I caught up with Quadry on two separate occasions to speak on his new album, a follow-up to his project with Jansport J, Don’t You Weep. “In my mind, it was finished,” he told me about the album. But what I’m learning about Quadry is that even if it’s finished, he’s never really finished. In fact, he has a lot left to say.

Read part one of the interview with Louisiana artist Quadry here.

Is the album you’re working on 100% complete?

I mean it’s changed. I thought it was done. I had songs that I knew were going to be on there since Summer 2019. By the time January had came around, I had a solid nine or ten, but I knew I wanted to change five or six of the songs. I went to the label that I was signed to at the time to meet my A&R Brock. I played him the set of songs that we put together. At that point, to me, the album was finished. I added the skits I wanted, I added the way I wanted it to transition. In my mind, it was finished. Everybody in the meeting: Thomas, my day-to-day person, Anthony, my main manager, and my A&R. Everybody was like, “Cool, Quadry, this is good, this is dope. There would only be a couple of little things you’d need to do, probably add a feature here and there but other than that, you’re done.” 

So you know, I’m alright, I’m chilling, kicking it, went to the mall. I’m finished in my mind. I was naïve to the process of how long things take in the music industry. I done made my album and wanted to hand it out in the next two months or so. A month and a half go by and I hear nothing from my label. We still talk from time to time but nothing about music. Like around April, I call them in and asked them, “Yo, what do you feel about it?” and he was like, “Yeah I don’t think it’s that good.” In my mind, I’m like, “You told me you liked it.” Now at that point, I wasn’t naïve or anything. That was just me not vibing with that type of bullshit. Like, why did you let me walk out of the office? You just wasted a lot of time. So I get angry and you know, I didn’t lose the spirit of creating but I was just kind of not feeling it. And it’s crazy all during that time, I’m working on the Jansport J shit. [Laughs]

Word?!

Yeah, I’m talking to him and he’s just sending me beats and I’m writing. That’s the one thing I have learned is that I’m a natural artist. I can’t turn it off. I can’t not write. I feel so shitty, I wonder why I feel so sad and then I realize I haven’t written in like a week. That’s the thing I worked about myself like, it’s going to come out of me no matter what label, blog, whatever. Those things are not my driving forces. My driving force is just too great and so, I write. Ain’t no shows for the foreseeable future like it’s quiet out here. So I’m sitting with the project, I’m just playing it for my friends, playing it for my mom and people that I know and certain songs people like, certain songs they don’t. The thing is, time has changed so much, there’s a lot of things that’s happened. I felt like the piece wasn’t as current as it needed to feel. Like it wasn’t a sign. It’s been a year now so I ain’t added a song or took a song, I’ve just been making a lot of stuff just trying to, you know, just trying to provide that, I’m like the stuff I’ve been writing now and I haven’t really thought about what I want the album to be and if it means to say so, now I’m ready to go finish it.

You mentioned that you changed the theme of the album a bit, what made you want to change it?

Wanting to do something multidimensional. I watch a lot of TV and films and I like multiple storylines and messages in that medium. In music, I can do the same with my words and the music behind it is like the score or soundtrack. 

Tell me about the music you grew up listening to? Has it crossed over to the music you make now?

My mom played so much. She would play Coco Taylor, Nas, then she’ll play Amy Winehouse and this would all be within the same day.

[Laughs] That’s such a range!

Yeah, the only thing I wasn’t exposed to was rock and roll. Green Day was the only thing I caught out of everything else. It was a very Hip-Hop/R&B/Jazz/Soul, Black music household. She wasn’t into techno like that because we’re in the South, that’s DC. Blues and then Triggaman, that’s what they do in New Orleans where they take off vocals and they do the shit like that. Those forms of music, music with southern Black roots in it. No rock and roll though.

I didn’t even know that Rock and Roll came from Black people. It just reminds me of what we were talking about earlier, how a lot of things from America stem from the culture of Black people. It’s just crazy to me that in 2021 things are still somewhat the same. 

It had to be this way for the empire to stand. It wouldn’t be America if it wasn’t that because who are we going to point the finger at when things go wrong? Every civilization had that person or that link. The Romans had vandals which are white people, every civilization has this other, but back to Rock and Roll, watch Cadillac Records if you haven’t. There’s a scene in the movie where Mos Def’s character Chuck Berry, Muddy Waters, and his son are driving to the label to talk about whatever and they’re listening to the radio. His son was like, “Yeah I like this, this is the new style dad!” Then Muddy was like, “Fool that’s just sped up blues.” 

It’s just so crazy how things develop and evolve from the formula. Big Mama Thornton, that music was what we called club. That was the WAP back then that you play in the club. It’s always that type of music that starts to be the new thing and then that new thing evolves into THE thing. I’m looking for that new “new” thing. That’s why I tell the truth in the music because that’s what I try to make. The truth scares people. Muthafuckas will rip The White House over the truth. It’s a very dangerous thing. It’s like plutonium. You only need a little bit of it. Drop that shit in the mixture and POW! That’s the reason why I want to make that new music if I can because I want to stay close to that spirit, the traditional. This music isn’t supposed to scare you but it’s supposed to do two things. It’s supposed to make you listen and then it’s supposed to hug you and console you. That’s the tradition in Black music and Black expression in general in America. We can trace it all the way back from Strange Fruit to “Savage” by Beyoncé. It’s the same shit. It’s three things: empower you, listen and console.

