G-Eazy

My mom was a single parent.

It's definitely been a long, long... long, long, long, long, long journey since I was selling burnt CD's out of my backpack in downtown Oakland.

There's multiple ways I express myself. Music is my first love and will always come first. But, there are other areas and industries I'm interested in that reflect different aspects of my lifestyle.

I love the road. The closest thing to home, for me, is being on a tour bus, ironically.

I fell in love with hip-hop at an early age as a culture, as a sound, both from the perspective of a fan and a creative outlet.

Downtown Love.' I made that with one of my homies in New Orleans. The story is tragic, and the song is emotional. It's my favorite. I'm most proud of that; it's such a creative piece.

I was making all my own beats, and I really liked sampling stuff, like old '50s and '60s pop and soul and doo-wop records. I was chopping those up and putting loops and drums on them and just rapping over them.

I've been in love with music since I was old enough to establish my taste.

I grew up in Oakland, California, and there was a really active scene in the Bay Area. Everyone else knew it as the 'Hyphy Movement' of Mac Dre, E-40, and The Pack.

It's our approach to treat each show like an arena show. We over-invest in production to make the stage look bigger, turning the show into an experience and not just somebody standing around with a microphone rapping.

Music isn't selling like it used to, but the one thing you can't steal or download is a live show experience or a T-shirt.

I love being in a room in front of an audience who cares about the music, who knows the music, and who has lived with the music. It's kind of like an experience you share. I'm on stage performing it, but they're singing the words, too.