?
Banditdamack: Through Playerrways they had tapped in. I done met Ralfy also. Instagram play a big part, he [Playerrways] had hit me up. You know on stories, how some people be like, “who should I put on my tape?” Someone had tagged me. I had an open. Sent him the open and he hopped on it the same night. Shit was hard. We got that feature for probably two three months. Me and two of the homies went to Santa Monica to meet with this label at this dinner. He was like, “tap in when you in LA, let’s shoot.” I’m like, we can shoot it on the Santa Monica Pier, so then we shot it that night. He work hard too, like, he quick bro. I told you, he sent the verse back same night, he quick.
Having that workflow is key. Why waste time in a session when you’re the one paying for it?
Banditdamack: It could be hard too. Say you coming up like me, and you sign for a whole lot of money, there could be a whole lot of distractions. You got bitches, you could dress flyer than you was before. You got a whole lot of shit you ain’t have before. You still gotta keep your head on straight. It’s cool to indulge, you don’t just gotta work, work, work, work, work, it’s good to have fun, but you still gotta stay on track though. Everyone is trying to do this music shit. Quick as you come up, you can fall off.
What do you think has been the key to your success so far?
Banditdamack: Consistency. I might have taken one month off since I started. Even that one month I took off, I was still recording and writing, I just wasn’t dropping anything, but I was still working.
What are you currently working on?
Banditdamack: Just singles, but I finna do an album with a deluxe and everything. I want to do like 15 songs for the tape and 10 for the deluxe. That’s 25 songs. 25 is our hood number.
How long does it take you to put together your albums?
Banditdamack: Da Mack might have took me 2-3 weeks. EPs those are’t shit, I can knock those out in like a week. This shit might take me a month because I want different sounds, but I don’t just want different sound’s, I want hard shit at the same time.
What producers do you turn too to get the beats you want?
Banditdamack: C Young On the Beat. My boy named Hex.. He produces for Saviii3rd. He produce a lot for Playerrways. P8 also got no songs with Cypress Moreno but his beats is hard. I got his number and he does send some shit over, but like I said I’m picky. ProdByRoger also. Bro I’m still rocking with Youtube beats. If its like a beat and it’s hard I fuck with it. I’m just picky. That shit might be harder than a whole pack someone send me.
In your music you manage to be funny yet brutally honest at the same time. How to you use humor to supplement the serious themes of your music?
Banditdamack: Like I said bro, it’s shit people can relate to. N***** always gotta have that key bar. Polo G said in one of his interviews you gotta have a key bar. He said in one of his songs, “Only bitch I give a conversation to is Siri.” That’s like a key bar, a memorable bar. You gotta have some of those. I feel like the funny ones are kind of the ones that stick.
What’s a typical day in life look like for you?
Banditdamack: Wake up, write, obviously, food, shower, shit like that. But every day it’d be something different. N***** might wake up, come here, or the homie have a fucking field day in Rancho Cucamonga. A studio day, or like an LA day is what I call it. We shooting videos, going to the studio, for sure. We working when we in LA. Maybe shop a little bit. When we go to LA, if we not at a Peer Space, we looking for spots because theres spots like 10 minutes from everywhere. Find a spot, shoot there, we’ll already had a studio booked at a certain time. So we finish shooting a video, get some food, fuck around. My boy Foolish, he has a team. They vlog, so like, they’ll vlog behind the scenes of what we’re doing.
We’ll hit up a store too, like Chiefin Heavily. The n***** at Chiefin Heavily, his store, the Fairfax studio is right behind it where my boy Hex work at. So if I’m recording there, and it’ll be times bro I’ll just walk in Chiefin Heavily and this n**** Playerrways be at the door. Shake his hand, go to to Hex shit, walk outside, G Money on the stairs. I like LA because you could network way easier. Out here it’s harder. I gotta go to Rancho Cucamonga, Redlands, or Riverside for a studio.
What is it about your lyrics, specifically, that you think puts you above everyone else?
Banditdamack: I feel like my rhymes be hard. Some motherfuckers be off beat. A lot of people hard, don’t get me wrong, I feel like I spit shit people from out here can relate too. I’ll spit shit for my section, for people out here, but everybody can relate to it type shit.
You’ve regarded Remble as an artist that you really look up too. What is it about his style that attracts you to his music?
Banditdamack: He can rap. That’s all I can really say. I don’t know how to explain it. That shit is just hard.
Who do you want to work with that you haven’t worked with yet?
Banditdamack: Mozzy. Me and Peysoh was supposed to lock some shit in. We text and shit, but I’m not really the type to ask for features and shit. That’s one of my pet peeves: people only want to talk about music and shit. Remble, Polo G. I’ll do some shit with G Money. 03 also, and OhGeesy.
How does it feel to be the one representing Hemet right now?
Banditdamack: At first when people would tell me that I feel like, what is you giving me flowers for? We ain’t done shit yet. We not where we need to be, but we know where we need to go. The city on the map for sure though, and I can say I helped with that. We got to go crazy. I want people in Louisiana to know about Hemet.
What do you think you sets yourself apart from other artists coming out of SoCal?
Banditdamack: My sound. I feel like pen and pad wise, there’s not too many people that can really fuck with me. There’s some though, don’t get me wrong. A lot of the people that’s on right now, lyric wise, I don’t think they better, but that’s not really all that matters, though. It’s a big part of it, but this shit is like an image. It’s a brand.
Are you writing or recording something everyday?
Banditdamack: I write damn near everyday. Just a couple bars sometimes, but everyday. I got some gas in the tank right now, finna go to the studio. I haven’t been in a week or two I’m not even gonna lie. I’ll write or I’ll shoot videos. That’s how I work when I’m not working.
What was happening in your life when you first started to take music seriously? What drove you to actually commit to doing it 100%?
Banditdamack: To be honest with you, I had just got out of jail. I had a little bit of money, so I was maintaining with that little money I had. I was going to the studio and paying for my little videos. I bounced probably with like $7500 cause I was going to college in jail, so I got financial aid. So yeah, I was going to the studio, shooting my videos, but I’m trying to still stay out of trouble, because one, I’m on probation, and two, I’m trying to rap for real now. I was 18, so it’s like, I ain’t going back to juvenile hall, I’m going to big boy jail now. The shit I was doing when I was a minor, they was low key slaps on the wrist. N***** getting real time as adults, so I’m like, it’s this or nothing low key.
I got a job through a fresh out program. It was a program I signed up for when I was in there. The center is right here. It’s across the street from the Hemet Vistas down the street. They help you graduate if you still in school. They help you get a job and shit, like construction or logistics. Like working in a warehouse. So I was working in a warehouse and they pick me up, go to the center right there, six in the morning, every morning, and we shoot off to Perris to the warehouse. Did that for six months then the program ended. I ain’t have a job after that. That’s when I was really rapping.
When did you see the music first start to take off?
Banditdamack: It was so slow low key. Some n***** when they go viral it’s overnight type shit. I feel like our shit was over time. It’s been two years. I’ve been rapping for two years, this September. I dropped my first song, September 25th. I’ll probably say, my first video it hit like 1k in a day on Youtube. That was the shit for me, because I had no subscribers, it was a new channel and shit. That shit was cool.
What do you think is the next step for you?
Banditdamack: Building a catalog. I just signed with Thizzler so I’ll build a catalog with them. Just work though, you gotta work.
What’s the story behind the making of your first project, Da Mack?
Banditdamack: It was not too long after I lost my job. I can’t even say I lost my job. Not too long after I stopped working, I knew I wanted to make a tape. I think one of the songs might have already been out. I already had the feature from Spank, that shit was sitting. I had the Lou Deezi feature probably sitting for a month, and then I only had to record like seven songs. I was dropping singles for a little bit, and then in the midst of that I was like, I’m gonna drop a tape. So I dropped my first lil tape.
Your most recent project is a collab with Blanco from Palm Springs. How did the two of you decide on make a tape together?
Banditdamack: Our neighborhood fucks with his neighborhood. He didn’t really rap, you feel me? He rapped and shit, but he didn’t take it seriously till his homies died. He had to do it because both of them rapped. They was booming out there where they from. They from Palm Springs. How we’re in the Inland Empire, they call that the Desert Empire. You got Palm Springs, Indio, Coachella, all that shit. So when he start taking it seriously, he started going up and shit. He started fucking with OTR. I think we already had a single out, and we start locking in at the Wrecking Spot.
This n***** be at the Wrecking Spot every night, I swear to God. He live in Palm Springs too. That n***** be locked in. That whole tape we did in the studio. There was no verses we had sent though, we did the whole shit in the studio.
How you get introduced to the Stinc Team?
Banditdamack: Through Playerrways they had tapped in. I done met Ralfy also. Instagram play a big part, he [Playerrways] had hit me up. You know on stories, how some people be like, “who should I put on my tape?” Someone had tagged me. I had an open. Sent him the open and he hopped on it the same night. Shit was hard. We got that feature for probably two three months. Me and two of the homies went to Santa Monica to meet with this label at this dinner. He was like, “tap in when you in LA, let’s shoot.” I’m like, we can shoot it on the Santa Monica Pier, so then we shot it that night. He work hard too, like, he quick bro. I told you, he sent the verse back same night, he quick.
Having that workflow is key. Why waste time in a session when you’re the one paying for it?
Banditdamack: It could be hard too. Say you coming up like me, and you sign for a whole lot of money, there could be a whole lot of distractions. You got bitches, you could dress flyer than you was before. You got a whole lot of shit you ain’t have before. You still gotta keep your head on straight. It’s cool to indulge, you don’t just gotta work, work, work, work, work, it’s good to have fun, but you still gotta stay on track though. Everyone is trying to do this music shit. Quick as you come up, you can fall off.
What do you think has been the key to your success so far?
Banditdamack: Consistency. I might have taken one month off since I started. Even that one month I took off, I was still recording and writing, I just wasn’t dropping anything, but I was still working.
What are you currently working on?
Banditdamack: Just singles, but I finna do an album with a deluxe and everything. I want to do like 15 songs for the tape and 10 for the deluxe. That’s 25 songs. 25 is our hood number.
How long does it take you to put together your albums?
Banditdamack: Da Mack might have took me 2-3 weeks. EPs those are’t shit, I can knock those out in like a week. This shit might take me a month because I want different sounds, but I don’t just want different sound’s, I want hard shit at the same time.
What producers do you turn too to get the beats you want?
Banditdamack: C Young On the Beat. My boy named Hex.. He produces for Saviii3rd. He produce a lot for Playerrways. P8 also got no songs with Cypress Moreno but his beats is hard. I got his number and he does send some shit over, but like I said I’m picky. ProdByRoger also. Bro I’m still rocking with Youtube beats. If its like a beat and it’s hard I fuck with it. I’m just picky. That shit might be harder than a whole pack someone send me.
