Dizzy Wright sunk into the details on his upcoming album, The Growing Process, which is available on May 26. He spent time tightening his flow in a few areas, perfecting his ad-libs in others. He assembled an impressive team of collaborators including Big K.R.I.T., Tech N9ne, Hopsin, Krayzie Bone, among others. He even went hands on with The mixing and mastering, just to make sure none of the feeling was lost during The Growing Process’ final stages.
“I had my foot in this whole process way more than any other process,” explains Dizzy Wright in this exclusive conversation with HipHopDX (presented entirely in his own words). “All my projects, I send them off to get mixed. I get the mix back, I’m making my tweaks. Then I’m sending the tweaks back and getting them back. [On The Growing Process], I sat through the mixing. I sat through the mastering… There’s times that I’ve dropped records where they’ll get mixed and they’ll feel different than how they felt. They’ll sound better, but they’ll feel different. I know that I’m used to that record being a certain kind of way. But it shouldn’t feel different. That feeling should be better. This time around that feeling is amazing. Now I’m like, ‘This is how that shit should’ve been the whole time!’”
Dizzy also reflects on fatherhood, the future of Funk Volume, his first show and his first advance. He also describes how worried he was when Hopsin disappeared before a performance in Fort Collins, Colorado last year, and how he captured that emotion on an upcoming guest appearance on Hopsin’s next album.
The Growing Process
“It’s dope, man. I feel like everybody has a growing process but to be a part of mine is pretty awesome. I think this time around it’s going to be a lot different. I made a lot of tweaks in my style. I’m just developing, man. A bunch of dope artists fuck with me. The project’s ill.
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“I got some collabs on there that I know people been waiting for forever. I even put some collabs together that I feel like you would never get this kind of song. It would be an artist like Dizzy Wright to put something like this together. I feel like I did that for my album. I feel like I got my gun on my waist with my album right now. This mutherfucker hot. I feel like I did my thing. I tried to make my perfect rap album for right now—for my time, for my age, for what I got going on, for my type of fans that I see come to my shows. I tried to make that perfect rap album for them. I think I got really close. I think I got really close.
“I had my foot in this whole process way more than any other process. All my projects, I send them off to get mixed. I get the mix back, I’m making my tweaks. Then I’m sending the tweaks back and getting them back. [On The Growing Process], I sat through the mixing. I sat through the mastering. I had my foot in this whole fucking process to make sure that shit was groovy for me. There’s times that I’ve dropped records where they’ll get mixed and they’ll feel different than how they felt. They’ll sound better, but they’ll feel different. I know that I’m used to that record being a certain kind of way. But it shouldn’t feel different. That feeling should be better. This time around that feeling is amazing. Now I’m like, ‘This is how that shit should’ve been the whole time! It should’ve been icy!’ [Laughs] I’m learning this shit a little more. I like this shit.”
2Pac Reference On “Train Your Mind“
“‘[Tupac] to me was loud, very loud with his message, even though the message was a real message and a brilliant message. My grandfather always said, you look for the good in everything but you can learn from everybody’s mistakes. Sometimes it don’t even have to be a mistake. I just feel like that’s what I learned from ‘Pac: To have that same message but do it quietly, not be so loud about it and just get my point across.
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“Every time I listen to my album I always feel like I could’ve did a little more—maybe made certain words pop out more, add a certain ad-lib just so it wasn’t quiet. Just little things to make the song better. I just tried to be a better Dizzy Wright and I think that I did a really good fucking job.”
The New Hip Hop Generation
“It’s not easy to give people music to turn up to and then give people thinking music, or smoking music as some would call it. I think that our generation, this new Hip Hop generation is starting to really understand how to maneuver both. I think that’s the only way to really be successful. Drake is the perfect example of somebody who’s versatile all the way down to his singing to his turnt up shit. You gotta do it in your own style. Snow Tha Product has her own style, her own way of doing it. I have my own way of doing it and I think that a lot of people are fucking with it now.”
Upcoming Feature On Hopsin’s “Fort Collins”
“I was hot. Hop came to me and he asked me—I’m not going to speak too much on it because it’s his new shit—to be completely honest because I was honest with him when it happened. I was hot and he know. Everybody know in our camp. I was upset with that shit. So he wanted me to put that real emotion in there and I did. I hope it comes across like that. I’m glad you said that because it must’ve felt real. Like, ‘Oh, he kinda going in on him,’ because Hopsin was like, ‘Ooh, you kinda went in on me!’ [Laughs] That’s my boy.
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“It was kinda crazy, man, because Hop was in a funny place before [disappearing during the Fort Collins, Colorado show]. I can tell that he wasn’t happy. It was hard for me to really [relate]. I’m a positive dude, but if somebody’s really not happy, it can drag you down. The tour was in a funny spot already. I think just getting there was just a lot for him. I think it was really just a lot and he needed to be away from everything to think for himself. I could understand that, it’s just that I didn’t know where he was. I didn’t know. With that being my boy, now I’m worried, because we came here together. So, that’s what upset me. The show? Fuck the show. We can come back to Fort Collins and turn this bitch up. Just communication.
“Those type of situations bring us closer as a family because now we’re not dealing with music things. I’m coming to him as a homie. Like, ‘Look, if you don’t want to do this shit, let me know and we’ll make this shit happen so it’s right for you.’ Everyone was like that for Hop. He had a good support system but it was a tough time. It was a speed bump.”
