Myquale Interview
Interviewed by Matthew Becerra
Photo courtesy of Myquale’s Instagram
Becerra in Bold, Myquale in normal text
Where are you from?
I'm from LA. I was looking at your stats and you get most of your listeners here.
Oh, that's crazy.
Yeah it goes LA, Chicago, New York, Brooklyn, London.
Whoa, that's crazy. It's kind of crazy, though, because you say you're from LA, but you sound like you're from like Milwaukee or Detroit.
You're the first person I've ever heard say that I actually get told that I sound like an LA guy.
Yeah, it's similar to back home or even in Detroit, because I'm from Milwaukee, it's kind of like, I don't know. It's like a twang. The whole time the music sound the same to like, LA and Detroit music.
Yeah, no, for sure. I call Detroit like our long lost cousin when it comes to music.Yeah, but you said you are from Milwaukee. I'm just gonna get into some of the questions just wanted to ask about like, what it was like growing up out there.
Milwaukee was it was small shit, it was fun, but what we consider fun is just like getting into trouble and shit. Outside of that, I think early on, we just go to skating rinks and the cool thing about the skating rink is like, that's like a generational spot like Butler.So it's like, my parents went there, I went there and my younger siblings went there. It’s a generational point for people to just sort of like to go and like, have fun. Aside from that, I rode bikes a lot, bro, I was the youngest and I had mostly older cousins. So they like to pick on me and shit and I would just be doing the same shit that they was doing, me being younger than them, like, they were probably doing shit that like, I probably ain't really had no reason doing. I had cousins that was teenagers. So, if they gambling and shooting dice, like I'm with them.
I'm, little on the same shit, like talking to girls shit like that. I'm like, the young cousin that you got to get love to because, I'm just there, you know what I'm saying? So it was fun, but also, it was kind of crazy at the same time because like, I know LA is big on gang culture in Milwaukee, we got like GDs and like Vice Lord and, I told somebody recently I attended my first funeral when I was like seven. I feel like there were just a bunch of circumstances that kind of shaped my reality.I realized as I started to like to travel more that that's not everybody else's reality. I'm a first generation college student. So, you know, when I went to college, that really was an eye opener because shit that I thought was normal or that everybody else could like relate to, I realized wasn't the case. So it's funny because it's like I had fun in Milwaukee, but also couldn't wait to leave. So it's a love hate relationship, if I'm being honest,in a nutshell, that's kind of like what it was. We was lower class, not really middle class or upper class, you know, had to be very resourceful and I think for me, like early on, like music was just some shit that really helped keep me happy.
For sure , I feel that I'm also a first generation college student, now you speaking about music being like your first source of happiness when you said before started getting introduced to music from your uncle's like CD collection, right?
Yeah, I mean, I think casually before that, just listening to the radio and shit like that.
I used to l buy mixtapes and stuff like CDs that folks would just burn on a blank disc, you would give them a piece of paper, tell them, ‘what songs do you want?’ So it was mainly radio hits, Dem Franchize Boyz,, you know, whatever was really on the radio at the time, like Boosie, Lil Wayne, shit like that.Then when I would go to my uncle's house, he wasn't really listening to that. He was more on refined artists, he got a band and shit like that. So when I would go to his house, I would just look at his CD collection and he had, Tupac, LL Cool J, Naughty by Nature, Wu-Tang, and all these artists who, I deemed as, I guess more respectable, more legendary artists, I could differentiate between like the trendy shit that was happening, the shit that was timeless. So I started to like, just fall down that rabbit hole. At first, just so I can have a way to connect with my uncle. so I would listen to, shit from like the 70s then I went to like the 80s and then when I found that 90s, it was like, oh yeah, this my shit. So it was kind of just me doing my own research. That was a big, big proponent of why I even felt the need to study music for real, for real.