I felt like when rap first originated it was always Black people talking about their struggles, day-to-day–

And the Latinos! They were there at the Big Bang of it. Got to shout out the Latinos.

What do you think about where rap is right now,where Macklemore can win best rap album?

You’re going to get me on a tirade with that one. [laughs] I don’t mean to be harsh but the reason why that’s even possible is that we let everybody in. We are the people that made homeowner associations and we’re the most excluded. Just like anything, any person that’s been abused, you try to show that that’s not what I’m going to do or that’s not who I am. Black people have lost a lot trying to do that and that’s sad. When I think about Hip-Hop now, it’s starting to be one of my favorite eras. I wasn’t here for the ‘90s but when I look back at the ‘90s I can see that they were getting to it. Now, there are so many artists I love like Pink Siifu, Kenny Mason, Liv, KieyaA, OvrKast, Teezo Touchdown. I can go on and on and on. Notice that all the people I named aren’t famous. 

Yeah, it’s not the mainstream but it’s almost like ‘they’ don’t want it to be either. 

Those collectives. Grip, too. I can go on and on. RIP Von, Travis $cott, Mick Jenkins. I’m proud to contribute. Kari Faux, Peyton, bLAck pARty, and these are just my friends. There are so many good artists. It makes me feel like okay kids being born are going to look at this era just like I looked at the ‘90s. “All these people were working and they knew each other?” When I found out that Nas and Wu-tang knew each other, that shit blew my mind. The excitement is in the moment in the making of the music with the Wu and the second excitement is the kids finding out. My friends’ kids, they’re babies now but I want my friends’ children to grow up and be like, “Daddy! You knew Quad?!” That’s the shit I be dreaming of but to speed back to the question, I know all of those other artists are thinking the same thing so that’s what’s inspiring. That’s what’s really exciting, that’s what keeps me waking up every day and wanting to do this shit. 

What’s influencing the project the most right now? 

80s rap like Paid In Full and It Takes A Nation of Millions. SUN RA, comedy albums like Red Foxx’s Foxx-A-Delic and Martin Lawrence’s Funk It.

How do you record?

It’s more of a feeling. I can rap on drums and loops, it doesn’t have to be all put together but it has to give me some type of feeling. It has to make me think of a scene or something that I want to rap. It conjures the image and I just know the words. That’s most of the time when I pick beats. When I’m working on albums, I like the concept of musicians making albums like movies and shit you know? Like they talk about how Good Kid, M.A.A.D City is a Tarantino joint. That’s something I definitely try to look at. I always try to make something beautiful like it feels textured and varied like a really good A24 movie. 

Do you ever see yourself making a short film to pair with an album?

I actually did one for Malik Ruff but it was like a bridge from Ebo & Booker’s Day Off it was like a bridge to this one. 

How would you explain going through the bullshit that comes with the music industry? From a high of getting signed to getting dropped. How did that feel?

 …..no comment. 

[Laughs]

I’m just fucking with you. It was cool. The money was cool. The bread was so cool. I don’t want to speak this on myself but if I never see that much money at one time, I can rest assured knowing that I had fun. But, Quad is going for the millions. It taught me a lot. It taught me that getting signed was not my dream. My dream is my music and to support me and my family. That’s my dream. It showed me that LA is expensive. It was a big learning experience. Sometimes I lay in bed at night like damn if I did this, I would have done this, I would have done that. Tomorrow, just please take me back right before I signed. It was a reason it didn’t work like that. Now, act accordingly. Treat people accordingly. Treat yourself accordingly because I was so hard on myself. I’m thinking my music isn’t, you know. It’s like me and my girl split the bucket at KFC, Dog I was havin’ nervous breakdowns like, “Man, these n*ggas that much better than me?”

What else is new since the last time we spoke?

Mentally, I’m in a space where I’m excited to work on my craft. I think one of the things that changed for me is the fact that I was more destination-oriented before. Since I got multiple epiphanies, I just get more comfortable with the mundaneness of my work. There might not be a sold-out show or every day I’m not going to write a classic rap song. A lot of days I might not feel it but you have to work through that stuff. I’m leaning more into my purpose.

What’s next?

This is an exclusive. Me and Jansport J are working on a sequel. 

Oh tight! I’m stoked for that!

Yeah, it’s going to be called Lawd Today! 

How’d you come up with the name so fast? How many songs deep are you? 

Actually, the title is a Richard Wright book. He was a writer in the ‘40s. He wrote Black Boy. I saw the spine cover of the book and I just like the words and the title. It’s a working title.

Was that one of the books in your current rotation? 

I actually saw the spine on Instagram. Somebody posted a picture of a crate of books. There were a lot of different books like Assata like there’s a lot of books by Black authors. The type on the book jumped out at me and I have a Richard Wright book but just not that one. I plan on getting it though. Me and Tuamie are supposed to be doing another thing soon. So basically putting all the things that I’ve done in the last two years in six months.

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