Paris Born, Queens-Raised Bas signed to J.Cole’s Dreamville Records (via Interscope) just two years ago. His impact since then has been profound, touring with J.Cole last year and headlining his own debut international tour this summer, he is already two studio albums deep; Last Winter (2014) and Too High to Riot (2016).
Ironically, the self-dubbed “guy with not many fans yet” has cultivated a loyal following of “Fiends” (as his fans self-identify), and with his affable, easy-going charm and dynamic stage presence it’s easy to see why.
It’s hard to believe Bas only started rapping at 23 (following freestyles at house parties for fun), but it makes sense when you consider that Bas’s music doesn’t have a whiff of trying to sell or to generate hype or fame. Rather, his records are a testament to honest self-expression, eclectic love of music and different cultures.
We caught up with Bas before his London headline show to find out more.
You played Paris, (your birthplace) last night, is that a particularly sentimental show to do?
“Yeah it’s cool because my parents spent like 30 years there. I was born at the latter end of that, so they know these venues and my dad remembers in the 70s and 80s where they weren’t allowed to go to concerts in the places I play now. They were too broke or whatever the case is, so it was almost cooler to see the reaction for them.
“When I was with Cole we played Olympia last time and now I’ve gone and headlined my own show. It means a lot to them and means a lot to me too, obviously, just because I get to go overseas and express my music. I work with a lot of producers who are still in Paris and also I have a lot of friends in the city so, you know, it’s still one of my homes.”
How do you think your international background influenced your style as a rapper? It’s something J Cole has mentioned about you, but I’d love to hear what you think about that. Are there things you do in particular that you can put down to your background? (Bas was Raised by Sudanese parents in Paris until the age of 8, before moving to Queens).
“In hip-hop, sometimes it kinda sounds like everyone is trying to make the same hit record, or everyone’s borrowing from the same influences, so anytime you find something new to influence your music, that helps you stand out that little bit more. Just growing up with four older siblings you are all into a wide variety of music. My sister was into West African music and my brother was into garage and French house. I hadn’t realised at the time when I was younger, but that’s like music you don’t tell your friends you’re listening to because they’ll be like ‘you’re a weirdo.’
“But when you grow up and you’re making music, you kinda pay attention to the sonic landscapes you gravitate towards and you realise, ‘hey this inspired me – growing up listening to like Daft Punk or Jamiroquai’, all these things we grow up listening to have an effect on the music, and then the fan base gets it and knows it not like everything else they’re listening to, so endears you to them. So definitely, drawing from all these different cultures and the music they put out has definitely had an effect on my sound.”
In an interview earlier this year you said “When you want the world to accept New York at the forefront of something really innovative in the game, you have to give them something new. You have to give the whole world something new that they can vibe to…” Who right now do you think is a pioneer for this movement?
“I would say you would have to look at Atlanta. It obviously has always pushed hip-hop forward, never really music forward, but hip-hop. Black City, even if you go back to like jazz and blues, Atlanta has always pushed music forward. As of late, you’ve got to give credit to Toronto, the Toronto sound, obviously that’s championed and pioneered by Drake, but you see his fingerprints and his influence on a lot of things coming out of that city and a lot of things coming out of the genre in general.”
On the topic of Drake, who has been a champion of grime, what do you think of it?
“Yeah, it’s dope you know, I feel like it’s getting a resurgence or finally getting the credit it deserves, like global recognition. I have family from Oxford, so the first time I was here, I was like nine or 10 or something, so I remember grime being like – just like a local thing – I was like ‘these British homies are rapping fast as fuck, this is intense’, so it’s dope now, you see it getting a platform, you know it’s international. They play those songs back home now, and that’s just very recent, in the past year or two, and I’ve been hearing them (when I’ve been) coming here. I think it’s always good as an artist when people are pushing the genre forward, to give that life and you know, showcase that to his fan base, let it blow up.”
Your Spotify playlist Sunday at the Dub – a lot of strong female singers (Amy Whinehouse, Lorde, Res) feature – can you see yourself doing collaboration with a strong female vocalist?
“Yeah absolutely. I mean, I have The Hics on tour with me. I love Roxanne, she’s incredible to me, she’s featured on my album twice, who else. Out here too there’s Etta Bond – she’s real cool – I linked with her last time I came out here, she’s wavy. I just think females are better vocalists in general. There’s just more emotion in their voice and you know the way they can convey a emotion is just better than men.”