Funk Volume
“It’s been a growing process with this whole shit. I’ve always been very comfortable with Funk Volume, but we as Funk Volume still were trying to figure out what we really want to do as a whole. Individually, everyone has their own style and kind of their own direction in life. We have now come together and kind of figured out where we wanna be, what we want Funk Volume to look like in 20 years. We wanna keep grinding so it looks like that. But now we’re kind of communicating with each other and we’re a little more open than ever these days. I’m always having fun, bro. I don’t take nothing for granted, bro. I come from nothing. I was living in a shelter home. You know I’m a shelter baby, so, I don’t take nothing for granted. I be chilling, loving life. I love it everyday.”
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Fatherhood
“I be tired than a mutherfucker in the morning. My daughter come running in there. I be like, ‘Oh, damn!’ [Laughs] I love waking up with my son. When you have kids, you gotta burp them for a very long time until you don’t gotta burp them. You gotta wake up with them and make sure you burp them because a lot of times they’ll cry and you won’t know why they’re crying but that’s probably why. So I always wake up like a zombie burping him! [Laughs]
“My daughter made me so motivated. When I knew I was having a daughter, I put my shit into gear. I was like, ‘Damn, I’m about to be a provider for somebody. I gotta get right and do my thing.’ My son though, I’m just excited to raise a man. My grandfather taught me almost everything that I know. I just want to teach somebody else, give somebody all my game. My son is gonna be the only person that can have all that. I try to give a little game [through my music].”
Performing With B2K
“The first show that I ever did was a Magic Johnson convention out here in California. Magic Johnson put together a big event. He was giving out T-shirts. He had a little stage. It was a bunch of stuff going on. I opened up for B2K before they blew up. I tell people that and they’re [unimpressed]. But back in the day for me, you gotta understand that I opened up for them and then they blew up. I was like, ‘Aw, damn! That’s supposed to be me!’ Them niggas got up on stage after me, Omarion was lifting up his shirt. Lil’ Fizz was swinging his pony tail. Them niggas killed it! Then they blew up mega. I wish I had an Instagram clip of my performance so niggas could see that I was doing my thing. I was a young nigga out there trying to get it! [Laughs] That’s the first show that I ever did, me and my little brother. Marcus Houston brought them out.
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“There was a little tent right by the stage and when I got off stage they were like, ‘Good shit little, homie.’ They showed me love and shit. I was fucking 10 years old, bro. I was fucking little as hell. I was like, ‘Oh cool!’ standing in the tent. I was like, ‘Y’all going on?’ They were like, ‘Yeah.’ They go up there and kill it! B2K, nigga! That shit was crazy! And then they blew up! I was like, ‘Wow!’ I gave them niggas the juice when I dapped them up. That shit’s crazy. I wish I had that film. My mom ain’t have no video camera. She had her little cell phone but I don’t even think it was like video cameras. That was almost 15 years ago. I’ll be 25 years old this year. Crazy bro.”
First Advance
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“I didn’t want an advance, man. I just want my bills taken care of and make my own money. Just take care of my bills so I don’t gotta worry about my bills so I can get my life right. Don’t give me a lot of money. I ain’t want an advance. Funk Volume, we did our shit different. Everybody had their own style on how they wanted shit, but, we all tryna be better niggas. We’re not really tryna have a lot of money and shit and just be reckless niggas out here. “We’re tryna be smart. A nigga that don’t got nothing then get a lot and sit with a lot of that shit, he’s gonna feel good about it until it’s gone. But when it’s there, he’s gonna feel like he accomplished something because that’s the culture we were brought up in. It’s not even about that. I have my daughter. I had my own apartment. I had a little studio when I was 17 years old. My senior year in high school, my mom kicked me out. I was living alone, bro, in my own little apartment. That mutherfucker wasn’t as big as this fucking square. I had a refrigerator, a TV where you was sitting, a couch and a bed and I was chilling. It was my spot, bro. I woke up everyday, went to school. I ain’t try to flex on nobody. Never ever, ever. I was getting my little bread and being smart about it, bro.
“Everybody’s different. I spent a lot of money on weed. Most niggas would be like, ‘You spend that much money on weed?’ I don’t pay for weed no more, but in 2013, nigga, wooooh! You could tell I was a nigga that didn’t have no money for weed. As soon as I got some money for weed, I was smoking all the time. Niggas is different, man.”
Funk Volume 2015 Collaboration
“You’re the first person to ask me about that this year and I don’t know [why it didn’t come out]. Honestly, I think we just could not get it together. I think that with Jarren [Benton] being in Atlanta, me being in Las Vegas and Hop and SwizZz being out here—and then personal things going on around the times that we could’ve made it happen—it’s just like we could never make it happen. And then we did something and we wasn’t fully feeling it as a whole, as a team. We was like, ‘This is just some throw out there shit. Do we wanna do that? Do we even wanna be them niggas and just throw some shit out there as a collective? Nah. We gonna hold this bitch and we’re gonna come back stronger than ever.’ We’re gonna do an album so we can have a 20 year anniversary. We’re gonna really lock down on some real shit that’ll fucking stick.”
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SwizZz’ Return
“SwizZz is always working, but I think people are finally going to get that SwizZz project they’ve been waiting on. It’s gonna be icy, too.”
