ScHoolboy Q is on the phone talking about his new album, describing what distinguishes “Blue Lips” from previous solo efforts and how he pitched it to his label. A native of South Central Los Angeles and L.A. Lakers fan, he trots out a sports analogy.
“How do I convince the label that I want to put this personal album out when I’m known for making certain kind of music? It’s like if Shaquille O’Neal comes in one day and he’s just like, ‘I want to start shooting from the three,’” he says.
Credit: Vinny Nolan
Credit: Vinny Nolan
After releasing his debut, 2011′s “Setbacks,” ScHoolboy Q found breakout success thanks to his 2012 single “Hands on the Wheel,” with A$AP Rocky, from the 2012 follow-up, “Habits and Contradictions.” From 2014 to 2019, he released three more albums, “Oxymoron,” “Blank Face LP” and “CrasH Talk.” It’s a run during which all three albums debuted at or near the top of Billboard’s 200 list. “Oxymoron” (2014) and “Blank Face LP” (2016) received Grammy nominations for best rap album.
ScHoolboy Q’s platinum and gold-selling catalog runs the gamut of gang life, partying and what he calls the “shiny [expletive deleted]” that comes with rap success.
Since making his breakthrough, ScHoolboy Q has conveyed an image as the brash bad boy of Black Hippy, a collective of L.A. rappers he came up with that includes Kendrick Lamar, Ab-Soul and Jay Rock. He’s drawn an international following for his raps, blunt delivery and prowess for telling honest, shameless tales of debauchery.
But after releasing 2019′s “CrasH Talk,” and being active in music for more than a decade, ScHoolboy Q says he felt a void in the content of his storytelling.
“I rap about drugs, gang banging, but I never really rapped about home much. I rapped about my life, but not necessarily home when the camera’s off,” he says, about “Blue Lips,” which he spent half a decade recording. “I’m trying to figure out how do I take this next step in this music [expletive deleted] and give you another side of me.”
Atlanta fans will have chance to experience the new album when ScHoolboy Q plays the Tabernacle on Friday, July 26. The show, he says, will feel like a two-hour listening session.
Followers know some biographical details of the man born Quincy Hanley in then-West Germany. His mother was in the military and relocated to South Central near Figueroa and Hoover streets. The latter is where ScHoolboy Q came of age as a member of the 52 Hoover Street Gangster Crips, hence why he capitalizes the “H” in his name and song titles.
Credit: Bethany Vargas
Credit: Bethany Vargas
After playing “Blue Lips” for the label, peers and even Jay-Z, the overwhelmingly positive responses validated his feelings. “Blue Lips’” 18 tracks clock in in just under an hour. It’s the story of a kid in a single-parent home, finding his path to manhood through trial and error. It’s also a brutally honest reflection on the mental health of a Black man and father of two daughters grappling with 2024 realities.
“Mass shootings, when will they stop it? Another kid gone for unlimited profits/Rather keep my kid home, before you [expletive deleted] up the process,” he raps on “Cooties.”
In other moments, ScHoolboy is coming to terms with his upbringing. On “Germany 86′″ — an ode to the year and place of his birth — he describes frustrations seeing his mother serve her country, only to return home and be forgotten by its government.
“My mom stayed workin’ late, she taught me how to be great/my superhero’s a woman, you know she served for this country/sent her back to the Hoovers, left her son for the shooters.”
Of course, there are still boisterous, rowdy rap anthems (the Rico Nasty assisted “Pop”) and braggadocio (lead single “Yeern 101″). Even with sounds familiar to ScHoolboy Q die-hards, when he addresses losing friends to the drugs over piano and somber horns on “Bluesides,” it shows that he’s maturing.
“Blue Lips” is an album ScHoolboy Q is eager to bring to live audiences, and coming back to Atlanta early in the tour feels comfortable and familiar. After all, he grew up a fan of Outkast, Jermaine Dupri, T.I., Jeezy and Gucci Mane.
He remembers his first headlining show here back in 2012. It was a modest, but memorable affair at the Loft in Midtown. The millennial-led collective Creative Revolution Union organized a free concert benefiting Hosea Feed the Hungry and Homeless where audiences could gain entry by donating canned goods.
“That was a dope night,” the rapper recalls, laughing about his friend and Grammy-winning producer Mike Will Made-It pulling up to the Midtown venue in his “bucket [expletive deleted] Buick.”
At that time, ScHoolboy Q was going from being Kendrick Lamar’s tour hype man to setting out on his solo path in music. He connected with the crowd.
“Atlanta does show me a lot of love,” he says. “They always did.”
As a fan of Atlanta music, he understands the city’s larger impact on hip-hop. “Everybody’s got to steal something from Atlanta. I wouldn’t even call it stealing; we just connect to it a lot because it just sounds super Black.”
In fact, some could argue that Atlanta was an unlikely winner in the battle between ScHoolboy Q’s longtime friend Kendrick Lamar and Drake. The Blue Lips Weekends tour was slated to kick off on July 18 in Toronto, but the show was canceled. On X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, ScHoolboy Q alluded to the idea that Drake had something to do with it.
He declined to answer follow-up questions about Atlanta’s influence on the battle, and claim that it led to his opening show getting canceled, saying that his focus is on rehearsing.
As he nears his 40s, ScHoolboy Q seems genuinely happy to keep rapping and improving his golf game. Though heroes such as Andre 3000 are trading in mics for woodwinds and embracing middle age, he doesn’t envision that kind of career pivot in his future.
“He’s still making music, clearly, but I’m not as good as him with instruments,” ScHoolboy Q jokes about Andre. “I want to rap and leave the door open … I don’t know how you just turn it off.”
CONCERT PREVIEW
ScHoolboy Q
9 p.m. Friday, July 26. $51.50-$56. The Tabernacle. 152 Luckie St. NW, Atlanta. livenation.com
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