It’s been such a nutty year in Rap that you might forget that Sage The Gemini‘s Remember Medropped early this year to much acclaim. And, you may also forget that he did it without a co-sign and with a song that bubbled quiet on social media before it jumped into your shoes. There’s much to be said about the young Bay Area spitter, and none are more salient than he’s managed to carve a niche for himself doing things his own way.
A large part of his success, as well, is the HBK Gang and Iamsu!. Tha man Sage’ calls his brother and mentor also dropped an album this year. ‘Su’s Sincerely Yours was released to moderate buzz and was called a “modern classic” by Murs at this year’s Sunset Strip Music Festival. The collective of producers, songwriters, and artists all rep from a similar asethetic, and it’s resulted in success, with Sage’s “Gas Pedal” going platinum as a single, and “Red Nose” doing very well for it self as well.
Ahead of the gang gearing up for a monstrous 2015, Sage The Gemini dropped by HipHopDX headquarters to talk HBK not getting the respect it deserves, others co-opting the Bay Area sound and how he felt after getting snubbed by XXL for their Freshman List.
Sage The Gemini Talks 2014 Hip Hop & How HBK Get’s Passed Over
HipHopDX: How do you feel about Hip Hop in 2014?
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Sage The Gemini: I feel like this year is late. A lot of stuff is like 2006 kind of material and they laughed at us Bay Area people for doing’ it so I’m just kind of confused. But you know there are some talented people, you know, in 2014. As far as the Hip Hop year, it’s confusing. I feel like there’s a lot of favoritism goin’ on, even with the people that own a lot of the stuff that goes on as far as award shows. I dunno, I feel like this year is childish [Laughs].
DX: What do you mean by “childish?”
Sage The Gemini: I feel like not everyone is being grown about every situation. I feel like everyone is taking everything personal to where it’s like if you come together… say if, if HipHop DX come together and say “We like August Alsina” but one girl is mad, not you guys, but if one girl is mad that she tried to get at him on a personal level and nobody knows about that, she’s like ‘Well, I don’t like him. I think we should choose Chris Brown’ or somethin like that. Then they end up choosin’ Chris Brown even though August Alsina has 12 platinum records this year, he that he’s this, he wrote for this, he did this and all that and then they end up choosin’ Chris Brown. That was childish.
DX: Who is being passed over?
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Sage The Gemini: The Bay area, HBK, us period.
DX: “Gas Pedal” was a huge hit. It blew up on Vine. Did you ever expect that?
Sage The Gemini: No. Not at all. Every interview you hear me say, I was the type of kid that was… not really neglected, but, like, I didn’t have a lot of friends or nothin’ like that. I was doin’ my passion and I put it out there and people were like. Even I felt like, ok this is a cool song. When it came out like five months later it had like a million views. You know, coming from where I’m from two thousand is like, “Boy I’m on.” So when I saw that it hit a thousand the first night, I was like somebody is playing, they got a YouTube increaser or something like that. By the end of that month, it was at a hundred thousand and people started calling into certain places that didn’t let the people that was important get to me. I just kept hearing, “Yeah, you know they lookin for ya.” I’m like, “How? They haven’t contacted me.” They’re like, “They not lettin’ them get to you, ‘cause they want a piece of the pie.” But anyway… I just was like…
DX: Who’re “they?”
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Sage The Gemini: So, anyway. [Laughs]
DX: Would you ever try to use Vine as a marketing tool for a song on purpose?
Sage The Gemini: Not really, I learned that… I don’t plan anything… [When] I made “Gas Pedal,” I made the beat on accident, I learned how to mix the master on accident, I did all that in my room on accident and it just ended up sounding good. When you plan something, and even when a little piece falls off, it feels like your whole plan is ruined. So I’d rather just go with the flow. If I had a real blue print for doing something like that on purpose, I’d probably try it. I’ve been having good luck doing it on accident; so I think I’m gonna stick with that.
DX: Money in the streaming era is in a lot of different places. How do you make yours?
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Sage The Gemini: You market yourself. Sex sells. So if you look at my Instagram I’m like almost naked.
DX: So that’s on purpose?
Sage The Gemini: Yea it’s on purpose. I get kind of nervous doing it. I did it and I put it up and I took it down and I saw that everybody liked it and I put it back up. So, yeah, I’m a nervous wreck. Yeah, just stuff like that, how you work on your image, how you put your image out there. Of course shows, how you do your shows to make someone want to go back and buy a ticket again. And you know be closer this time cause they know that… my sweat is gonna drip on you or something like that, like the dancing… or somethin’ like that. You just gotta work hard period. Money is gonna come with your image so…
DX: Can you just talk about how Iamsu! mentored you and how he created the HBK Gang?
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Sage The Gemini: Well, I want to start by saying that Iamsu! is the greatest rapper of all time. I been listening to him since I was like 14. He’s one of the first few people I got star struck over. I’m still shocked that we’re even like brothers right now. Whenever I hear him write a verse or even write quick and it sounds like it took like a hour to write it, I’m just like dang… how’d you do that? So I find ways to try do stuff like that. It’s just like a challenge. When you have someone that’s always challenging you it’s gonna bring you up, you know, even more. He’s just like… he’s the nicest person you’ll ever meet. If you don’t have it, he’ll help you out… just with anything. He’s just a great person. I don’t want to sugar coat nothin’, he’s just a great person, just period.
