When Canadian music journalist Nardwuar interviews rappers, it’s pretty rare that they can knock him off his game. In fact, he usually sticks to his enthusiastic schtick so well, he often unnerves his subjects with his wealth of background research — sometimes to the point that they flee the venue mid-interview, or at least, pretend to. However, it seems Nardwuar finally met his match at SXSW in the form of a rapper who knows his own schtick like the back of his hand: Blueface, whose song “Thotiana” is currently buzzing its way up the charts thanks to his bizarre charm and enthusiastic “bust down dance.”
Blueface turns out to be one cool customer at Nardwuar demonstrates his knowledge, either due to the fact that he hasn’t made much effort to hide his past or the gigantic blunt he lights up at the beginning of the interview. He actually flips the script on Nardwuar, nabbing his microphone and demanding a demonstration of the bust down dance from the journalist, who seems flustered but game, insisting that he doesn’t have the same rhythmic chops as the face-tatted rapper. If anything, Blueface seems more amused by Nardwuar’s gifts than amazed — a quality that seems to stem from his lack of a turntable to play records from Game, WC, Suga Free, and cassette player for a Cash Money Big Tymers tape.
The interview is hilariously awkward and a great look at Blueface’s personality, which plays well off Nardwuar’s enthusiastic demeanor. Bop!
