Westside Gunn: A full-hour long Apple Music 1 interview with Zane Lowe is a Griselda dream

Westside Gunn has plenty to talk about and a quick radio visit just doesn’t cut it. So what better way to geek out over the newly released And Then You Pray For Me than chopping it up with Apple Music 1’s Zane Lowe?

Westside Gunn chopping it up with Zane Lowe for an hour is purely awesome

More than an hour of awesomeness, it’s all types of tap in vibes for the Gunn day ones. From dishing on recording his entire album overseas to having to make a disconnection to some serious supporters. Peep the highlights and keep scrolling for the full-fledged interview.

Westside Gunn on His New Album ‘And Then You Pray For Me’...

It's a history lesson. It's just different energy right now with me, man. You see, I'm glowing right now. It's just where I'm at in life, you know what I'm saying? I made this whole album overseas, so it was just like… Just country hop and just energy. That's why it just sounds like that. That's staying at Bulgari. That's staying at the Ritz. That's staying at the Waldorf, that's staying at the Four Seasons… it was all intentional. You know what I mean? It was all by design. 

Westside Gunn on Elevating...

I just wanted to do something different. I did what I did for a decade. People might only heard of Griselda maybe the last couple of years, but I've been doing this since 2012. You know what I'm saying. So it was like, now where I'm at in life, just mature, just grown, just being a better man all the way around, now I'm getting the fashion show invites finally. I turned into a super fly guy. You know what I'm saying?

Westside Gunn on Disappointing Diehard Griselda Boom Bap Fans...

I kind of left like a lot of the die-hard, Griselda, Boom Bap fans that felt like they kind of disappointed in me. You know what I'm saying? But that's the thing. It's a selfish way of thinking. It's like, you just want me for just only what you want me for. You only love me for that, so you don't love me as Westside Gunn, the man. You just love me. You know what I'm saying? That's why it's like, if you don't love me as Westside Gunn, the man, why are you a fan? Because there's more to me than just me rapping on Boom Bap. You know what I'm saying? But I'm also doing it for the better. It's a bigger message, and it's a point at the end of all of this. We're just having fun, and we're spreading art. I feel like, if you loved me those whole ten years, I still gave you mama's prime time, just as an example. It's not going nowhere. You can play FLYGOD two times or you could play Babylon Bis, or you could play Kitchen Lights. You can play Jalen Rose with Body. You can play Revenge of Flips Leg with Rome Streets. It's more songs still for y'all better than everybody else out there.

Westside Gunn on Spreading Positivity…

…just wanting to get fly, be a father, and want to do better for yourself, and want to live the right way, not go out here and want to just be devilish and live the wrong way. It's like I really don't even do interviews, and people don't really see a lot of me. People have now, like within like the last week, you know what I'm saying? But it's like now I'm doing these interviews, because I want to just spread a positive message. You know what I'm saying? Man, just, just be yourself, man. It's more to the world. You know what I'm saying? And it's just like, "Man, do better, and try to show your kids the world.” The thing about me is, again, spreading a positive message. Even though Griselda had some of the grimiest lyrics you could think of in the last decade, the hardest beats you could think of in the last decade, there's never no fights at our show. You know what I'm saying? It's never no problems in the popup line. Everybody that come to a Griselda show or come support the popups or just be at a Griselda event, it's always love, it's always positivity.

Westside Gunn on Why He Stopped Reading Comments…

…you know what's crazy? I stopped reading the comments now. You know, sometimes I troll, you know what I mean? And talk trash, you know what I mean? Every now and then, because that's just me. I'm a funny guy, naturally. I'd never take it serious. The internet is just an illusion, but sometimes I just like to spiral on somebody that think they're funny, because I just like to stay sharp. You know what I mean? It's not serious though, but I really kind of like, just stop reading the comments on this one, because I did this one from the heart. I know what I did it for. I know the energy I was in. You can't expect me, again, to sound the same forever. I want to explore. 

Westside Gunn on Why The Story of Griselda is One of the Greatest Stories in Hip Hop…

I'm going to be honest, and I'm not just saying this because it's me, it's probably the greatest story in hip hop once people really like dig deep and really understand the story of us, because it starts all the way from the day we was born, because we're really family. So it starts back from when our mothers was born. When their mothers was born, because they're sisters. You know what I'm saying? So this story goes back to how we got here, is amazing, because we then went through, and mind you. You know, like I say, man, we're from East Side, Buffalo. We really never had nothing. Our city, really, never had light shine on it, but it's a grimy city. So, just the violence. And we're not young, so we lived through the crack era, we lived through the grimy nineties, just all of those different chapters of Hip Hop, you know what I'm saying? Because again, we're not young. I mean, a lot of these artists come up here, they was born in 2000. You know what I'm saying? They don't really know… I remember every part of Hip Hop. And I know a lot of stories in it, and I'm not just saying... I just think... I really feel like our story is amazing.

