Star-Struck by 24kGoldn

His debut album was recorded over the past year with a small circle of collaborators, including KbeaZy, Omer Fedi, and Blake Slatkin, the album details the complexities of living the rockstar lifestyle and proves 24kGoldn is out to make music that is reflective of today’s gen Z and millennials.

The album’s success is bolstered, in part, by the breakout single “Mood” featuring Iann Dior, which captured the masses and became a cultural phenomenon. The song spent 8 weeks at number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and on the Pop radio chart, where it set the record for most spun song in a 7 day period.

Check out our exclusive interview with 24kGoldn below.

First things first, walk me through the moment when your first single blew up. Where was your head at? What were you thinking? How did you react in that moment?

So a lot of people know me from ‘mood’ which makes sense because it was the biggest song in the world for like 2 months. I had no idea that was gonna happen at all. Some people might not know that I also made this song ‘valentino’ which was pretty big in the summer of 2019 and that was my first song ever that blew up. I always remember hearing about rappers randomly blowing up and I always thought it was bullshit. I always thought, ‘they got someone paying for them or some ads there's no way your song could just blow up' and then boom a couple of years later, here I am, just turned 18 years old, I’ve been sitting on that song ‘Valentino’ for like 2 years at that point.

Nothing happened for like 7 months, people were vibing with it but it didn’t go crazy, and then one day after I get my Wisdom teeth taken out I’m just chilling at the crib and this is like the start of TikTok. I’m checking the videos made to my song because I had gotten my wisdom teeth taken out and there was nothing else I could do, I’ve been in bed all day. So I do that and I notice it’s going up and boom my song just starts going crazy on TikTok because this random girl made a video for it. So that was my first time having a song blow up and it was so surreal because I couldn’t even believe that that was something that could happen. Every day I’m just seeing the numbers get higher and higher and then people started following me and checking out my other videos and I started building a fan base. I was just like ‘damn this is cool' and I’m glad this was the path I decided to choose.

Your debut album ‘El Dorado’ Can be labelled as a crossover between many genres. What makes this such an irresistible combination for yourself and the consumer?

I’m strongly gen Z, I was born in 2000 and I’m as close as you can get to being gen Z. So with our generation, we have an aversion to labels, we don’t like to be put in a box. People be getting into open relationships now and we have all of these new terms like with sexualities and genders. Like, with that whole state of mind of moving forward like yo it doesn’t matter what you call it, it just matters what it is. That’s how people are starting to feel about music. When our parents and older siblings were growing up they didn’t have the same access to music. If you wanted to listen to some shit you had to beg your mama to take you to the store, she's gonna give you 20 bucks to pick out 1 CD maybe 2.

So because of that, they didn’t get the same cross exposure, you’re either gonna pick the rap side or the rock side at that point. That's how it was, you pick a side, but now people don’t gotta pick a side, you can go on Youtube to listen to a jazz song then listen to a trap song or even a country song. Spotify has everything, you can make a bunch of different playlists together, so I’m just a product of that generation that doesn’t give a fuck about labels, I just give a fuck about good music.

Yeah and then the definition of music consumption has changed over the past few years. How do you feel like you as an artist witnessed that evolution?

Like, the way we consume it, different genres, more experimental stuff. I think that music plays a huge role in the state of music and where we’re at with it today because now people can make something at home on their computer or in the studio in their local town. Then they can put it on the internet and then be able to connect with audiences that give a fuck about what you have to say and the type of music you’re making. For me, I’m from the bay in San Francisco, California and I’m super proud of it, as I was coming up you know being a 15 year old and having this influence from all these different genres, all these different places, my music didn’t sound like typical bay music which kind of threw people off.

