INTERVIEW | GOOD KID LAMB DISCUSSES NEW ALBUM ‘ALL BUSINESS’

In “All Busi­ness,” Good Kid Lamb delves deep into the trans­form­a­tion of his iden­tity and life exper­i­ences, weav­ing a lyr­ic­al tapestry that reflects his per­son­al jour­ney. With a focus on intro­spec­tion, soci­et­al cri­tique, and a renewed sense of pur­pose, this album show­cases a more soph­ist­ic­ated and focused artist, offer­ing listen­ers a unique and power­ful music­al exper­i­ence. Through his raw, intro­spect­ive lyr­ics and pro­found mes­sages, Good Kid Lamb invites his audi­ence to join him on his artist­ic and per­son­al evol­u­tion, leav­ing a last­ing impact and a desire for more.

Can you tell us more about the inspir­a­tion behind your new album, “All Busi­ness,” and how it reflects your per­son­al journey?

All Busi­ness serves as a cor­rec­tion to my iden­tity, rein­vent­ing my image due to the per­son­al changes I’ve gone through since I last por­trayed myself as an artist. I went from being a con­fused and arrog­ant kid, to a seasoned and con­fid­ent man and fath­er. I’ve exper­i­enced almost every aspect of the life I once thought I fully under­stood, and I’ve made it to where I am now able to say that most things are nev­er what they seem. Through it all, I’ve almost regressed men­tally to the focused and tun­nel vis­ion mind­set of my early teens. Hence the term “All Busi­ness.” I’m focused on noth­ing else.

You men­tioned that this album is a res­ult of adversity and renewed self-dis­cov­ery. Could you share some spe­cif­ic exper­i­ences or chal­lenges that influ­enced the cre­ation of this project?

From hav­ing my first daugh­ter way before I was ready, to real­iz­ing three years later, I wasn’t as ready as I thought to have my young­est, everything I’ve been through has influ­enced the cre­ation of this pro­ject. Los­ing close friends to the sys­tem, and even small por­tions of my own life. Fight­ing mul­tiple leg­al cases, get­ting one dis­missed, plead­ing guilty on anoth­er, then anoth­er, and then fight­ing two more, while on pro­ba­tion, I’ve learned a lot about life I did­n’t know before. I’ve watched people I’ve known closely die when you wouldn’t expect it. I’ve seen import­ant things go far from as planned. Seen a lot of loss, seen a lot of change. Lost my Aunt, and my leg­al guard­i­an, on my 22^nd birth­day. Killed before she was even 40, only weeks before my friend’s fath­er was murdered. Close friends los­ing close friends and fam­ily to viol­ence, one way or anoth­er. Achiev­ing mile­stones in life, but still not mak­ing it far enough.

“All Busi­ness” is described as your most soph­ist­ic­ated work to date. What new ele­ments or themes can fans expect to hear in this album com­pared to your pre­vi­ous releases?

The lyr­ic­al depth and mean­ing sur­passes any­thing I’ve writ­ten before. As far as rhyme schemes, and music­al pat­terns, all my music is usu­ally kept up to the same stand­ard, but the mes­sage is dif­fer­ent now. The flow, and more import­antly the switch of the flow, is what should stand out the most. That, alone, is how my new style will be defined. The way I ride the beat now, and in the future, will be incom­par­able, with the raw per­spect­ive that comes with it. The word play will always be there, but I’m work­ing toward double and triple entendres with such simple mean­ings on one end that any­body can listen and feel it.

You’ve gone through sev­er­al artist epi­thets and name changes through­out your career. How does your cur­rent iden­tity as Good Kid Lamb rep­res­ent your evol­u­tion as an artist and as an individual?

Grow­ing up too fast was some­thing I did too early, and that will leave you doing too much. I used to do too much, care too much, and want to prove too much.

Ego and pride runs rampant in boys with no fath­er, and I was a prime example of that. Not only do I want to erase the bold notion of being a crim­in­al in the pub­lic eye, but I also want to humbly accept any iden­tity giv­en, being that these last years being the bad guy were not fun, so I will hap­pily reac­cept my old look as a good kid.

