Was there a vibe shift when you moved from New York to Houston?
That was the biggest shift in my life, you know what I'm saying? And that made me who I am. Houston's like, a big part of me. Because yeah, I was in that fast-paced lifestyle, but my parents, I feel like, always wanted calm- ness. They have that dynamic nature about them, too. My mom and my pops, they just both love having people around and stuff, but also love their peace. And again, my parents are both Leos, too. I'm a Leo as well. I'm an August Leo. My mom is August and my pops is July. But I think that also plays a big part of the intersectionality we were talking about—they just really love both sides. But [moving to Texas] was a culture shock, like not being able to get anywhere by foot really. The weather. No one understood me from my accent, and their accent was like, a language barrier. The teachers didn't under- stand me. So, a lot of the time—like, that whole 11th grade year—I was just adjusting really, because I wasn't really talking to people. I was still figuring out who my crowd was. And it was weird because it was the same thing in New York, and it just started to get that balance. Once I got into high school, I thought I started to figure out, Okay, this is my crowd and shit, because growing up, it was that same thing of like, Okay, I'm too African to be with the Americans, too American to be with the Africans, you feel me? Like when you look at me, my features, you wouldn't be able to tell, unless you're African. So, it was always this weird finding my place kind of thing. Going to Houston, that was happening again, which also just led me to dive into myself more and listen and go back and forth with my friend doing music stuff, because I was just in the crib.
What does the name Angelnumber8 come from?
Man, one day I was just in my room chilling. I think I was thinking about Dragon Ball Z, and there's this character—her name is Android 17—and I always liked the way she looked and her ‘fit. The haircut was sick—it was like, this blonde bowl cut. I was just thinking about the name and trying to change my name from the rap name that I had before, and I was like, Man, I'm going to just do a twist o this name. And I was like, Okay, Angel Number... And eight is my favorite number. So, I just added that to the ending. But then I found out a year and a half later that it’s actually a thing, and people started telling me like, Oh, yo, there's a whole story behind this, and everybody has their own angel numbers. And I was like, Oh, that's pretty cool.
I love your video for “Last Laugh.” In terms of music videos, who do you think is the best to ever do it?
Yeah, I don't know if I've seen enough videos to even put that statement out there. I've seen some cool ass videos, though. Of course, growing up, young Hype William videos were cool to me. My favorite video since I was a kid was “Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Could See” by Busta Rhymes. I remember seeing that... You ever seen it before?
I don't think so.
It's like super, super creepy. There's like elephants in the video and stuff. But I just remember seeing it as a kid, just bugging out, wondering like, Yo, why does this look so futuristic? But then it has, like, a real African kind of tone to it too, and that was super cool to me. That played a big part in what I'd be thinking about video-wise. I just like making shit that is just like crossing two different lanes where you're like, Okay, this music sounds like this, but this is a whole different kind of movie or visual put to it.