Fivio Foreign decodes B.I.B.L.E., keeps Pop Smoke's legacy alive and talks Alicia Keys advice

New York rapper Fivio Foreign can finally exhale. Fresh from dropping his B.I.B.L.E. album to the masses, the hip-hop star breaks down the studio debut, reflects on late Brooklyn icon Pop Smoke and plenty more in a full-fledged sit-down with Apple Music’s Ebro Darden.

The nearly 60-minute chop up session is packed with gems, so kick back with these pulled key quotes and watch Fivio reflect on his grind to the Big Apple mountaintop.

Fivio Foreign Tells Apple Music There’s More To Come From Him and Kanye and Tells The Story Of How They Met...

I got some more Kanye. Oh yeah. Me and Kanye, we work together. We work together good. But right now, he taking a break right now. The freestyle I did on Funk Flex, I said a line, he was watching it, he had watched it. I had said a line on there, I said, "I got a question for the reverend. If you kill a killer, do you go to heaven?" I'm saying he was like, "Yo, I need bars like that on my album." So, he reached out to whoever he reached out to, they called me and said, "Kanye want to holler at you." I'm like, "You lying." I'm saying Kanye don't want to holler at me, stop telling me that. I'm saying he like, "Nah, he want your number. Do I give Kanye your number?" I'm like, “N***a, yeah you give Kanye my number." You know what I'm saying? He text me like, "Yo," real polite, know what I'm saying, "May I call you?" So he text me. "This is Ye, man. I'll call you." I'm like, "Yeah," like I'm saying, "call me." And he like, "Yo, I want you to fly down to Atlanta, I'm saying come to the stadium, get on this album. Like I like that bar you said, I got this song." He said, "I don't want to just do music. I want to build a relationship." Know what I'm saying? That's what he was telling me. I'm saying, so I'm like, "All right, bet." Flew me out there, jet of course, got the jet for me. I'm saying went to the stadium, I stayed in the stadium for like…He had got me a hotel, too, but I just did it for the experience.

Fivio Foreign Tells Apple Music How Kanye West Got Involved With ‘B.I.B.L.E.'…

Before any song was even done on Donda 2, he had heard my whole album. He was like, "Yo, this is what Donda 2 should sound like." He heard the whole album and he was like, "Yo, this is what it sound like." He wanted the “Off The Grid,” the “Hurricane.” The top songs from Donda 1, he wanted that more to sound like Donda 2. You know what I'm saying? He was telling the team and all that. But he was like, "Yo, I want to be a part of your album. I want to be a part of it. I want to perfect it. I want to make it into a masterpiece." He be having these little visions.

Fivio Foreign Tells Apple Music About Kanye’s Role as An Executive Producer on the Album…

What he do, how his help is like, he's a producer. He's a person who can call a feature in. It was like he already heard the songs. He heard the songs. Like, "Yo, let's take away the drums here. Let's call this person to add this. Let's change these words to make it more mainstream." It's certain little things. He do little perfections.

Fivio Foreign Tells Apple Music Jay-Z Was Originally Supposed To Be on “City of Gods” Instead of Kanye and Working with Alicia Keys…

When I went to LA, I played it for Ye. He was like, "This s**t is fire. We got to get Hov on this shit." I'm like, "What? We got to get Hov?" He said, "Watch this. Tomorrow." But then tomorrow, next day came, he doing a thousand things. He like, "Yo, Alicia Keys on her way. I want to make her sing it." I'm like, "What? Are you serious?" Then we going to give it to Hov. I'm like, "Yo, I ain't going to lie I want this s**t to come out now." He like, "You right. We got to come out now before Donda 2 come out. So I'm going to just throw a verse on it." So what happened was, we made Alicia Keys sing, and I met her. It's the first time I ever met her, I was like damn. I'm glad that she was mad cool. She like, "I'll do it. I don't care." We did it right in the room. It wasn't a studio. It was a room with a mic. She was singing that b**ch, and it was fire. Then we removed the whole sample off because her voice was crazy. Then Ye threw his verse on. The song was like fake-done already. It was like my verse, that part, my verse again in that part, and then ye threw the rest of the verse on it. It was like that. That's how it was like.

Fivio Foreign Tells Apple Music Beyoncé Likes “What’s My Name” and Asked Him To Clean Up The Content Before Offering Him Permission To Sample Destiny Child’s “Say My Name”…

Beyonce said she liked the song. She heard that. She had to clear it. Know what I'm saying? She heard it, so she liked the respectfully part. You know what I'm saying? So, that's one for the ladies, know what I'm saying? She made sure it wasn't too vulgar, I'm saying. Had to be respectful to the ladies. Know what I'm saying? "You know, don't say that." I'm like, "All right. Say no more." You know what I'm saying? "Say no more, whatever you want." You know what I'm saying? Got it done, so shout out to that. I appreciate that.