The bay likes to lift up its people but I think people were just confused at first because they were like ‘is he from the bay or what? It doesn’t sound like bay music’ so even though I wasn’t able to take over my local area fully at the time you know, now it’s a different situation. When you are the biggest out of the area everyone just wants to support you based just on your strength. Before, outside of my high school and like local kids and other kids my age that grew up listening to all types of music, not a lot of people got it. I had to go to the internet to find my fans and find people who appreciated my music and now it turns out that all over the world I got people in Brazil, Turkey, Japan, and Australia and that’s a beautiful thing.

So In your Rolling Stones interview back in February, I saw that you were the self proclaimed “Steve Jobs of the music industry right now.” Which I thought that a very bold statement, but I also thought it was f*cking great. Where does that confidence come from and how can you be so sure that you have that IT factor?

I mean, I’ve been me my whole life so I know what I’m capable of and I know the challenges, I overcame them, and the way that my mind thinks. The reason I said that was because I’m not afraid of innovation, a lot of people like to play it safe and do what’s been done before. I’m like ‘no, I’m coming in the game and I’m trying to make a whole new genre of music you know?’ I’m coming into the game saying ‘oh, everybody is thinking TikTok is corny in 2019 well, I just seen the biggest song in the world ‘uptown road’ come about off of that app so let me go see what’s going on’ now everybody else is on my bandwagon. I’m the only one that’s messaging fans every day and trying to build genuine relationships with people that fuck with me. I’m just coming at this shit for a whole other angle and that’s exactly what Steve Jobs was doing back in design.

I know that you’ve experimented with different genres in the past and it seems like you’re exploring your sound and just having fun with the whole musical process. So what ties each track in your latest album together and what are the core elements?

I think something that made this debut album special was the production on it. I’m blessed that I get to work with incredible producers out here in LA and almost all the songs on my album were produced by either Omer, Blake, KBeaZy - usually all 3 of them together. In the past, I never had the experience of working with a group of producers and creating a whole project. When you do that it gives you a cohesive sound because it’s not just me being the star player out there and having to deal with teammates that don’t know what’s going on. I got a super team and everybody is able to make everything elevated and cohesive.

You’ve set the bar pretty high for yourself in just 2 years.

Yeah, I kind of fucked myself over a little bit, number 1 at 20 years old. I ain’t gonna lie, I was just sitting outside and just looking out at the view like ‘what the fuck am I supposed to do now?’ I thought this shit was gonna take so much longer. I would still be in college by now and I’m achieving all my music dreams so it’s a weird position to be in.

Does this make you nervous at all? Do you feel like you have to continue excelling with each release or are you comfortable?

You know, I think it just depends on the day. You never know what you’re gonna get out of that day, you never know what’s gonna happen. I’m really in the league now, I made it through high school leagues and college leagues and now I’m Ballin with my all-stars and my competition. I don’t see it that way, but we’re competing on the charts. I’ve learned that I have some big shoes to fill but I’m growing into them more and more every day. I’m capable of all that is meant for me.

Yeah and your recent explosion in the music scene made me think of that one scene in The Queen's Gambit when Beth Harmon asks the little kid about what he’ll do after becoming a grandmaster at age 16. His face just goes blank and he doesn’t really have an answer. So my question to you is because you’ve already achieved huge milestones in your career, how much further can you really go and what does success look like to you?

You know lucky for us in the music industry there is a lot less defined criteria in terms of being finished. In chess, once you're the grandmaster that’s it there’s nowhere else to go. With music, it’s something that lives forever, you also have the opportunity to constantly innovate and constantly bring something fresh to the table and still have those songs that meant something to people and it’ll always live on. Even though I achieved number 1, that’s not what I came into the music industry to do, I’m not making music to chase records on the charts.

I make music to impact the lives of people, I make music to make people feel something. I make music for when your girlfriend just broke up with you and you gotta cry on the way home and need something to feel a little comfort or when you’re in Miami for the first time and haven’t been out in months and now you wanna turn the fuck up. That’s why I make music, the accolades and the awards, those are cool and I take that as recognition of work that I’ve been putting in, but that’s not what defines my career and that’s not what my purpose is in music.