In your music you manage to be funny yet brutally honest at the same time. How to you use humor to supplement the serious themes of your music?
Banditdamack: Like I said bro, it’s shit people can relate to. N***** always gotta have that key bar. Polo G said in one of his interviews you gotta have a key bar. He said in one of his songs, “Only bitch I give a conversation to is Siri.” That’s like a key bar, a memorable bar. You gotta have some of those. I feel like the funny ones are kind of the ones that stick.
What’s a typical day in life look like for you?
Banditdamack: Wake up, write, obviously, food, shower, shit like that. But every day it’d be something different. N***** might wake up, come here, or the homie have a fucking field day in Rancho Cucamonga. A studio day, or like an LA day is what I call it. We shooting videos, going to the studio, for sure. We working when we in LA. Maybe shop a little bit. When we go to LA, if we not at a Peer Space, we looking for spots because theres spots like 10 minutes from everywhere. Find a spot, shoot there, we’ll already had a studio booked at a certain time. So we finish shooting a video, get some food, fuck around. My boy Foolish, he has a team. They vlog, so like, they’ll vlog behind the scenes of what we’re doing.
We’ll hit up a store too, like Chiefin Heavily. The n***** at Chiefin Heavily, his store, the Fairfax studio is right behind it where my boy Hex work at. So if I’m recording there, and it’ll be times bro I’ll just walk in Chiefin Heavily and this n**** Playerrways be at the door. Shake his hand, go to to Hex shit, walk outside, G Money on the stairs. I like LA because you could network way easier. Out here it’s harder. I gotta go to Rancho Cucamonga, Redlands, or Riverside for a studio.
What is it about your lyrics, specifically, that you think puts you above everyone else?
Banditdamack: I feel like my rhymes be hard. Some motherfuckers be off beat. A lot of people hard, don’t get me wrong, I feel like I spit shit people from out here can relate too. I’ll spit shit for my section, for people out here, but everybody can relate to it type shit.
You’ve regarded Remble as an artist that you really look up too. What is it about his style that attracts you to his music?
Banditdamack: He can rap. That’s all I can really say. I don’t know how to explain it. That shit is just hard.
Who do you want to work with that you haven’t worked with yet?
Banditdamack: Mozzy. Me and Peysoh was supposed to lock some shit in. We text and shit, but I’m not really the type to ask for features and shit. That’s one of my pet peeves: people only want to talk about music and shit. Remble, Polo G. I’ll do some shit with G Money. 03 also, and OhGeesy.
How does it feel to be the one representing Hemet right now?
Banditdamack: At first when people would tell me that I feel like, what is you giving me flowers for? We ain’t done shit yet. We not where we need to be, but we know where we need to go. The city on the map for sure though, and I can say I helped with that. We got to go crazy. I want people in Louisiana to know about Hemet.
What do you think you sets yourself apart from other artists coming out of SoCal?
Banditdamack: My sound. I feel like pen and pad wise, there’s not too many people that can really fuck with me. There’s some though, don’t get me wrong. A lot of the people that’s on right now, lyric wise, I don’t think they better, but that’s not really all that matters, though. It’s a big part of it, but this shit is like an image. It’s a brand.
What was happening in your life when you first started to take music seriously? What drove you to actually commit to doing it 100%?
Banditdamack: To be honest with you, I had just got out of jail. I had a little bit of money, so I was maintaining with that little money I had. I was going to the studio and paying for my little videos. I bounced probably with like $7500 cause I was going to college in jail, so I got financial aid. So yeah, I was going to the studio, shooting my videos, but I’m trying to still stay out of trouble, because one, I’m on probation, and two, I’m trying to rap for real now. I was 18, so it’s like, I ain’t going back to juvenile hall, I’m going to big boy jail now. The shit I was doing when I was a minor, they was low key slaps on the wrist. N***** getting real time as adults, so I’m like, it’s this or nothing low key.
I got a job through a fresh out program. It was a program I signed up for when I was in there. The center is right here. It’s across the street from the Hemet Vistas down the street. They help you graduate if you still in school. They help you get a job and shit, like construction or logistics. Like working in a warehouse. So I was working in a warehouse and they pick me up, go to the center right there, six in the morning, every morning, and we shoot off to Perris to the warehouse. Did that for six months then the program ended. I ain’t have a job after that. That’s when I was really rapping.
When did you see the music first start to take off?
Banditdamack: It was so slow low key. Some n***** when they go viral it’s overnight type shit. I feel like our shit was over time. It’s been two years. I’ve been rapping for two years, this September. I dropped my first song, September 25th. I’ll probably say, my first video it hit like 1k in a day on Youtube. That was the shit for me, because I had no subscribers, it was a new channel and shit. That shit was cool.
What do you think is the next step for you?
Banditdamack: Building a catalog. I just signed with Thizzler so I’ll build a catalog with them. Just work though, you gotta work.
What’s the story behind the making of your first project, Da Mack?
Banditdamack: It was not too long after I lost my job. I can’t even say I lost my job. Not too long after I stopped working, I knew I wanted to make a tape. I think one of the songs might have already been out. I already had the feature from Spank, that shit was sitting. I had the Lou Deezi feature probably sitting for a month, and then I only had to record like seven songs. I was dropping singles for a little bit, and then in the midst of that I was like, I’m gonna drop a tape. So I dropped my first lil tape.
Your most recent project is a collab with Blanco from Palm Springs. How did the two of you decide on make a tape together?
Banditdamack: Our neighborhood fucks with his neighborhood. He didn’t really rap, you feel me? He rapped and shit, but he didn’t take it seriously till his homies died. He had to do it because both of them rapped. They was booming out there where they from. They from Palm Springs. How we’re in the Inland Empire, they call that the Desert Empire. You got Palm Springs, Indio, Coachella, all that shit. So when he start taking it seriously, he started going up and shit. He started fucking with OTR. I think we already had a single out, and we start locking in at the Wrecking Spot.
This n***** be at the Wrecking Spot every night, I swear to God. He live in Palm Springs too. That n***** be locked in. That whole tape we did in the studio. There was no verses we had sent though, we did the whole shit in the studio.
How you get introduced to the Stinc Team?
Banditdamack: Through Playerrways they had tapped in. I done met Ralfy also. Instagram play a big part, he [Playerrways] had hit me up. You know on stories, how some people be like, “who should I put on my tape?” Someone had tagged me. I had an open. Sent him the open and he hopped on it the same night. Shit was hard. We got that feature for probably two three months. Me and two of the homies went to Santa Monica to meet with this label at this dinner. He was like, “tap in when you in LA, let’s shoot.” I’m like, we can shoot it on the Santa Monica Pier, so then we shot it that night. He work hard too, like, he quick bro. I told you, he sent the verse back same night, he quick.
Having that workflow is key. Why waste time in a session when you’re the one paying for it?
Banditdamack: It could be hard too. Say you coming up like me, and you sign for a whole lot of money, there could be a whole lot of distractions. You got bitches, you could dress flyer than you was before. You got a whole lot of shit you ain’t have before. You still gotta keep your head on straight. It’s cool to indulge, you don’t just gotta work, work, work, work, work, it’s good to have fun, but you still gotta stay on track though. Everyone is trying to do this music shit. Quick as you come up, you can fall off.
What do you think has been the key to your success so far?
Banditdamack: Consistency. I might have taken one month off since I started. Even that one month I took off, I was still recording and writing, I just wasn’t dropping anything, but I was still working.
What are you currently working on?
Banditdamack: Just singles, but I finna do an album with a deluxe and everything. I want to do like 15 songs for the tape and 10 for the deluxe. That’s 25 songs. 25 is our hood number.
How long does it take you to put together your albums?
Banditdamack: Da Mack might have took me 2-3 weeks. EPs those are’t shit, I can knock those out in like a week. This shit might take me a month because I want different sounds, but I don’t just want different sound’s, I want hard shit at the same time.
What producers do you turn too to get the beats you want?
Banditdamack: C Young On the Beat. My boy named Hex.. He produces for Saviii3rd. He produce a lot for Playerrways. P8 also got no songs with Cypress Moreno but his beats is hard. I got his number and he does send some shit over, but like I said I’m picky. ProdByRoger also. Bro I’m still rocking with Youtube beats. If its like a beat and it’s hard I fuck with it. I’m just picky. That shit might be harder than a whole pack someone send me.
In your music you manage to be funny yet brutally honest at the same time. How to you use humor to supplement the serious themes of your music?
Banditdamack: Like I said bro, it’s shit people can relate to. N***** always gotta have that key bar. Polo G said in one of his interviews you gotta have a key bar. He said in one of his songs, “Only bitch I give a conversation to is Siri.” That’s like a key bar, a memorable bar. You gotta have some of those. I feel like the funny ones are kind of the ones that stick.
What’s a typical day in life look like for you?
Banditdamack: Wake up, write, obviously, food, shower, shit like that. But every day it’d be something different. N***** might wake up, come here, or the homie have a fucking field day in Rancho Cucamonga. A studio day, or like an LA day is what I call it. We shooting videos, going to the studio, for sure. We working when we in LA. Maybe shop a little bit. When we go to LA, if we not at a Peer Space, we looking for spots because theres spots like 10 minutes from everywhere. Find a spot, shoot there, we’ll already had a studio booked at a certain time. So we finish shooting a video, get some food, fuck around. My boy Foolish, he has a team. They vlog, so like, they’ll vlog behind the scenes of what we’re doing.
We’ll hit up a store too, like Chiefin Heavily. The n***** at Chiefin Heavily, his store, the Fairfax studio is right behind it where my boy Hex work at. So if I’m recording there, and it’ll be times bro I’ll just walk in Chiefin Heavily and this n**** Playerrways be at the door. Shake his hand, go to to Hex shit, walk outside, G Money on the stairs. I like LA because you could network way easier. Out here it’s harder. I gotta go to Rancho Cucamonga, Redlands, or Riverside for a studio.
What is it about your lyrics, specifically, that you think puts you above everyone else?
Banditdamack: I feel like my rhymes be hard. Some motherfuckers be off beat. A lot of people hard, don’t get me wrong, I feel like I spit shit people from out here can relate too. I’ll spit shit for my section, for people out here, but everybody can relate to it type shit.
You’ve regarded Remble as an artist that you really look up too. What is it about his style that attracts you to his music?
Banditdamack: He can rap. That’s all I can really say. I don’t know how to explain it. That shit is just hard.
Who do you want to work with that you haven’t worked with yet?
Banditdamack: Mozzy. Me and Peysoh was supposed to lock some shit in. We text and shit, but I’m not really the type to ask for features and shit. That’s one of my pet peeves: people only want to talk about music and shit. Remble, Polo G. I’ll do some shit with G Money. 03 also, and OhGeesy.