DX: How do you guys really cook? What’s your process in the studio?
Sage The Gemini: Really, we all know how to produce. Everybody is great at producing but we really leave it up to P-Lo ‘cause he’s that sound right now. So, when P-Lo gets on the keys, he does what he does, everybody starts bobbin’ their head, and then it’s mainly Su. Su will probably freestyle a chorus or freestyle a verse and everyone is like, “Dang, that’s hard, we gonna make a chorus out off that, or you make up the chorus, or I might do something or Cool might do something, or Jay Ant will, then everybody just goes off that and writes a verse and it’s jus boom-easy, so it’s that simple.
Sage The Gemini On How The Bay Feels About It’s Now Mainstream Sound
DX: How do you guys feel in the Bay about everybody having that sound?
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Sage The Gemini: Really… At first we were mad of course, feeling like… Oh ,you know, so and so stole our style or whatever… But in the end ‘Su had to talk to everybody and say well nobody stole our style if we still got it. You know, everybody knows the Bay area sound. If someone gets famous off it first, you know, we deserve our respect but what are we gonna do if we don’t get it? Nothing. Let’s just work harder. You know we were mad at first, but now it’s just like whatever, just as long as people know it’s our style and you know if people feel that great about it to where they do it and they have a great interest in it and then they get famous off of it… Thank you for showing us love like that. It might not be in our best interest or the way we wanted it to be but it’s still showin’ us love because we may go do something and be like, “Yeah we know where that sound came from or this and that. We’ll never be like, “Oh yeah, you stole our style!” I don’t know who verbally said it but I’ve never verbally said it, but I don’t care, really. I’m a do my own thing, just period, we are gonna do us regardless. Whenever we come out with a song, you either like it or you don’t. We can’t hop in your brain and tell you to like it, it’s either on us or it’s either on y’all.
DX: Is whatever your working on just a complete departure from what’s on the radio now?
Sage The Gemini: No, have you ever… let me see… Say you got two Pokemon cards, you like this one, and it’s not quite the real one and it’s like you see this all the time, but then when you see the real one, finally. You’re like, “Wow. This is cool, but this is hard. So it’s like, when we come out with music, it’s just like dang, that’s it. What we hear right now is tight but this is it, and this has like everything to it. It has the feeling of it’s just… real. So when we come out with music, you can tell it’s from the Bay Area, from HBK or whatever, but it has real chords, probably guitar, flutes, violins, all that stuff, it’s just a mixture of everything, but with the Bay area style. So it’s like y’all can have whatever y’all got, but we’re always gonna have the foundation and it’s just gonna always sound better cause it’s the real Pokemon card.
DX: Quik talked about using analog on the last album, have you guys considered going the same route?
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Sage The Gemini: Actually, yeah. We got some stuff coming out with live instruments. I’m actually gonna use a live band for the Halloween show we have coming up. For this next album I’m trying to a little bit… a little different on the jazzy kind of side; drums, flutes, chords, all that. I’m a real R&B person. I mix R&B with Hip Hop all the time like, “Red Nose.” But to answer your question, yes.
DX: How do you feel about Lil B?
Sage The Gemini: He’s a great person. He’s so positive. It’s ridiculous. When you give him a handshake, he was like, “Man, look… I love you.” I was like, “Alright, ok.” He just was like, ‘Man, you really doin’ it right now for the Bay Area. Thank you.’ I was like, “Me? No, you.” And it was tight. He’s just positive, period. He’s a normal person. People think he’s hella weird, but he’s just extremely normal. He’s still a positive, great person.
DX: Why do you think he didn’t blow up the way he should have?
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Sage The Gemini: As far as entertainment-wise, he was just entertainment. Not a lot of people looked at him like, “Aw, he can really gas, he can really rap.” It was just entertainment. So a lot of people… it was just word of mouth. He’s really smart, he can really rap like he can rap his ass off. As far as like… How I feel is that just like, how I did with “Red Nose.” Well, I guess you could say I had plan with that. Dang, that’s tight. I saw people on the radio doin’ this and doin’ that and I would really rap and tell stories but nobody wanted to hear me do that. They wanted to hear somethin’ fun. Something some people could make fun of, so I made a song like “Red Nose.” But I wanted to put my own style into it, make sure it wasn’t completely retarded, so people could take me at least a little seriously, so I put that out and it just caught on. So I think that’s kind of what Lil’ B is doing. I dunno, nobody is ever gonna take him really, really serious. They will go to one of his shows cause it’s fun or they will listen to his music cause it’s fun. That’s another reason, that’s goes back to this year’s childish because, no disrespect to XXL, they didn’t choose me. Everybody thinks I’m mad at them, love you XXL. But one year Lil’ B was XXL Freshman and we weren’t XXL [Freshman], no disrespect to Lil’ B. He represented us well, because he actually really rapped on there. But if you ask them what song made him XXL, what song would they say? Exactly. So it’s like, we went platinum, gold twice, everybody has a plaque. I did shows from all the way across the seas. So no disrespect to August Alsina, I love him, that’s my guy, but he was a XXL Freshman. I thought that was for rappers? And so was Ty Dolla $ign. So that’s why I feel like this year was childish.