Westside Gunn on Receiving Support From The Late Virgil Abloh and His Continued Legacy…

He was re-Tweeting my music all the way back since 2016. See what I'm saying? With my Mr. T record or FLYGOD album, he re-Tweeted that one. He been on, you know what I'm saying? He put a lot of other people on. It's so many people that came up to me like, "Virgil put me on. Virgil put me on. Virgil..." Especially if they from Chicago, like the OGs. "Virgil put me on, Virgil put me on." So, it was just like the love, it was very mutual. You know what I'm saying? And I wish we could have done a lot more, but I think he left me with the best gift he could possibly leave me with. And that's how you got And Then You Pray for Me because when I went to fashion week this time, his spirit was there. You see what I'm saying? It was a difference. Yeah. He's too iconic. It's like... You know what I'm saying? And it was still so fresh, so you know how it is, it's just like right now it's the... People are not going to even give me my flowers yet because it's still... We are in real time.

Westside Gunn on What He Respects About Rick Ross…

I respect that man. You know what I'm saying? I've always respected him. I thought even from being in the south, because we all students of the game. Like I said, I've been here since the beginning, you know what I'm saying. And especially being from the south and Miami, how Ross always approached a record... Being from Miami. Let's not forget at that time, it was nobody, especially from the South that approached it the way he did. Because even when TI, was out and Jeezy was out, they didn't approach it like Ross. Ross approached it with more style, more lyrical, you know what I mean? Capabilities with it. Just like...It was like he was from New York, you know what I'm saying? That's how he approached it. He studied the East Coast MCs, like the greats. And was just like put them in a blender and just put his own twist to it, mixed with the trap, because that's the thing. He was talking about the same trap content that TI and Jeezy was rapping about, but he put the New York twist on it…

Westside Gunn on “KITCHEN LIGHTS”…

It only been out five days, but this song is a hip hop classic. That's what I'm saying, it's not even out one week. Five years from now, people going to be playing Kitchen Lights. 10 years from now, people is going to be playing Kitchen Lights. The video is not even out yet. Kitchen Lights is still about to get legs.

Westside Gunn on Opening a Hibachi Restaurant in Buffalo…

I actually have a silent business venture with a restaurant going on right now, but we haven't really spoke on it yet publicly, but it's a hibachi restaurant. Because that's my favorite. It was actually my favorite restaurant, so I said, "Hey ..." Nudged them, like, "Look ..." I wanted to open up one in Buffalo, because we only have one hibachi restaurant in Buffalo. And I had the opportunity to get a ... It went out of business ever since COVID, and nobody really took over the space, because it cost so much a month, but I had the opportunity ...This is how I even got into it. I had the opportunity to get the space. And I was just like, I don't know what I can do with this space, it's too big. What restaurant I'm going to have? Buffalo's a food city, it's in the top 10 cities in the world, National Geographic…Buffalo food is amazing. So I'm like, I'm not in the food business, what can I really do? But I had the opportunity to get this space, so it just made me think, my city do love me, what would I do? Oh, damn, we need a hibachi restaurant.

Westside Gunn on the Possibility of Exploring Film Work…

I feel like that's where we're heading to, without a shadow of a doubt. I think film is the next big thing for me. The last month, maybe month and a half, of me promoting the album, once I put the date out there, people been seeing me a lot more. A lot more, a lot more, a lot more. And I always kind of been reserved. I always love for Benny to do it, and I always loved for Conway to do it, and I always loved for Armani to do it, because she's beautiful, and I always wanted the world to see Armani. But, me, I always kind of wanted to chill. It's like, if you know, you know. I don't have to be on the scene. Like I said, I always approached it differently. I never made music for the money. I never said, "Hey, I need to be on the radio." I never say, "Hey, I needed to be in the club." I never had to sell my soul in this shit. I never had to go out my comfort zone. I always been me in this. Now, I'm just super blessed, people starting to really take notice, now that I've been pushing this album. And it's like, now that I'm here, let me show y'all why people been respecting Westside Gunn for so long, because some people just don't know. 

Westside Gunn on What Fans Can Expect in the Future…

If I want to make a song with Alchemist today, I can. If I want to make a song with Metro Boomin tomorrow, I can. If I want to hit up Pierre, I can. If I want to hit up Sonny Digital, I can. But if I want to hit Pete Rock, I can. So that's what I'm about to give you from now on, and that's what I'm saying. It's not necessarily making whole albums. I'm just about to give you actually more music, because it's like now when I cook it, I'm giving it to you. I'm giving you actually more Westside Gunn, because the energy I have right now, you have to feel it. You have to feel it while it's in me right now, and I want to give the people this energy. You're going to get a Westside Gunn that you've never seen before, and I've already did the impossible at least 100 times.