Fivio Foreign Tells Apple Music About Being Surprised By The Success of “Big Drip” and Releasing It Without a Plan…

I had shot the video to it, probably like two, three months after it was already out and people was going crazy, and that's late in street time. In street time, things like a video, you do that s**t the next day. I shot this like two, three months later. No strategy. That s**t was like god's plan. What happened was my first time ever, because I ain't have no song by myself really, so I had mad songs with people in the hood. As I'm getting real lit, it's people in the hood, that n***a from another hood, and n***as like, "Yo, Fivio, you got to do s**t by yourself. You lit. You nice." So I'm like, "All right. F**k it." I put together a four song EP. I called it EP, because I see people do EPs. I don't really know nothing. I just put it out, boom, just the audio. But then it was like the “Big Drip” song, it was just going views. I'm like what's happening? I'm looking at the YouTube, I'm like what's happening? I'm like I've got to shoot the video to this. They like it. You know what I'm saying? But I'm already semi lit in Brooklyn. Around the hood, I'm semi lit. N****s like, "You nice, killing s**t." And then I shot the video and it was crazy. It hit the radio.

Fivio Foreign Tells Apple Music What He Learned From Pop Smoke…

I ain't going to front one thing about Pop. He was smart beyond. The was bent. He was here already before. I don't know. I remember because he was signed before I was signed. So I used to go to the labels with him. We was going to label, running around Universal, in the building.And I used to be like, "You crazy." Yeah. He used to be like, "Yeah, this is what we do." I was like, "Oh, you've been doing this?" But he just got there too. But that's how he move. That's just how he moves. So he just had a certain type of confidence with him. Know what I'm saying? It taught me a lot too, just watching it, even though he was younger than me. Taught me some shit.

Fivio Foreign Tells Apple Music About Being Hesitant To Make More Mainstream Music…

I used to be hesitant, because I didn't know that people would still accept the music, if it sound too much like … N****s like, "Yo, what's up Fivi? You a gangster though." But it's like, all gangsters go through all type of emotions. But I just feel like n****s, a lot of people don't be wanting to show those sides of them. And it wasn't easy. It took a lot for me to be like, "You know what? F**k it. I'm just going to do it." It took a lot. It gets scary. It gets scary because you want to be that n***a. You want to be accepted. But you've got to know, you've got to be comfortable and you got to be less stressed, clear minded. You get one life. You know what I'm saying? We losing people. Life is short. So it's like have fun. Have fun with this s**T. Be yourself. Be true to yourself.
Fivio Foreign Tells Apple Music About The Experience of Recording with Kanye West on ‘Donda’…

I did all the songs. He had sent me all the songs on Donda. Like to rap to, to reference, rap over. I'm saying, just catch a vibe. What would it sound like? He had me fly one of my producers out, the one that be doing a drill sound, add some drill drums on there. He ain't use every one. Because he's like a type of person to take everybody's opinion. So he made everybody do every song, everybody there. And then he's like, "All right, this is nice. This is nice. This is going to work.”

Fivio Foreign Tells Apple Music About Getting Clean and Asking For Help From Eve…

If I wanted it how I say I wanted it, I had to focus up. I had to because I'm doing long term. I feel like them type with that lifestyle, and I used to talk to people. I did a show. I was on the show Queens, with Eve. Right? Spoke to Eve. I used to be asking everybody because I used to be dealing with so much. Even at the show, I had to take a shot of liquor. I'm like, "You have to get a shot of liquor." Could take the edge off. N****s get nervous in front of them cameras, all them people watching. You don't know how to do it. So I asked. I said, "Yo, how you deal with this shit? She been in the life forever. She said, "Yo." She told me she dealt with the same thing. Alcohol... Drugs... Just to cope. But when she said... She was like, "Yo, I don't do it no more. You can't let it take over you where it's like you depending on this to be who you could already be." I used to be in interviews. Before an interview, I'd take a shot, take a perc. First time doing interviews on national radio... news. I'm on the news talking to mayors. And it's like you talking to people like I don't want to f**k up what I'm saying. I don't want to seem nervous. So you got to take something, take the edge off. That's what I was fighting. That's what I was dealing with. But I had to get out of that because it wasn't good for me. I had to depend on it, and then sometimes you run out of percs. But then what am I going to do now. What, you can't do interview because you run out of percs?

