Guapdad 4000 has so many nicknames, it’s difficult to keep track. Bitcoin Batman, Shia Labustdown, Jean Fraud Van Scam, Prada Prettiest, Stone Cold Steve Flossin, Valentino Viper, and Ferragamo Falcon adorn his AKA list, among others. That last one, though, is the inspiration behind the Bay Area rapper’s current weekly endeavor, Falcon Fridays.
While seemingly the whole world shelters in self-isolation, Guapdad is deadset on making the most of his captive audience. While his 2019 project Dior Deposits and his appearances on practically every track from Dreamville’s Revenge Of The Dreamers III increased his public profile enough to make the former scammer a name to watch out for, his twin, quarantine-associated weekly series, Falcon Fridays and Rona Raps, are his bid for rap game domination.
His skills as a scammer have served him well over the course of his precipitous rise — his conspicuous placement on Dreamers is the result of his insistence on being in every room during the compilation’s legendary recording sessions and his comfort with hearing the word “no” has given him the confidence to take longer shots than Steph Curry in the clutch — it’s his skills as a rapper he wants to highlight with his current social media campaigns. He carries over the hunger though, as well as a genial disposition that has earned his friends all over the industry. It’s those friendships he’s now leveraging to make Falcon Fridays and Rona Raps must-see Instagram TV.
Uproxx caught up with Guapdad over the phone to discuss his weekly campaigns, quarantine boredom, viral fame, and kicking coronavirus-inspired xenophobia to the curb.
How’d you come up with the concept of Falcon Fridays? Where does even the terminology of Falcon Fridays come from? That’s really ill with the alliteration and it sounds like something Ghostface would say almost. He had falcon on his arm.
The legendary Ghostface. That n**** had a f*cking falcon gauntlet. What the f*ck is wrong with him? Goddamn, that is so legendary. it’s really my manager’s sauce though. He got a weekly drop program that he already worked and developed through Young Pinch when they was doing theirs. And I just put the name. Because I’m the Ferragamo Falcon and we decided to drop Friday. Even though I kind of hate dropping music on Fridays.
But the titles of these songs have been incredible. I’m loving these. How do you come up with a title like a “Peanut Butter Pootie Tang?”
I just really love alliteration and I put together what I was talking about to make it make sense. It’s just all just being crafty with what I was saying. Because in the hook it starts off “inside peanut butter, outside jelly” as a nod to that old song [Durrough’s “Ice Cream Paint Job“], but also I feel like, as accessible as peanut butter and jelly is, it’s something that I always loved about it. Especially if you’ve been poor before. And it’s something that just sounds kind of player about it.
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For real, for real. Tell me more about Rona Raps. How are you selecting the artists who are getting on with you and who’s coming up? Do you plan those out in advance or are they just like spur-of-the-moment?
It’s a digital cipher. And I just call my homies up and just be like, “Hey, you want to do a rap over a beat we ain’t never going to be able to clear, so let’s just make selfie videos and get it done.” And all these n****s want to rap, especially with me because I’m f*cking tight. And these n****s just as bored as me and we get it done.
Buddy was the first one. Kicked it off. I had Chris Brown, Denzel Curry, Wiz Khalifa, Lil Yachty, and Rich Brian. And after that, it’s me, Joey Badass, and Curren$y.
I reach out to people. Some n****s respond, some n****s don’t. I mean nobody leaves me hanging but mostly n****s just either they don’t get it yet, because I’m hitting everybody up so either they don’t get a check because they too famous and they haven’t seen my Instagram — and I’m talking about the superstar level n****s — or they just haven’t been tapped in.
So sometimes it’s been a lot of people to circle back like, “Oh I see what you posted. That’s what you was talking about. Yeah. Let’s do it.” Because nobody wants to go through the process, clearing features and sh*t. They don’t get that. It’s just you rapping to the camera. We don’t even need to involve managers or nothing. It’s such an easy concept. So things just fall in place. A lot of people reached out that they interested. I just keep note of it in the comments and then when I’m ready to do the next one I hit n****s up just give them the deadlines.
I like everybody else picking the beat though, because it just make it more fun for me that way. More like a challenge. The whole point of it is just so n****s could stay barred up. We’re not trying to like kill each other, just something super light-hearted to keep rap forward.
It’s lunch table sh*t, but just without the lunch table.
Exactly.
So another fun thing that you did on Instagram that I personally just died laughing. Tell me how that “Slob On My Knob” video happened.
I swear to God if I leak me and Zack [Fox]’s last texts we going viral, bro. Because we literally don’t be talking about nothing and it’s always in the most wild way to talk about absolutely nothing. Other than planning certain shit, which even that way it’s just you can’t decipher it.
He just hit me like bro sing “Slob On My Knob” to the camera like right now. I looked up the lyrics and rapped the whole thing. I didn’t even know what the f*ck was going on.
What was the first thing in your head when you saw Missy Elliott respond to your “Supa Dupa Fly” video?
Bro, It was f*cking crazy. I was on a plane and I didn’t even see that. I uploaded that video as we was taking off because my manager was like, “People was f*cking with this on the story. You should post this on the page.” I said for sure. Threw it up. Took off. And I was leaving New York and by the time I landed in LA, Missy Elliot had responded to me and followed me back. I was like “What the f*ck?”
I was just blown away. I was like “Damn, should I not believe that?” I didn’t know if I should change the way that I’d be tweeting because I be tweeting some stupid reckless sh*t. But I’m like, “Nah Missy going to love me for who I am.”
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So another thing that you’re doing for the duration of the corona quarantine is Game Night. How did that come about and what can we expect from that?
The Game Night was Breona, my publicist’s, idea. You would probably see a lot of content from it afterwards, but it’s going to be something ridiculous. So that’s where I’m at with the Game Night shit. I’m excited for it, though.
Absolutely. Now I only have one serious question in this interview. People have been real racist about this corona shi*t. I just wanted to know if you had any sort of take on that because you do have some Asian background and that is your family there that people are talking bad about.
I feel like I can’t talk for no other race. Right? Specifically, I’m Black and Filipino, so I probably only talk to the black people when I say this statement. If some n**** dissing shit in Africa when Ebola came out and they was calling it the “African virus,” we would be hella mad if everybody started being extra racist towards us because of some shit they did in Africa.
So how do you think all the Asians in the country feel about some shit that happened in China? N****s is really being out here disrespecting, being derogative towards random humans for no reason. It don’t make any sense. You’ve got no correlations.
So what’s coming up? You got an album coming out? What you working on right now man?
Man, I’m going to just keep dropping the Falcon Fridays until I feel like it’s a complete project. And then I probably sell maybe three or four songs that nobody heard that I haven’t dropped through the Falcon Friday system. And I’m going to call it the Falcon Tapes.
I actually just sat on FaceTime when my little cousin who does a lot of my graphic design worked on this cover night while I was recording in the studio over FaceTime. So Falcon Tapes when I have more is going to be the thing. I just got so much music. I literally was finishing a song before you hit me.
So, I have to ask about your nicknames. The list is a mile long. Aside from Ferragamo Falcon, which one is your favorite?
Shia Labustdown is just kind of undefeated. There’s just no defeating Shia Labustdown, bro. How could you defeat that?
