G-Eazy‘s musical taste is put to the test in the latest episode of UPROXX’s Sound Check.
Hosted by HipHopDX‘s own Jeremy Hecht, the quickfire series challenges guests to choose between two songs from some of their favorite artists, shedding light on their preferences and influences while uncovering never-before-heard stories from their early lives and careers.
During his turn in the hot seat, the Oakland rapper is forced to pick a winner from a number of Hip Hop classics, beginning with T.I.‘s “Whatever You Like” versus Kid Cudi‘s “Day ‘N’ Nite.”
Siding with Cudi’s Lonely Stoner anthem, G-Eazy says: “Just how iconic that song was and how nothing has sounded like that. Every so often you get an artist or a song that you hear on the radio and it’s like, ‘This sounds like nothing I have ever heard before in my life.'”
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The carefully curated song selections also nod to G-Eazy’s Bay Area roots and time living in New Orleans as a college student, pitting E-40‘s “Tell Me When to Go” against Mac Dre‘s “Feelin’ Myself” and Juvenile‘s “Back That Azz Up” against Lil Wayne‘s “Mrs. Officer.”
Perhaps the toughest decision comes when Eazy is asked to choose between two defining hits from two of his biggest influences (not to mention two of Hip Hop’s greatest ever MCs): JAY-Z‘s “99 Problems” and Nas‘ “N.Y. State of Mind.”
“Ah, man! You’re not making this easy. Somebody about to die!” he jokes while putting his headphones on to revisit both tracks.
For G-Eazy, who has been living in New York City for the last few years, nothing quite captures the essence of the Big Apple like Nas’ classic Illmatic cut.
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“I gotta go with that one, honestly,” he says. “The impact of Illmatic and now I’m living in New York, that song just paints such a vivid picture of the city. Like, the dark undertones of the music, those boom bap drums and just his vivid imagery in his lyrics and how he paints that picture.”
The episode also finds G-Eazy recalling his brief conversation with Drake after the release of “God’s Plan” while choosing between the diamond-certified smash and Swae Lee and Post Malone‘s own mega hit “Sunflower.”
“I was riding with my best homie in the whip back from Orange County. [God’s Plan’] had just come out and we played it in the car like 10 times,” he explains. I hit Drake immediately like, ‘This is the one.’ He hit me right back like, ‘Thank you so much, brother.'”
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Jeremy later shines the spotlight on G-Eazy’s own catalog and asks him to pick his favorite song between “Everything Will Be OK” and “Opportunity Cost,” prompting a heartfelt reflection about his late mother who passed awayy in 2021.
“I’m gonna actually go with ‘Opportunity Cost,’ not for any part of my writing but because at the end of the song, that voicemail from my mother,” he says.
“I’m so happy that I didn’t pick up the phone that day because I got that voicemail. I called her because I was on my way to RCA to sign my deal, and she didn’t answer. By the time she callled back, I was in the room doing it, so she left me that voicemail.”
“She was a beautiful, brilliant person and she definitely had a way with language and communication,” he adds.
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Watch the episode below to see G-Eazy talk about his go-to karaoke songs, his “favorite artist of all time” Nina Simone and why Iggy Pop’s “The Passenger” is his life anthem.
Stay tuned for new episodes of Sound Check premiering on UPROXX’s YouTube channel every Wednesday at noon ET/9 a.m. PT.
