Boldy James is in the midst of a whirlwind year. After the release of his well-received My 1st Chemistry Set album, the Detroit native found out that he would be among the first signees to Nas’ new Mass Appeal label. He then released “Crunchin’,” the first single off his upcoming Trapper’s Alley 2 mixtape, just a few weeks ago. With the mixtape slated to drop this fall, Complex caught up with Boldy to discuss the project, as well as working with Nas, signing to Mass Appeal, and selling sunglasses to Mac Miller and his crew.
Interview by Chris Mench (@Chris_Mench)
We can start with the single “Crunchin’.” Why did you choose it as a single?
I was just out there in L.A. working with Trinity, the producer on the song. It was one of the more upkey records I worked on. I cut over 20 records in like a week out there. So me and Ced Louie and my Uncle Duke was just sitting back chilling listening to the records because that’s who I analyze the records with, and they was telling me that they liked that one a lot. It was just growing on people, like my immediate staff and the people that I work with was just digging the record. So when Peter [from Mass Appeal] heard it he liked it too, and so that’s just the record we went with.
Do you think it’s representative of the mixtape overall?
The mixtape sounds different. It’s got a broader sound, and it’s more up to speed with the club bopping records and the records that the ladies can dance to in the club and all that kind of madness. Relative to the other records, it’s got a unique feel to it. It don’t sound like nothing else on the tape, so Trapper’s Alley 2 is going to be something different.
What’s it been like working with Nas so far? Do you feel like he’s been influencing you already?
Nas is a big influence on the music I make, and he’s a big influence on my life, just because I didn’t have any brothers growing up. So it was just me and the guys I ran the streets with, and we used to grow up putting the toothbrush to our sneakers and ironing our clothes and getting dressed for school to that music. To have a chance to work with him, it’s just like I never saw that coming.
Nas is just a humble soul. To have achieved that type of success in the game and to reach back and look out for a Detroit cat like me, man, it’s a big deal to me.
There’s a lot of megastars and superstars who look down on people that don’t really show the love back that they needed once upon a time to get to the level that they’re at now. He’s just a humble soul. To have achieved that type of success in the game and to reach back and look out for a Detroit cat like me, man, it’s a big deal to me.
So if he can humble himself to do such, then I can humble myself and not talk too big for my britches or act like I’m rich and I never been through the struggle or never been through the ringer and brushes with the law. Then I’d be faking. So I just look at that as like, it’s some of the greatest motivation you can have if you’re looking any at that point in time to give you some drive to make good music.
You guys were in the studio with Mac Miller as well. What were you working on?
Me and Mac have always just been cool through the relationship that him and The Cool Kids have. Chuck Inglish is my little blood cousin so I met Mac through Chuck at a show in like western Michigan or somewhere like that. He let me perform a couple of my joints.
I got to kick it with Mac after the show, and I had these glasses on my face. I had some black buffy Cartiers, some ivory tusk, like marble arms on some transition lenses. Some real expensive, big deal glasses that people get killed for and shit in Detroit. Like in Chicago, they’ve got the gym shoes and the belts that they go through it, we go through it with the glasses. At schools, the kids get killed over them glasses. Mac noticed my glasses and just bought them motherfuckers off my face, and ever since then we’ve been cool. A couple of the guys he worked with bought numerous pairs of glasses from me, because I have a Cartier store up in Greenfield Plaza in the outskirts of Detroit. It’s a sunglass shop.
So I always got to kick it with Mac just through business, then we started making music with me him and Freddie Gibbs out in Cali. But I had a personal relationship with him before we even dealt with the music. Mac is just a cool, genuine, 100 type of nigga. I fuck with Mac the long way, and I fuck with Nas the long way. I hang around a lot of dudes, like I’m from Detroit so I know a lot of cool guys. So I get around guys and not everyone be cool to me compared to the people that I respect and look up to in my world. But those guys was 100 though.
Have you hooked up with anybody else in the studio so far?
I work with a lot of artists, but mostly just people in my camp, like my man Fat Boy Fresh from Chicago, my man Peechie Green from Detroit, and my little sister Mafia Double D from Detroit. Kevo Da Kid, he’s stationed out in California right now. Just people in my world, I don’t like chasing people around to do music with. I don’t know a lot of cats. I’m real leery of who I make music with because I take my music personal.
At schools in Detroit, kids get killed over them glasses. Mac noticed my glasses and just bought them off my face.
I don’t think my music is for everybody, because everybody can’t really understand where I’m coming from. So I don’t expect them to be able to understand or relate to it all the time. I don’t be too quick to reach out to the type of guy who, if I saw him in public, I would always have to speak to him first type of guy. It’s like a common courtesy to show the love back or reach out to the little people in the game. I don’t know man, everybody be feeling themselves with that fame too much. So, that can taint me from being one of their fans.
In general, have you liked being signed to Mass Appeal so far?
I love Mass Appeal. Peter and the whole staff, I just like their system. They get things done. It’s just a real tight, neat type of program. They run a tight ship, and that’s the type of people I like to work with, like people that’s always on top of their business.
Definitely. Did you have anything else you wanted to say about the mixtape or anything else that you’ve got coming up next?
Yeah Trapper’s Alley 2 coming up next, and just stay tuned, I’ve got a lot of big shit in the works. I’m sitting and banging it out so that I can make the best music I can make, that’s all, because that’s half the battle. You put the imagery together, and a masterpiece is created, and then you take it and try to shape something nice up for y’all this time man. I hope you enjoy this classic I’m about to put together.
Download his single "Crunchin'" here.
