6lack On His Grammy Nomination,  Mental Health, Fatherhood & More | Billboard News - video Dailymotion

Billboard

6lack reacts to receiving a Grammy nomination for his 'Since I Have A Lover' album, talks about why he decided to take a five year hiatus, opens up about his mental health, his friendship with Young Thug, finishing his latest tour, his approach to fatherhood and more!

Transcript

00:00 Since I have a lover, it's just all the color that I could have ever imagined from the beginning,

00:05 you know, when we started off black and white. What up, I'm Black and this is Billboard News.

00:09 Hey everyone, it's your girl Catrice J here with Billboard News,

00:22 talking with Black. Welcome. How you doing? I'm good, I'm good.

00:25 I listed my problems, got that one on my line that won't stop fucking calling, it's crazy how

00:31 I could you tell me like it is, pretty little fears.

00:36 Ramy nominated. So you're nominated for Best Progressive R&B Album. How does that feel?

00:46 Specifically for this one, it feels really good because it's an album that's not really rooted

00:51 in things that people see as cool, which is like growing up and you know, trial and error and

00:56 maturity and being in like healthier relationships with yourself, with the people around you. So

01:02 to get a nom for it is just the icing on the cake. And you got this nom after five years

01:08 being on hiatus. What was the journey being like on hold for five years, coming out with this album,

01:14 making the album and then getting a Grammy nomination? Like what does that sort of journey

01:18 like feel for you? Rollercoaster and some really good days and some really terrible days. Why was

01:22 it so critical for you to take time off though? What was like the main source of like, I need to

01:28 just focus on me? Working on the last two albums and doing those tours, I think that I got into a

01:35 motion of creating from a specific place and not really like healing up whatever those stories were.

01:41 So I would just make something, promote it, perform it, you know, live through it and move

01:46 on to whatever the next thing was. And by the time I finished both of those tours, it just felt like

01:50 I had a bunch of baggage and extra stress with me that I didn't need to have anymore. It's like,

01:54 if we are performing Free Black, we don't need to be stressed about anything from that era. If we're

01:59 performing East Atlanta Love Letter, we don't need to have anything with us from those eras. So when

02:03 I stopped touring and when I was looking around at everything, it just felt like I was in a room

02:07 full of clutter just mentally. And that was the main thing that made me feel like I needed some

02:13 time off. It was like, I need to clear the space. I need to clear my mind. I need to clear my heart.

02:17 I need to have these conversations that I've been like putting off for so long that are starting to

02:22 ruin my life. That was the main thing that made me feel like, let me just take a break from recording

02:26 and take care of myself and then see what happens. I really want to go into like mental health,

02:30 right? Like, especially with Black men, especially in this music industry. It's a little rough.

02:35 Besides going to therapy, what are some other things you've done to better your life? And like,

02:39 how are you trying to encourage others to do the same? One of the simplest things is just having

02:42 conversations that don't feel good. And especially like with my friends that are guys. I think that

02:48 women have a better sense of just like having circles and having moments and conversations

02:53 with each other. And we're so in our own space that it's hard for us to come together and address

02:57 like serious things. Like we can come together for basketball games, football games, concert,

03:02 club, you know, whatever else. But it's a lot less of a common thing for us to get together and just

03:08 talk. So through the pandemic, I had a lot of conversations that I needed to have with my

03:14 friends. That's important. I feel like to your point, Black men really hold things to themselves.

03:18 I know that I can have something in my head or on my heart and I can be like, I'll talk about it in

03:25 three days. And then I'll be like, I'll talk about it next week because I'm having a good day right

03:29 now. And then it's like, I'm tired today. And then you just keep putting it off until it blows up in

03:34 your face and somebody's asking you about whatever that specific issue is. And all you can think is,

03:39 I should have been to this because it wouldn't feel as intense as it feels right now. My week

03:43 wouldn't have been as stressful as it's been just because of whatever's in the back of my mind. So

03:48 figuring out how to have those conversations a lot quicker has been a big key for me.

04:00 East Atlanta Love Letter, 2018, number one on the top R&B album charts, and it peaks number three

04:06 on the Billboard 200 chart. How is this new album that you put out different from this past album?

04:11 And what's the different perspectives of it? I guess is what I'm trying to ask.

