In a surprising and recent split between friends and collaborators, SpaceGhostPurrp and A$AP Rocky will apparently never work together again.
“There’s no ASAP/Raider Klan, none of that shit,” SpaceGhost Purrp said amidst the developing story. “I wish the best for him for the rest and how he do, like direct videos and how he rap, whatever he do, but no way in hell – I’m not even stepping in the studio with him.”
Recently SGP and A$AP Mob member ASAP Twelvy participated in a nasty back-and-fourth on Twitter. Apparently the behind the scenes rift between crews was enough to sever ties between them. When asked to expand on what the beef was actually about, SpaceGhost Purrp declined but says he believes the Twitter confrontation is a venture to increase record sales.
Also, with spaced-out Mysterious Phonk: The Chronicles of SpaceGhostPurrp now formally released, it was only natural that SpaceGhost Purrp would explain where he got his “phonky” start. The origin was no surprise.
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The Florida native points to Three 6 Mafia’s early work as deeply influential. He noted, “When I started listening to their religious views I just started looking at everybody different.”
HipHopDX recently spoke to SpaceGhostPurrp about his little-known ties to Trayvon Martin and the early days of the Raider Klan.
HipHopDX: First off, I love how your album title explains exactly what it is, Mysterious Phonk. It was kind of an official introduction for everyone to what you do. What kind of reaction have you been getting and how did this one come together?
SpaceGhostPurrp: The people love it. Complex gave it a 19 on their site and my goal was just to show the people the way of my music, my true talent and what I’m capable of doing.
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DX: You’re obviously familiar with the Trayvon Martin case. What exactly is your connection to him and what gives you the passion to push for what you believe is justice?
SpaceGhostPurrp: Me and his best friend are close. We cool with his best friend Nick. He told me that Trayvon, when he was alive, was one of my fans like he loved my music and he had a lot of respect for me and I didn’t know Trayvon Martin like that but he was only like 17 and he’s also from Carol City too. I don’t stay in Carol City no more, but he was a good fan of my music and for me to know that after he passed away is it just hurts even more.
DX: Sure and what are maybe some of the things you’re doing to bring awareness to the case?
SpaceGhostPurrp: Well I am getting the word out and I am slapping the living shit outta people who don’t fucking agree with the situation, and I feel like it wasn’t right and I’m trying to get the word out.
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DX: You just dropped the video for “Osiris Of The East.” It definitely was a music video that represented your music. What was the whole concept behind putting that one together?
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SpaceGhostPurrp: The woman who directed it, she came up with it and we just started working on it and the girl in it, Mary, her name is Mary Jane [Wild] she’s real dope and we all just started fucking around and got a bunch of cool shots and like dope scenes and they got the scene of us just making out [laughing] and I liked that.
DX: I know you’ve expanded on this a little bit but I wanna know straight from you about the rift you have with the A$AP Mob. Are you and A$AP Rocky seriously no more?
SpaceGhostPurrp: I’m not gonna disrespect him by talking about him and bash his name but I’m never working with him again. There’s no A$AP/Raider Klan, none of that shit. I wish the best for him for the rest and how he do, like direct videos and how he rap, whatever he do but no way in hell, I’m not even stepping in the studio with him.
DX: Could you maybe expand on what the whole thing was about?
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SpaceGhostPurrp: Nah, I ain’t gonna speak on it ’cause I’m not gonna make this shit… It’s just gonna make him keep fucking tweeting and shit and I don’t want that anymore.
DX: So it is what it is?
SpaceGhostPurrp: Yeah cause that tweeting and sub-tweeting and shit is retarded, like he’s older than me and I don’t get that. But really it’s publicity that’s all. His album is about to come out and that’s why he doing that shit, that’s why he tweeted so much but yeah, that’s all.
DX: Would you still be a fan of his music and maybe keep up on him?
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SpaceGhostPurrp: Yeah, I’ma like his music but when I hear it, it isn’t gonna sound the same no more.
DX: Maybe expanding on your music, you kind of remind me of the 2012 version of early ’90s Three 6 Mafia. I don’t know how much you hear that from people. Even the album title of Mysterious Phonk takes on a similar font to Mystic Stylez. I don’t know if you were going for that but how much do you take from Three 6 and what do you look for when putting a track together?
SpaceGhostPurrp: When I make a track, I make sure it’s how I love it. I make sure it’s dark and it’s phonky as shit so when I made the cover, I just wanted to match the title. The visuals is mysterious but I wanted to make it a little trippy, a little dark, not too this or not too that just a little silver and black and wanted it to be low key.
When I was younger, I used to listen to [Three 6 Mafia in] elementary, middle school. When I started listening to their religious views I just started looking at everybody different. Like I used to used to go to class and play “Ridin’ Da Chevy” every fucking day.
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DX: Yeah that’s for sure a classic.
SpaceGhostPurrp: Yeah and I would play that and I would stare at my teacher like I wanted to slice his fucking throat, I fucking hated my teacher. ‘Cause kids was listening to like, when I was in middle school, I was born in ’91 so I was in middle school like ’03 and shit so they was listening to Nelly fucking “Air Force 1’s” and all that shit, you know that song was poppin’ back in the day I ain’t gonna lie – Nelly had hits, but I just couldn’t listen to it. I was playing “Ridin’ Da Chevy” everyday and niggas was like, “Yo, who the fuck is that?” and I was like, “Three 6 Mafia, nigga.”
