MALEK: Do you ever look back at something you wrote and say, “Damn, that was good for my age”?

BADA$$: When I turned 15, I was like, “Okay, I’m on to something.” That’s when I realized, “I don’t want to compete with kid rappers; I want to compete with Jay-Z, Biggie, Nas.” My raps started taking a turn for the better around that age.

MALEK: It’s empowering, isn’t it, when you find that?

BADA$$: Definitely. That gave me the push to excel—me realizing at such a young age that I wanted to compete against my idols.

MALEK: Was it also frightening, or did it just fill you with confidence?

BADA$$: It was a little bit of both, but it was more empowering because I was a passionate kid. With this art form, you have to have confidence.

MALEK: When did you know, “Okay, I can play this for somebody”?

BADA$$: When I got to middle school, I had a musical partner—my best friend at the time. He was a singer. His name is J’lan, so we were called J-Squared. Corny, I know—we were two J’s. I would come to him with a rap, and he’d put a hook to it. Back then, we didn’t have studio access, so we had to get creative. That’s another big part of who I am: I was never afraid of DIY, of doing it myself. At that point, it was like, “I got this mp4 for Christmas with this voice recording thing on it. Let’s just play the beat on it really loud and hit record and do this demo.” Once I started recording things, I really started to grow. I was able to critique myself more. It’s different when you’re writing it down and then saying it out loud over and over; you’re just reciting. But once you have that recording, you’re like, “This word should be changed.” Or, “My tone should be different.”

MALEK: That’s so interesting—you’d play it back until you’d figure out what was wrong. And then would you re-record it?

BADA$$: Nine times out of ten, I’d just learn from it and keep going. When I was almost 16, my dad got me a microphone for Christmas, and that right there took my shit to a whole other level, because I was able to record myself properly. I learned how to engineer my own vocals.

MALEK: Did you have to play something for your dad to prove yourself?

BADA$$: He always knew I was into music, but you know how kids are—one Christmas they want this, the next Christmas they want that. So that’s probably what he thought. But I was ecstatic. I was like, “Finally!” Because, like I said, I’m a do-it-yourself type of person. If I hadn’t gotten it from my parents, I would’ve gotten it myself. Fast-forward another year, after using that mic, I realized there was an even better one. But this time, I didn’t ask my parents for it; I sold a few of my sneakers, and boom, I bought myself that mic.