How does it feel to be the one representing Hemet right now?
Banditdamack: At first when people would tell me that I feel like, what is you giving me flowers for? We ain’t done shit yet. We not where we need to be, but we know where we need to go. The city on the map for sure though, and I can say I helped with that. We got to go crazy. I want people in Louisiana to know about Hemet.
What do you think you sets yourself apart from other artists coming out of SoCal?
Banditdamack: My sound. I feel like pen and pad wise, there’s not too many people that can really fuck with me. There’s some though, don’t get me wrong. A lot of the people that’s on right now, lyric wise, I don’t think they better, but that’s not really all that matters, though. It’s a big part of it, but this shit is like an image. It’s a brand.
I got a job through a fresh out program. It was a program I signed up for when I was in there. The center is right here. It’s across the street from the Hemet Vistas down the street. They help you graduate if you still in school. They help you get a job and shit, like construction or logistics. Like working in a warehouse. So I was working in a warehouse and they pick me up, go to the center right there, six in the morning, every morning, and we shoot off to Perris to the warehouse. Did that for six months then the program ended. I ain’t have a job after that. That’s when I was really rapping.
When did you see the music first start to take off?
Banditdamack: It was so slow low key. Some n***** when they go viral it’s overnight type shit. I feel like our shit was over time. It’s been two years. I’ve been rapping for two years, this September. I dropped my first song, September 25th. I’ll probably say, my first video it hit like 1k in a day on Youtube. That was the shit for me, because I had no subscribers, it was a new channel and shit. That shit was cool.
What do you think is the next step for you?
Banditdamack: Building a catalog. I just signed with Thizzler so I’ll build a catalog with them. Just work though, you gotta work.
What’s the story behind the making of your first project, Da Mack?
Banditdamack: It was not too long after I lost my job. I can’t even say I lost my job. Not too long after I stopped working, I knew I wanted to make a tape. I think one of the songs might have already been out. I already had the feature from Spank, that shit was sitting. I had the Lou Deezi feature probably sitting for a month, and then I only had to record like seven songs. I was dropping singles for a little bit, and then in the midst of that I was like, I’m gonna drop a tape. So I dropped my first lil tape.
Your most recent project is a collab with Blanco from Palm Springs. How did the two of you decide on make a tape together?
Banditdamack: Our neighborhood fucks with his neighborhood. He didn’t really rap, you feel me? He rapped and shit, but he didn’t take it seriously till his homies died. He had to do it because both of them rapped. They was booming out there where they from. They from Palm Springs. How we’re in the Inland Empire, they call that the Desert Empire. You got Palm Springs, Indio, Coachella, all that shit. So when he start taking it seriously, he started going up and shit. He started fucking with OTR. I think we already had a single out, and we start locking in at the Wrecking Spot.
This n***** be at the Wrecking Spot every night, I swear to God. He live in Palm Springs too. That n***** be locked in. That whole tape we did in the studio. There was no verses we had sent though, we did the whole shit in the studio.
How you get introduced to the Stinc Team?
Banditdamack: Through Playerrways they had tapped in. I done met Ralfy also. Instagram play a big part, he [Playerrways] had hit me up. You know on stories, how some people be like, “who should I put on my tape?” Someone had tagged me. I had an open. Sent him the open and he hopped on it the same night. Shit was hard. We got that feature for probably two three months. Me and two of the homies went to Santa Monica to meet with this label at this dinner. He was like, “tap in when you in LA, let’s shoot.” I’m like, we can shoot it on the Santa Monica Pier, so then we shot it that night. He work hard too, like, he quick bro. I told you, he sent the verse back same night, he quick.
Having that workflow is key. Why waste time in a session when you’re the one paying for it?
Banditdamack: It could be hard too. Say you coming up like me, and you sign for a whole lot of money, there could be a whole lot of distractions. You got bitches, you could dress flyer than you was before. You got a whole lot of shit you ain’t have before. You still gotta keep your head on straight. It’s cool to indulge, you don’t just gotta work, work, work, work, work, it’s good to have fun, but you still gotta stay on track though. Everyone is trying to do this music shit. Quick as you come up, you can fall off.
What do you think has been the key to your success so far?
Banditdamack: Consistency. I might have taken one month off since I started. Even that one month I took off, I was still recording and writing, I just wasn’t dropping anything, but I was still working.
What are you currently working on?
Banditdamack: Just singles, but I finna do an album with a deluxe and everything. I want to do like 15 songs for the tape and 10 for the deluxe. That’s 25 songs. 25 is our hood number.
How long does it take you to put together your albums?
Banditdamack: Da Mack might have took me 2-3 weeks. EPs those are’t shit, I can knock those out in like a week. This shit might take me a month because I want different sounds, but I don’t just want different sound’s, I want hard shit at the same time.
What producers do you turn too to get the beats you want?
Banditdamack: C Young On the Beat. My boy named Hex.. He produces for Saviii3rd. He produce a lot for Playerrways. P8 also got no songs with Cypress Moreno but his beats is hard. I got his number and he does send some shit over, but like I said I’m picky. ProdByRoger also. Bro I’m still rocking with Youtube beats. If its like a beat and it’s hard I fuck with it. I’m just picky. That shit might be harder than a whole pack someone send me.
In your music you manage to be funny yet brutally honest at the same time. How to you use humor to supplement the serious themes of your music?
Banditdamack: Like I said bro, it’s shit people can relate to. N***** always gotta have that key bar. Polo G said in one of his interviews you gotta have a key bar. He said in one of his songs, “Only bitch I give a conversation to is Siri.” That’s like a key bar, a memorable bar. You gotta have some of those. I feel like the funny ones are kind of the ones that stick.
What’s a typical day in life look like for you?
Banditdamack: Wake up, write, obviously, food, shower, shit like that. But every day it’d be something different. N***** might wake up, come here, or the homie have a fucking field day in Rancho Cucamonga. A studio day, or like an LA day is what I call it. We shooting videos, going to the studio, for sure. We working when we in LA. Maybe shop a little bit. When we go to LA, if we not at a Peer Space, we looking for spots because theres spots like 10 minutes from everywhere. Find a spot, shoot there, we’ll already had a studio booked at a certain time. So we finish shooting a video, get some food, fuck around. My boy Foolish, he has a team. They vlog, so like, they’ll vlog behind the scenes of what we’re doing.
We’ll hit up a store too, like Chiefin Heavily. The n***** at Chiefin Heavily, his store, the Fairfax studio is right behind it where my boy Hex work at. So if I’m recording there, and it’ll be times bro I’ll just walk in Chiefin Heavily and this n**** Playerrways be at the door. Shake his hand, go to to Hex shit, walk outside, G Money on the stairs. I like LA because you could network way easier. Out here it’s harder. I gotta go to Rancho Cucamonga, Redlands, or Riverside for a studio.
What is it about your lyrics, specifically, that you think puts you above everyone else?
Banditdamack: I feel like my rhymes be hard. Some motherfuckers be off beat. A lot of people hard, don’t get me wrong, I feel like I spit shit people from out here can relate too. I’ll spit shit for my section, for people out here, but everybody can relate to it type shit.
You’ve regarded Remble as an artist that you really look up too. What is it about his style that attracts you to his music?
Banditdamack: He can rap. That’s all I can really say. I don’t know how to explain it. That shit is just hard.
Who do you want to work with that you haven’t worked with yet?
Banditdamack: Mozzy. Me and Peysoh was supposed to lock some shit in. We text and shit, but I’m not really the type to ask for features and shit. That’s one of my pet peeves: people only want to talk about music and shit. Remble, Polo G. I’ll do some shit with G Money. 03 also, and OhGeesy.
How does it feel to be the one representing Hemet right now?
Banditdamack: At first when people would tell me that I feel like, what is you giving me flowers for? We ain’t done shit yet. We not where we need to be, but we know where we need to go. The city on the map for sure though, and I can say I helped with that. We got to go crazy. I want people in Louisiana to know about Hemet.
What do you think you sets yourself apart from other artists coming out of SoCal?
Banditdamack: My sound. I feel like pen and pad wise, there’s not too many people that can really fuck with me. There’s some though, don’t get me wrong. A lot of the people that’s on right now, lyric wise, I don’t think they better, but that’s not really all that matters, though. It’s a big part of it, but this shit is like an image. It’s a brand.
What do you think is the next step for you?
Banditdamack: Building a catalog. I just signed with Thizzler so I’ll build a catalog with them. Just work though, you gotta work.
What’s the story behind the making of your first project, Da Mack?
Banditdamack: It was not too long after I lost my job. I can’t even say I lost my job. Not too long after I stopped working, I knew I wanted to make a tape. I think one of the songs might have already been out. I already had the feature from Spank, that shit was sitting. I had the Lou Deezi feature probably sitting for a month, and then I only had to record like seven songs. I was dropping singles for a little bit, and then in the midst of that I was like, I’m gonna drop a tape. So I dropped my first lil tape.
Your most recent project is a collab with Blanco from Palm Springs. How did the two of you decide on make a tape together?
Banditdamack: Our neighborhood fucks with his neighborhood. He didn’t really rap, you feel me? He rapped and shit, but he didn’t take it seriously till his homies died. He had to do it because both of them rapped. They was booming out there where they from. They from Palm Springs. How we’re in the Inland Empire, they call that the Desert Empire. You got Palm Springs, Indio, Coachella, all that shit. So when he start taking it seriously, he started going up and shit. He started fucking with OTR. I think we already had a single out, and we start locking in at the Wrecking Spot.
This n***** be at the Wrecking Spot every night, I swear to God. He live in Palm Springs too. That n***** be locked in. That whole tape we did in the studio. There was no verses we had sent though, we did the whole shit in the studio.
How you get introduced to the Stinc Team?
Banditdamack: Through Playerrways they had tapped in. I done met Ralfy also. Instagram play a big part, he [Playerrways] had hit me up. You know on stories, how some people be like, “who should I put on my tape?” Someone had tagged me. I had an open. Sent him the open and he hopped on it the same night. Shit was hard. We got that feature for probably two three months. Me and two of the homies went to Santa Monica to meet with this label at this dinner. He was like, “tap in when you in LA, let’s shoot.” I’m like, we can shoot it on the Santa Monica Pier, so then we shot it that night. He work hard too, like, he quick bro. I told you, he sent the verse back same night, he quick.
Having that workflow is key. Why waste time in a session when you’re the one paying for it?
Banditdamack: It could be hard too. Say you coming up like me, and you sign for a whole lot of money, there could be a whole lot of distractions. You got bitches, you could dress flyer than you was before. You got a whole lot of shit you ain’t have before. You still gotta keep your head on straight. It’s cool to indulge, you don’t just gotta work, work, work, work, work, it’s good to have fun, but you still gotta stay on track though. Everyone is trying to do this music shit. Quick as you come up, you can fall off.
