Apr 6

Apr 6 6LACK: Over an hour of Apple Music conversation is pure must-see

Low-key? This should have been pushed to the VIDEOS section but there’s something very special about getting over an hour of on-screen time with hip-hop artist 6LACK. Add in the fact he’s chopping it up with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe too? Priceless.

6LACK and Zane Lowe talk it up in epic fashion

From talking about his 2016 project to his current state of mind? It’s way deep and reflective - not to mention the setting the interview goes down. Peep some of the pulled quotes and definitely kick back for this full-fledged experience.

6LACK Tells Apple Music About His New Album ’Since I Have a Lover’…
...this is me really looking myself in the mirror and knowing how I want to be, the influence I want to have on my daughter, the influence I want to have on my future kids, my future family, and knowing that with music, there is a bit of responsibility. And whether you acknowledge it or not, people are listening and they're learning and they're following. So what do you want to say to them?
6LACK Tells Apple Music About The Five Years That Have Passed Since His Last Album and Creating During The Pandemic...
It's definitely felt like five years. Some days it feels like it's gone by faster than I could have ever expected. And then when I think back to certain moments, some days it was really in slow motion. And I remember being almost a little bit not excited, but when I heard that we were going on lockdown, I was just like, I'm used to being a homebody and I thrive being to myself, so this will be something that I'm familiar with. And then I got into it and realized it wasn't what I expected it to be, and it really put a mirror in front of my face and it forced me to look at myself. And sharing space with other people and learning what it is to share space and love somebody, and for that to really be unconditional, and what that requires and how you can't just go outside and go to lunch and take a break from whatever you need to deal with is like, oh, we got to deal with it right now, because we actually don't have a choice but to deal with it right now.
6LACK Tells Apple Music About Continuing To Reintroduce Himself and Grow As an Artist…
If you want the album, the album is there, but the last thing you want is somebody to do the same thing over and over again because then people will say, "Oh, he never changes. He does the same thing over and over again. I know what kind of music he makes, I know what kind of vibe I'm getting from him.” And some of my favorite artists have changed and grown between albums and every time that they reintroduce themselves, they reintroduce a new part of their life or a new vision that they've had or a new emotion that they're living in. So I have to always stick to the path of growing and know that sometimes you shed people along the way, but as long as I'm on this same mission, it's cool.