Yeah, I feel that I also took my uncle's CD collection. We got a couple of similar things I didn’t even know going into this. But I want to speak more on your music influences, do you think there is anything from that time of your life that directly influenced Above All or any of the music you made?
Yeah, definitely, my life experiences I tell a bunch of personal stories within my music that I never really got to like, speak on, so, to me, it was kind of cathartic and therapeutic to be able to just sort of finally speak on it. Songs like Sugarpill Gang, I feel like folks will ask ‘how long did you, did it take you to create this album?’ And it's kind of hard for me to pinpoint it. I've heard that you spend your entire life making your first album, that kind of feels like what it is.
It's an amalgamation of experiences, but still, it's like, you know, 12 songs. So yeah, definitely, just my family, my neighborhood, you know, there's all the things that make you a person. But if we're speaking sonically, I think, I look at it in two ways.I've got like my DNA of like, people that I studied coming up, but then I also got like, shit that I listen to now that I'm like, okay, this is like me, like my contemporaries, they make me go harder. So like, a lot of people who came before me that were influential, LA was very influential, folks like Ab-Soul was my favorite artist obviously, K. Dot, and then, New York, Illmatic was a really huge influence, especially when thinking about my first album, I will listen to like Illmatic and then go and listen to Thriller because those are both, really short, cohesive albums. When I was first making my project, I only had 10 songs, but then I kept adding , I was like, man, I just want to have like 10 solid records. Really Illmatic is nine records the same as, like, Michael Jackson's Thriller and those are both classic records. So I was just kind of meditating on how to make a classic record.
But then, you know, obviously, I got my contemporaries, folks like, like, Earl or like Mach-Hommy and like, people that are making music now that I'm like, damn, y'all make me step my game up. So yeah, it's a mixture of those, just the DNA of shit I grew up listening to, but also the shit that I see happening around me that I'm really inspired by and it might not even be me being inspired by like, what they're saying iit might be like, oh, this person is very honest, or this person is very vulnerable in their music and I want to, you know, push myself to do that more.
When it comes to like literary devices, though, I think that that's, that comes from an original place just being somebody who's a writer. So you know, wanting to implement like an alliteration and shit like that that came more naturally but yeah, I think it's just, a mixture of all those things.
Photo courtesy of Myquale’s Instagram
Yeah, that's a great answer, but speaking about your contemporaries. I want to talk more about your peers. You got some crazy shit on your album. You got Niontay, you got TheMind. You got, El Cousteau who just got a song with Earl and then you got Trapo, man that's one of my favorites. A relapse, I got that playing all the time, but can you speak more on picking up with them and like, what that's like and getting them on your album, working with Trapo on singles?
Yeah, so Trapo wasn't even on the album, but he's got, we got a few songs together. That's my brother, first and foremost like he's from Wisconsin, he's from Madison.I'm from Milwaukee. When I like, when we first like linked up, actually this shit down there started at high school. I found out about Trapo, it's funny because I didn't connect with him then. He was super young, like doing his thing, he had a homie named Rashad they did this song, this remix to a Goldlink song called When I Die and it went, it kind of went up.I remember reaching out to Rashad and I was like, yo, we got to cook up and he was down but like never, nothing ever came from that. So we kind of like, I knew about them and like, it was only a few degrees of separation. But then maybe Trapo stopped making music. And then like, I did like a sort of artist retreat in Atlanta. And like, the producer that I was working with at the time said that he was cool with Trapo. And I was like, oh cool. And he introduced me, you know, we both from Wisconsin. So I reached out to him, he introduced us and like, I was like, yo, I'ma send you some beats. And at the time, he wasn't making music, but I sent him this beat pack. And like, he sent me back a demo and he was just basically like, bro, this is the first song that I've made in like years. Like, basically like you made me come back to music. And so since then, we just kind of developed a friendship. Like during the pandemic, I went up to Madison and we all put on for like an Airbnb and we're just like kicking it and like making music and shit. And so that's where the song North came from. And then it probably dropped like two years later, actually. Because Broby, he had a bunch of unreleased music, but he just kind of be holding on to it. And so like, I kind of had to like, tell him like, I didn't ask, I had to tell him like, I'm dropping this shit because you know, I was just holding on to it forever. So yeah, that's how that song came about. When it comes to the project,, so after I dropped North, Loji, who actually is on the intro to the album, he heard that song and then followed me, then we DM'd each other and it was just like a mutual respect.
