Los Angeles rapper Westside McFly is the first one to admit that his upbringing has given him a different view of life.
“You can either be a gangster or a rapper,” he said. “But you cannot be both. But the thing about it is, most of the guys from my hood use the latter to become the former and that’s not a problem. It’s when you can’t separate the two lives from one another that shit starts to pop off.”
It’s in that spirit, then, that McFly put together his new project, South Central Ain’t 4 Everybody. With features from the likes of Too $hort, RJ and Jake&Papa, the full-length album speaks to common themes in West Coast Hip Hop: drugs, poverty, gun violence, and getting out of the hood are all prevalent on this solid album.
Growing up in South Central, then, meant that McFly was influenced by the classic 1990s West Coast Hip Hop oeuvre. However, he’s quick to point out that though the influential sounds of Dr. Dre, N.W.A and — of late — Kendrick Lamar have had a long-reaching impact on Hip Hop as a whole, they aren’t the catch-all for his brand of music.
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“Kendrick, Dre, all of them — they broke ground,” he said. “But they’re not the whole story of what South Central is all about. Their experience and mine are very different — and this new breed of rappers coming out from South Central has a whole new story to tell, even if the way they tell it isn’t the same as it was 30 years ago.”
McFly’s first single off the album, “Bitch Please,” features RJ and talks about social-climbing women and their devious ways. Lest the song be considered a call to arms for the #MeToo movement, however, McFly — who prefers to refer to himself as a storyteller, an Urban Shakespeare of sorts — is quick to point out that women like this are commonplace in South Central and are all about survival rather than a “come up” of sorts. What’s more, said McFly, “Bitch Please” is just as much of a tribute to hard-working women who secure the bag on their own rather than relying on a man to get it for them — so, in a way, one could argue that it’s a feminist anthem of sorts.
It’s his single with Too $hort, however, that’s getting him the most attention as of late. Though this isn’t the first time he’s collaborated with his longtime friend, McFly said this new single is a “new beginning” for the two of them, because the sound is much more distinctive — and mature — than it was in the past.
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But McFly isn’t just known for his work on the mic, either. Behind the scenes, he’s written songs for such artists as AD, Ty Dolla $ign, Too $hort, Sonny Digital, FayoNChill, The Futuristiks, Mann, Jake&Papa and Honey Cocaine. His songs have been licensed out to various television shows, including HBO’s Katt Williams special, Showtime’s The Drew Documentary, MTV’s Black Ink Crew, BET’s The Quad, Oxygen’s Growing Up Hip-Hop and more.
He also supports various independent fashion designers from South Central Los Angeles, and frequently speaks to urban youth about proper ways to come out of the hood and into a better life.
“It’s not enough to tell them to make music,” he said. “Yeah, that’s fine — and if you got talent, you should spit. But there are other ways to make money that don’t involve the studio. Hell, they don’t even involve committing a crime. But without the education, the young brothers from South Central aren’t going to make it out alive. And you know what? The education doesn’t have to come from inside the classroom. It can come from just someone like me, reaching out and saying, ‘yo, this is what’s good,’ and getting the message across.”
Westside McFly just wrapped up the Grind Don’t Stop tour with RJMrLa. Check him out on Instagram @westsidemcfly.
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