As a label owner and artist, Bizzle is a busy man, but he’s still having fun with what he’s doing. He grew up listening to Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre just like any other teenager on the West Coast in the 1990s. Although he has paved a path as a Christian rapper, the God Over Money boss has not abandoned his roots. On one of his latest tracks, “Hands in the Air ’94,” the Los Angeles-bred MC pays tribute to his origins.
“You know I’m from the West Coast, I’m from L.A. so grew up on that Dre, Chronic, grew up on that Snoop, often, it’s just nostalgic for me,” Bizzle says to HipHopDX at the Legacy LA conference, which was also a stop of his Truth Music Tour. “That sound reminds me of my childhood. So I wanted to recreate that vibe. That vibe was just fun to do. I did that one for fun. I actually took the beat for that ‘Deep Cover,’ the Dre and Snoop joint, and ‘Murder was the Case,’ I sent it to my producer Marv and I was like, ‘Yo, I want something with that vibe, with that old Dre.’ He sent that joint back, I was like ‘You nailed it.’ So we went ahead and knocked that joint out. That was more fun than anything and I been wanting to do that. I can get one of those beats and do it as like a mixtape little freestyle where I can’t put it on my album. So I did it in a way that allowed me to put it on my album this time.”
Bizzle, who released his Crowns + Crosses album in October, continues to show his musical expertise as he recently remixed Migos’ “Bad and Boujee.” Although he’s now an established artist and businessman used to making marketable records, he got his start in the game by freestyling. He explains how remaking the hit record brought him back to the beginning.
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“When I first came in, I just grab beats and go in,” he shares. “Now, it’s became more structured for me where I’m always working on a project and if it’s not mine, it’s somebody else’s project on the label, but I’m like yo, let me just practice a little bit. What beat should I go in on? What’s the hottest record right now? ‘Bad and Boujee’ was the hottest record. So I literally sat in front of the computer, listened to the instrumental, penned it, turned on the camera, didn’t get it right the first time, probably took 50 takes, then knocked it out. I actually just recorded it, ‘cause everybody’s like ‘Yo, we need this like record this so we can download it.’ So me and my artist J. Sanders is doing an official one. It’s really just like yo, what’s hot right now? Let me get on the record and if people like it, they might not like the content on it. They might not be able to play the content in front of their children. So I’ll just get on it and you can listen to my version.”
As The Truth Tour travels around the country, Bizzle expresses how it’s always hard for him to be away from his family when he’s on the road. He got to see his son’s first basketball game before he headed out on the two-month trek and the season will be over when he returns.
“It’s hard and you pray that they’ll understand when they get a little older,” he shares. “I have a song about that, ‘From the Outside,’ it kind of speaks about that type of thing. It’s like you’re only four, or you’re only six and we’re out here doing what God called us to do. When I’m home, I try to be CEO and rapper and still be dad to the best of my ability, but leaving is always hard, always hard.”
Besides that, Bizzle gets a lot of excitement from connecting with fans and bonding with his God Over Money roster that includes Sevin and Datin who are touring with him. The label’s next big project is a collaborative album.
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“That’s gonna be fun,” he says.