So I was like, man, when I get something, I'll send it to you I created like Isaiah 5417 then thought I'm gonna send this to Loji and I'm gonna send it to Mavi, because I opened up for Mavi on tour, Mavi like can't, he didn't respond but Loji responded and he was really feeling the record and I was like, man, that's just crazy. As far as like, Nionay, Cousteau, and like them, it was pretty much just me being fans of what they were doing. Yeah just reaching out and working out the connections, my manager lives in New York so it was only, again, a few degrees of separation between her and Niontay’s manager.So, she had a friend that got us in contact and, you know, the rest is history. Everybody who's on this project, I wanted to say again, I was just a fan of. So that's pretty much what it is behind it, it wasn't really like no politics or anything.
It was like, I genuinely rock with the music that y'all putting out. So, yeah, man, on my first album, it's important for me to like to align myself with people who are like, growing in a space that I want to like to navigate in. I was just out in New York for a listening session and like, bro, 10k got shit on lock. I didn't really realize just how crazy the motion was out there until I was out there, I was hearing all other music that wasn't their shit and I'm like, nah, like y'all doing it different because like, it's a lot of mid in New York and then it's also different scenes. You got the drill, That shit's hard, but when it comes to, this rap shit,, bro, it's, MIKE Niontay and these are all people who might not even be from New York, but they're heavily in New York. Mike Niontay, fucking Tony Seltzer, the producer, Sideshow yeah, bro, just a bunch of people who I'm forgetting, but the energy out there is just crazy,, mad inspiring andit's just kind of crazy to realize like, damn, they're the people who are the most popular right now. Rightfully so, but that shit just inspired me like, damn, like, okay.I want to be more honest in my music, have fun and just do shit that inspires other people. When Wu-Tang was making music, I remember Method Man said he only wrote verses to impress the other members of Wu-Tang.
I kind of feel that now, because it's like, I want to make music going forward that's only gonna impress my contemporaries, I want to make shit that they enjoy listening to. I'm just excited to even be able to be mentioned in the same category right now.
Speaking of that, you got a crazy rollout, for a debut album,your artwork on ten, your listening sessions, I want to ask how those are going. Just overall your artistic execution, I feel like is really like setting the tone for independent artists
Man, I appreciate it, bro. Being a smaller, independent artist, I try to move like a major, even though I’m not on a major. Sometimes, the process feels slow, and I might want more, but I realize it’s step-by-step; you gotta crawl before you can run. The listening sessions have been low-key. Collectively, over the three stops, maybe 100 people showed up. In Chicago, about 40 or 50 people came out and showed a lot of love, and that was on a Wednesday. In Milwaukee, about 20 people showed up on a Thursday, which makes sense because Milwaukee is smaller than Chicago. I just left New York, where about 30 people came. We’ll see what Montreal’s like, but each spot is different. I try to express my gratitude because it’s surreal to me that people take time out of their day to come out and show love. The fact that the music I’m making speaks to people like that is unbelievable. The purpose of these listening sessions is to connect beyond the numbers. When I see analytics, I want to know who’s behind those numbers. If I see 500 people listening in L.A., I want to meet those 500 people. I’m trying to connect with people, not just exist online. I want my marketing to be peer-to-peer, like back in the day when people would hand out CDs. Now I ask if they have Apple Music or Spotify, add my stuff to their library, and let them listen. My Instagram was deleted earlier this year, so I’ve had to think outside the box and do more in-person stuff. These listening sessions have been dope. I’ll be in Montreal tomorrow to connect with the community, and I’m also getting tattooed there. The person who did the cover art for the album is from France but moved to Montreal, so I’ll be able to see all his album artwork in person and bring it home to Chicago. All in all, one takeaway to conclude: be independent but move like a major. If it’s the visuals or anything like that, I just want people to think I’m signed. People have been asking, ‘Yo, are you doing this independently, or are you signed?’ It’s kind of a compliment because people associate a certain level of quality with being signed. But at the same time, I’m still hungry for more, so I’m trying to stay in the moment. But I’m already thinking about next year—what are the next songs, the next videos I’ll be dropping? So that’s really cool, man.