Ha, we just have so many emotions to give!
“Ha, yeah, right that could be what it is. I dunno, I always enjoy that Ari Lennox – whose an artist that just signed to Dreamville – she’s got an incredible voice – we just put out this EP and I’m a fan. You can’t discriminate in music, you can’t discriminate in general, but let’s be honest women just sing better.”
One thing that seems to come up in Too High To Riot, is you maturely stepping over beef rather than lapping it up for your promo as other rappers do. I’m thinking Methylone when you talk about cutting people out of your life or Night Job when your verses end with you moving, jumping back from or swerving round haters and copy cats. Dave Dash gets a mention but you go easy on him. Is that a conscious decision?
“Yeah that was a little something with our merch line. A lot of people were kind of jacking a lot of our designs and things of that nature and trying to re-purpose it. It was cool because the fan base picked up on it before I even did and they made a bigger deal about it than I would. But that’s not how… you know, I’m not looking for that kind of attention. And there’s a lot of things I feel we do as a unit, whether that’s marketing in Dreamville, we have a different approach to how we market ourselves. I don’t trip man, everyone’s here to be inspiring and to be inspired but it’s rap, you know sometimes your ego will come out – and you know that’s really what it is.”
Yeah, you’re known for your lack of ego – it’s come up a lot about how you’re a humble guy, and I saw in an interview with Sway where you said that’s something true of all the Dreamville crew. I just wondered what it is exactly that motivates you? A lot of rap is motivated by being the best alive, and that naturally brings about what people see as an ego.
“I just wanna be the most creative and expressive version of myself really. I just started rapping when I was 23. I didn’t grow up wanting to be a rapper, I just kind of stumbled into it and I only got addicted to it because it was like my first form of self-expression. And that gets really addictive. All that ‘be the best’, that’s so dumb. It’s music, it’s subjective. The best to you is not going to be the best to them.
“To some of my fans I’m the best, who cares? None of that really matters; just enjoy your music, listen to it, you know, relate, first and foremost. I think just trying to get more honest and vulnerable is more gratifying than trying to be the best because then you’re finding truth within yourself and sharing it with people, and then they relate and they’ll be like ‘damn I feel that way’. Even if I’ve never even told anyone I feel that way, cos a lot of the things I really put in my raps, my best friends don’t even know about. They be like ‘I didn’t know you felt that way bro’.”
Talking of friends, how did you meet J Cole? Was it him who got you into rapping?
“I knew Cole before I even started rapping. I had a homie from New York, he used to go out and get drunk,while I went to a club . We’re in the West Village and he’d love to put on his MacBook and it would be like 15 minute freestyles. Every homie in the crib – you would hear like intermissions of us rolling blunts while the weed was playing like, then someone would come in and rap a few bars, so it started with it just being us – and I was waking up the next day and sobering up and playing it and just laughing you know, like ‘look at this dumb shit we did last night.’
“But the more I started doing that, the more it was something I wanted to do everyday. Just get up and write, and all my friends who would do it with me as a joke would be like ‘it is joke man but you alright.’
“Then Cole got wind and it was like really early in his career, he was obviously in no place for it to be a platform, but I remembered the first time he heard my music. He was like ‘bro you got the hardest part down: being original and having your own style’ and all that stuff.
“I never even put that stuff out and I listen to it now and it’s embarrassing. But it was like artist development. I was just learning what I was going to write about, what my message was gonna be, how I was gonna convey that message, the kind of sounds I wanted to convey through, and he said, ‘you can see where you’re gonna be in two years if you take that shit seriously’… and that’s what I did, and two and a half years later I ended up signing to Interscope – to Dreamville.”
You’re a really relaxed as a performer – has that always been the case?
“I kind of made my chops on the road – I’ve gained most of my fan base like I’m not like a radio play guy. I’ve been on the road, opening up for people, up to literally this point. I’ve spent up to two years on the road doing shows, gaining stage presence.
“There’s all these metrics these days like views and likes and streams and record sales,but until you get out there and connect with the crowd and have eye contact and control their energy and really be an MC, be a master of ceremony, that’s where you’re really gonna make it tops.
Bas might not be trying to be the best, but if he keeps on how he’s going he might wind up that way anyway… Catch him at shows across Europe this winter and Too High To Riot is out now through Interscope.
Words: Georgia Devon-Spick
Photography: Bhavan Chopra