Why Cue Interview; Talks Upbringing, Lil B, New Video, Future Plans + More
Why Cue is a rising artist in the industry who has been grinding for years now, with the hard work finally paying off. He recently released his new dope visual “Habit,” and we had the pleasure to recently chop it up with him for an exclusive interview.
Cue spoke on getting into music, his upbringing, linking with Lil B, future plans and much more. Check out the full Q+A below, as well as his new video “Habit” after the jump.
Q: Tell those who don’t know, who is Why Cue?
Cue: “An artist, a producer, a engineer, a videographer. I started writing music at like 11 years old this was the Walkmen and cassette tape era when they used to call me Young Quan the name was cool but it was kinda basic so I switched it to Why Cue. One word to describe me is Driven cause
I’ve always wanted better for myself. Cue is the dude everybody would go to for there music. It don’t matter, videos or recording, I dealt with
a lot of people when it came to music to where I was the go too for certain people. Most of my music I’ve actually recorded myself in my crib.”
Q: How did you get into music?
Cue: “I think really got into music because of my step pops he was a DJ & when I was young I would always watch him do his thang on the
turn tables & he was a old school hip hop head so he had me listening to classic’s early. After he past I had to even take music more seriously
because it was an eye opener to me because just like that somebody you care about can be gone I had to get on my grind fa sho.”
Q: How was your upbringing?
Cue: “Shittt, I played sports & shit ya feel me like baseball, football & basketball me and my brothers were always athletic but I wasn’t really focused on doing it seriously because I was already too deep into the music. Everybody around me was doing the sports thing at the time so I wanted to take a different route. I think I was about 11-12 when I made my first song it was in my Momma’s room on her computer we had stole a mic from the school and my boys walked in on me rapping some shit and it was over after that.”
Q: Who are some of your musical influences?
Cue: “A few of my influences growing up where artist like Ice Cube, Wiz Khalifa, 50 Cent, Dip Set. Now I’m listening to artist like Gunna, Baby I like the whole melodic shit too It’s different and more challenging than just rapping for me. I gotta rep New York to the fullest though I listen to mostly a lot of underground up and coming artist now. Mainly New York we taking the game back over slowly but shortly I feel it.”
Q: What would be your dream collaboration? Artist or producer.
Cue: “I wanna work everybody, producers and artists. Right now I’m fuckin with Keed & Got It they got that drip sound and Gunna too. Producers I’d go
with Southside, Metro the whole 808 Mafia. Them cats is going hard right now no cap!“
Q: How did you manage to get radio play on Hot 97?
Cue: “One day I just got a email from this booking agency saying that they were looking for new music to play on the radio so I grabbed my boy Roswell Gray and we shot up to Brooklyn to do a listening session I brought like 3-4 songs on a flash drive it was packed it was a bunch of people there but we got there kind of early so we got like first dibbs feel me. I think the dude name was slim da don but yea he listened to the music and he said he liked it long story short. I got another email saying that they wanted to play it.”
Q: How did you link up with Lil B?
Cue: “Umm, I think it was twitter. I think one day he posted his email on twitter saying he needed beats & I just took the opportunity to shoot him some of the beats I was working on at the time. It didn’t really take too long before I heard the song he actually put the music video on WorldStar and put the song on his album so that really helped me as a producer cause it got my name out there and a bunch of blogs picked up on it because Lil b was hot at the time and I was a fan.”
Q: You just dropped the “Habit” visual. Tell us a little more about the process of making that single / visual.
Cue: “Well, I was already planning to fly out to LA for Rolling Loud so I said fuck it let me kill 2 birds with one stone I might as well shoot a video while I’m out there. So I hit up my guy waterwippinevan he lives in LA and we had done work before I hit em up when I landed he pulled up we hit a few spots and got it rockin — it was that simple I’m used to it now. He was the one who got Evijan John involved on the editing that was his idea. When he sent the video it was dope but I thought it needed a kick so I hit up this dude Joe Bullard I love his art, so I got him involved with illustrations.”
Q: What can fans expect from you in the coming months?
Cue: “My fans can expect more music and more videos. My album Xxotic 2 is on the way real soon it’s bout to fuck shit up. I’m a be linking up
with more directors and editors; networking fo-sho. This summer I’m dropping my single for Xxotic 2 be on the look out for that.”
Q: Where do you see yourself in 5-10 years?
Cue: “In ten years I see myself somewhere in calabasas, eating lobster and shrimp every day, haha. I mean ain’t that what we working for to live the
good life or a better life because we ain’t never had shit — we came from nothing. I never came from a family who had it so I told my self I had
to get on my grind by my own just get some money and try to pave the way for the people around me. That’s all I want to do.”
Moderator: Mike DeBlasio
