AHSH EFF is a rising Brooklyn rapper who has already garnered attention from Pigeons and Planes, The Fader, I-D, and Bullett Magazine. Luckily, I was able to snag an interview before she blew all the way up. We started with some softball questions.
Who was your first celebrity crush?
Honestly, Johnny Depp.
Why so?
I don’t know…when I was little, I used to love Edward Scissorhands. Like, he was just so cute to me. Oh my goodness, that’s my boyfriend.
What do you put in your ideal burrito?
Whatever I want it to be?
The sky is the limit.
So, I would have a burrito with like, frickin, like, I don’t know, it would have to be a kiwi type of wrap—I don’t know how they would make that possible, but I’m sure it could be made. A kiwi wrap, y’know, with like, some rice in there, some mango in there…some strawberries. I don’t know, a piece of tofu bacon…I would call it the ‘kiwi surprise burrito’.
That sounds fie.
Yeah, I think I would eat that. Would you eat that?
I would eat that. I love fruit.
Okay cool.
Okay, so, if you had to choose one song to be your alarm clock for the rest of your life, what would that one song be?
Damn…honestly, “Peaches N’ Cream” by 112. I would wake up to that everyday, heavy.
Last soft question. Whats the last piece of candy you ate?
This fucking melted ass Snickers bar—it was mad good though. (Laughs) But it was mad melted. I ate that last night.
Who are your musical inspirations?
So, musically. I like…I don’t know, Im trying to stop listening to other music now, actually. I’m trying to just listen to my music, y’know? But, right now…well, my inspirations, period: I love Kurt Cobain, I love him a lot. I like Jay-Z. Let’s see, who else? I like Cam’ron—I love Cam’ron, that’s my dad. And Pimp C. Those are the main people that I steadily draw inspiration from, musically. And then my most recent inspiration right now is this guy by the name of Mac DeMarco. I’m sure you’ve heard of him before. I really like his music. His music honestly speaks to me because I feel like he comes from a really creative, pure place, and I like that shit.
True. I heard your song “Kozart”, and you mention Sosa a couple times. Is Keef a big inspiration or no?
I wouldn’t say that musically he’s an inspiration, but one thing I would say is that way he works and shit like that is definitely an inspiration to me. I’ve always liked his movement, period. It’s more like I like how he made a lane for himself and in addition to that there’s a certain level of ingenuity he has that a lot of people don’t give him enough credit for. People don’t give him credit for how creative he is. And I respect that, and I like that. Coming up right now, no fronting, he’s probably one of the most creative people that has come out in the past couple years. When I say ‘couple years’, I mean my generation—21.
I totally agree. I’m blown away by some of his production work, honestly.
Yes! And he really does not get enough credit because half of the production, when I found out he actually has a hand in the stuff that he makes that comes out, I was like “Oh, shit, I have a whole new respect for him.” He does all of this stuff purposely. You have to have at least a little bit of sense to be able to sit in the studio and be like “Hey, this is how I want this and this is how I want that.” Sitting there with the engineer actually getting the stuff done that you got together type shit. I really respect that. I respect his process.
What about movies and art? What do you consume visually that inspires the way you make art?
I would say more or less whenever I feel like I’m having a miniature creative block or that I need to continue, or I’m trying to go on, I’ll watch Jay-Z’s “Fade to Black” documentary from when “The Black Album” was coming out and was supposed to be his last album and stuff like that. The whole documentary show the entire process that he went through, and that’s one of the movies that I really like. Let’s see, what else? That whole thing is amazing. He just tells you how he gets ready for shows…well, he doesn’t tell you, but you get a chance to see how he gets ready for shows. I’ve watched that movie over 50 times. I really love…I feel like it’s so cliché to say, so maybe I won’t say it…nah, I’ll say it. I really like Basquiat. (Laughs) Before everybody was super hyped about it, I really like Basquiat.
Nah, there’s a reason he’s hyped up. He’s a genius.
When I was younger I used to always ask my mom to go to museums and stuff because I love museums. That’s my shit. If I could just walk into a museum and just walk around for a whole day, and just have mad different shit I could check out and learn about, I would really like that. I feel like it is this amazing way of time-traveling, like art is a different way of seeing history—I like that.
I got two more questions, they’re just going to be “philosophical questions”. The first one is how do you create meaningful experiences in your life?
I have this certain mindset that I go into everything remembering something from something. I make something meaningful by just doing my thing on it. Just…I’m trying to find the best way to put this into words. Give me one second. I make things meaningful in life by seeing them for what they are, and making the most out of everything that I encounter. Every experience that I encounter, I supercharge it by making the most out of it. I’m always overly thankful. I’m always overjoyed to be able to do certain things. Know what I mean? I always try my hardest. In my song “Kozart”, I’m like ‘gang, gang, gang’ and shit like that, and I remember there was a song that me and my friends used to all be like introspective about…every time we heard that song, the moment we were in became meaningful. We just gave ourselves that bit of time to sit, think and digest the moment and appreciate it. People go too fast sometimes when they don’t have to. Time is of the essence of course, but people speed through moments. People will just have a moment, go through it, and let it be that. I feel like I experience things differently, I process events differently.
Donald Trump is a tangible example of how the universe is moving towards a state of chaos (entropy) and decay. That’s been a scientific theory for the past 50 years…that all matter is moving towards a state of decay, and you can see microcosms of that in every life and death. Donald Trump is one example of how chaotic and strange the world has gotten recently. Can you think of any other examples?
That’s a good one. I would say one thing that’s so strange about the world is just the direction TV and especially cartoons are going, that’s something to me that’s a sign of the times. Also, if you think about reality television, back in the day, don’t get me wrong I love reality TV, I don’t think it should die, but it just goes to show how the times are changing because we tune into reality TV to see excitement in other people’s lives when back in the day—(when I say back in the day, I mean still early 2000’s)—people would much rather enjoy themselves and live their own lives than to revel in the drama of reality TV. Even if you think about the length in which how long they play songs on the radio, they play a song that’s a 3 minute song, for like, a minute now. Back in the day it was like two minutes, two and a half minutes. Now, it’s just being cut shorter and shorter because people’s attention spans are short. It’s just like, “Damn, I heard one minute of my favorite song. Literally one minute.”
Please enjoy the ‘Gang List’ below provided by AHSH herself.
