A Walk Down Leather Blvd.
AHWLEE wears coat BOTTEGA VENETA, pants BURBERRY, tank top LOUIS VUITTON, shoes and jewelry TALENT'S OWN.
PINK SIIFU wears coat KIDSUPER, top KENZO, pants GUCCI, shoes CAMPERLAB, hat BUSYBDY, jewelry TALENT'S OWN.
What's up? How are y'all doing?
Pink Siifu— We just got off tour, bro. I feel like just taking a shit, going on Zoom and being on the couch all day. We still in LA so still not technically at home. Well, Ahwlee’s at home.
Where is home for both of y’all?
Ahwlee— In East LA, Montebello.
PS— In my girl’s lap, with my kids.
That's a beautiful home.
A— It’s beautiful and sunny in LA. It’s a good day. The hurricane is over.
I didn't even know a hurricane was hitting LA. That's crazy.
PS— But I guess that only niggas that was in LA really get that joke. There really wasn’t no fucking hurricane. They had a hurricane warning here. Tornado warnings, all types of shit, bro. And it was just a couple flooded streets forreal, forreal. It don’t rain here bro.
A— It didn’t hit. It rained really hard, very softly, if that makes sense.
PS— It’s like if God was the tall nigga that hit the top of the tent at a BBQ then hella water fell down.
Left: AHWLEE wears coat and pants GIVENCHY, shoes and jewelry TALENT’S OWN. PINK SIIFU wears jacket, vest and pants WINNIE, shoes CAMPERLAB, sunglasses GENTLE MONSTER, jewelry TALENT’S OWN. Right: PINK SIIFU wears vest GIVENCHY, pants LU'U DAN, hat EDAS, jewelry TALENT’S OWN.
How did y’all link up to form B. Cool-Aid?
PS— Me being a couch surfer and being cool enough to be around the coolest nigga on the planet which is Ahwlee. We linked up, it was organic. It wasn’t no forced shit. No nigga sat us in a band and put underwear on us.
Like we met, we was drunk. He was like, "I fuck with you." I was a fan of his beats, he ain’t really know much about my music. He saw me rock one time, then was like, "okay I fuck with bro, I see where this can mesh." At the time Awhlee didn’t work with a lot of rappers.
It was real. It was a divine timing kinda thing but also not on no Rick Rubin shit. Shoutout Rick Rubin though but not on some Buddhist type shit. It was really like, 'okay, this works and this sonically makes sense.' He gave me beats and I was making songs to them like ASAP. So I think it was work ethic too, forreal.
Rick Rubin’s whole book is just lifted from Buddhism. Every word, man.
PS— I got a theory that no matter what color or race you are, so many niggas wanna be Buddhist for no reason. Rick Rubin is Buddhist bro. What the fuck you talkin bout? He’s Buddha.
Yo, you’re not wrong. I’m Buddhist too.
PS— Exactly. See bro, Mark Zuckenberig is Buddhist. I just seen it on South Park.
A— I don’t know if that’s true but like everyone’s Buddhist in some way.
PS— I’m waiting on Rick Rubin to cut his hair and be bald.
I don’t know if he could do the Common thing, with a bald head and a beard.
A— That shit is off-brand for Rick Rubin. It’ll ruin him.
PS— That’d be hard as fuck if he got straightbacks. Rick Rubin with the Nipsey Hussle’s would be crazy.
PINK SIIFU wears jacket and pants GIVENCHY, jewelry TALENT'S OWN. AHWLEE wears top PAUL SMITH, pants OFFICINE GÉNÉRALE.
I know that B. Cool-Aid mixes a lot of different sounds, do you guys believe in music genres?
A— Yeah, like as a tool for categorizing things but not as a law or anything like that.
PS— Ahwlee said it better than I could even imagine. Genres are a tool to find shit. Like Latin Jazz or Bossa Nova or Punk Music but there’s an album that could have all of that in it. So yeah, like what Ahwlee said, it isn’t like law.
There's a lot of features on Leather Blvd. from a lot of different corners of Black music. What do you guys look for in collaborators?
PS— Funk in the most saucy way. We look for sauce, creativity, shit you gone add that’s seasoning, skill. I love directing. But I also love alley ooping some shit to a nigga, just trusting that a nigga gone do what a nigga gone do.
