Interview: Rapper/Producer Libsey Talks About His New Song "Waave" and the Whooshie Gang

““D.R.E.A.M. 3” is a whole collection of different sounds, emotions, and moments that exemplifies the past year. I can’t say there is a song that sounds like “Waave”, but I’m sure there will be a few instant classics on the project.”

What are some things that inspire your creativity when developing new music as both an artist and producer?

Can I be honest? Weed, Pokémon, LSD, and obscure movies from the 80s and older. With Pokémon, there's so many different combinations of teams, and so many different techniques you can utilize. Same with rap: you can figure out different combinations of words or phrases, learn a new technique to maybe rap faster.

With the obscure movies, sometimes you just hear a sound that catches your ear and you think "I've never heard this before, has anybody ever sampled it?" You can find inspiration in the strangest places.

Speaking of your production, what software/hardware do you use to create beats?

To be truthful, I just find royalty-free loops online and smash'em together on some old-school Kanye shit lol. I use BandLab for everything; it's available on phones and on the computer. Haven't actually recorded in a real studio in about 3 years because of it. I literally have full control at all times.

We're huge fans of your new track "Waave"; tell us what motivated you to write and record the song. Also, did you write the lyrics after you made the beat or vice versa?

I tend to make a lot of beats all at once, or over a period of a few days, for me to go back to after. The night I made the beat for "Waave", I was kind of feeling uninspired and wasn't kind of second-guessing some things. I started to make the beat, and I just had this overwhelming sensation to just make a statement. And that statement, more or less, was to trust myself and keep going; I'm causing a "waave" lol.

Is "Waave" indicative of what can we expect from your upcoming album "D.R.E.A.M. 3" from a sonic and thematic standpoint?

"D.R.E.A.M. 3" is a whole collection of different sounds, emotions, and moments that exemplifies the past year. I can't say there is a song that sounds like "Waave", but I'm sure there will be a few instant classics on the project.

Can we expect a music video for "Waave" or another song from the upcoming album?

I don't have a video planned for "Waave", but I do have a video dropping September 30th for the song "Hood Favorite", which will be on the album as well.

The video was shot by Still Ill Productions, out of New Bedford, and they did an AWESOME job with the video. I'm too excited, because although I've released over 10 projects in the past 3 years, this will be my first official music video release.

Tell us about Whooshie Gang, the rap collective you are the CEO and co-founder of. Who are the members and what are your goals?

I'm going to do this in list form, make it easier:

- First off we have my right hand man, basically who's in charge if I'm not around, we got the homie D Rose. Awesome singing voice, our song "2020 Vision" was a banger and a half.

- Next up, we have my little cousin Nick Milia. And don't let "little cousin" fool you: he's taller than me, and has a better flow than most his age. We have multiple collaborations in the books, as well as a new collab on "D.R.E.A.M. 3".

- Next is DeTH (aka Stuart Little). I met him through my cousin Nick, and let me tell you: when I say this kid can rap, he can fuckin RAP. The day I met him, I immediately had him write a verse for a beat I made. That track was one of the first tracks made for my last album, "D.R.E.A.M. Still".

- Now we have Carr. Maaaaaaan, give him a beat (or a few), and he will go off the top for as long as you let him. He can rap for days, and can flow better than the Nile. Close personal friend of mine, happy he can be apart of this ride.

- Then we have the homie Ko$her. You wanna hear fast raps? He'll make your head spin faster than the little girl in The Exorcist. We've also got a couple collabs in the books, with plenty more on the way.

- And last, but certainly not least, we have f.I.N. Producer on Whooshie Gang, f.I.N. has insanely melodic beats at his disposal, with a vast knowledge of music.

Whooshie Gang is a collective of artists who just wanna make music that they want to hear. The industry sucks, the radio is trash. We just wanna make music we'd listen to. And if people don't like the music? Fuck'em, we literally didn't make it for you anyway lol. We made it for us, and the people who do fuck with us. Our goals? Same thing we do every night, Pinky: try and take over the world.

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