While promoting his recently-released album, 1176, Oakland artist Guapdad 4000 has focused much of his press run on Filipino publications and radio stations, in honor of his Filipino roots and how they tie closely into the themes of the new album (he even collaborated on the album with a Filipino-American producer, Illmind). In a recent interview with Entertainment Inquirer, he touched on how he was affected by anti-Asian discrimination growing up due to his biracial heritage (his grandad was Black, while his grandmother was Filipino).
In the interview, Guapdad makes it a point to note the similarities between the two cultures (“A sense of family and loyalty is something we both share”), but also highlights how, due to his upbringing he was able to see how both can be negatively affected by prejudice. “My mom looks Asian and I look Black, and some people would say weird things at times,” he recalls. “Discrimination was always sneaking through the cracks.”
“I’m flamboyant with my taste in fashion,” he continues. “So, you have this handsome, flashy Black child walking around with this super modest, humble Filipino lady, and some would be like, ‘What’s going on?’ I also experienced some prejudice from older Filipinos, who would crack jokes about my dark skin. That hurt my feelings, too. So I had to dodge bullets from both sides. I usually chalk racism up to ignorance.”
He says he was able to overcome those experiences because “they made me mentally tougher.” He also shares how his partnership with 88rising helps shed light on Asian-Americans’ accomplishments in music and advocates for a better understanding of them in the mainstream and admits that, despite having a song titled “Chicken Adobo” on his album, it’s the one traditional dish he’s intimidated to try cooking. “We had some discussions, especially about trying to be more forward in letting people know that I’m Filipino; that I want to go out of my way to do stuff for us, and shine a light on what other Filipino artists people are doing. It just seemed a good fit.”
“I think it’s super cool and it’s a beautiful opportunity for Asian artists in general to have this platform. I’m excited to see what everyone else is up to. And I’m just on board as a fan in general. I’m a fan of so many of their artists before I was even part of it. I’m now reaching out to a lot of people and getting familiar with people I didn’t know about. I expect to do more collabs with Filipino artists in the future. But now I’m just warming myself up.”
The RX is Uproxx Music’s stamp of approval for the best albums, songs, and music stories throughout the year. Inclusion in this category is the highest distinction we can bestow, and signals the most important music being released throughout the year. The RX is the music you need, right now.
One of Guapdad 4000’s press pics is a photo of him and his grandma, whom he lovingly calls “Naynay.” It’s a Tagalog term of endearment meaning “mom”; the way he uses it reflects the relationship he has with his Filipino grandmother as a result of his rough-and-tumble upbringing in West Oakland. Throughout his newly-released album, 1176, he highlights those aspects of his Filipino heritage as he shares some of his most vulnerable and personal material yet.
That cultural honor comes through in the titles of songs like “Chicken Adobo,” in which he compares a partner’s love to the heartwarming flavor of the Philippines’ most recognizable dish. The autobiographical vulnerability comes through in songs like “Uncle Ricky,” where he details his run-ins with a reckless relative, and “Stoop Kid,” where the porch of the house from the album’s cover becomes the center of the mise en scene for dice games, shootouts, and family drama to play out over the course of Guapdad’s life.
It’s only right, then, that his prime partner in this endeavor is someone who can relate to some of those aspects of his upbringing. Enter Illmind, a near 20-year veteran producer who has worked with some of hip-hop’s biggest hitmakers and well-respected underground legends from Drake (“You & The 6“) and J. Cole (“Love Yourz“) to Little Brother (“Good Clothes“) and Skyzoo (“Luxury” with Westside Gunn) — and he just happens to be Filipino, as well. Guapdad and Illmind met at a mutual friend’s session and instantly formed a personal and creative bond that resonates throughout 1176, from the unexpected Alice Deejay flip on lead single “How Many” to the ghostly, deconstructed Miami bass R&B of “Catching Bodies,” that brings out some of Guapdad’s most cutting recollections and observations.
Uproxx connected with the “Cartier Kuyas” over the phone to break down the new album, but unfortunately, the conversation had to once again swing to address the sharp rise in anti-Asian hate crimes over the past year in the wake of the recent spa shooting spree in Atlanta. While that conversation helped to highlight a sense of solidarity between the two seemingly disparate groups that actually form Guapdad’s genetic makeup, the rest of our discussion illuminated the intriguing creative process behind bringing 1176 to life.
I have to ask: how are you feeling? How are you responding to the tough news?
Illmind: It’s coming as a surprise to me, just as much as everyone else. It’s really unfortunate. I’m saddened by it. I’m praying for the people who have been affected and the families of all the people that lost their lives so far in these hate crimes. 2020 was an intense year for obvious reasons and now it’s almost like we’re shifting to each culture every year.