A— Soul.
Can you tell me more about the concept behind Leather Blvd.?
PS— It's definitely a boulevard. It's the block. It's where niggas meet up, where niggas get fly, where the possibilities are endless. It’s a safe place, safe space but it’s dangerous.
A— It's that main block in your hood, in every hood. It’s where you can come get what you need. You can be outside, you can socialize and tap in with your community. It’s where everything is going down. It’s an open air swap meet for music, fashion, beauty, everything the Black community provides.
PS— And sometimes what the Black community in certain areas is missing. Every city, every hood doesn’t have a Leimert Park. Everywhere doesn’t have spots like they got in Brooklyn or spots in Atlanta where they got hella Black owned shit. So, you know, we just trying to give that light to what we’ve seen or where we’re from to spots that don’t really got that.
Left: PINK SIIFU wears vest GIVENCHY, pants LU'U DAN, shoes GUCCI, hat EDAS, jewelry TALENT’S OWN. Right: AHWLEE wears coat LOEWE, top J. LINDEBERG, pants LOUIS VUITTON, jewelry TALENT'S OWN. PINK SIIFU wears jacket KIDSUPER, top HOMME PLISSÉ ISSEY MIYAKE, pants LOUIS VUITTON, sunglasses OAKLEY, jewelry TALENT'S OWN.
What places were like Leather Blvd. for both of you growing up?
PS— Growing up and traveling, it's spots in London that remind me of Leather Blvd. especially when we were in Brixton. When me and Ali first did shows overseas, we had a show in Marseille and I was tryna get my hair done. That place was like a Leather Blvd. We went back to that block last tour.
For me, I didn’t have nothing like that growing up. I ain’t really seen no real shit like that till I went to LA and saw Leimert Park, it had drum circles and shit like that.
I feel that when I’m on Fulton, in Brooklyn. You got a nigga cooking on a grill here, club there, jazz spot there. Fulton is the prime example of a spot like Leather Blvd.
What was y'all's creative process? Could you walk me through a day in the studio.
PS— Shit…wake up and eat pussy. Then, go to the stu or call this nigga Ahwlee and see what he’s doing. Pull up to his crib. Make some shit. Fall asleep there. Leave in the morning. That’s in L.A. Then when I moved, we gone plot this. We’re gonna meet up in New York, we’re gonna meet up in Richmond and then we would just be in the lab for a few days to a week.
We would create and jam, not aimlessly but definitely open and freely. We would get musicians to come in and fuck with us. Then, get background singers to come fuck with us. Shout out all the background singers. But yeah, it was just an organic step by step process.
What are your favorite bars on the album?
PS— Definitely Ahwlee’s. Oh you talking about actual bars?
Yeah. Yeah.
PS— Oh man, I thought you were talking about bars on the boulevard. My favorite bars, shit. Probably Denmark’s whole verse. My verse on “Diamonds”. I ain’t got favorite bars. I’m not really like a bar nigga but Denmark got some crazy bars for sure. Big Rube’s poem on “fools_LSA” is amazing.
Left: PINK SIIFU wears coat GUCCI, top HOMME PLISSÉ ISSEY MIYAKE, sunglasses BALENCIAGA, shoes BELVEDERE, jewelry TALENT'S OWN. Right: AHWLEE wears top PAUL SMITH, pants OFFICINE GÉNÉRALE. PINK SIIFU wears jacket and pants GIVENCHY, shoes CAMPERLAB, necklaces KEANE and TALENT'S OWN.
What are your favorite beats on the album?
PS— I’ll let Ahwlee answer that.
A— “fools_LSA”, “So Soft Salon” and “Brandy, Aaliyah”.
What do you want listeners to take with them to Leather Blvd.?
PS— An orgasm and I want them to vibe to this album, use it to set the mood in the crib. You know what I’m saying, something soothing, it don’t gotta necessarily be relaxing. But it feels good on your ears. I feel like it’s definitely a level up.
I feel like this music is grown, very mature, beautiful music. I want people to take in the detail of it and the soothingness.
A— I want niggas to use it as a weapon, as a tool. Set the mood for your life.
PS— You feel me?
Song: Wassup - B. Cool-Aid, Pink Siifu, Ahwlee
