With the Release of his latest album MOVIE, Your Old Droog reflects back on his life and career, ready to put his experience on the big screen

-At what age did you start rapping? What inspired you when you first started?

Sometime in 2002 or so, I forget exactly when because time was weird back then. What inspired me is being immersed in the culture prior to starting.

When you’re already learning and memorizing everybody else's lyrics and you have a natural love for words, you’ll likely begin to write your own rhymes at some point. So that’s what I did, in my mom’s kitchen. Then the school desk...

Also I saw the reaction this kid Aramis received while concluding his little raps in the junior high school staircase and I believe I heard my calling in that moment.

-Can you tell me about your days battle rapping when you started out?

Lunch table, back of the schoolyard, in the staircase type of thing. Then going to different neighborhoods, blocks, housing projects etc. It was truly a labor of love because we weren't getting any money from doing that. Skill sharpening. The block was our college course.

-What inspired you to go by the name Your Old Droog?

The name 'Droog' came from a friend. For a few years, when I was a teenager, some high school kids assumed me to be another ethnicity so I went along with that for a little while... Essentially to survive being outside and fit in ... so 'Droog' became a way of embracing my background wholeheartedly and no longer running from who I am. Like “I can’t run from it now, let’s learn to write from the perspective of “Droog”… 

-What was your relationship with A$AP Yams like? What did he do for your career? What did you learn from him that you take with you now?

Steve was a real conduit and visionary. The first time my raps were uploaded onto the internet in 2004, to a website I didn't even know existed at the time "ONSMASH" then known as "DaPhatSpot" ... He heard those tracks and prank called me on my mother's landline phone. That's how tapped in he was. He set up some battles after that (specifically one at this basketball tournament in Harlem called ‘Kingdome’) and organized things behind the scenes. He had a vision that was greater than anybody else I encountered during that time period. So in 2011, seeing the wave he made with Rocky was motivating because I remember ‘ASAP’ as a fledgling production company back in 2006…  I feel like that was another extension of the feeling I got seeing that kid Aramis rapping in the staircase... It made it real... Sometimes you need to see something or someone in front of you ... to help bring your dream closer to a reality or make it seem doable for you. 

-Your debut Self-titled album/EP came out of nowhere for a lot of people. What was the process of putting that record together like?

Do or die. That was it. Put up or shut up. I was 24 years old. That was old in rap years. Writing a 64 bar verse to only 4 bars of beat and rewinding those 4 bars 100’s of times on an iPod nano… looping up the actual beat only once I got to the studio. And for the record, it ain’t no album, it had zero budget and was recorded in a kitchen… Glorified demo.

There's a lot to romanticize about that era but I’m too focused on what’s happening now to fully revisit that.

-On 'Please Listen to My Jew Tape' you mention playing your Demo for Def Jam. That time of your career must have been filled with so many sliding doors that would've affected how your career turned out. Was the decision to stay independent clear for you at the time? 

I didn't play my demo at that point. No ID was ready to do the deal. He literally said don't play any music because I'm ready to sign you right now... That’s how much he understood the vision… It was a weird time. Staying independent wasn't clear to me. I actually thought signing with a major may have offered a bit more security. The independent route was "advised" but it eventually became what it is out of pure necessity. 

-How did you meet Fahim and Mach?

Tha God Fahim and I initially connected about a potential collaboration.

-What was Mach's role as Executive Producer of IWEC, Jewelry, and Krutoy Edition?

IWEC was pretty much done already when Mach came into the fold, but his presence was felt throughout that record prior to his actual involvement because of his influence on Sadhu, who did a good amount of beats on there. 

In the 9th inning, Mach sent me the beat which would become 'Babushka' … and that song basically fathered the style of beats on Krutoy. There’s another funny story about that song. The rhymes were originally written to another beat but the final beat blew it out of the water… I guess the first one lacked some chemistry.

The album Mach had the biggest hands on approach with was Jewelry. It was originally a collab project with Quelle Chris entitled “Crown Heights Riot” that evolved into something else …  That concept may have been too controversial though... Mach sent me the beat for BDE in October 2019. Crunch time. 'Krutoy' was the focused pandemic lockdown record. I knew what needed to be done creatively so I helmed that. Mach was involved in the art direction and mixing. There was a large fiasco over the first mix and that's where his role as Executive Producer really kicked in. Crisis management and solution. He has a knack for problem solving and practical economic movement. 

-In 2019 you released 3 albums, what inspired you to drop that much at that time?

I don't think it was that much. I had the material so we released it.

-Was Time a collection of songs from different eras of your career? Or was it put together all post-2019?

Time and Transportation (in their original form) were completed in late 2016/early 2017. I added some newer things on Time. Transportation was mostly 2016 stuff.

-You released 6 EPs in 2022, what inspired you to make more short-form records like that?

I wrote most of those songs in 2021. I had a plan to release a lot of music in shorter projects and establish the YOD brand in a different way than I'd done before. Different records showcasing different moods and styles. Whether it was introspective material (YOD Wave), songwriting (Yod Stewart) . Punchlines (Yodney Dangerfield) . I think it was evident when I made it but people are slow. I definitely achieved what I set out to do with those records, it culminated in a successful tour and expanded my fanbase in a way I hadn't done before. It also put me in position to do what I'm doing now. A few nerds were mad because it wasn't "Transportation" "Jewelry" or "Krutoy" but fuck them. You can't make music to please people like that anyway.

-On your upcoming record Movie, you were able to make an album that is possibly your most personal, while also feeling bigger and more ambitious than anything you've made before. What was your goal in making this record?

One evening, I was sitting on my couch and the vision popped into my head that one day I will make a seminal and life changing body of work entitled 'Movie' ... I didn't know when that would be, I thought it was going to be much farther down the line but I started writing and recording songs and the Movie got done. Feel me?

-What does your upcoming project with Madlib mean for you?

It's great. When I made music in 2014, I was hoping to reach cats like Madlib. So when he sent out the bat signal about wanting to work with me 7 years later, I was like it's about time... like Jordan winning his first ring!!! 

We a Team. I didn't feel like I had a real co-star until we linked up. Watch what happens.

-Do you think about your legacy at all? Does that motivate you?

No.

-You have teased albums produced by Edan and Count Bass D, along with a full-length New Religion one. Are you still planning on releasing any of those in the future?

We’ll see. The Madlib YOD project is definitely next though. Be on the lookout for that.

-Throughout your career, you have had many different eras. From battling, to the early Droog days, to the Dump Gawd era, to the EPs, to your two big albums coming out this year. What do you see as the next era for Your Old Droog?

I think you might be fixated on eras. Eras are nothing but arbitrary time periods, they don’t really say all that much about who that person is or even what they’re going through…. I’m bigger than any eras, I transcend eras … not even on no cocky shit … fuck an era. “Era” sounds like I’m about to throw on a Ziggy Stardust suit or something. Nah.

I understand that’s how people tend to categorize things. There’s been over 100 eras before you even heard of me. One day we can sit down and list them all. I had to hang-glide from the depths of hell to get to this point and the job still ain’t done. 

Also, my career didn’t start when I was battling in 2003. I got my first check from rap in 2013 and I didn’t start thinking of it as a career until 2019.

I’m not at Taylor Swift’s level yet, maybe when I have as many Droogies as she has Swifties, I'll do a YOD The Eras Tour... 

The only era that matters is right now:

Counterculture Artist of the Century. Success and Celebration. Not losing myself in the success. Transcendent artistry. Movies.  Aight, I'm done with this interview.