It’s rooted in hate. So I pray that we can do what we can to start shifting the narrative and, this might sound whimsical and like I’m in fantasy land, but I am a real true believer in love conquering hate at the end of the day, but getting there is going to be the challenge.
Guapdad: That was a powerful statement, Illmind. I’m over here completely resonating with that. I’m trying to take my time and come up with my more diplomatic response, because right now I’m just on some Oakland n**** sh*t because it’s infuriating. If somebody touched my grandma, I’m going to kill him.
I feel you. I remember you said that the last time we talked about this. So, as far as the album goes: What was the seed? How did this get started? Where did the idea come from and how did you water it and make it grow?
Guapdad: Essentially, the seed came from us. I only talk in this with this type of diction because we homies and I like to give you a bit more deeper scoop than most of the shit we’ve been doing: Honestly, I feel like innately, me and Ill, have been preparing our whole lives to meet each other and work.
Everything that he liked, everything that I liked, everything that we had done up until this point kind of snowballed into us f*cking clash-of-the-Titans meeting each other and just feeling like we was already friends. We both have those similar life experiences throughout our whole lives that led us to there, to where we got this crazy synergy. I don’t give a f*ck what Ill play. As soon as I hear it, the song’s done.
Illmind: I mean Guap said it all. That’s exactly how it started. It’s crazy because we come from two different coasts. Guap is from the West, I’m from the East. We came up on a lot of the same things even with that distance, from fashion to just music taste to just this aesthetic, visual audio aesthetic, everything. And we both take our crafts very seriously and we’re deeply passionate.
When you put two guys like us together, on top of the fact that we both share a similar culture being Filipino, it’s like what Guap said, we were almost sort of destined to do this. The first time I had a session with Guap was in LA, and it was almost like a deja vu moment, where it was like either I saw this happening or it was kind of like written in the stars and it was like, “Oh yeah, whatever you’ve been doing up to this point led to this point right now.”
This is the house I grew up in. It was hella hard for me to go back and look at this demon in the face as we began to make art with it. A bitter sweet return birthed one of the most beautiful covers I’ve ever released Ty @paulxmiddletonpic.twitter.com/ZMnW0GGo7g
Guap, how do you tap into this vulnerable mode and why was it so important to do it on this project coming straight off Dior Deposits?
Guapdad: Honestly bro, that was just one big venting session. I’ve been doing a lot of running from a lot of demons, especially throughout just quarantine and all of these things going wrong. And all of these things popping up in my life that trouble me, that take sleep away from me, that add to the pressures of my career. I run away from these things by just working more. I distract myself with work because I’m a f*cking work machine.
I hadn’t processed losing my house because I never slowed down. Had a going away last party at the crib, and I went and I got my tears out. I cried harder than I ever cried in my life at this sayonara event to my old residence. But I feel emotionally, hadn’t really dealt with that devil face-to-face. And the music, these beats, my heart, my spirit was forcing me to talk about it. It was forcing me to talk about that because creatively, I’d probably always reference it and never get over it if I didn’t.
I don’t want to always talk about how much it hurt to lose the house. I don’t want to always look at white people in my neighborhood and get mad at them for gentrification. I don’t want to harbor hate. So it was necessary that I made a song like “Stoop Kid” so that I can still exist in a normal space.
Illmind: It was crazy because at the point in the album creation, when Guap was like, “All right, let’s do some shit. I want to tell some stories, man. I need to pull some emotions.” And a light bulb came off for me because those are, personally for me, those are some of my favorite types of records to make with people. And when he said that, I pulled out the bag.
On “You & The 6,” that was [Drake’s] first time he’s talking about his relationship with his mother and father. “Love Yourz,” a song about Cole talking about the importance of self love and valuing the right things, became the muse for Forest Hills Drive. I feel like when I make music, there’s this emotion that I put into it. And when an artist feels that same, resonates with that vibration and is able to pull something deep inside of them and write something incredible with it, that’s my North star where I feel like I did my job.
What does Naynay think about the wild stuff you sometimes say on these records?
Guapdad: She don’t give a f*ck. [All laughing.] I’m paying bills, and she know my heart is good. One thing that’s tight about my grandma is she sees my blackness and my extrovertedness, she’s always nurtured it. There is a side of me that is very blunt. And there is a side of me that’s non-filtered. And she always accepts that because she accepts me expressing myself. And this is how I choose to do it. So she f*cks with it.
All parents everywhere are just winging it. But as a kid or a person without kids, especially, who never thought on that level, you don’t realize that. Because that’s who you look to when you hungry. That’s who you look to when you need money. That’s what you look to when everything fails and you got to restart. Some people don’t get that privilege. It should be every human’s fail-safe. And that’s how I look at my grandma. She like God to me in that way because her forgiveness is indefinite, and I’m appreciative of that. There’s something tangible that I can hold onto. Even though it’s emotion, that shit is so thick with presence, I feel like it’s physical.