What do you think has been the key to your success so far?
Banditdamack: Consistency. I might have taken one month off since I started. Even that one month I took off, I was still recording and writing, I just wasn’t dropping anything, but I was still working.
What are you currently working on?
Banditdamack: Just singles, but I finna do an album with a deluxe and everything. I want to do like 15 songs for the tape and 10 for the deluxe. That’s 25 songs. 25 is our hood number.
How long does it take you to put together your albums?
Banditdamack: Da Mack might have took me 2-3 weeks. EPs those are’t shit, I can knock those out in like a week. This shit might take me a month because I want different sounds, but I don’t just want different sound’s, I want hard shit at the same time.
What producers do you turn too to get the beats you want?
Banditdamack: C Young On the Beat. My boy named Hex.. He produces for Saviii3rd. He produce a lot for Playerrways. P8 also got no songs with Cypress Moreno but his beats is hard. I got his number and he does send some shit over, but like I said I’m picky. ProdByRoger also. Bro I’m still rocking with Youtube beats. If its like a beat and it’s hard I fuck with it. I’m just picky. That shit might be harder than a whole pack someone send me.
In your music you manage to be funny yet brutally honest at the same time. How to you use humor to supplement the serious themes of your music?
Banditdamack: Like I said bro, it’s shit people can relate to. N***** always gotta have that key bar. Polo G said in one of his interviews you gotta have a key bar. He said in one of his songs, “Only bitch I give a conversation to is Siri.” That’s like a key bar, a memorable bar. You gotta have some of those. I feel like the funny ones are kind of the ones that stick.
What’s a typical day in life look like for you?
Banditdamack: Wake up, write, obviously, food, shower, shit like that. But every day it’d be something different. N***** might wake up, come here, or the homie have a fucking field day in Rancho Cucamonga. A studio day, or like an LA day is what I call it. We shooting videos, going to the studio, for sure. We working when we in LA. Maybe shop a little bit. When we go to LA, if we not at a Peer Space, we looking for spots because theres spots like 10 minutes from everywhere. Find a spot, shoot there, we’ll already had a studio booked at a certain time. So we finish shooting a video, get some food, fuck around. My boy Foolish, he has a team. They vlog, so like, they’ll vlog behind the scenes of what we’re doing.
We’ll hit up a store too, like Chiefin Heavily. The n***** at Chiefin Heavily, his store, the Fairfax studio is right behind it where my boy Hex work at. So if I’m recording there, and it’ll be times bro I’ll just walk in Chiefin Heavily and this n**** Playerrways be at the door. Shake his hand, go to to Hex shit, walk outside, G Money on the stairs. I like LA because you could network way easier. Out here it’s harder. I gotta go to Rancho Cucamonga, Redlands, or Riverside for a studio.
What is it about your lyrics, specifically, that you think puts you above everyone else?
Banditdamack: I feel like my rhymes be hard. Some motherfuckers be off beat. A lot of people hard, don’t get me wrong, I feel like I spit shit people from out here can relate too. I’ll spit shit for my section, for people out here, but everybody can relate to it type shit.
You’ve regarded Remble as an artist that you really look up too. What is it about his style that attracts you to his music?
Banditdamack: He can rap. That’s all I can really say. I don’t know how to explain it. That shit is just hard.
Who do you want to work with that you haven’t worked with yet?
Banditdamack: Mozzy. Me and Peysoh was supposed to lock some shit in. We text and shit, but I’m not really the type to ask for features and shit. That’s one of my pet peeves: people only want to talk about music and shit. Remble, Polo G. I’ll do some shit with G Money. 03 also, and OhGeesy.
How does it feel to be the one representing Hemet right now?
Banditdamack: At first when people would tell me that I feel like, what is you giving me flowers for? We ain’t done shit yet. We not where we need to be, but we know where we need to go. The city on the map for sure though, and I can say I helped with that. We got to go crazy. I want people in Louisiana to know about Hemet.
What do you think you sets yourself apart from other artists coming out of SoCal?
Banditdamack: My sound. I feel like pen and pad wise, there’s not too many people that can really fuck with me. There’s some though, don’t get me wrong. A lot of the people that’s on right now, lyric wise, I don’t think they better, but that’s not really all that matters, though. It’s a big part of it, but this shit is like an image. It’s a brand.
What’s the story behind the making of your first project, Da Mack?
Banditdamack: It was not too long after I lost my job. I can’t even say I lost my job. Not too long after I stopped working, I knew I wanted to make a tape. I think one of the songs might have already been out. I already had the feature from Spank, that shit was sitting. I had the Lou Deezi feature probably sitting for a month, and then I only had to record like seven songs. I was dropping singles for a little bit, and then in the midst of that I was like, I’m gonna drop a tape. So I dropped my first lil tape.
Your most recent project is a collab with Blanco from Palm Springs. How did the two of you decide on make a tape together?
Banditdamack: Our neighborhood fucks with his neighborhood. He didn’t really rap, you feel me? He rapped and shit, but he didn’t take it seriously till his homies died. He had to do it because both of them rapped. They was booming out there where they from. They from Palm Springs. How we’re in the Inland Empire, they call that the Desert Empire. You got Palm Springs, Indio, Coachella, all that shit. So when he start taking it seriously, he started going up and shit. He started fucking with OTR. I think we already had a single out, and we start locking in at the Wrecking Spot.
This n***** be at the Wrecking Spot every night, I swear to God. He live in Palm Springs too. That n***** be locked in. That whole tape we did in the studio. There was no verses we had sent though, we did the whole shit in the studio.
How you get introduced to the Stinc Team?
Banditdamack: Through Playerrways they had tapped in. I done met Ralfy also. Instagram play a big part, he [Playerrways] had hit me up. You know on stories, how some people be like, “who should I put on my tape?” Someone had tagged me. I had an open. Sent him the open and he hopped on it the same night. Shit was hard. We got that feature for probably two three months. Me and two of the homies went to Santa Monica to meet with this label at this dinner. He was like, “tap in when you in LA, let’s shoot.” I’m like, we can shoot it on the Santa Monica Pier, so then we shot it that night. He work hard too, like, he quick bro. I told you, he sent the verse back same night, he quick.
Having that workflow is key. Why waste time in a session when you’re the one paying for it?
Banditdamack: It could be hard too. Say you coming up like me, and you sign for a whole lot of money, there could be a whole lot of distractions. You got bitches, you could dress flyer than you was before. You got a whole lot of shit you ain’t have before. You still gotta keep your head on straight. It’s cool to indulge, you don’t just gotta work, work, work, work, work, it’s good to have fun, but you still gotta stay on track though. Everyone is trying to do this music shit. Quick as you come up, you can fall off.
What do you think has been the key to your success so far?
Banditdamack: Consistency. I might have taken one month off since I started. Even that one month I took off, I was still recording and writing, I just wasn’t dropping anything, but I was still working.
What are you currently working on?
Banditdamack: Just singles, but I finna do an album with a deluxe and everything. I want to do like 15 songs for the tape and 10 for the deluxe. That’s 25 songs. 25 is our hood number.
How long does it take you to put together your albums?
Banditdamack: Da Mack might have took me 2-3 weeks. EPs those are’t shit, I can knock those out in like a week. This shit might take me a month because I want different sounds, but I don’t just want different sound’s, I want hard shit at the same time.
What producers do you turn too to get the beats you want?
Banditdamack: C Young On the Beat. My boy named Hex.. He produces for Saviii3rd. He produce a lot for Playerrways. P8 also got no songs with Cypress Moreno but his beats is hard. I got his number and he does send some shit over, but like I said I’m picky. ProdByRoger also. Bro I’m still rocking with Youtube beats. If its like a beat and it’s hard I fuck with it. I’m just picky. That shit might be harder than a whole pack someone send me.
In your music you manage to be funny yet brutally honest at the same time. How to you use humor to supplement the serious themes of your music?
Banditdamack: Like I said bro, it’s shit people can relate to. N***** always gotta have that key bar. Polo G said in one of his interviews you gotta have a key bar. He said in one of his songs, “Only bitch I give a conversation to is Siri.” That’s like a key bar, a memorable bar. You gotta have some of those. I feel like the funny ones are kind of the ones that stick.
What’s a typical day in life look like for you?
Banditdamack: Wake up, write, obviously, food, shower, shit like that. But every day it’d be something different. N***** might wake up, come here, or the homie have a fucking field day in Rancho Cucamonga. A studio day, or like an LA day is what I call it. We shooting videos, going to the studio, for sure. We working when we in LA. Maybe shop a little bit. When we go to LA, if we not at a Peer Space, we looking for spots because theres spots like 10 minutes from everywhere. Find a spot, shoot there, we’ll already had a studio booked at a certain time. So we finish shooting a video, get some food, fuck around. My boy Foolish, he has a team. They vlog, so like, they’ll vlog behind the scenes of what we’re doing.
We’ll hit up a store too, like Chiefin Heavily. The n***** at Chiefin Heavily, his store, the Fairfax studio is right behind it where my boy Hex work at. So if I’m recording there, and it’ll be times bro I’ll just walk in Chiefin Heavily and this n**** Playerrways be at the door. Shake his hand, go to to Hex shit, walk outside, G Money on the stairs. I like LA because you could network way easier. Out here it’s harder. I gotta go to Rancho Cucamonga, Redlands, or Riverside for a studio.
What is it about your lyrics, specifically, that you think puts you above everyone else?
Banditdamack: I feel like my rhymes be hard. Some motherfuckers be off beat. A lot of people hard, don’t get me wrong, I feel like I spit shit people from out here can relate too. I’ll spit shit for my section, for people out here, but everybody can relate to it type shit.
You’ve regarded Remble as an artist that you really look up too. What is it about his style that attracts you to his music?
Banditdamack: He can rap. That’s all I can really say. I don’t know how to explain it. That shit is just hard.
Who do you want to work with that you haven’t worked with yet?
Banditdamack: Mozzy. Me and Peysoh was supposed to lock some shit in. We text and shit, but I’m not really the type to ask for features and shit. That’s one of my pet peeves: people only want to talk about music and shit. Remble, Polo G. I’ll do some shit with G Money. 03 also, and OhGeesy.
How does it feel to be the one representing Hemet right now?
Banditdamack: At first when people would tell me that I feel like, what is you giving me flowers for? We ain’t done shit yet. We not where we need to be, but we know where we need to go. The city on the map for sure though, and I can say I helped with that. We got to go crazy. I want people in Louisiana to know about Hemet.
What do you think you sets yourself apart from other artists coming out of SoCal?
Banditdamack: My sound. I feel like pen and pad wise, there’s not too many people that can really fuck with me. There’s some though, don’t get me wrong. A lot of the people that’s on right now, lyric wise, I don’t think they better, but that’s not really all that matters, though. It’s a big part of it, but this shit is like an image. It’s a brand.