Speaking of, next year, do you want to drop more songs and content? Have you been continuously working on making new music or are you goint to push your album, above all as much as you can?
I’m going to push this album as much as I can, but by next year, I want to start dropping new music. I’m still working on new stuff—I’ve got songs I know I’m going to release. I’m strategizing and figuring out my role in modern art. There are people I’m inspired by who do a great job, like Overcast and all the 10k people. They’ve crafted their brand and sound so well. I feel like people who listen to the music now will be early, but as I keep dropping, new listeners might catch on and then go back to this album. I put a lot into it, so I don’t want to just skate past it. By April, I’m planning to release more, and I’ll keep dropping new stuff. I’m already working on my next album—nothing concrete yet, but I’m figuring out what I want to do. I’ll probably start doing shows in February. Someone asked me to perform in New York on the 16th, but I was busy. I’ll keep pushing, performing and , and developing my craft. It’s dope to hear that people are vibing with what I have out now."
Speaking of what you have out now, I just wanted to say, you've got a bunch of different sounds—not different, they’re all cohesive, but on your album, my favorite track is 'Sugarpill Gang,' I wanted to ask what your favorite tracks are, both in terms of production, writing, or just your favorite overall.
Man, that’s wild to hear 'Sugarpill Gang' is your favorite because, at one point, my engineer was trying to get me to remove it. I was like, nah, that’s probably one of my most personal songs. But he came around and admitted he was tripping. I think it was just because he produced on it—he played bass and had second thoughts about how his stuff sounded. But yeah, right now, that’s definitely my favorite too. Hearing other people say it’s their favorite gave me permission to see it that way as well. When I hear that, it gives me confidence in my audience, like y'all get the deeper stuff. I have tracks that are more ear candy, like 'Mayfair,' which I felt was easy listening. 'Sugarpill Gang' is more of an album cut, so to hear people vibing with it just kind of blows my mind. It also gives me permission to dig deeper because I’m not afraid people won’t get it. That song’s nearly six minutes—five minutes and 48 seconds—so it blows my mind that it’s resonating like this. But what is it? The beat? The lyrics? What do you think?
It’s everything, bro. Like you said, it’s a very personal song. Those are my favorite types of artists—my all-time favorites are probably Earl, Isaiah Rashad, people like that. Plus, the production on it was really good, the feature was solid—I can’t think of one bad thing about the song. Even that little thing you posted on Instagram, the reverse snare—I feel like it’s just a really well-executed track.
Man, thank you. I really had fun making that song, and everything in it is true. My brother right now is locked up, and we’ve been paying a lot for legal fees and all that. When I wrote it, he wasn’t locked up yet, so that first verse is from his perspective—his fears of street life, you know. It’s kind of crazy because you already know how that life ends: either dead or in jail. The second verse is a blend of different people in my life, especially women I know. And the third verse is from my perspective.
The concept behind it, like the title 'Sugarpill Gang,' is a play on Sugarhill Gang, one of the first rap groups. They had 'Rapper's Delight,' considered the first mainstream rap record. I thought that title was cool because a 'sugar pill' is like in research studies, where scientists give someone a placebo, and they believe it’s a real treatment. You might take a sugar pill for a headache, thinking it’s ibuprofen, and start to believe your headache is cured. At some point, what you believe is all in your imagination. You think something’s working, but it’s really just a placebo.