04:14 It's just continuing to look at myself, I think, through each project. Free Black,

04:18 East Atlanta Love Letter, and Since I Have a Lover. You get a linear growth. It's like,

04:21 I'm not on a path of being stagnant and staying in a vibe or staying in a sound,

04:27 or staying in a specific era of my life. It's like Free Black was what it was for,

04:31 which was the monochromatic, moody, dark, undertone, but trying to find my way through

04:37 this monotonous world. And then you get to East Atlanta Love Letter, which you start to see color,

04:45 but it's more of an evening type of vibe to it, and everything is a little bit muted. But you

04:49 still get little hints of, okay, he's trying to go somewhere, and I see where he's going with

04:54 himself, with his self-love, his self-accountability, and with his love and the relationships that he

04:58 has. He's trying to keep it going. Now we've made it to the point where I'm not looking through life

05:03 through the lens of, I have the worst luck with love. I'm not looking through it through the lens

05:09 of just anything that is not for the betterment or the bigger version of myself. So, Since I Have

05:16 a Lover is my lover's album, and it's me finally stepping into myself and being able to look at all

05:22 my past situations and say, you did good there, you did good there, but here are the things that

05:27 you can work on and do better for this era. Now that we're in this era, life has been a lot more

05:37 just smooth. And when I do the shows, the tour has been the number one thing that's shown me

05:43 the effects of the album. Because when you make it, it's one thing, and you can feel how you feel

05:47 about it. But when you see it in real life, it's like, people are here crying, they're here laughing,

05:52 they're like, this is the best night of my life, the best show I've ever been to. It's just really

05:56 fulfilling to do something that's rooted in positivity and to see the effect that it has

06:00 on other people. Do you like one better than the other? I like the era I'm in right now. I'm not

06:06 sure if it's a better type of situation. I just like the era that I'm in because of, like I said,

06:12 how fulfilling it is. When I did those old tours and those past albums, it was a feeling for sure,

06:18 and it was a moment for sure, beautiful. But where I am right now, it's like when I get off stage,

06:23 I want to feel happy, I want to feel at peace. I don't want to feel like I got anything floating

06:27 around that doesn't need to be floating around, people floating around that don't need to be

06:30 floating around. To perform the title track, "Since I Have a Lover," we closed the show with that,

06:35 to perform that song last and for it to feel like church almost. It's a moment of everybody

06:41 hands up, jumping around, letting loose, and we end just kind of looking at each other like,

06:46 "That was it, right? That was it." And everybody kind of has the same look on their face,

06:49 like, "That was it. That was it." You recently finished your North American tour.

06:59 How does it feel to be finished? Really good. We had a lot of favorite shows. It was a special,

07:05 if I could name some off the top of my head, and it would be places that you probably don't even

07:09 like think, "What?" Raleigh was one of the best shows. That was a show where it felt like a

07:14 festival within a venue. Every single face was locked in, every single eye was focused,

07:19 every single voice was active. One of the longest ovations, just word for word type of crowds. Yeah,

07:26 I just couldn't imagine an ending or being any other way. The US tour was one that I definitely

07:30 won't forget and one where I can say for myself, by the end of it, I just felt like I was exhaling,

07:37 and it was a good exhaling. It wasn't like a, "What's the next job?" or "I need some time away

07:42 from all of this." It was just like, "We finished." It feels good to be finished.

07:46 Okay, I want to get into collaborations. You've had a lot of success with collaborating with

07:49 artists J. Cole, Future, Selena Gomez, Young Thug. And with Young Thug, I found this video

07:56 online of you and him interacting. I don't know if it was a rap battle. You could go back to

08:00 yourself then. Could you even imagine that y'all would be in the places you are now?

08:04 I think from a kid's standpoint of one day. I had the hunger back then, and that was a moment where

08:10 anytime people had video shoots or events in Atlanta, me and the people that I knew,

08:14 we would just pull up. And we'd be 20-something deep. And it was Rich Kids and Young Thug video

08:20 shoot. We would just be like, "Hey, we rap." What's that?

08:23 Yeah, and then we'd just start going like that. And it wasn't necessarily a head-to-head battle.