Your most recent project is a collab with Blanco from Palm Springs. How did the two of you decide on make a tape together?
Banditdamack: Our neighborhood fucks with his neighborhood. He didn’t really rap, you feel me? He rapped and shit, but he didn’t take it seriously till his homies died. He had to do it because both of them rapped. They was booming out there where they from. They from Palm Springs. How we’re in the Inland Empire, they call that the Desert Empire. You got Palm Springs, Indio, Coachella, all that shit. So when he start taking it seriously, he started going up and shit. He started fucking with OTR. I think we already had a single out, and we start locking in at the Wrecking Spot.
This n***** be at the Wrecking Spot every night, I swear to God. He live in Palm Springs too. That n***** be locked in. That whole tape we did in the studio. There was no verses we had sent though, we did the whole shit in the studio.
How you get introduced to the Stinc Team?
Banditdamack: Through Playerrways they had tapped in. I done met Ralfy also. Instagram play a big part, he [Playerrways] had hit me up. You know on stories, how some people be like, “who should I put on my tape?” Someone had tagged me. I had an open. Sent him the open and he hopped on it the same night. Shit was hard. We got that feature for probably two three months. Me and two of the homies went to Santa Monica to meet with this label at this dinner. He was like, “tap in when you in LA, let’s shoot.” I’m like, we can shoot it on the Santa Monica Pier, so then we shot it that night. He work hard too, like, he quick bro. I told you, he sent the verse back same night, he quick.
Having that workflow is key. Why waste time in a session when you’re the one paying for it?
Banditdamack: It could be hard too. Say you coming up like me, and you sign for a whole lot of money, there could be a whole lot of distractions. You got bitches, you could dress flyer than you was before. You got a whole lot of shit you ain’t have before. You still gotta keep your head on straight. It’s cool to indulge, you don’t just gotta work, work, work, work, work, it’s good to have fun, but you still gotta stay on track though. Everyone is trying to do this music shit. Quick as you come up, you can fall off.
What do you think has been the key to your success so far?
Banditdamack: Consistency. I might have taken one month off since I started. Even that one month I took off, I was still recording and writing, I just wasn’t dropping anything, but I was still working.
What are you currently working on?
Banditdamack: Just singles, but I finna do an album with a deluxe and everything. I want to do like 15 songs for the tape and 10 for the deluxe. That’s 25 songs. 25 is our hood number.
How long does it take you to put together your albums?
Banditdamack: Da Mack might have took me 2-3 weeks. EPs those are’t shit, I can knock those out in like a week. This shit might take me a month because I want different sounds, but I don’t just want different sound’s, I want hard shit at the same time.
What producers do you turn too to get the beats you want?
Banditdamack: C Young On the Beat. My boy named Hex.. He produces for Saviii3rd. He produce a lot for Playerrways. P8 also got no songs with Cypress Moreno but his beats is hard. I got his number and he does send some shit over, but like I said I’m picky. ProdByRoger also. Bro I’m still rocking with Youtube beats. If its like a beat and it’s hard I fuck with it. I’m just picky. That shit might be harder than a whole pack someone send me.
In your music you manage to be funny yet brutally honest at the same time. How to you use humor to supplement the serious themes of your music?
Banditdamack: Like I said bro, it’s shit people can relate to. N***** always gotta have that key bar. Polo G said in one of his interviews you gotta have a key bar. He said in one of his songs, “Only bitch I give a conversation to is Siri.” That’s like a key bar, a memorable bar. You gotta have some of those. I feel like the funny ones are kind of the ones that stick.
What’s a typical day in life look like for you?
Banditdamack: Wake up, write, obviously, food, shower, shit like that. But every day it’d be something different. N***** might wake up, come here, or the homie have a fucking field day in Rancho Cucamonga. A studio day, or like an LA day is what I call it. We shooting videos, going to the studio, for sure. We working when we in LA. Maybe shop a little bit. When we go to LA, if we not at a Peer Space, we looking for spots because theres spots like 10 minutes from everywhere. Find a spot, shoot there, we’ll already had a studio booked at a certain time. So we finish shooting a video, get some food, fuck around. My boy Foolish, he has a team. They vlog, so like, they’ll vlog behind the scenes of what we’re doing.
We’ll hit up a store too, like Chiefin Heavily. The n***** at Chiefin Heavily, his store, the Fairfax studio is right behind it where my boy Hex work at. So if I’m recording there, and it’ll be times bro I’ll just walk in Chiefin Heavily and this n**** Playerrways be at the door. Shake his hand, go to to Hex shit, walk outside, G Money on the stairs. I like LA because you could network way easier. Out here it’s harder. I gotta go to Rancho Cucamonga, Redlands, or Riverside for a studio.
What is it about your lyrics, specifically, that you think puts you above everyone else?
Banditdamack: I feel like my rhymes be hard. Some motherfuckers be off beat. A lot of people hard, don’t get me wrong, I feel like I spit shit people from out here can relate too. I’ll spit shit for my section, for people out here, but everybody can relate to it type shit.
You’ve regarded Remble as an artist that you really look up too. What is it about his style that attracts you to his music?
Banditdamack: He can rap. That’s all I can really say. I don’t know how to explain it. That shit is just hard.
Who do you want to work with that you haven’t worked with yet?
Banditdamack: Mozzy. Me and Peysoh was supposed to lock some shit in. We text and shit, but I’m not really the type to ask for features and shit. That’s one of my pet peeves: people only want to talk about music and shit. Remble, Polo G. I’ll do some shit with G Money. 03 also, and OhGeesy.
How does it feel to be the one representing Hemet right now?
Banditdamack: At first when people would tell me that I feel like, what is you giving me flowers for? We ain’t done shit yet. We not where we need to be, but we know where we need to go. The city on the map for sure though, and I can say I helped with that. We got to go crazy. I want people in Louisiana to know about Hemet.
What do you think you sets yourself apart from other artists coming out of SoCal?
Banditdamack: My sound. I feel like pen and pad wise, there’s not too many people that can really fuck with me. There’s some though, don’t get me wrong. A lot of the people that’s on right now, lyric wise, I don’t think they better, but that’s not really all that matters, though. It’s a big part of it, but this shit is like an image. It’s a brand.
This n***** be at the Wrecking Spot every night, I swear to God. He live in Palm Springs too. That n***** be locked in. That whole tape we did in the studio. There was no verses we had sent though, we did the whole shit in the studio.
How you get introduced to the Stinc Team?
Banditdamack: Through Playerrways they had tapped in. I done met Ralfy also. Instagram play a big part, he [Playerrways] had hit me up. You know on stories, how some people be like, “who should I put on my tape?” Someone had tagged me. I had an open. Sent him the open and he hopped on it the same night. Shit was hard. We got that feature for probably two three months. Me and two of the homies went to Santa Monica to meet with this label at this dinner. He was like, “tap in when you in LA, let’s shoot.” I’m like, we can shoot it on the Santa Monica Pier, so then we shot it that night. He work hard too, like, he quick bro. I told you, he sent the verse back same night, he quick.
Having that workflow is key. Why waste time in a session when you’re the one paying for it?
Banditdamack: It could be hard too. Say you coming up like me, and you sign for a whole lot of money, there could be a whole lot of distractions. You got bitches, you could dress flyer than you was before. You got a whole lot of shit you ain’t have before. You still gotta keep your head on straight. It’s cool to indulge, you don’t just gotta work, work, work, work, work, it’s good to have fun, but you still gotta stay on track though. Everyone is trying to do this music shit. Quick as you come up, you can fall off.
What do you think has been the key to your success so far?
Banditdamack: Consistency. I might have taken one month off since I started. Even that one month I took off, I was still recording and writing, I just wasn’t dropping anything, but I was still working.
What are you currently working on?
Banditdamack: Just singles, but I finna do an album with a deluxe and everything. I want to do like 15 songs for the tape and 10 for the deluxe. That’s 25 songs. 25 is our hood number.
How long does it take you to put together your albums?
Banditdamack: Da Mack might have took me 2-3 weeks. EPs those are’t shit, I can knock those out in like a week. This shit might take me a month because I want different sounds, but I don’t just want different sound’s, I want hard shit at the same time.
What producers do you turn too to get the beats you want?
Banditdamack: C Young On the Beat. My boy named Hex.. He produces for Saviii3rd. He produce a lot for Playerrways. P8 also got no songs with Cypress Moreno but his beats is hard. I got his number and he does send some shit over, but like I said I’m picky. ProdByRoger also. Bro I’m still rocking with Youtube beats. If its like a beat and it’s hard I fuck with it. I’m just picky. That shit might be harder than a whole pack someone send me.
In your music you manage to be funny yet brutally honest at the same time. How to you use humor to supplement the serious themes of your music?
Banditdamack: Like I said bro, it’s shit people can relate to. N***** always gotta have that key bar. Polo G said in one of his interviews you gotta have a key bar. He said in one of his songs, “Only bitch I give a conversation to is Siri.” That’s like a key bar, a memorable bar. You gotta have some of those. I feel like the funny ones are kind of the ones that stick.
What’s a typical day in life look like for you?
Banditdamack: Wake up, write, obviously, food, shower, shit like that. But every day it’d be something different. N***** might wake up, come here, or the homie have a fucking field day in Rancho Cucamonga. A studio day, or like an LA day is what I call it. We shooting videos, going to the studio, for sure. We working when we in LA. Maybe shop a little bit. When we go to LA, if we not at a Peer Space, we looking for spots because theres spots like 10 minutes from everywhere. Find a spot, shoot there, we’ll already had a studio booked at a certain time. So we finish shooting a video, get some food, fuck around. My boy Foolish, he has a team. They vlog, so like, they’ll vlog behind the scenes of what we’re doing.
We’ll hit up a store too, like Chiefin Heavily. The n***** at Chiefin Heavily, his store, the Fairfax studio is right behind it where my boy Hex work at. So if I’m recording there, and it’ll be times bro I’ll just walk in Chiefin Heavily and this n**** Playerrways be at the door. Shake his hand, go to to Hex shit, walk outside, G Money on the stairs. I like LA because you could network way easier. Out here it’s harder. I gotta go to Rancho Cucamonga, Redlands, or Riverside for a studio.
What is it about your lyrics, specifically, that you think puts you above everyone else?
Banditdamack: I feel like my rhymes be hard. Some motherfuckers be off beat. A lot of people hard, don’t get me wrong, I feel like I spit shit people from out here can relate too. I’ll spit shit for my section, for people out here, but everybody can relate to it type shit.
You’ve regarded Remble as an artist that you really look up too. What is it about his style that attracts you to his music?
Banditdamack: He can rap. That’s all I can really say. I don’t know how to explain it. That shit is just hard.