DX: Is there a love hate relationship between really wanting to put something out that merits you in your soul and something that’s really fun?
Sage The Gemini: Yeah because everybody wants to hear something that’s really fun, so it’s just like we are debating. Do we want to lose our career off of trying to switch and then there’s no more me. Then I try to come back with something fun, and the fans are like… “Nah n*gga don’t try to come back. You done fucked up. I dunno it’s just.. We love to do that type of music but we hate the fact that… We hate the terms of it, that, you have to do this. But if I become on Flo Rida’s level I’m a do anything I fuckin’ want.
DX: If you could make an album and it was whatever you wanted it to be, what would you do?
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Sage The Gemini: I mean of course the fun music, tellin’ my story and a lot of R&B.
DX: Really?
Sage The Gemini: Uh huh. I love R&B.
DX: Love R&B in what way?
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Sage The Gemini: I would have sex to it… I love Chris Brown. I’m young. I’m only 22. I grew up listening to Chris Brown. When we played in a basketball game, I couldn’t even ball cause I was too busy looking at Chris Brown, no homo. He came in the locker room [and] I’m lookin’ at everyone and seein’ that they’re tying their shoes because they know this n*gga. So I’m like, “Y’all don’t see that huh?” It was Steelo Brim. He was like, “What?” I was like, “That’s really Chris Brown.” I said, “That’s really Chris Brown.” But, yeah, of course [I listen to] Chris Brown, Usher, Justin Timberlake, and Andre 3000. I don’t really go off words or anything like that, I just go off the vibe. Somebody could literally be talking about my mama and how they are gonna kill her but if that vibe is tight…
DX: You’ve said in an interview with us, you give your label what they need not what they want… what do you mean by that?
Sage The Gemini: Basically a label will be like, “I think we want this…I think you should do this…. do this and this…” Uh, wait, you signed me for what I do, not for what y’all do. So, this is what you need. Their place is to give me ways to market myself, market my music, market my ideas, put me in these shows, put me with these people, help my career that I started, put me on the radio with my music, put me in commercials with my music, my personality, put me on everything that I need with my brain, you know.
DX: So it’s less of a label hovering over you saying this is what you should do?
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Sage The Gemini: They don’t want these hands [Laughs].
Sage The Gemini Talks Internet Fans & Reading Every Twitter Comment
DX: How do you feel about Internet “fandoms” and the way that they can turn on you really quickly?
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Sage The Gemini: I hated it at first. It was stressing me the hell out. But I just realized sex sells and now only guys hate me. So really, I don’t care anymore. Really, so it’s like, I know I make good music but not to everybody. Not everybody is going to like my music but they will respect my music. So you can tell in comment if somebody just wanted to write something instead of it coming from the heart. There’s a lot of people who will go, “Look, man, I think you should go back to this…” or “I think you should try that because I don’t really like this.” And I’ll be like, “Yo, thank you for that. I will try this and see what’s goin’ on.” If it’s still weak then I’ll be like ok, well, let me try this. Thank you for that because if it weren’t for my fans, I wouldn’t be here.
DX: So you actually listen?
Sage The Gemini: Of course, I read every comment on my Instagram. Every Youtube comment, yeah. Sometimes I sit there for hours and just scroll up.
DX: Really? Wow…
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Sage The Gemini: Yup. I reply back to DM’s… everything.
DX: I wasn’t expecting that because if I was an artist…
Sage The Gemini: I’ll sit there and I’ll listen. I’ll figure out what they really want, cause I wish Chris Brown would reply to me. Even now. I got his number [and] I’ll text him and he just is like…(silence) so I’m like, fine, anyway. But yeah, so I listen to every fan.
DX: What would you say to the women that Twerked “Gas Pedal” on to the charts?
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Sage The Gemini: Thanks. Thanks [laughs]. You helped me out a lot. It makes me nervous. I used to watch those videos but they make me nervous for some reason. That’s why I don’t even go to strip clubs. I went to a strip club one time and it made me super nervous.
DX: There were no platinum albums this year. Is that something artists think about? Perhaps we’re entering a post-platinum era?
Sage The Gemini: Not really, because I never had a platinum album. I had a platinum song. If my songs never went platinum again I’d probably cry.
DX: Do you feel like streaming is becoming too prevalent?
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Sage The Gemini: I would prefer iTunes, but then again my opinion doesn’t count. People say your opinion counts but really, in this childish year, it doesn’t count.
DX: What’s it gonna take for HBK to get some respect?
Sage The Gemini: Just keep working hard. People know the dark comes into light. God has a plan for us. You can’t stop Gods plan. So when that plan comes in effect, respect is a given.
RELATED: Sage The Gemini Recalls Meeting HBK Gang & His Early Influences [Interviews]
