Quadry Talks “It Was Once My World”, Future Plans & More
modrNation: Where are you originally from?
Quadry: Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
modrNation: How do you feel growing up there led to you wanting to make music?
Quadry: I don’t think the BR environment pushed me into making music, but my home environment did. My mom played a lot of great music growing up, I was raised to have very good taste and be a good decision maker which I feel is a big part of being an artist. My mom would play Lil Kim, Lauryn Hill, Ice Cube, Nas, Coco Taylor, Coltrane and Snoop Dogg a lot.
modrNation: Who have been some of the biggest influences on your music?
Quadry: Lil Wayne, Nas, Kendrick Lamar, OutKast, Kanye West, Tyler The Creator, and just Odd Future in general. Drake too, Wiz Khalifa, Currensy, and all them from the blog era. My high school years coincided with the blog era years so all those artists in that pinnacle time in hip hop. My mom's R&B and Jazz also comes out a lot in the beats I choose to rap over.
modrNation: You just dropped your new EP “It Was Once My World”, what was the creative process like while making that?
Quadry: I was just making songs earlier this year in January and I happened to notice that I favored this one producer named Kinda Blue, so I was making a lot of music with him. We made about 10 songs. I picked the strongest ones and the ones I felt attached to then we put those into a project which I delivered to my label. I went out to LA to meet with my managers and we took a meeting with Tier Drop and they loved it as well as another album I was pitching to them that I want to drop in June next year.
modrNation: And how’s the creative process going with that new album?
Quadry: It’s going great, we’re about 15-20% done. It’s going to be called “Ask A Magnolia” which represents the magnolia flower as a concept and metaphor for me and where I’m from. The magnolia flowers are indigenous to the south, they’ve seen a lot so I’m taking the concept that if they had eyes and ears what they’d say they’ve seen. Taking that concept and sharing what I’ve seen as if I’m a magnolia flower.
modrNation: What is the intention behind your music?
Quadry: I think the intention is the same as previous projects. I’m always trying to give a face, name and personality to my listeners in an artistic medium that doesn’t always provide that. I just want to give context to myself, my story and that of people around me, that’s always been my main goal. Just a concept of what's going on in my community. Like the name “They Think We Ghetto”, we’re really just traumatized and trying to cope, I just want to give an inside look into what’s really happening.
modrNation: What would you say is the importance of finding your own identity and individuality as an artist and a person in a time where so many people are making music?
Quadry: Just like Miles Davis said, “it takes a while for you to play like yourself.” You need to go through that journey of exploration to find yourself. It’s a different process for everyone so it’s about sticking to your path and knowing what’s right, and what’s right is just being yourself cause they’ve already got everybody else.
modrNation: Where do you see yourself five years from now?
Quadry:Rap star. Super star. Face of the genre. Nah that’s 10-15 years down the line. In 5 years I want to be doing Coachella, Pitchfork, Wireless, all the festivals everywhere. I really want to build my prime in the next five years.