Who do you want to work with that you haven’t worked with yet?
Banditdamack: Mozzy. Me and Peysoh was supposed to lock some shit in. We text and shit, but I’m not really the type to ask for features and shit. That’s one of my pet peeves: people only want to talk about music and shit. Remble, Polo G. I’ll do some shit with G Money. 03 also, and OhGeesy.
How does it feel to be the one representing Hemet right now?
Banditdamack: At first when people would tell me that I feel like, what is you giving me flowers for? We ain’t done shit yet. We not where we need to be, but we know where we need to go. The city on the map for sure though, and I can say I helped with that. We got to go crazy. I want people in Louisiana to know about Hemet.
What do you think you sets yourself apart from other artists coming out of SoCal?
Banditdamack: My sound. I feel like pen and pad wise, there’s not too many people that can really fuck with me. There’s some though, don’t get me wrong. A lot of the people that’s on right now, lyric wise, I don’t think they better, but that’s not really all that matters, though. It’s a big part of it, but this shit is like an image. It’s a brand.
Having that workflow is key. Why waste time in a session when you’re the one paying for it?
Banditdamack: It could be hard too. Say you coming up like me, and you sign for a whole lot of money, there could be a whole lot of distractions. You got bitches, you could dress flyer than you was before. You got a whole lot of shit you ain’t have before. You still gotta keep your head on straight. It’s cool to indulge, you don’t just gotta work, work, work, work, work, it’s good to have fun, but you still gotta stay on track though. Everyone is trying to do this music shit. Quick as you come up, you can fall off.
What do you think has been the key to your success so far?
Banditdamack: Consistency. I might have taken one month off since I started. Even that one month I took off, I was still recording and writing, I just wasn’t dropping anything, but I was still working.
What are you currently working on?
Banditdamack: Just singles, but I finna do an album with a deluxe and everything. I want to do like 15 songs for the tape and 10 for the deluxe. That’s 25 songs. 25 is our hood number.
How long does it take you to put together your albums?
Banditdamack: Da Mack might have took me 2-3 weeks. EPs those are’t shit, I can knock those out in like a week. This shit might take me a month because I want different sounds, but I don’t just want different sound’s, I want hard shit at the same time.
What producers do you turn too to get the beats you want?
Banditdamack: C Young On the Beat. My boy named Hex.. He produces for Saviii3rd. He produce a lot for Playerrways. P8 also got no songs with Cypress Moreno but his beats is hard. I got his number and he does send some shit over, but like I said I’m picky. ProdByRoger also. Bro I’m still rocking with Youtube beats. If its like a beat and it’s hard I fuck with it. I’m just picky. That shit might be harder than a whole pack someone send me.
In your music you manage to be funny yet brutally honest at the same time. How to you use humor to supplement the serious themes of your music?
Banditdamack: Like I said bro, it’s shit people can relate to. N***** always gotta have that key bar. Polo G said in one of his interviews you gotta have a key bar. He said in one of his songs, “Only bitch I give a conversation to is Siri.” That’s like a key bar, a memorable bar. You gotta have some of those. I feel like the funny ones are kind of the ones that stick.
What’s a typical day in life look like for you?
Banditdamack: Wake up, write, obviously, food, shower, shit like that. But every day it’d be something different. N***** might wake up, come here, or the homie have a fucking field day in Rancho Cucamonga. A studio day, or like an LA day is what I call it. We shooting videos, going to the studio, for sure. We working when we in LA. Maybe shop a little bit. When we go to LA, if we not at a Peer Space, we looking for spots because theres spots like 10 minutes from everywhere. Find a spot, shoot there, we’ll already had a studio booked at a certain time. So we finish shooting a video, get some food, fuck around. My boy Foolish, he has a team. They vlog, so like, they’ll vlog behind the scenes of what we’re doing.
We’ll hit up a store too, like Chiefin Heavily. The n***** at Chiefin Heavily, his store, the Fairfax studio is right behind it where my boy Hex work at. So if I’m recording there, and it’ll be times bro I’ll just walk in Chiefin Heavily and this n**** Playerrways be at the door. Shake his hand, go to to Hex shit, walk outside, G Money on the stairs. I like LA because you could network way easier. Out here it’s harder. I gotta go to Rancho Cucamonga, Redlands, or Riverside for a studio.
What is it about your lyrics, specifically, that you think puts you above everyone else?
Banditdamack: I feel like my rhymes be hard. Some motherfuckers be off beat. A lot of people hard, don’t get me wrong, I feel like I spit shit people from out here can relate too. I’ll spit shit for my section, for people out here, but everybody can relate to it type shit.
You’ve regarded Remble as an artist that you really look up too. What is it about his style that attracts you to his music?
Banditdamack: He can rap. That’s all I can really say. I don’t know how to explain it. That shit is just hard.
Who do you want to work with that you haven’t worked with yet?
Banditdamack: Mozzy. Me and Peysoh was supposed to lock some shit in. We text and shit, but I’m not really the type to ask for features and shit. That’s one of my pet peeves: people only want to talk about music and shit. Remble, Polo G. I’ll do some shit with G Money. 03 also, and OhGeesy.
How does it feel to be the one representing Hemet right now?
Banditdamack: At first when people would tell me that I feel like, what is you giving me flowers for? We ain’t done shit yet. We not where we need to be, but we know where we need to go. The city on the map for sure though, and I can say I helped with that. We got to go crazy. I want people in Louisiana to know about Hemet.
What do you think you sets yourself apart from other artists coming out of SoCal?
Banditdamack: My sound. I feel like pen and pad wise, there’s not too many people that can really fuck with me. There’s some though, don’t get me wrong. A lot of the people that’s on right now, lyric wise, I don’t think they better, but that’s not really all that matters, though. It’s a big part of it, but this shit is like an image. It’s a brand.
What do you think has been the key to your success so far?
Banditdamack: Consistency. I might have taken one month off since I started. Even that one month I took off, I was still recording and writing, I just wasn’t dropping anything, but I was still working.
What are you currently working on?
Banditdamack: Just singles, but I finna do an album with a deluxe and everything. I want to do like 15 songs for the tape and 10 for the deluxe. That’s 25 songs. 25 is our hood number.
How long does it take you to put together your albums?
Banditdamack: Da Mack might have took me 2-3 weeks. EPs those are’t shit, I can knock those out in like a week. This shit might take me a month because I want different sounds, but I don’t just want different sound’s, I want hard shit at the same time.
What producers do you turn too to get the beats you want?
Banditdamack: C Young On the Beat. My boy named Hex.. He produces for Saviii3rd. He produce a lot for Playerrways. P8 also got no songs with Cypress Moreno but his beats is hard. I got his number and he does send some shit over, but like I said I’m picky. ProdByRoger also. Bro I’m still rocking with Youtube beats. If its like a beat and it’s hard I fuck with it. I’m just picky. That shit might be harder than a whole pack someone send me.
In your music you manage to be funny yet brutally honest at the same time. How to you use humor to supplement the serious themes of your music?
Banditdamack: Like I said bro, it’s shit people can relate to. N***** always gotta have that key bar. Polo G said in one of his interviews you gotta have a key bar. He said in one of his songs, “Only bitch I give a conversation to is Siri.” That’s like a key bar, a memorable bar. You gotta have some of those. I feel like the funny ones are kind of the ones that stick.
What’s a typical day in life look like for you?
Banditdamack: Wake up, write, obviously, food, shower, shit like that. But every day it’d be something different. N***** might wake up, come here, or the homie have a fucking field day in Rancho Cucamonga. A studio day, or like an LA day is what I call it. We shooting videos, going to the studio, for sure. We working when we in LA. Maybe shop a little bit. When we go to LA, if we not at a Peer Space, we looking for spots because theres spots like 10 minutes from everywhere. Find a spot, shoot there, we’ll already had a studio booked at a certain time. So we finish shooting a video, get some food, fuck around. My boy Foolish, he has a team. They vlog, so like, they’ll vlog behind the scenes of what we’re doing.
We’ll hit up a store too, like Chiefin Heavily. The n***** at Chiefin Heavily, his store, the Fairfax studio is right behind it where my boy Hex work at. So if I’m recording there, and it’ll be times bro I’ll just walk in Chiefin Heavily and this n**** Playerrways be at the door. Shake his hand, go to to Hex shit, walk outside, G Money on the stairs. I like LA because you could network way easier. Out here it’s harder. I gotta go to Rancho Cucamonga, Redlands, or Riverside for a studio.
What is it about your lyrics, specifically, that you think puts you above everyone else?
Banditdamack: I feel like my rhymes be hard. Some motherfuckers be off beat. A lot of people hard, don’t get me wrong, I feel like I spit shit people from out here can relate too. I’ll spit shit for my section, for people out here, but everybody can relate to it type shit.
You’ve regarded Remble as an artist that you really look up too. What is it about his style that attracts you to his music?
Banditdamack: He can rap. That’s all I can really say. I don’t know how to explain it. That shit is just hard.
Who do you want to work with that you haven’t worked with yet?
Banditdamack: Mozzy. Me and Peysoh was supposed to lock some shit in. We text and shit, but I’m not really the type to ask for features and shit. That’s one of my pet peeves: people only want to talk about music and shit. Remble, Polo G. I’ll do some shit with G Money. 03 also, and OhGeesy.
How does it feel to be the one representing Hemet right now?
Banditdamack: At first when people would tell me that I feel like, what is you giving me flowers for? We ain’t done shit yet. We not where we need to be, but we know where we need to go. The city on the map for sure though, and I can say I helped with that. We got to go crazy. I want people in Louisiana to know about Hemet.
What do you think you sets yourself apart from other artists coming out of SoCal?
Banditdamack: My sound. I feel like pen and pad wise, there’s not too many people that can really fuck with me. There’s some though, don’t get me wrong. A lot of the people that’s on right now, lyric wise, I don’t think they better, but that’s not really all that matters, though. It’s a big part of it, but this shit is like an image. It’s a brand.
What are you currently working on?
Banditdamack: Just singles, but I finna do an album with a deluxe and everything. I want to do like 15 songs for the tape and 10 for the deluxe. That’s 25 songs. 25 is our hood number.
How long does it take you to put together your albums?
Banditdamack: Da Mack might have took me 2-3 weeks. EPs those are’t shit, I can knock those out in like a week. This shit might take me a month because I want different sounds, but I don’t just want different sound’s, I want hard shit at the same time.
What producers do you turn too to get the beats you want?
Banditdamack: C Young On the Beat. My boy named Hex.. He produces for Saviii3rd. He produce a lot for Playerrways. P8 also got no songs with Cypress Moreno but his beats is hard. I got his number and he does send some shit over, but like I said I’m picky. ProdByRoger also. Bro I’m still rocking with Youtube beats. If its like a beat and it’s hard I fuck with it. I’m just picky. That shit might be harder than a whole pack someone send me.