I also, truly at heart, really just want to do what is right, by tak­ing care of my fam­ily, and being there as the per­son I am for every­body I care about.

Could you elab­or­ate on the sig­ni­fic­ance of the album’s title, “All Busi­ness,” and how it relates to the over­all mes­sage or concept of the project?

“All Busi­ness,” as a title sets the tone from the jump of the entire vibe of my rein­tro­duc­tion into the music scene. Like I men­tioned before, I’m refo­cused on the main goal, and the main goal only. Everything else is a dis­trac­tion. From women, to con­flict, to law enforce­ment, and even all the way to enter­tain­ment, if it’s not the goal, it is a dis­trac­tion that I’m doing my best to avoid. I’m not per­fect, but I do my best to remain “All Busi­ness.” Unlike before, I try my hard­est to revert my energy away from things that aren’t serving my purpose.

Your music is known for its raw intro­spec­tion and soci­et­al cri­tique. Can you share some of the key themes or mes­sages you aim to con­vey through this album?

As far as intro­spec­tion goes, I paint my battle with issues of pride and anger. Those two are big, and work togeth­er at times. Ego is some­thing I will always jump around with. Recently I’ve real­ized my switch­ing of egos, to my alter egos, and older names I went by.

The Good Kid sees all the wrong­do­ing by my peers, myself, my enemies, my friends, and more import­antly people in author­ity. My alter egos deal with per­son­al battles; depress­ive tend­en­cies and anxious para­noi­as. I’ve dealt with greed. Addic­tion. Loss. Everything.

What was the col­lab­or­at­ive pro­cess like in terms of work­ing with a sound engin­eer from Hou­s­ton for mix­ing and mas­ter­ing? How did it con­trib­ute to the album’s son­ic quality?

The col­lab­or­at­ive pro­cess was actu­ally extremely dif­fi­cult for us, from a dis­tance. The fact that he is who he is made the son­ic qual­ity amaz­ing for sure, but the fact we were at such dis­tance made the pro­duc­tion dif­fi­cult to cor­rect and con­clude, due to the fact we couldn’t be in the same place, at the same time, work­ing on the same thing.

How has your close-knit fam­ily and fan­base influ­enced the cre­ation of “All Busi­ness,” and how do they con­tin­ue to inspire your music?

Hon­estly, fam­ily and such served to remind me to do it, because without the con­stant input of every­one around me, I’d just be box­ing right now, and music would be a thing of the past. I love music, but the life that I made for myself pushed me away from it. Every­body around me pushed me back towards it, forcefully.

Are there any standout tracks on the album that hold a par­tic­u­larly spe­cial place in your heart, and if so, what makes them stand out?
Soon to Relapse holds the #1 spot. I just got my true point across the best in that song. I mean every word in that song, more than I’ve prob­ably meant any­thing artist­ic ever before. It just cov­ers nearly every aspect of my per­son­al­ity and per­spect­ive, on a more simple level than oth­er songs. It’s one of the more play­ful and street songs on the album. Oth­ers like Dragon Ball Me, All Talk, and Pull-Up Hit­tin’ all res­on­ate in that same way, and just are the type of music I listen to myself on a daily basis.

What do you hope listen­ers will take away from “All Busi­ness,” both in terms of the music itself and the mes­sage you aim to com­mu­nic­ate with this project?

Hope­fully they hear the dif­fer­ence, and the abil­ity to really speak through the music. That’s all I want. For people to hear it, and be shocked it actu­ally exists, because it’s noth­ing like any­thing else.

LISTEN TO ‘ALL BUSI­NESS’ HERE

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Rishma Dhaliwal

Edit­or / PR Con­sult­ant at No Bounds

Rishma Dhali­w­al has extens­ive exper­i­ence study­ing and work­ing in the music and media industry. Hav­ing writ­ten a thes­is on how Hip Hop acts as a social move­ment, she has spent years research­ing and con­nect­ing with artists who use the art form as a tool for bring­ing a voice to the voice­less. Cur­rently work­ing in TV, Rishma brings her PR and media know­ledge to I am Hip Hop and oth­er pro­jects by No Bounds.

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