Arts & Entertainment
Roach Gigz Q&A
Up and coming Bay Area artist touched
down in Portland this past week
Bruce Poinsette
Of The Skanner News
R
oach Gigz brought his “Bugged Out”
tour to Portland on Sep. 24 with a
show at The Backspace. The up and
coming Bay Area artist has released a series
of successful mixtapes and was recently
featured on MTV2’s Sucker Free. He sat
down with The Skanner News before the
show to discuss the new tour and his love
for hip-hop.
The Skanner News: How long have you
been doing music?
Roach Gigz: I’ve been in love with hip-
hop, been doing talent shows since the third
grade. As early as that, I performed Snoop
Dogg songs in the talent show. I never real-
ly took the idea of a career seriously until
the end of 2006 when I was in high school
and me and a friend of mine made a song
that was really popular. It ended up on the
radio.
TSk: What song was that?
RG: It was called “Get It” with Lil 4 Tay.
Once I heard myself on the radio I was like
“F that, I can make it happen”.
TSk: Why did you fall in love with hip-
hop so early?
RG: I can’t really explain it. The radio
station of choice was 106 KMEL. We
always used to listen to it driving to school.
It just happened. One of my first favorite
songs was “Summertime in the LBC” by
Dove Shack and I can’t explain it. It just
happened. Ever since then I’ve had posters
on my wall and the whole thing.
TSk: Would you say growing up in the
Bay Area helped shape your music in any
way?
RG: Completely. In the Bay Area we’re
on a whole other wave length. We have a
different type of sound, different type of
dance, different type of feel to the way we
do things. It probably has to do with how
culturally diverse it is and the amount of
things going on in such a small place but
we’re definitely a little bit different.
TSk: What were some of your favorite
artists growing up?
RG: Early on my all-time favorite was
Tupac. As I got a little bit older, in middle
school, I started listening to Mac Dre, who
is also from the Bay Area. And he is, to me,
my idol. He’s one of the main reasons that I
do rap as a career and probably my biggest
influence musically.
TSk: Can you describe yourself as an
artist?
RG: I would say that I’m on a, I look at
things in a unique perspective. I don’t try to
follow trends. I don’t try to do what’s popu-
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Page 6 The Portland Skanner September 26, 2012
Roach Gigz
lar. I just do what I feel like doing, what
sounds good to me. I’m really heavily Bay
Area influenced. I can make up-tempo party
stuff. I can make serious stuff. I’m really
versatile in that type of way. As long as I
can make my lyrics on point I can make
music for all occasions.
TSk: Can you talk about the Bugged Out
tour?
RG: It’s like a West Coast tour. We’re
going all up and down California. Obvious-
ly we’re going to Portland, Eugene and
Ashland and Seattle and Spokane. It’s my
second headlining tour of this year, as kind
of a promotional push for my album, which
dropped on Sep. 4. It’s my first official
album. We’re just going to these different
cities rocking out.
TSk: What’s the album called?
RG: The album is called “Bugged Out”.
It’s the first piece of music I’ve actually had
for sale in my life. It did pretty well. It start-
ed on the national hip-hop charts.
TSk: You performed up in the NW that
much?
RG: No, the only time I’ve been up there
was earlier this year. We went for the first
tour. It’s the second time we’ve been up
there.
TSk: Was Portland one of those cities?
RG: Yes it was. I forgot where we per-
formed at. It wasn’t the Roseland, it was
somewhere else. It was cool. It was a
Wednesday so it was cool. Portland defi-
nitely showed me some love. I’m definitely
looking forward to coming back.
TSk: Have you got any upcoming proj-
ects in the works?
RG: Right now everything is focused on
the album I just dropped. I’m trying to just
push that. I’m also working on a couple of
EPs with different producers. I’m in the
process of collecting beats and starting to
get back into recording for these next proj-
ects I’m creating. But there’s no name or
none of that yet.
TSk: Lastly, is there anything else for
Portland fans to know?
RG: I mean, I’m bugged out. I’m coming
to Portland and the Bay Area is going to be
in the building.