Photo by Jack Angell.
Tampa’s own Big Baby Scumbag has solidified himself as one of Florida’s rising superstars over the last three years. Since the release of his smash “Jelly” Scumbag has curated numerous cult classics, from “Tropicana”, “Jameis Winston”, and wide variety of other electric cuts. His exponential growth has proven to not only fans, but the world as well, that he is here to change the game. His strong sense of identity and classic ad-libs make Big Baby stand out on any instrumentation he blesses. We hopped on a call and talked about Ramen noodles, culinary preferences, his new merch, our love for Lil B and a sundry of other topics. Enjoy the gas below.
(This interview has been edited for grammar.)
Brick: Thanks for taking the time to talk with me, the merch seems to be doing some solid numbers. What’s the top selling item thus far?
BBS: By far the condoms man. Ive been wanting to do that for the longest. Big Pun is one of my favorite rappers and if you google Big Pun condoms, he had his own condoms back in the day. I basically just took inspiration from that. I’m promoting a good cause with protection and contraception and all that. It was a such a good marketing idea, for the longest my fans have been fucking around making a double entendre. Is his name Big Baby Cum Bag or Big Baby Scumbag?
Brick: Well you have a very fun fan-base that builds off of your internet persona, you’re very active with your fans on that.
BBS: Yeah I saw that and since y’all wanna make jokes, okay I got something for y’all. I needed time to do it just to see the reception I would get. I didn’t want to do it and have it flop. There’s a phrase on the bottom corner of the condom that says “fuck them kids” so it added more fuel to the flames for people to love that shit, the most perfect time to do that shit.
Brick: Juvenile Hell has been out for a little while now, tell us about how you and Lex Luger linked up?
BBS: I met Lex Luger through Father. It’s so funny, the last Daily Chiefers interview I did was like, late 2017 and it was with Joey. And Joey had asked me, you know who do you want to work with for a dream collab? And I just like, yeah Lex Luger for sure. I remember a couple days after that I made a tweet, Father had told me like yeah he knows Lex and he threw me some beats that Lex had gave him. So Lex didn’t know me personally at the time at all, and I ended up dropping a song called “Metal Gear Solid”. And of course I tagged Lex Luger in the post and it caught his attention and he personally reached out to me. I thought he was gonna be like where’d you get this beat from?
Brick: Yeah like pay me for this shit!
BBS: Yeah like where’d you get this beat from, I didn’t send you this beat. But he was like yo this shit is fire, let’s work on some shit. And it was on from there.
Brick: So it was all very cohesive and genuine, and then you guys just built off that. It’s a great project with a common theme of vibrant aggression and I feel like you’re more unhinged than you had been before. It’s very consistent sound, but what separates you from the rest of the pack?
BBS: Versatility, originality, and that’s it bro. I don’t have some gimmick behind me bro, what you see is what you get. It’s like everyday shit. You know the whole NASCAR shit, I’m from Florida and we grew in a NASCAR capital. So I grew up and going to to thrift stores and seeing NASCAR all the time. I posted a meme on my IG yesterday and it said 2006 Tampa and it was a NASCAR jacket, cargo shorts, a Dupont Jeff Gordan hat and some big ass earrings. And literally that was the mid 2000s Tampa outfit. Hood n****** not knowing nothing about NASCAR, but we’re wearing it because Tony The Tiger or the Lucky Charms Leprechaun is on it. Like we just thought that shit was cool or whatever and the urban community turned it into a fashion statement. I feel like as an artist I took that shit and brought it to, the music side of shit and showed people this where I’m from. Like this is what we’re into a took it to the next level.
Brick: How surreal was it to have the Lil B shout out on the beginning of Juvenile Hell?
BBS: Oh dude, bro Lil B is my favorite rapper dude.
Brick: What’s your favorite Lil B project?
BBS – My favorite Lil B project has gotta be Blue Flame, because it’s the first project I listened to all the way through. There was this era where Lil B was just dropping videos every other day, video after video. It was from like 09 to 2012. And it was like my favorite era, and he had been solo for a minute, but his shit really started to pick up around 2010.
Brick: So that was right around when “I’m God” dropped, sort of around Everything Based, which is my favorite Lil B project.
BBS: Yeah, Everything Based is fire too, I fucked with Everything Based. Bro he dropped “Wonton Soup”, “Ellen Degeneres”, “Mel Gibson”, all types of shit. Yeah man Lil B is such a role model to me when it comes to music and shit. It was such an honor to have him on the tape, I wanted to make it sound nostalgic. When you heard these old 2008, 2009 mixtapes, you would hear these janky voicemails.
Brick: Kinda like a “Silver Surfer Interlude” type thing.
BBS: Exactly, I thought I wanted him to record it in the studio, but I wanted it to sound authentic, so I just told him to do a voice memo and send that to me. And we put that shit on the tape.
Brick: Is there a collaboration in the vault?
BBS: Oh yeah fasho, we got one in the vault, we recorded it earlier this year and it’s gonna drop on the next project.
Brick: Hell yeah, well anyway how spicy do you like your Ramen noodles?
BBS: Spicy as hell, like to the point where not so much you cant enjoy it, but like right before that point.
Brick: So to the point you’re clearing out your nasal passages.
BBS: Exactly.
Brick: I feel that, that’s kinda where I’m at too.
BBS: Cuz if you got a cold or some shit, you know what I’m saying. You can eat that shit and feel better. There’s nothing worse than eating super hot food. So check it out, I was making jerk chicken a couple weeks ago, so me and my girl we go the store and we had never made jerk chicken together before. So I grab the jerk seasoning and go, but what you gotta understand is a Caribbean spicy is way different than American spicy. American spicy isn’t shit. If you go to any spanish, Haitian, Jamaican restaurant or wherever, if the shit says it’s spicy it’s gonna spicy.