So the idea is about what we subscribe to—things we think define us, not realizing it's a choice. Like, my brother doesn’t have to be attached to street life, or in the second verse, that person doesn’t have to stay in a certain situation. But we get attached to things, thinking they define us. I’m guilty of it too. So it’s about trying to see above all that, stepping back to gain some self-awareness. I wanted to write a song about ego and how sometimes we’re so hyper-focused we forget to look around and realize what’s really going on.
Obviously, you started writing the song before, but it’s real—brave, honestly—to put yourself out there like that. Switching to a lighter topic, I know you love traveling. Do you think any of that influenced this album? You're traveling right now, and I know you had some earlier music that focused more on that
Yeah, I think it was just a matter of me finding my voice. I would still be searching for how to communicate exactly what I want to say. Early on, I struggled with trying to appeal to everyone, but now I’d rather focus on my specific demographic, people who understand what I’m saying. Being first-generation, there’s stuff I’ve experienced that people wouldn't even believe. For example, I had a gun in my backpack going to class, but I’d never tell anyone that. People don’t know how much my background has influenced me, and I feared judgment, especially in academic spaces where many people came from middle or upper-class backgrounds. Classism is real, and it was hard to fit in, so I often found myself trying to communicate and find acceptance in those spaces. It wasn’t disingenuous, but it was me experimenting, trying to figure out what I really wanted to make and finding myself. Once I realized it didn’t fully capture what I wanted to communicate, I scrubbed it. Traveling has definitely been influential; it broadens my horizons. Even going back to New York inspired me. I thought, ‘I want to move here for a month.’ It’s important to break out of my routine and step out of my comfort zone, immersing myself in the unpredictability of being somewhere new. When I’m in New York, I don’t know when the trains run or what time the bodegas close, and that’s refreshing. The city feels alive, constantly evolving. A few years ago, it was Pop Smoke and Cardi B, but now it’s Cash Cobain and MIKE. The way people dress has shifted. It’s like I’m constantly rediscovering things, and I enjoy being in that flow. I’m even planning a trip to Belize next month for vacation. Traveling is essential, and I’ve got my passport ready.
That's amazing. I love traveling too. I hate when people don’t want to travel. It’s one of the greatest experiences, anywhere, even just to the next state. It’s really amazing.
For sure. What's your favorite spot you traveled to?
Paris.
Oh, that’s hard. That’s hard. Yeah, Versailles, bro. That’s the crazy thing. That song was inspired by my first trip to France. And it’s crazy because when Ayate did the verse, he did the verse and then the next day he was in France. And I didn’t even know. I just checked on Instagram. Like, it was just kind of like, it was serendipitous how it came together. But yeah, Paris is a vibe.
Yeah, I love it out there. I went when I was a little younger, like 15 or 16. But seeing the different culture out there was wild. I went to this bookstore. Crazy, not to make this about me, but I went to this bookstore and they had a copy—it was on sale—of Virgil’s first Off-White book, and it had his pastel designs and stuff in there. And like, wait, it was on sale?
Did you cop it?
Yeah, I still got it. I got it like stamped It's the Shakespeare story or something.
Yeah, that's crazy.
So like, doing that and then going to the actual fashion houses out there, museums, and just experiencing all that—that’s when my eyes really opened to, like, a different level of culture. I don’t want to say ‘higher level,’ because I don’t mean it in a classist or racist way, but you know what I mean? It’s just that there’s so much more history. Like, when you’re in France or these European countries, they have thousands of years of history, while America is still so young.
I get what you're saying. Not to say that age doesn’t matter, but I understand what you mean. Hip hop is only like 50 years old, but it’s just as influential—if not more—than classical music, which has been around for hundreds and hundreds of years.