I read that you’re really into fashion and that’s very evident with the looks that you’ve been putting out across all social media platforms. I especially like that you’ve been sporting this very streetwear and avant garde look, could you talk about some of your clothing inspirations?

I’ve been waiting for this question! I’ve always been into fashion, I remember being in 6th grade maybe 2010 or 2011 and this was before distressed jeans were the craze. I just saw Kanye West wearing a pair of distressed jeans and some old rock magazines where people were wearing distressed jeans. So I just said ‘fuck it, I’m gonna distress my jeans’ I remember going home and slicing all my jeans with an Exacto knife and plucking the threads out before anyone was doing any customization or DIY stuff. My mom came home and started yelling at me like ‘why are you cutting all of your jeans! What are you doing?’ and I was like ‘mom, it’s fashion you don’t get it!’

That’s when it all started but I’ve always loved sneakers and customizing clothes. As I got older, I had more time to learn about stuff and I love the stories that come with it because every piece means something to somebody. Whether it’s nostalgia, the designer, who gave it to you, you know, the pieces have stories and they’re used to express yourself in ways that words can’t. When you see someone wearing a certain type of outfit you’re like ‘I kind of know this person's vibe already’ you know? I always just wanna put my true self out there and show my true self. So by dressing how I feel like and by what I think is fly, I hope to inspire other people the same way that I was inspired so they can be their own version of fly and own their swag.

Would you ever consider designing your own clothing?

A million percent.

I just wanna circle back to your explosion in success real quick, for some people that might go to their head and throw them off for all the wrong reasons. But for you that doesn’t seem to be the case at all, how do you separate an egotistical attitude from confidence?

So I saw a friend a couple of months ago and he was my friend in high school. I asked him ‘yo how do you think I’ve changed since we were hanging out every day?’ He goes to college now and we don’t see each other often but he told me ‘honestly, you ain’t really changed at all, you were this confident before you had anything going on and now I guess it just makes sense’ So I was like aight, word. So I think that the line between confidence and ego could be very thin.

It’s important to believe in yourself and it’s important to have faith in what you’re doing and be proud of what you’re doing but too much of a good thing is a bad thing. When you’re acting arrogant and your mind is closed and you don’t wanna hear any feedback or criticism, that can lead to your downfall. I always keep that in mind like, I don’t know everything at 20 years old, just because I’m getting big that doesn’t mean I’m good at everything in life. I’m just trying to learn and soak up as much game as possible.

You’re part of a generation that exists in the age of social media, like TikTok, Instagram, and all of these other outlets. Would you prefer to have lived in a different era or are you happy with existing in this generation?

I think this internet, TikTok, social media thing has definitely helped my career and it definitely has given a lot of people careers for better and for worse. I think it would’ve been interesting to have come in a time before social media like the 90s or the late 80s. That was when it was real rockstar shit, people would only see you when paparazzi was snapping a photo of you at an event or when they came to your show. Now, It’s like everybody wants to see who you’re with and what you’re doing and what you’re eating 24/7 and it can get exhausting at times. Social media in general is toxic and one of the worst things to ever happen to humanity but, it’s here now and I have a feeling that it’s not going away anytime soon. You gotta learn to live with it and not let that shit fuck with your head.

What are the next steps for you for the rest of the year? And can you tell us more about the central themes of your upcoming project(s)?

Yeah, so I've been working on a lot of music over the last year and a half. I’ve been working on my deluxe album for the past 3 months. I have some cool features on there, Lil Tecca, Lil Yachty, and I was just in the studio with Jason Derulo till like 6 AM last night, maybe he’ll be on it! So I can’t wait for that to come out and for people to hear it and I can’t wait for my tour this year. I also just recently sold a TV show and they’re writing it right now, and it'll be about my life. It's kind of like Entourage meets Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and it takes place when I leave college to pursue music, moving to this crazy 90210 Beverly Hills mansion with one of my friends that I met at college and it’s just about all of the crazy shit that we get into.