In your music you manage to be funny yet brutally honest at the same time. How to you use humor to supplement the serious themes of your music?
Banditdamack: Like I said bro, it’s shit people can relate to. N***** always gotta have that key bar. Polo G said in one of his interviews you gotta have a key bar. He said in one of his songs, “Only bitch I give a conversation to is Siri.” That’s like a key bar, a memorable bar. You gotta have some of those. I feel like the funny ones are kind of the ones that stick.
What’s a typical day in life look like for you?
Banditdamack: Wake up, write, obviously, food, shower, shit like that. But every day it’d be something different. N***** might wake up, come here, or the homie have a fucking field day in Rancho Cucamonga. A studio day, or like an LA day is what I call it. We shooting videos, going to the studio, for sure. We working when we in LA. Maybe shop a little bit. When we go to LA, if we not at a Peer Space, we looking for spots because theres spots like 10 minutes from everywhere. Find a spot, shoot there, we’ll already had a studio booked at a certain time. So we finish shooting a video, get some food, fuck around. My boy Foolish, he has a team. They vlog, so like, they’ll vlog behind the scenes of what we’re doing.
We’ll hit up a store too, like Chiefin Heavily. The n***** at Chiefin Heavily, his store, the Fairfax studio is right behind it where my boy Hex work at. So if I’m recording there, and it’ll be times bro I’ll just walk in Chiefin Heavily and this n**** Playerrways be at the door. Shake his hand, go to to Hex shit, walk outside, G Money on the stairs. I like LA because you could network way easier. Out here it’s harder. I gotta go to Rancho Cucamonga, Redlands, or Riverside for a studio.
What is it about your lyrics, specifically, that you think puts you above everyone else?
Banditdamack: I feel like my rhymes be hard. Some motherfuckers be off beat. A lot of people hard, don’t get me wrong, I feel like I spit shit people from out here can relate too. I’ll spit shit for my section, for people out here, but everybody can relate to it type shit.
You’ve regarded Remble as an artist that you really look up too. What is it about his style that attracts you to his music?
Banditdamack: He can rap. That’s all I can really say. I don’t know how to explain it. That shit is just hard.
Who do you want to work with that you haven’t worked with yet?
Banditdamack: Mozzy. Me and Peysoh was supposed to lock some shit in. We text and shit, but I’m not really the type to ask for features and shit. That’s one of my pet peeves: people only want to talk about music and shit. Remble, Polo G. I’ll do some shit with G Money. 03 also, and OhGeesy.
How does it feel to be the one representing Hemet right now?
Banditdamack: At first when people would tell me that I feel like, what is you giving me flowers for? We ain’t done shit yet. We not where we need to be, but we know where we need to go. The city on the map for sure though, and I can say I helped with that. We got to go crazy. I want people in Louisiana to know about Hemet.
What do you think you sets yourself apart from other artists coming out of SoCal?
Banditdamack: My sound. I feel like pen and pad wise, there’s not too many people that can really fuck with me. There’s some though, don’t get me wrong. A lot of the people that’s on right now, lyric wise, I don’t think they better, but that’s not really all that matters, though. It’s a big part of it, but this shit is like an image. It’s a brand.
How long does it take you to put together your albums?
Banditdamack: Da Mack might have took me 2-3 weeks. EPs those are’t shit, I can knock those out in like a week. This shit might take me a month because I want different sounds, but I don’t just want different sound’s, I want hard shit at the same time.
What producers do you turn too to get the beats you want?
Banditdamack: C Young On the Beat. My boy named Hex.. He produces for Saviii3rd. He produce a lot for Playerrways. P8 also got no songs with Cypress Moreno but his beats is hard. I got his number and he does send some shit over, but like I said I’m picky. ProdByRoger also. Bro I’m still rocking with Youtube beats. If its like a beat and it’s hard I fuck with it. I’m just picky. That shit might be harder than a whole pack someone send me.
In your music you manage to be funny yet brutally honest at the same time. How to you use humor to supplement the serious themes of your music?
Banditdamack: Like I said bro, it’s shit people can relate to. N***** always gotta have that key bar. Polo G said in one of his interviews you gotta have a key bar. He said in one of his songs, “Only bitch I give a conversation to is Siri.” That’s like a key bar, a memorable bar. You gotta have some of those. I feel like the funny ones are kind of the ones that stick.
What’s a typical day in life look like for you?
Banditdamack: Wake up, write, obviously, food, shower, shit like that. But every day it’d be something different. N***** might wake up, come here, or the homie have a fucking field day in Rancho Cucamonga. A studio day, or like an LA day is what I call it. We shooting videos, going to the studio, for sure. We working when we in LA. Maybe shop a little bit. When we go to LA, if we not at a Peer Space, we looking for spots because theres spots like 10 minutes from everywhere. Find a spot, shoot there, we’ll already had a studio booked at a certain time. So we finish shooting a video, get some food, fuck around. My boy Foolish, he has a team. They vlog, so like, they’ll vlog behind the scenes of what we’re doing.
We’ll hit up a store too, like Chiefin Heavily. The n***** at Chiefin Heavily, his store, the Fairfax studio is right behind it where my boy Hex work at. So if I’m recording there, and it’ll be times bro I’ll just walk in Chiefin Heavily and this n**** Playerrways be at the door. Shake his hand, go to to Hex shit, walk outside, G Money on the stairs. I like LA because you could network way easier. Out here it’s harder. I gotta go to Rancho Cucamonga, Redlands, or Riverside for a studio.
What is it about your lyrics, specifically, that you think puts you above everyone else?
Banditdamack: I feel like my rhymes be hard. Some motherfuckers be off beat. A lot of people hard, don’t get me wrong, I feel like I spit shit people from out here can relate too. I’ll spit shit for my section, for people out here, but everybody can relate to it type shit.
You’ve regarded Remble as an artist that you really look up too. What is it about his style that attracts you to his music?
Banditdamack: He can rap. That’s all I can really say. I don’t know how to explain it. That shit is just hard.
Who do you want to work with that you haven’t worked with yet?
Banditdamack: Mozzy. Me and Peysoh was supposed to lock some shit in. We text and shit, but I’m not really the type to ask for features and shit. That’s one of my pet peeves: people only want to talk about music and shit. Remble, Polo G. I’ll do some shit with G Money. 03 also, and OhGeesy.
How does it feel to be the one representing Hemet right now?
Banditdamack: At first when people would tell me that I feel like, what is you giving me flowers for? We ain’t done shit yet. We not where we need to be, but we know where we need to go. The city on the map for sure though, and I can say I helped with that. We got to go crazy. I want people in Louisiana to know about Hemet.
What do you think you sets yourself apart from other artists coming out of SoCal?
Banditdamack: My sound. I feel like pen and pad wise, there’s not too many people that can really fuck with me. There’s some though, don’t get me wrong. A lot of the people that’s on right now, lyric wise, I don’t think they better, but that’s not really all that matters, though. It’s a big part of it, but this shit is like an image. It’s a brand.
What producers do you turn too to get the beats you want?
Banditdamack: C Young On the Beat. My boy named Hex.. He produces for Saviii3rd. He produce a lot for Playerrways. P8 also got no songs with Cypress Moreno but his beats is hard. I got his number and he does send some shit over, but like I said I’m picky. ProdByRoger also. Bro I’m still rocking with Youtube beats. If its like a beat and it’s hard I fuck with it. I’m just picky. That shit might be harder than a whole pack someone send me.
In your music you manage to be funny yet brutally honest at the same time. How to you use humor to supplement the serious themes of your music?
Banditdamack: Like I said bro, it’s shit people can relate to. N***** always gotta have that key bar. Polo G said in one of his interviews you gotta have a key bar. He said in one of his songs, “Only bitch I give a conversation to is Siri.” That’s like a key bar, a memorable bar. You gotta have some of those. I feel like the funny ones are kind of the ones that stick.
What’s a typical day in life look like for you?
Banditdamack: Wake up, write, obviously, food, shower, shit like that. But every day it’d be something different. N***** might wake up, come here, or the homie have a fucking field day in Rancho Cucamonga. A studio day, or like an LA day is what I call it. We shooting videos, going to the studio, for sure. We working when we in LA. Maybe shop a little bit. When we go to LA, if we not at a Peer Space, we looking for spots because theres spots like 10 minutes from everywhere. Find a spot, shoot there, we’ll already had a studio booked at a certain time. So we finish shooting a video, get some food, fuck around. My boy Foolish, he has a team. They vlog, so like, they’ll vlog behind the scenes of what we’re doing.
We’ll hit up a store too, like Chiefin Heavily. The n***** at Chiefin Heavily, his store, the Fairfax studio is right behind it where my boy Hex work at. So if I’m recording there, and it’ll be times bro I’ll just walk in Chiefin Heavily and this n**** Playerrways be at the door. Shake his hand, go to to Hex shit, walk outside, G Money on the stairs. I like LA because you could network way easier. Out here it’s harder. I gotta go to Rancho Cucamonga, Redlands, or Riverside for a studio.
What is it about your lyrics, specifically, that you think puts you above everyone else?
Banditdamack: I feel like my rhymes be hard. Some motherfuckers be off beat. A lot of people hard, don’t get me wrong, I feel like I spit shit people from out here can relate too. I’ll spit shit for my section, for people out here, but everybody can relate to it type shit.
You’ve regarded Remble as an artist that you really look up too. What is it about his style that attracts you to his music?
Banditdamack: He can rap. That’s all I can really say. I don’t know how to explain it. That shit is just hard.
Who do you want to work with that you haven’t worked with yet?
Banditdamack: Mozzy. Me and Peysoh was supposed to lock some shit in. We text and shit, but I’m not really the type to ask for features and shit. That’s one of my pet peeves: people only want to talk about music and shit. Remble, Polo G. I’ll do some shit with G Money. 03 also, and OhGeesy.
How does it feel to be the one representing Hemet right now?
Banditdamack: At first when people would tell me that I feel like, what is you giving me flowers for? We ain’t done shit yet. We not where we need to be, but we know where we need to go. The city on the map for sure though, and I can say I helped with that. We got to go crazy. I want people in Louisiana to know about Hemet.
What do you think you sets yourself apart from other artists coming out of SoCal?
Banditdamack: My sound. I feel like pen and pad wise, there’s not too many people that can really fuck with me. There’s some though, don’t get me wrong. A lot of the people that’s on right now, lyric wise, I don’t think they better, but that’s not really all that matters, though. It’s a big part of it, but this shit is like an image. It’s a brand.
In your music you manage to be funny yet brutally honest at the same time. How to you use humor to supplement the serious themes of your music?