6LACK Tells Apple Music About Maturing and Working on Himself...
I love to remind people that who I was yesterday is just not who I am today and it'll never be that way sonically. It'll never be that way emotionally. It'll never be that way spiritually. I have been enjoying this process of growing up, and I don't think that music has enough moments where people just champion growing up and champion maturing and champion healthy love and champion like I'm working on myself and I'm trying to be a better man and a better father and a better brother and a better son. So since I felt like that void was missing, I just want to continue to feel it and I want to continue to tell people like, this is who I am. You can catch up or you can find somebody else to listen to.
6LACK Gives Wale His Flowers and Discusses Collaborating With Him on “Stories in Motion”...
I know that Wale has always had a way with his words. I know that during times where I was still figuring out myself and figuring out my music, his music spoke ... his word spoke to me. Flowers, man. Flowers for him all day long, because everything that we see right now as far as hip hop goes has graduated from a specific era. As of right now, the current day, that era is Drake. That era is Kendrick. That era is Wale. That era is Cole. These are some of the building blocks of what we have right now. So flowers for him. It was an honor to be able to reach out to him and just say, "I need you" for something. The song was pretty much already done. I could tell just in our exchanges that he took it serious. Even though it was a moment those next couple of days, he's like, "All right, so you want me to come at it this way? Should I do this? Should I do that?" I gave him free rein. He painted a picture in a matter of, I don't know what, 30 seconds, if that. Everything that he said is... spot on as far as that song goes. He wrapped it up in such a perfect way.
6LACK Tells Apple Music About Collaborating with Don Toliver and Says His Music Helped Him Get Through The Pandemic…
He's great. I think more than anything, it's just really inspiring for me. It's really inspiring for me to listen to somebody else's music and just go the acoustics of this. It's just amazing. It's every song, every melody, every part of the production. It just fits and it sits perfectly. I have things that I would've changed about certain albums looking back or certain moments looking back. When I listen to Life of a DON and when I listen to a Lovesick, I'm just like, it's a really great place to be, basically at the beginning of a career. I'm like, that's so tight, so good. It's been super inspiring. Don got me through the pandemic for sure.
6LACK Tells Apple Music How Wizkid’s ‘Made in Lagos’ Album Inspired Him...
There were a couple albums that got me through, Wizkid, the Made in Lagos album.…that Wizkid album really inspired. It made me move during a time where nobody wanted to move, where we actually weren't even able to go outside. I remember that feeling of listening to that album all the way through and just being like, "I could play that again all the way through and not skip a single song."
6LACK Tells Apple Music About Learning How To Play The Guitar...
The catch this time will be, I get to bring guitar to stage, which I've never done before. I'll be playing guitar on stage for this next tour. I played a couple of licks on the album… learning guitar was almost like getting in a new relationship. I sucked in front of somebody, I was trash.
6LACK Tells Apple Music About The Title Track “Since I Have a Lover”…
Since I Have a Lover was another moment where I knew the theme. I knew the story that we were telling. We already had a bulk of the music, but there was something missing. And I went maybe weeks of just, it was like we were supposed to pull the trigger on when it was time to wrap things up, and release and start to shoot things. And I just kept being like, something's missing and I don't know what it is, and I just have to be patient and say f**k a deadline, and sit until that thing popped out. And when I heard the music for it, I was like, that's the feeling right there.
6LACK Tells Apple Music About The Track “Spirited Away”…
That one took the longest for me to finish. And it feels easy to listen to. That night I was watching Spirited Away. I had a little bit of shrooms to heighten the emotional experience and connection to it. It was an unlocking moment for me. It was me starting to get an emotion, and get in a rhythm, and be more expressive and just honor the fact that I'm in my home right now and this isn't something that I should be taking for granted. This is a safe space. I worked for it. Nobody's coming in the room to interrupt me. I have the food I need. I have the water I need. I have the snacks I need. I got the studio I need. I can make whatever face I want while I'm recording. I can get as ugly with it as I need to get to really get it out. And that was really a moment of me looking at my life and saying, it's really time to unlock and go to another level spiritually.
6LACK Tells Apple Music About The Evolution Across His First Two Albums…
Free 6LACK was being in that place of turmoil and being in that place of self-doubt and being in that place of being a little bit muted. Then East Atlanta Love Letter was me opening my heart and my mind into different ideas and being like, "Okay, actually I'm starting to get the hang of this."
6LACK Tells Apple Music About Fetishizing Darkness and Why His 2016 Debut Project ‘FREE 6LACK’ Was a “Coping Album"…
2016 me was obviously coming out of a bad record deal and feeling like I had something to prove to myself, coming out at the very least two or three relationships that didn't even match with who I felt I was. It was more so just filling time and filling space and settling and allowing my depression and my moods to just overtake my decision making skills. And then that started to inspire the creativity, and then that became like a crutch. And I honestly feel like that's the reason why this new music has pushed me in a different direction because I know that it's cool to create things from that space and you get amazing things from it, but at some point, it almost becomes a fetish and it becomes like a style and it becomes like… an identity, and I'm just like, but is this really where you want to be? Is this really how you feel? Is it benefiting you? When you wake up in the morning, how do you feel? Do you feel full? And I was feeling more and more drained with every relationship, more and more drained with every moment. And I remember going on that tour and after that tour was over, I was just like, there's been no progression. I feel like I just lived that album on the road and now I'm just back looking at my life and it still feels like it's in shambles. It's hope in there, but it was definitely a coping album for sure. And it was definitely an album where 90% of the songs that I made, I was in the room by myself. And it was definitely an album where everything was monochrome and black and white and muted, and the way that I even performed back then was completely different too. I was looking down at the ground. I didn't do too much running around. I didn't even know myself. I knew Free 6lack the album, but I didn't know who I could be until I really took step one, which was soon as that tour was over. Just cut it off.
6LACK Tells Apple Music About Learning To Enjoy New Things…
I've been able to enjoy so many different things recently, all based off of learning with my partner and being like, actually, "I think I am interested in going to see a ballet. I am interested in going to see a Broadway show. I am interested in," like I said, "having a tea party with you and your sisters and your family." These are things that helped me tap into another side of myself that I just never got to express.I want to get my green thumb together for sure. I want to know how to actually put stuff into the earth and grow stuff. That's a sooner goal than anything else. I think overall, let's just continuing to figure out ways to do things around me. Finding more projects like that so that I can just feel like I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing while I'm here. If I have access to resources, if I have access to money, then let's find somewhere productive to put it. As of right now, that's my main goal.
6LACK Tells Apple Music About The Importance of Balance…
Balance is okay. Life is both. Life is everything. It's good, it's bad, it's bravado, it's peace and tranquility. It's moments of ego. It's moments of accountability.