Peter $un's putting out a life-changing album, talks Virginia culture in LA, trap singing and more (Exclusive)
At this point, you’ve come to realize whenever an interview goes down on Attack The Culture, it’s usually 90 percent about lifestyle and things not directly related to what the featured guest is promoting. Virginia-raised, Los Angeles-based rap artist Peter $un completely changes the tone this time around with his must-hear Phone Calls Gimme Anxiety album just hours away from dropping to the masses.
From talking about the epic project’s overall sound to feeling drained from putting out his previous Scumbaby album, there’s no shortage of memorable moments in this chop up session. Check out some conversation highlights and keep scrolling to see $unny fully let loose for a quick 30-minute verbal journey.
Can we just hype up how dope it is you have the dollar sign on the $un part? People don’t understand how, like, I want to say it’s a Curren$y thing but Ma$e has done it, A$AP Rocky has done it. We’re going to talk about your love for Curren$y as well but talk about your love and emphasis of keeping that dollar sign in $un.
Peter $un: That was more so motivation. That’s the money coming. You know what I mean? When I put that in there when I was younger, because I originally had it with the ‘Sun’ and I was like, ‘Alright.’ I just felt like I needed something to spice shit up. It felt right. The money’s on the way. Let’s put them dollar signs in there and kind of like, it insinuates that I’m rich in spirit and in health in everything. In all aspects.
Your team is amazing. They actually gave me the pleasure of listening to the full project. I’m not capping. I literally listened to the project at least seven times in a row, man, just in my writing grind. It’s meditative, it’s hip-hop, it’s definitely your style. But at the very base, how important is it for you to have the world hear what you’ve been cooking up?
Peter $un: It’s very important, bro. I tweeted today and I said in the Instagram post, I was the most vulnerable in this project especially coming off of the Scumbaby project because it’s hard when you’ve got different people in your ear, different people who want to hear different things. I also love different music. I love all types of music. Whether it be trap, like, I go into my trap bag, I go into my hip-hop bag, barring up. I sing. I don't sing-sing, you know what I mean.
With this project, it was very important to me to stay very true to myself and to give people who I am as a person and as a human being and who I am as a musician and what I’m going through in the time of coming off of Scumbaby and going into this new stuff and where I’m heading. And giving people a glimpse into where I’m going in my life and how I feel and where I want to be.
I think it’s a maturation process. It’s a big maturation from Scumbaby into becoming a man and handling business and owning up to who I am and where I am in life. I put myself there because I’m doing these certain things and this is where I want to be. I think people will be able to take that with them, especially people going through the same process of maturing and being a better person and getting into healthy habits and routines, doing their thing.
How masterful were you putting these songs on? Were there some songs that didn’t make the cut?
Peter $un: There were some that didn't make the cut but they didn’t kind of make sense in the grand scheme of the story. I’ve in the past had a hard time of making a project into a full story and really telling my life and story of what I’m going through.
I wanted this project to be that. I wanted this project because there are times where people will be like, ‘I don’t really understand him. I don’t really get where he’s going with it.’ I wanted to make sure people understood. I wanted to make sure people got that these are my influences. I feel like you can kind of hear and get what type of artists I’m into by listening. You can hear who I am as a person and who I stand for and that I care about people. I enjoy smoking weed. I’m an advocate of medical mushrooms. You can hear all of that and you can see all of that.
That’s what my main goal was. There were a lot of things that didn’t make the cut because it just didn’t make sense at the time. But they’re still great songs that could have been on the album.
Check out everything Peter $un has to dish on including his short stint in New York City, taking a gamble moving out to Los Angeles for his career, embracing the City of Angels culture and more below.