Fivio Foreign Tells Apple Music About Finding Peace While He Was in Prison…

To be honest with you, I think that couple months might have been most of the easiest months of my life as far as being in the industry. I had n****s in there in my ear, "Yo bro, you bugging. You shouldn't be in here with us." You get that type of motivation, too, in there. But then you kind of get to escape a lot of s**t in a way. You never want to be there. You never want to go there. You want to get away from that. But it is like... This s**t come with so much phone ringing all day. People handing out, people pulling on your pocket, pulling on your arm. They want everything from you. You finally get the chance to go. I could speak to nobody today if I want to. I call now, know what I'm saying? Obviously, eventually you be like, "Get the f**k up out of here." But sometimes you need that little clear thought because I don't get alone time. I ain't get alone time, man. It's probably two, three years, now. So you need that. I feel like when you get alone time, you get to think more. You think more, you master yourself. You focus. You could work out. You could focus on yourself, but you don't want do more than two, three months of that. But I feel like that helps. I feel like that's why I came out sharp, ready to go. Because I just was like, "Nah," like I could do more. I had music dropping when I was locked up, so that motivated me too. I had music dropping, and I wasn't even working as hard as I really could.

Fivio Foreign Tells Apple Music About Expanding The Scope of Drill Music and His Unreleased Collabs…

Expand drill. Just more to it. More to it than just beefing on the song. Tell your story on the song. Talk about some b*****s on the song, some females on the song. It's just all type of ways to drill, to do drill music, and that's what I'm trying to show n****s. I got a song with Popcaan. I got reggae drill. It ain’t on the album it’s on the deluxe, but it's there. I got s**t with 24kGoldn. Got pop drill. Just expand it. Expanding to show people like, "Listen, we don't got to talk about this all the time." I'm saying it so that way, maybe it won't be happening a lot. I'm saying maybe it get people an opportunity to get up out the hood for real.

Fivio Foreign Tells Apple Music About Linking with Quavo…

Me and Quavo, I think me and Quavo been talking forever on the Instagram s**t. I think I finally saw him at Bobby Shmurda welcome home party. He was there. I was like, "Yo, we got to get one." He's, "Hell yeah, for sure." But so Quavo, he be in tune with everything with all of us. But I was in LA, he was in LA. "Yo, come to the studio tonight." Because every time I ask him for a song, but then I see him, but I know how it is. You know what I'm saying. Because he explains to me like, "yo bro, I want to do a song, but you know how it is, I forget." I forget we got a song, and then I don't remember when I'm in the studio. That happened to me, too. I do that to artists, not on purpose, but it's so much s**t going on, you be forgetting, you be like, "damn, I forgot to do the feature." And they think you move funny, but he explained it to me the best way he can. I'm like, it makes sense, know what I'm saying? But we was both working on Donda, like, "I got my own studio, too, pull up." Pulled up, we did the two joints. Those are two joints.

Fivio Foreign Tells Apple Music About Collabing With A$AP Rocky…

Me and A$AP, honestly, we got some mutual friends. We know some of the same people. So it was that link up automatically was going to happen. We did that song probably a year ago, two. Mm. Yeah, probably like a year ago we did that joint. It was crazy. He went first, just heard the beat and went crazy. I didn't even hear what he was saying. It was like quiet. I'm like, "A$AP Rocky on drill beat." We all like, "how this s**t going to sound?" When he came out that s**t, and we heard that s**t, I'm like, "oh, shit." He really got some, man. He ain't write, either. He went in there and straight went off. And I don't think he punched in that much. He probably punched in like, two, three times, like freestyle. Crazy.

Fivio Foreign Tells Apple Music About Working With Nicki Minaj on “We Go Up”…

That s**t different. Her s**t different. Yeah, she made me change my s**t up 1,000. That's why I was trying to put some, I tried to keep up with her. Her s**t different. She's different. She got real talent for real. And she got a real fan And she a real person to me a little bit. We just did one. I sent the one song that day before album. She was heard it. She was like, "Yo, what's that song?" Because I putting up snippets and s**t. She's like, "What's that song? This s**t sound crazy. Send me that." I'm saying one verse on that thing for nothing. One verse on that s**t. She like, "You got to put two verses on that s**t.” I'm like, "You put a verse." She like, "I don't care. I'll put a verse if you want me to put a verse, but I feel like your fans want to hear you." She fell in love with it.

Fivio Foreign Tells Apple Music About His Goal For His Music…

I feel like right now, and the way the atmosphere is, it's a lot of pain out there. A lot of people going through a lot of depression. There's a lot of shit niggas is going through without speaking about it. So I just feel like this is the type of music I want to give them. I want to give them some real substance, not just old gang banging on the songs. I feel like n****s want to hear some pain. N****s want to feel something.