Following his stellar cypher performance at the 2022 BET Hip Hop Awards, BlavityU caught up with Guapdad 4000 — aka Guap — to discuss some of his personal interests and professional pursuits.
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During our sit-down with Guap, he dished on the growing female rap scene and spoke on which artists he’s currently rocking with.
“I find myself listening to a lot of female artists. Just in general checking them out, watching a Tiny Desk [Concert], watching a COLORS [SHOW],” he shared. “GloRilla killed it at the BET awards. I was there. KenTheMan killed her hip-hop cypher. Me and Ken are friends.”
“I like Doechii. Doechii hella hard. Amindi, too. Amindi’s tight. Fousheé’s hella nice. She’s artsy. Got a weird, wild voice,” Guapdad continued. “I like a lot of women making music right now. They doing they thing. They’re doing better than us!”
He also warmly referenced JT of City Girls, saying, “Shoutout to JT. I used to be in the club looking at all the girls deadass in they eye, drunk, when ‘F**kin’ on a scammin’-ass rich-ass n***a’ come on,” humorously referencing his past as a self-proclaimed scammer.
We then got Guap’s thoughts on another subject he’s passionate about: anime, as evidenced during his past interview with the one-and-only Crunchyroll.
Specifically, Guap told us what upcoming anime projects he’s looking forward to, and he gave the long-awaited Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War series — which just premiered on Hulu — a special shoutout.
“I’m definitely watching Bleach. I cannot wait to sit down and binge that whole s**t, so I’m gonna just wait,” he proclaimed. “I read the manga. I’m super excited to see how they f**king adapt all the Sternritters and these amazing characters. And I’m happy that Tite Kubo is manning the story and it’s not some filler s**t. Oh my God, it’s going to be so great.”
“I’ve been into a lot of niche s**t,” Guap added, noting that he’s a big fan of the Chainsaw Man anime and manga. “I actually recommend the first episode [of Chainsaw Man] to a lot of people who don’t even like or f**k with anime just because the story is so great. It’s almost like if Quentin Tarantino made an anime. It’s great. The callbacks to cinema and the parallels that they do are so artistically on point.”
The weebs will also appreciate knowing that Guap is currently reading Kaiju No. 8, and he managed to stock up on some manga volumes during a quick trip to Turkey.
Staying on the subject of anime, Guapdad went on to address the ongoing Twitter debate of whether the beloved The Boondocks series falls within the genre.
Idc what y’all say, The Boondocks counts as a slice of life anime pic.twitter.com/dvDc1SqfxA
— Digi💚 (@Digiordep) October 18, 2022
“I consider The Boondocks and Avatar: The Last Airbender pseudo-anime. They’re examples of American animation, obviously inspired by Japanese animation,” Guap masterfully explained. “They cared about the frame rates; they cared about the action sequences and choreographed them to the point where it’s in the same vein as anime, so people often compare it.”
“I think in the hearts of American anime nerds and Black nerds specifically, we like to consider it secretly. But it’s not Japanese, so it’s not anime,” the “Black Iverson” rapper elaborated.
Taking a step back to some of his past social media antics, we asked Guapdad 4000 to reflect on whether he has any regrets from his days as a content creator on Vine.
“Any regret that I had with a video, I eliminated and tried to fix on the next video. So, for me, that process was just really learning the internet and how to attack it, trial and error, and express myself through the medium of the internet, which is something that I feel like I’m uniquely able to do more effectively. When I choose to communicate on there, people kind of really listen, for the most part,” he said.
“It’s definitely, like, a deeper thing, ’cause my whole life has changed,” Guap noted. “Just starting on Vine and Tumblr at the same time propelled me into a different social space. But I don’t have any regrets. No.”
We then took a moment to ask Guapdad about a woman named Ashlee, who accompanied him at the 2022 BET Hip Hop Awards.
“She a close friend that I met through some more close friends, and we’ve been kicking it for a couple months. She is great,” he succinctly said of Ashlee.
Moving to more business-related matters, we made sure to ask Guap about his game-changing partnership with the Hpnotiq liquor brand, which was unveiled just last month.
Through Guapdad 4000 and Hpnotiq’s partnership, the #HPNOVERSE was born, and the Oakland-born rapper broke down exactly what this project is for us.
“It is a cleverly-named metaverse,” the artist began. “The HPNOVERSE is basically like an exclusive augmented reality destination that you go to whenever you enter the world of Hpnotiq.”
“It comes with an AR app that is pretty much available for everybody, and it got things to do on there, including all type of free NFTs that you can win and other prizes,” he added. “Guap loves free stuff.”
He further explained that the “nostalgia around the brand” is what motivated the partnership, noting that Hpnotiq exists at “the intersection of culture and music.”
“It’s also like a light flex too. Just something to have under your belt for the culture. Like, ‘Yeah man, I worked with Hpnotiq,'” Guap noted.
Finally, Guapdad shared what fans can expect from him in the near future.
“I’m working on a lot. I’m currently in the motions of starting an album, and I want to drop it sometime next year. I’m dropping a couple singles and freestyles in between then,” he revealed. “I’m also working with an AI company to generate some art that I’m going to put in a book at a pop-up for some clothes I’m designing. I started that as of recently.”
He also shared that he has a number of other projects in the works, including his role in the upcoming second season of Rap S**t on HBO and a collaborative project with Andrew Callaghan from the popular Channel 5 YouTube channel.
“I’m just exploring all things creative that interest me, really. I’m using music as a vehicle. I’m rapping better than ever, so people should expect all types of amazing, but really, really, really interesting things from me,” Guapdad 4000 explained.
What do you think about Guap’s commentary? Share your thoughts by sounding off in the comment section below.
