Tell me about where you’re from.

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I tell people I'm from Mo City, but that's because I moved here since middle school — but I'm originally from Southwest. Mo City was like any hood. The only way you get out is if you playing basketball or shit like that. Other than that, you don't really see a lot of artists come up from over here. Only other person is Travis [Scott]. Either you ultra-athletic or ultra-outstanding.

I always been fresh and partying, though. That's how my music relate to this. When I was in high school, I used to DJ and party all day. That's why [my album] is A Guide To Being A Partying Freshman 'cause literally my whole life I partied and my music is dancey and up. In high school, I used to dance in the hallways — I used to do videos and everything. My senior year, I ended up getting — what is it called?

Superlatives?

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Yeah, “best dressed.” My style always just been me. I grew up on Pharrell, and his style just became what I loved. When I listened to him, it motivated me to be who I am. When I started making music, I wanted to take the Pharrell approach — like, Let me hear everybody stuff and make sure my stuff sounds like nothing like this.

What came first for you, DJing or dancing?

Definitely the dancing. I used to always dance, but when I met my friend T Jones — he locked up right now, free him — I had never met somebody who took it as serious as I took it. In Houston, we got jigging, and nobody could out jig me. My name wasn't Tisa at that moment, it was Cudy. Everybody used to be like, Cudy, this nigga jigging game is ridiculous. So when I met T Jones, I was dancing — we had a clique and everything. We did the party scene, and there wasn't DJs, so I was like, Fuck it, let's start DJing. Then I really became the life of the party. On "Preball," you can hear “I hit the club looking for a freak” — I used to really do that shit.