08:28 It was just more of like, "I'm here to display what I can do." Those were cool moments because

08:33 they stamped in my brain and his brain forever. And we weren't close friends during that time. We

08:38 didn't even know each other at that time at all. So to have that moment and then to go off into

08:43 our own world and then to come back three, four, however, five years later and make music together

08:50 and look back on it, it's really, really dope that one, that that happened, but two, that we get to

08:56 make something from that story. We get to keep it going. So he's absolutely my most favorite person

09:02 to work with ever in my life. I love that.

09:05 Yeah, his recording process is just very special. Yeah, you have to see it to believe it. You could

09:11 be there and doing your own thing in your phone while he is sitting at the boards with his headphones

09:15 on. And he might mumble a couple of things. You're like, "What? Huh?" By the time he takes

09:20 them off and press play, it's like there's a whole song here. And I had no idea that it would feel or

09:25 sound like this at all. And then obviously, just a really good person as far as taking care of the

09:32 folks around him and creating an environment where they can thrive and have their own careers and do

09:37 their own thing. Wow. Free Thug. Free Thug. We miss him.

09:41 How has collaborating with other artists contributed to your success? You were talking

09:51 about Lil Tjay calling my phone. Yeah, I just think those moments wouldn't exist if not for

09:57 those people. So those aren't things that I can pass up too often. I would never necessarily make

10:02 calling my phone myself. But to be able to share space on it provides me a different moment and a

10:06 different voice. "RPG" with Kehlani is one of my favorite verses ever that I've done for anybody

10:10 else. As vulnerable as I like to believe I get in my music, that was a moment where just tempo-wise

10:17 and cadence-wise and the way I delivered, I was proud of myself. I was like, you communicated

10:21 something on this song that might be a little bit more difficult for you to figure out, you know,

10:26 in your own production or in your own world. I like working with my friends. I like working

10:37 with people who mean something to me. I like the sport of just being in somebody else's world and

10:41 figuring out what my place in it is. I think that's important too. I want to think of fatherhood.

10:46 Your first album, I don't know what song it was, but you were talking about you're becoming a

10:50 father and you're kind of preparing yourself. You never know. I think it was "I Got a Baby on the

10:54 Way." Yeah, "I Got a Baby on the Way." Now she's six. How has this past six years been? It's been

11:00 amazing. It's like fatherhood is one of those things that keeps you so sharp. It really makes

11:06 you look at yourself because you are leading by example. I don't want to give her the wrong idea

11:12 of anything, honestly. It's weird sometimes because she has so many questions and so many

11:16 things that it'll come to a point where I'm like, "Honestly, I don't even know that one. I'm gonna

11:21 have to Google or look it up myself." But it's cool to have somebody who keeps you on your toes.

11:25 She is the best, most polite, purest kid's kid that you could ever meet in your life. I guarantee

11:33 you. Not saying it because she's my kid, but literally she has no bad, rude, mean, negative

11:40 bone in her body at all. The most that you'll get from her is tears if I say something seriously to

11:46 her or I'm trying to, "This is why we don't do that." And she'll tear up. Does that make you

11:52 tear up? Yeah, it makes me pull back. But it never has to go any further than that because she's just

11:57 such a really great kid. Parents and styles are all different, but what I'm doing with her

12:02 specifically is it's just very easy. And the smallest things, like if you knock a cup over

12:10 by mistake, instead of being like, "Why would you do that?" It's more like, "Let's just clean it up.

12:15 That's all we can do is clean it up and move on." And not making her feel like this is such a moment

12:20 to teach you some tough lesson. It's just like, "You're a kid. You're gonna be a kid. You're gonna

12:25 make mistakes." And it's my job to give you as much freedom as you can to make those mistakes.

12:31 And if I need to say something, I will. But other than that, you got it. You absolutely have it.

12:37 I'm so excited for next year and the European tour. And I hope you win this Grammy.

12:42 Me too. I'll be lit. I was about to say, "They better keep the cameras off of me because I

12:46 won't be playing." Do you have your speech ready? I don't have a speech ready, but I don't want to

12:50 have a speech ready. I would love to, like I said, just be there, play dress up, have fun.

12:56 Anything else would just be extra on top. So if we have an extra on top moment,

13:01 then I'll be ready for it no matter what. Well, we'll be ready for you too. Thank you.

6lack On His Grammy Nomination, Mental Health, Fatherhood & More | Billboard News

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