DX: [Laughs] And what were some of the artists that you used to bump and get inspiration from?
SpaceGhostPurrp: It’s a lot of ’90s artists – like it’s so many. All the old heads. I know DJ Screw is one of them, people know that. Like you can go listen to my very first tape that came out in ’09 and it first got played in The Hundreds store in Rosewood in California in 2009 called NASA Tape and my first single was “I Love Lesbians,” my second single was “I Love Lean” and my third single was “NASA Gang,” that’s back when we were all like based niggas. I had to be like 18 or some shit. So 18, 19 yeah I’m 21 now and I had to be around that age and Kreayshawn heard it and said she’s gonna cook to this shit and this shit is dope, I love it, started playing it in The Hundreds store with TVT and all the kids would go ahead and play it out loud and shit just got crazy.
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DX: You mention the early days of SGP. Could you maybe explain the message and formation of the Raider Klan?
SpaceGhostPurrp: The Raider Klan started out with me and my family and we just liked to make underground music. After I dropped The NASA Tape, I dropped Blackland Radio to explain the Raider Klan. I used to go on Twitter to do the hieroglyphic shit, it was like late 2010/early 2011 and I would always do the hieroglyphics on Twitter. My stupid ass I should have copyrighted it. [Laughs] The reason why we call it “Raider Hieroglyphics” is ’cause it’s all the same. When we write it, nobody’s going to understand it. It’s really for those who do understand it and they’re gonna know what we’re talking about and you don’t have to be in Raider Klan to be a Raider. If you can understand the hieroglyphics and understand what the fuck I rap about and what Raider Klan is about and you can relate to it then you a Raider you a person with a black cloud and a dark past who been through a lot, been hurt, who been taken advantage of, misunderstood, even abused mentally, verbally, physically, all types of ways and out the ghetto they became bold and we gravitate all black. If you go listen to my song “Wrath Of A Raider,” which I dropped in late 2011 before I went to New York, before I even went up there and met all of them. I had my own bars and I made “Wrath Of A Raider” and this is basically telling you this boy who is a Raider, which is a character that I think about. I think of this boy who skates and he always wears black because he was misunderstood in his neighborhood ’cause he was always a Black person who was skating in his neighborhood and people look at him weird. While everybody had on they Polo and shit and fucking Girbaud with they doo-rags on would call him a fucking punk ’cause he was different, but he always kick they ass though.
DX: That’s interesting, ’cause that definitely represents the type of music you make. You kind of have that trill aspect but it’s definitely unlike anything I’ve heard. So you would say that skater is kind of a representation of the music you make?
SpaceGhostPurrp: I’ma put it like this; I’m not a poser. We are from the South so when people say they trill a hundred times, niggas gonna assume that we trying to fit in ’cause people in the South don’t say “trill” that much. It’s no way in hell you should have to say trill every five minutes, “Oh that’s trill, this trill, that’s trill.” What the fuck you talking about? [Laughs] So you telling me that if I go to Blockbusters or some shit and I [rent] the movie Coneheads that’s trill? Since when the fuck Coneheads became trill? ‘Cause I could have sworn [Three 6 Mafia’s] Mystic Stylez was triller than that, you know what I mean? You don’t hear anybody talking about Mystic Stylez and that was just the crazy point I was proving but my music is basically for people who’s not posers like who know what time it is and who know about gritty underground music and dark shit like we enjoy that type of shit. Especially all the skaters who came up on that type of shit like Speak was doing this shit last year called The Trill Wave, for all of the skaters who grew up on that real underground shit ’cause that’s all skaters listen to and I hang with skaters and half of all my homies is skaters so we don’t listen to fucking – no disrespect – we don’t listen to [happy music]. We listening to dark shit ’cause that’s what we like. That actually helps them skate better when they skate ’cause that’s what they know. We not posers and we not and we not doing shit for the hype and that’s who I make my music for.
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DX: Do you think that since skating and Hip Hop are more conjoined especially with African Americans these days your music is more accepted now than maybe it would have been even five years ago?
SpaceGhostPurrp: I mean, the thing about me is I just do whatever I please. See, that’s one thing the Rap game gonna have to understand about me. I’ma say what I say and do me. I’m not gonna be stupid about it but I’ma do shit when I please. I’m gonna make my music how I please and I’ma keep doing it so with that being said, with the Houston Funk that I bring, the Houston tribute that I do and the Houston sound and the Memphis tribute, it’s just to pay homage to Juicy J. He inspired me a lot and I just wanted to pay homage to him and that’s what I like to do but I also got my own type of style like [“Get Yah Head Bust”], that’s the other part of life.
DX: What’s up next for SpaceGhost Purrp? Tour? Another project?
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SpaceGhostPurrp: I’ma just keep going hard and ignoring bullshit, stay in my own lane. I just wanted to clear it up with the fans that I’m not affiliated with nobody. Raider Klan is a whole army movement. We tired of being compared and put in these categories with other groups so we doing what the fuck we wanna do and we gonna keep doing that and whoever don’t like it, try and stop us and that’s for the future, we just gonna keep doing us.