Photo courtesy of Myquale’s Instagram
To take it back a little, I want to talk about your experience being a first generation college student and those first years in New York as well as you sharing the excerpt about, you know, having the gun in your bag and stuff being in a new city with people who wouldn’t understand
"Yeah, so I went to St. John’s in New York, but then my mom got diagnosed with cancer, so I moved to Chicago to be closer to her. While I was there, I was searching for an apartment, and a lot of places were on the South Side. One of the apartments within my budget was on 68th and May, which is a really rough area. My uncle, who used to be involved in some street stuff, helped me out. I didn’t want to ask him for a gun, but I ended up asking for something for protection, and he gave me a little .22. At that time, I was just trying to be a student, but it was wild out there.
I’d be on the train commuting to class, and I’d get looks because I was just this random guy from out of town, but I didn’t have the background or context a lot of the students had. I wasn’t familiar with how school worked or financial aid, and I wasn’t fully engaged. After my mom’s funeral, I decided I wasn’t going to keep going to class. It was hard, but I had this expectation that school was the way out, that it equaled success, and now, in hindsight, I’m doing better financially than a lot of people who graduated.
School was an eye-opener. I grew up lower-class, so if we didn’t have an ironing board, we’d iron on the kitchen table. I had to be resourceful, and I learned how to finesse situations to get by. I ended up on the dean’s list before dropping out, but a lot of school for me was just making it work, like getting cool with professors or classmates to get what I needed.
But it also gave me the opportunity to meet great people. Even in New York and Chicago, I’ve made lasting connections, and I’m able to go back and have people show up to my events because they really know me. The whole experience was an eye-opener in terms of culture and class, especially since I’d never met middle-class people before. It was crazy to see the different worlds, but school definitely provided me with a way out of Milwaukee and allowed me to experience new things."
You give real good in depth answers, man. I really appreciate it.
That’s just how I am. I’ve been trying to be more direct and get straight to the point. But sometimes, I get caught up in my ADHD and it feels like my thoughts are all over the place. So, yeah, it can be hard to stay focused and stay on track.
Is there anything else you’d like to talk about? With the album recently, what do you want to represent for your fans with this project? What do you hope to keep doing moving forward?
Yeah, I’ve talked about this before, but the album cover is something I mentioned at the release party. It features a baby photo of me and a painting at the bottom, which is kind of like a memorial. The album really explores grief—losing parents, friends to gun violence, cousins, and stuff like that. As I was listening back to it, I realized every song touches on some aspect of grief. So, the album cover features the Pan African flag, but it’s designed like a memorial service for fallen soldiers. I wanted to draw a parallel between people who serve their country and those who serve their ‘hood. I thought it was a cool visual because people will die for whatever flag they believe in, and that’s reflected in the album too, especially in songs like 'Sugarpill Gang,' where I talk about ego and what we believe in. A lot of people are willing to die for those beliefs.
It’s also like a bit of a critique of those ideas, like questioning whether it had to be this way, and once you evolve from that, you can move forward. It’s kind of a double meaning. Also, there's a song called 'And Then There Were Two' with a skit in the beginning. It’s from a blog in Milwaukee, like back in the early 2000s, where people were just riding around popping shit, and I wanted to incorporate that as part of my creative process. I also dug into the history of my city—did some research—and learned so much. This album is kind of like my thesis statement, like how people do in college.
One of the cool things I learned was about how Black people moved to Wisconsin in the 1800s. My family came during the Great Migration in the 50s and 60s, but Black folks had already moved to Wisconsin during the slavery era. They integrated with Native American tribes, and during the French colonization of the area, Black people worked as guides, interpreters, and trappers. I thought that was fascinating, because back in the 1800s, Black people were known as trappers, and now we use the term ‘trap’ in a whole different way. I wanted to connect that, so in the song, I show a clip from that time, highlighting the evolution of the term 'trap.' It’s a cool little detail that might fly under the radar, but I think it adds a deeper layer to the project.
Photo courtesy of Myquale’s Instagram