Banditdamack: Like I said bro, it’s shit people can relate to. N***** always gotta have that key bar. Polo G said in one of his interviews you gotta have a key bar. He said in one of his songs, “Only bitch I give a conversation to is Siri.” That’s like a key bar, a memorable bar. You gotta have some of those. I feel like the funny ones are kind of the ones that stick.
What’s a typical day in life look like for you?
Banditdamack: Wake up, write, obviously, food, shower, shit like that. But every day it’d be something different. N***** might wake up, come here, or the homie have a fucking field day in Rancho Cucamonga. A studio day, or like an LA day is what I call it. We shooting videos, going to the studio, for sure. We working when we in LA. Maybe shop a little bit. When we go to LA, if we not at a Peer Space, we looking for spots because theres spots like 10 minutes from everywhere. Find a spot, shoot there, we’ll already had a studio booked at a certain time. So we finish shooting a video, get some food, fuck around. My boy Foolish, he has a team. They vlog, so like, they’ll vlog behind the scenes of what we’re doing.
We’ll hit up a store too, like Chiefin Heavily. The n***** at Chiefin Heavily, his store, the Fairfax studio is right behind it where my boy Hex work at. So if I’m recording there, and it’ll be times bro I’ll just walk in Chiefin Heavily and this n**** Playerrways be at the door. Shake his hand, go to to Hex shit, walk outside, G Money on the stairs. I like LA because you could network way easier. Out here it’s harder. I gotta go to Rancho Cucamonga, Redlands, or Riverside for a studio.
What is it about your lyrics, specifically, that you think puts you above everyone else?
Banditdamack: I feel like my rhymes be hard. Some motherfuckers be off beat. A lot of people hard, don’t get me wrong, I feel like I spit shit people from out here can relate too. I’ll spit shit for my section, for people out here, but everybody can relate to it type shit.
You’ve regarded Remble as an artist that you really look up too. What is it about his style that attracts you to his music?
Banditdamack: He can rap. That’s all I can really say. I don’t know how to explain it. That shit is just hard.
Who do you want to work with that you haven’t worked with yet?
Banditdamack: Mozzy. Me and Peysoh was supposed to lock some shit in. We text and shit, but I’m not really the type to ask for features and shit. That’s one of my pet peeves: people only want to talk about music and shit. Remble, Polo G. I’ll do some shit with G Money. 03 also, and OhGeesy.
How does it feel to be the one representing Hemet right now?
Banditdamack: At first when people would tell me that I feel like, what is you giving me flowers for? We ain’t done shit yet. We not where we need to be, but we know where we need to go. The city on the map for sure though, and I can say I helped with that. We got to go crazy. I want people in Louisiana to know about Hemet.
What do you think you sets yourself apart from other artists coming out of SoCal?
Banditdamack: My sound. I feel like pen and pad wise, there’s not too many people that can really fuck with me. There’s some though, don’t get me wrong. A lot of the people that’s on right now, lyric wise, I don’t think they better, but that’s not really all that matters, though. It’s a big part of it, but this shit is like an image. It’s a brand.
What’s a typical day in life look like for you?
Banditdamack: Wake up, write, obviously, food, shower, shit like that. But every day it’d be something different. N***** might wake up, come here, or the homie have a fucking field day in Rancho Cucamonga. A studio day, or like an LA day is what I call it. We shooting videos, going to the studio, for sure. We working when we in LA. Maybe shop a little bit. When we go to LA, if we not at a Peer Space, we looking for spots because theres spots like 10 minutes from everywhere. Find a spot, shoot there, we’ll already had a studio booked at a certain time. So we finish shooting a video, get some food, fuck around. My boy Foolish, he has a team. They vlog, so like, they’ll vlog behind the scenes of what we’re doing.
We’ll hit up a store too, like Chiefin Heavily. The n***** at Chiefin Heavily, his store, the Fairfax studio is right behind it where my boy Hex work at. So if I’m recording there, and it’ll be times bro I’ll just walk in Chiefin Heavily and this n**** Playerrways be at the door. Shake his hand, go to to Hex shit, walk outside, G Money on the stairs. I like LA because you could network way easier. Out here it’s harder. I gotta go to Rancho Cucamonga, Redlands, or Riverside for a studio.
What is it about your lyrics, specifically, that you think puts you above everyone else?
Banditdamack: I feel like my rhymes be hard. Some motherfuckers be off beat. A lot of people hard, don’t get me wrong, I feel like I spit shit people from out here can relate too. I’ll spit shit for my section, for people out here, but everybody can relate to it type shit.
You’ve regarded Remble as an artist that you really look up too. What is it about his style that attracts you to his music?
Banditdamack: He can rap. That’s all I can really say. I don’t know how to explain it. That shit is just hard.
Who do you want to work with that you haven’t worked with yet?
Banditdamack: Mozzy. Me and Peysoh was supposed to lock some shit in. We text and shit, but I’m not really the type to ask for features and shit. That’s one of my pet peeves: people only want to talk about music and shit. Remble, Polo G. I’ll do some shit with G Money. 03 also, and OhGeesy.
How does it feel to be the one representing Hemet right now?
Banditdamack: At first when people would tell me that I feel like, what is you giving me flowers for? We ain’t done shit yet. We not where we need to be, but we know where we need to go. The city on the map for sure though, and I can say I helped with that. We got to go crazy. I want people in Louisiana to know about Hemet.
What do you think you sets yourself apart from other artists coming out of SoCal?
Banditdamack: My sound. I feel like pen and pad wise, there’s not too many people that can really fuck with me. There’s some though, don’t get me wrong. A lot of the people that’s on right now, lyric wise, I don’t think they better, but that’s not really all that matters, though. It’s a big part of it, but this shit is like an image. It’s a brand.
We’ll hit up a store too, like Chiefin Heavily. The n***** at Chiefin Heavily, his store, the Fairfax studio is right behind it where my boy Hex work at. So if I’m recording there, and it’ll be times bro I’ll just walk in Chiefin Heavily and this n**** Playerrways be at the door. Shake his hand, go to to Hex shit, walk outside, G Money on the stairs. I like LA because you could network way easier. Out here it’s harder. I gotta go to Rancho Cucamonga, Redlands, or Riverside for a studio.
What is it about your lyrics, specifically, that you think puts you above everyone else?
Banditdamack: I feel like my rhymes be hard. Some motherfuckers be off beat. A lot of people hard, don’t get me wrong, I feel like I spit shit people from out here can relate too. I’ll spit shit for my section, for people out here, but everybody can relate to it type shit.
You’ve regarded Remble as an artist that you really look up too. What is it about his style that attracts you to his music?
Banditdamack: He can rap. That’s all I can really say. I don’t know how to explain it. That shit is just hard.
Who do you want to work with that you haven’t worked with yet?
Banditdamack: Mozzy. Me and Peysoh was supposed to lock some shit in. We text and shit, but I’m not really the type to ask for features and shit. That’s one of my pet peeves: people only want to talk about music and shit. Remble, Polo G. I’ll do some shit with G Money. 03 also, and OhGeesy.
How does it feel to be the one representing Hemet right now?
Banditdamack: At first when people would tell me that I feel like, what is you giving me flowers for? We ain’t done shit yet. We not where we need to be, but we know where we need to go. The city on the map for sure though, and I can say I helped with that. We got to go crazy. I want people in Louisiana to know about Hemet.
What do you think you sets yourself apart from other artists coming out of SoCal?
Banditdamack: My sound. I feel like pen and pad wise, there’s not too many people that can really fuck with me. There’s some though, don’t get me wrong. A lot of the people that’s on right now, lyric wise, I don’t think they better, but that’s not really all that matters, though. It’s a big part of it, but this shit is like an image. It’s a brand.
You’ve regarded Remble as an artist that you really look up too. What is it about his style that attracts you to his music?
Banditdamack: He can rap. That’s all I can really say. I don’t know how to explain it. That shit is just hard.
Who do you want to work with that you haven’t worked with yet?
Banditdamack: Mozzy. Me and Peysoh was supposed to lock some shit in. We text and shit, but I’m not really the type to ask for features and shit. That’s one of my pet peeves: people only want to talk about music and shit. Remble, Polo G. I’ll do some shit with G Money. 03 also, and OhGeesy.
How does it feel to be the one representing Hemet right now?
Banditdamack: At first when people would tell me that I feel like, what is you giving me flowers for? We ain’t done shit yet. We not where we need to be, but we know where we need to go. The city on the map for sure though, and I can say I helped with that. We got to go crazy. I want people in Louisiana to know about Hemet.
What do you think you sets yourself apart from other artists coming out of SoCal?
Banditdamack: My sound. I feel like pen and pad wise, there’s not too many people that can really fuck with me. There’s some though, don’t get me wrong. A lot of the people that’s on right now, lyric wise, I don’t think they better, but that’s not really all that matters, though. It’s a big part of it, but this shit is like an image. It’s a brand.
Who do you want to work with that you haven’t worked with yet?
Banditdamack: Mozzy. Me and Peysoh was supposed to lock some shit in. We text and shit, but I’m not really the type to ask for features and shit. That’s one of my pet peeves: people only want to talk about music and shit. Remble, Polo G. I’ll do some shit with G Money. 03 also, and OhGeesy.
How does it feel to be the one representing Hemet right now?
Banditdamack: At first when people would tell me that I feel like, what is you giving me flowers for? We ain’t done shit yet. We not where we need to be, but we know where we need to go. The city on the map for sure though, and I can say I helped with that. We got to go crazy. I want people in Louisiana to know about Hemet.
What do you think you sets yourself apart from other artists coming out of SoCal?
Banditdamack: My sound. I feel like pen and pad wise, there’s not too many people that can really fuck with me. There’s some though, don’t get me wrong. A lot of the people that’s on right now, lyric wise, I don’t think they better, but that’s not really all that matters, though. It’s a big part of it, but this shit is like an image. It’s a brand.
How does it feel to be the one representing Hemet right now?
Banditdamack: At first when people would tell me that I feel like, what is you giving me flowers for? We ain’t done shit yet. We not where we need to be, but we know where we need to go. The city on the map for sure though, and I can say I helped with that. We got to go crazy. I want people in Louisiana to know about Hemet.
What do you think you sets yourself apart from other artists coming out of SoCal?
Banditdamack: My sound. I feel like pen and pad wise, there’s not too many people that can really fuck with me. There’s some though, don’t get me wrong. A lot of the people that’s on right now, lyric wise, I don’t think they better, but that’s not really all that matters, though. It’s a big part of it, but this shit is like an image. It’s a brand.
What do you think you sets yourself apart from other artists coming out of SoCal?
Banditdamack: My sound. I feel like pen and pad wise, there’s not too many people that can really fuck with me. There’s some though, don’t get me wrong. A lot of the people that’s on right now, lyric wise, I don’t think they better, but that’s not really all that matters, though. It’s a big part of it, but this shit is like an image. It’s a brand.