I know you guys have to sit through a lot of press days and have to answer a lot of the same questions over and over and over again. I want to know: What’s a question that you guys wished somebody would have asked you that nobody’s ever asked you?
Guapdad: I never get to talk about cinema, and I have a real love for movies. If you ask me who’s my favorite sound designer, I would say Hans Zimmer.
Illmind: I’m going to copy Guap. Can I do some movie talk too?
Go for it!
Illmind: I guess a lot of people don’t know this about me, but I love John Woo, the director. Hard Boiled, The Killer, all the OG sh*t. Bullet In The Head, The Replacement Killers are fire. But in general, I’ve been really getting into Korean cinema from the ’90s and early 2000s. Korean cinema is something that I was pretty obsessed with for a long time. But I just think their sh*t is super fly. The soundtracks, the visuals, the type of cameras they use, the goriness, the storylines are so bizarre, but so fire to me. Old Boy is the most insane script to put a green light on. I’m talking about the OG one.
Guapdad: One of the greatest movies of all time.
1176 is out now via Paradise Rising / 88rising Records / 12Tone Music. Get it here.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
After weeks of a clever rollout, Guapdad 4000 has released his Illmind-produced album, 1176. The project, which finds Guapdad reflecting on his past in West Oakland, also focuses at times on his Filipino heritage — notably on the song “Chicken Adobo,” which references a traditional dish considered a trademark of the island nation. Today, he released a tender video to accompany the song, which displays both the sincerity at its heart and Guapdad’s wicked sense of humor.
Opening with shots of a fictional comic book called Scamboy, the video follows its pretty female lead as the character comes to life and draws her into the book’s pages. Scamboy — Guapdad — and the video lead embark on a romantic tour of a tropical island which includes four-wheeling and stopping off at a food truck to purchase two plates of the titular dish. However, the song’s heartfelt chorus gets a devilish twist at the end, courtesy of Guapdad’s tongue-in-cheek love for double meanings.
Guapdad’s month-long rollout for 1176 also included music videos for “How Many,” the Alice Deejay-sampling lead single, and “She Wanna,” a freestyled homage to the Yin Yang Twins’ “Wait” featuring fellow Bay Area party animal P-Lo.
Watch Guapdad 4000’s “Chicken Adobo” above.
Guapdad 4000 is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
It’s been two years since Guapdad 4000 has delivered a full-length project to the world, but thankfully, that drought ends today with the release of his 1776 joint album with producer Illmind. The 14-track effort finds Guapdad and his fellow Californian, Buddy, reconnecting for their light collaboration, “PlayStation.” The song is centered on the frustrations of their respective partners, who aren’t too fond of the rappers’ busy schedules. Frequent flights and a tiring hustle are all a part of the formula towards Guapdad and Buddy’s success, but it also proves to be the bane of their love lives.
1776 is lead by executive production from Illmind and arrives after two singles: “How Many” and “She Wanna” with Bay Area native P-Lo. Listeners will also catch a guest appearance from Tish Hyman on the project. Illmind spoke about the project shortly before “How Many” was released. In the message, which he shared on Twitter, he made sure to show some love to Guapdad.
“I’m so proud of Guapdad and I’m proud of myself because we challenged each other,” he said. “That pressure made some diamonds and we can’t wait to show this project to the world. This single is the beginning of what’s to come.”
Nearly two years removed from his debut album, Dior Deposits, Guapdad 4000 is gearing up to release his upcoming effort, 1176 with Illmind. The Oakland rapper takes one step closer to the project’s release which his latest single, “She Wanna” featuring fellow Bay Area act, P-Lo. The track is a play off Ying Yang Twins’ “Wait (The Whisper Song)” and arrives with a wacky visual that falls in line with Guapdad’s unique personality.
After waking up next to a pair of women, the rapper quickly declares that he’s dealing with someone who wants to “f*ck all the time.” He proceeds to steal a few credit cards before getting ready for the day. For the rest of the video, we see him receive a fresh batch of cookies, caress the pregnant belly of the presumed mother of his child, show off some dance moves, and more. As for P-Lo, his appearances in the video are limited to his face camouflaged onto the different colored walls in the house the video was shot at.
“She Wanna” is the second single from the upcoming album following “How Many” which is produced by Illmind. Shortly before the song was released, the producer showed love to Guapdad in a warm post. “I’m so proud of Guapdad and I’m proud of myself because we challenged each other,” he said. “That pressure made some diamonds and we can’t wait to show this project to the world. This single is the beginning of what’s to come.” Guapdad also confirmed that the new album would arrive on March 19.
You can watch the video above.
1176 is out 03/19 via 88Rising/TWNSHP.
Guapdad 4000 is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