Brick: Like you’re gonna be sweating when you’re eating that shit for sure.
BBS: Bro, I drenched the chicken in jerk seasoning not knowing, how hot it was gonna be. That shit was horrific, but I still ate it because I was hungry as fuck.
Brick: You’re committed at that point, you don’t want to waste it.
BBS: Yeah we waited two hours for the chicken to bake, like we’re both hungry I’m not gonna waste this.
Brick: Well you’ve showed the world how to make fried bologna sandwiches and some glizzies, is there a cookbook in the works or a show in the near future? Would you be considering that?
BBS: Yeah, I actually want to make a cookbook, I want to do a web-series of cooking and shit. Like I gotta actually write down recipes to make it perfect. I wanna have the top-notch recipes that are proven to be come out good every time. Because sometimes I just be mixing shit up, so if I do come out with a cook book it’s gonna be one tablespoon of this, you know precise measurement. Just so it comes out right every time. Yeah that’s definitely in the making. I watch Fuck That’s Delicious with Action Bronson and RIP Anthony Bourdain.
Brick: Bro I loved No Reservations and Parts Unknown, they let that man make the same show 3 different times because it was so good.
BBS: He had came to Tampa once, there’s two restaurants he went to in Tampa, one is called La Teracita and it’s like a Cuban spot and he went to Taco Bus. Which is a literal school bus where they pulled out all of the seats and turned it into a fucking taco truck.
Brick: How do you start your day? Regardless of whether you’re going to the studio or not, what are the main habits for Big Baby Scumbag?
BBS: I would say… they say this is unhealthy but you know looking at your phone as soon as you wake up is bad for you, but I just can’t help it.
Brick: Yeah, it’s very difficult.
BBS: Nah foreal dude, I’ll wake up and go through all my texts and whatever the fuck and I’m laying there for an hour just on my phone before I get up.
Brick: What time do you actually wake up?
BBS: I’m gonna say like it really depends, man I’m trying to become more of a morning person. It’s hard when you’re in routine for so long to wake up late. Like once upon a time I was waking up at 2, 3 in the afternoon. It’s better now. You feel a lot better when you wake up early in the morning. You feel better about yourself and you’re up super early when most people aren’t up this early, like yeah I’m getting work done motherfucker.
Brick: From your collaborations with Oliver Francis, Pollàri, Swaghollywood to Black Kray, you’re not afraid to expand creatively. Which artist or producer brings out the best Big Baby Scumbag?
BBS: Definitely Chris Surreal man, Chris has literally last night sent me some hard ass shit and honestly bro, Chris Surreal and PoloboyShawty. I got a homie named Fanboi, that produced 3 songs off my new tape. There’s some beats that I have to warm up to. Like I have to listen to them a few times to catch something, then there’s some shit that as soon as you hear that shit, it’s like, that it, you know.
Brick: Right, the feeling is already there.
BBS: Yeah for sure, “Dale Earnhardt”, before I started writing to that song, I just had the concept in my head. For some reason I wanted to say “Dale Earnhardt” as the song. Like I went through 10 different beats and kept saying “Dale Earnhardt, Dale Earnhardt” on some super repetitive shit. And whatever one sounded or felt the best and I was keeping that one. So Chris Surreal sent me the “Dale Earnhardt” beat and that shit felt so right bro, I wrote that shit in like 10 minutes bro. It was nuts. A lot of producers bring the best out in you, they’re so familiar with what sounds best for you. I don’t want a Big Baby Scumbag type beat. I want your original beats. A lot of people kept sending me Zaytoven type beats and Gucci Mane type beats and that’s cool, but I wanted to make my own lane and my own sound.
Brick: It’s different for every artist and it’s different for every producer, it’s that moment in time that builds off your mood and your energy. You have stayed yourself and have a greats sense of identity, this is who you are and it doesn’t seem like you’ve tried to be someone you’re not. It’s cool to see an artist stay true to themselves. You’ve just made hard ass music for three years.
BBS: I feel like any type of music I’ve made, it’s gonna have the Big Baby touch to it no matter what. I could turn around and make an auto-tuned song, and a pop song, but those ad-libs are still gonna be there. Bro I have country songs I done made, I have pop shit, all types of shit that nobodies even heard.
Brick: It’s just a matter of time. Are they’re any artists and producers not in the rap realm that you want to work with specifically?
BBS: Uhm, yeah I really love, even though I wouldn’t call him a rap artist, Theophilus London. I grew up listening to a lot of Theophilus. I wanna work with Dev Hynes, I wanna work with Grimes, uhm yeah I feel like I’m at the point now with experimenting with shit. More so than my mindset a couple years ago, even year ago. I’m comfortable with my artistry and my abilities. I’m so comfortable with myself, anything I put my effort into, I will make it the best I can make it. Nobody can say I switched up, or I miss the old Big Baby.
Brick: Do you have a message for Tampa Bay and your fans all over the world?
BBS: Stay true to yourself man, life gets rough out here but you gotta keep pushing man. We’re all in this together and let’s help each other out. We only got one life to live, let’s live this shit. Take risks, don’t be scared of nothing. It’s too many people out here living everyday afraid to chase their dreams, thy’re just stuck. I’ve dealt with that for a long time before I started rapping, stay focused on your path. Don’t let nobody knock you off of that. You gotta leave behind a legacy for your family. Shouts out the whole world.
