Soon before the release of Groovy People, Bassy came through to give us a rundown on his unpredictable history in the industry. He explains how his love for hip-hop has made him a better singer and why he’s found it essential to keep footholds both in LA and The Bay. Groovy People is a pre-release to Bassy’s debut album, due out later this year, which will bring with it new collabs with YG, Sounwave, Nic Nac, and Thundercat. With a decade spent trying to make it in music, he’s now dropping the grooviest shit of his career.

Marc E. Bassy, thanks for stopping by, man. I saw you were out on stage with G-Eazy last night [at the Barclays Center for “The Endless Summer” tour]. 

Yeah.

Have you been joining him for the whole tour? 

Nah, I just pop up in certain cities – whenever it coincides with us doing something else, or if he wants me to be in a particular city to sing those songs. I have the “Some Kind of Drug” song that I wrote and sang on on his last album. So I come out and do that. And then he’s on my single “You & Me,” which is out right now. I sing that too. 

You went on his previous [“When It’s Dark Out”] tour, though? 

Yeah, I was on the “When It’s Dark Out” tour as an actual artist – like I was on tour playing my own set. But on this, I just kind of come out and do like two songs.

What was that tour experience like? 

It was unbelievable. G really brings ‘em out. And his fans – they come early. So we were playing to thousands of people every night. Right as we dropped – we had dropped new music in December – so it was cool to just be out there.

You and G-Eazy have a few collabs out now. When did y’all first link up? 

Uh, three. Actually – four. But we’re both from the Bay. There’s a lot of connections between our camps. One of my managers went to middle school with Gerald. Crazy like that. But also, we just met at the lab, and I wrote the song called “Friend Zone” that he dropped with me. That was the first one. I met him through Bobby Brackins. He was working with Nic Nac – my roommate and one of my best friends.

So you’re from The Bay, but you work out of LA now? 

Yeah.

But you’re still part of this Bay scene, where everybody’s coming up together. 

Yeah, we just need each other. Most of the producers I work with are from The Bay, but we have a strong tie with LA now. We’ve been down there since right after high school, so I feel like I’m from LA now, even though I’m from The Bay. The fact that we’re always around Bay Area culture, it keeps us tight.

Why do you think The Bay scene has been so popping lately? 

I think The Bay Area in general is just a really exciting place. So much culture there. Everywhere is being gentrified, which is kind of bad, but also, it’s that time for The Bay when people are being exposed to new things and cultures are meeting each other for the first time. It makes for great music – it’s a free place. No one is beholden to any shit they used to do. Every thing out of The Bay was Bay Area rap music, and now you can have a G-Eazy or a Kehlani or a Nic Nac or a Bobby Brackins. Everything. And people ain’t even know – behind the scenes, songwriting. Ricky Reed Wallpaper, he’s like the number one – the most successful producer in the world right now. He’s from The Bay.

Let’s talk about the single, “You & Me.” Would you say that’s the biggest track of your career? 

Definitely. It’s kind of crazy – we didn’t make that song thinking about it like that. I wrote that in New York over some random piano chords. We were in a studio – my homegirl was playing “Hometown Glory,” the Adele song. I was like, ‘Those chords are pretty, can you flip those?’ And then we played ‘em the other way so that there’s no copyright infringement. Don’t sue me, Adele.

I had this melody, and we threw some drums on it. Then when we got back to LA, we were like these melodies and these changes are so dope, but this song was kind of dragging. Let’s put this reggae feel under it. And that was a year and a half ago. And then when this whole reggae vibe started poppin’, so that was good timing. Honestly it’s just getting started. It came out a few months ago or whatever. But it’s really just getting started, so we’ll see.

Can you tell me about the concept? 

Yeah, it’s a breakup song, but it’s kind of about dealing with a breakup in a way that you’re strong about it. As opposed to being heartbroken or something. And just taking ownership of yourself and not…

–Is it based off personal experiences? 

For sure.

Is that true with all your songs that have to do with breakups or romance? 

A lot of songwriters will write about something they read about. Or something they saw – like they saw a movie and it made them wanna write. To me, I like to tell my little stories. It’s almost like my own personal therapy session when I write a song. Really if you listen to my music, whatever I’m saying – that’s what I’m going through. Whether it could be about dealing with females and all that, or struggling to make it in music. That’s all really personal to me.

Without trying to box in your sound, how would you describe your music, and why do you think it’s been embraced by a hip-hop audience? 

I started off rapping, and I’ve always been a part of hip-hop culture. I just love classic soul music, classic music in general. Not classical music, but I just love great music, and I’ve always been curious and excited about like – oh shit, we could play this or that. I’m not just gonna chase trap drums around and see if I get poppin’ off one song. And I’ve got a chip on my shoulder all the time about rapping because I still think I’m the best rapper in the world.

When you can sing, you have to sing. Singing is impassioned speech. So if you can sing, you’re obligated to. I think this new shit I’m about to drop [Groovy People], I don’t know if HNHH has posted anything remotely like what it is. Big piano, organ, guitar, drums. But it’s all coming from a kid who grew up on Bay Area rap music and R&B. I think that’s why it’s being embraced. We can go to the club, I go to San Francisco, all the D-Boys are throwing money, popping bottles. And they give me the mic, and everyone’s like, ‘WTF’ – but they always go up. Because I come from that culture, and that’s the music I listen to.

If you look at all the singers that are popular right now, they all used to be rappers: The Weeknd, PND, Jeremih. There’s amazing singers that don’t get poppin’, and I can tell they’re always like, ‘Why? I’m so much better at singing than Marc E Bassy. How come I’m not popular?’ You didn’t listen to the right shit growing up. You thought rap was a phase or something.

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