Oakland rapper G-Eazy recently opened up about his musical influences and personal memories during an appearance on UPROXX’s Sound Check series. The Northern Californian native participated in the show’s signature rapid-fire song selection game while sharing never-before-told stories about his career and life.
Get this, the interview began with tough choices between hip-hop classics, starting with T.I.’s “Whatever You Like” versus Kid Cudi’s “Day ‘N’ Nite.” G-Eazy chose Cudi’s track, explaining: “Just how iconic that song was and how nothing has sounded like that. Every so often, you get an artist or a song that you hear on the radio and it’s like, ‘This sounds like nothing I have ever heard before in my life.'”
Moreover, the convo then turned to songs representing G-Eazy’s Bay Area roots and New Orleans college days, pitting E-40 against Mac Dre and Juvenile against Lil Wayne. However, the most challenging decision came when asked to choose between Jay-Z’s “99 Problems” and Nas’ “N.Y. State of Mind.”
Check what he said about Nas’ Illmatic classic: “I gotta go with that one, honestly. The impact of Illmatic and now I’m living in New York, that song just paints such a vivid picture of the city. Like, the dark undertones of the music, those boom bap drums and just his vivid imagery in his lyrics and how he paints that picture.”
But wait, the rapper also recalled a dope exchange with Drake following the release of “God’s Plan,” which he chose over Post Malone and Swae Lee’s “Sunflower”: “I was riding with my best homie in the whip back from Orange County. [God’s Plan’] had just come out and we played it in the car like 10 times. I hit Drake immediately like, ‘This is the one.’ He hit me right back like, ‘Thank you so much, brother.'”
Here’s where the chat took a heartfelt turn. When asked to choose between his own songs “Everything Will Be OK” and “Opportunity Cost,” G-Eazy shared a touching story about his late mother, who passed away in 2021. He selected “Opportunity Cost” because of the voicemail from his mother at the song’s end: “I’m so happy that I didn’t pick up the phone that day because I got that voicemail. I called her because I was on my way to RCA to sign my deal, and she didn’t answer. By the time she called back, I was in the room doing it, so she left me that voicemail.”
G-Eazy added: “She was a beautiful, brilliant person and she definitely had a way with language and communication.”
Do you have any musically inspired memories that stand out most in your life? Let us know in the comments.