ScHoolboy Q talks about love from and for Atlanta, his new album

Following the release of his debut album, “Setbacks” in 2011, ScHoolboy Q found massive success with his 2012 single “Hands on the Wheel” featuring A$AP Rocky, from his follow-up album, 2012’s “Habits and Contradictions.” From 2014 to 2019, he released three more albums, “Oxymoron,” “Blank Face LP,” and “CrasH Talk.” During that span, all three albums debuted at or near the top of the Billboard 200 chart. “Oxymoron” (2014) and “Blank Face LP” (2016) received Grammy nominations for Best Rap Album.

ScHoolboy Q’s catalog of platinum and gold records runs the gamut of gang life, partying, and what he calls the “shine (expletive deleted)” that comes with rap success.

Since his debut, ScHoolboy Q has been the brash bad boy of Black Hippy, a Los Angeles rap collective he founded that includes Kendrick Lamar, Ab-Soul and Jay Rock. He has attracted an international audience for his raps, his frank delivery and his ability to tell stories of honest and unabashed debauchery.

But After releasing “CrasH Talk” in 2019 and being active in music for over a decade, ScHoolboy Q says he felt a void in his storytelling content.

“I rap about drugs, gangs, but I never really rapped about home. I rap about my life, but not necessarily my home when the camera’s off,” he says of “Blue Lips,” which he spent five years recording. “I’m trying to figure out how I can take this next step in this music (expletive deleted) and give you a different side of me.”

Atlanta fans will get a chance to experience the new album when ScHoolboy Q plays the Tabernacle on Friday, July 26. The show, he says, will feel like a two-hour listening session.

Fans know a few biographical details about the man born Quincy Hanley in West Germany at the time. His mother was in the military and moved to South Central near Figueroa and Hoover Streets. It was in the latter that ScHoolboy Q grew up as a member of the 52 Hoover Street Gangster Crips, which is why he capitalizes the “H” in his name and song titles.

Credits: Bethany Vargas

After listening to “Blue Lips” for the label, his peers, and even Jay-Z, the overwhelmingly positive response validated his sentiments. The 18-track “Blue Lips” clocks in at just under an hour. It’s the story of a kid in a single-parent household finding his way to adulthood through trial and error. It’s also a brutally honest reflection on the mental health of a black man and father of two daughters grappling with the realities of 2024.

“Mass shootings, when they gonna stop it? Another kid gone for unlimited profits/I better keep my kid home, before you (expletive deleted) ruin the process,” he raps on “Cooties.”

At other times, ScHoolboy must confront his upbringing. In “Germany 86” – an ode to the year and place of his birth – he describes the frustration he feels at seeing his mother serve her country, only to return home and be forgotten by her government.

“My mother stayed up late, she taught me how to be awesome / My superhero is a woman, you know she served this country / She sent her back to the Hoovers, left her son for the shooters.”

Sure, there are still loud, rowdy rap anthems (the Rico Nasty-featuring “Pop”) and braggadocio (lead single “Yeern 101”). Even with sounds familiar to die-hard ScHoolboy Q fans, when he talks about losing friends to drugs over dark piano and horns on “Bluesides,” it shows that he matures.

“Blue Lips” is an album ScHoolboy Q is eager to introduce to the public, and returning to Atlanta at the start of the tour feels comfortable and familiar. After all, he grew up a fan of Outkast, Jermaine Dupri, T.I., Jeezy and Gucci Mane.

He recalls his first headlining gig here in 2012. It was a small but memorable event at the Loft in Midtown. The millennial-led collective Creative Revolution Union had organized a free benefit for Hosea Feed the Hungry and Homeless, where the audience could get in by donating canned goods.

“It was a great night,” the rapper recalls, laughing at his friend and Grammy-winning producer Mike Will Made-It, who drove to the Midtown venue in his “Buick (expletive deleted).”

At that time, ScHoolboy Q was transitioning from Kendrick Lamar’s tour promoter to a solo singer. He was able to connect with the audience.

“Atlanta shows me a lot of love,” he said. “They always have.”

As a fan of Atlanta music, he understands the city’s broader impact on hip-hop. “Everybody has to steal something from Atlanta. I wouldn’t even say it’s stealing; we connect to it a lot because it sounds so black.”

In fact, some might argue that Atlanta was the unlikely winner in the battle between ScHoolboy Q’s longtime friend Kendrick Lamar and Drake. The Blue Lips Weekends tour was set to kick off July 18 in Toronto, but the show was canceled. On X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, ScHoolboy Q hinted that Drake had something to do with it.

They just cancelled my show in TORONTO 😂…CANADIAN POLICE DON’T WANT ANYONE FROM TDE TO PERFORM.

— ScHoolboy Q (@ScHoolboyQ) July 18, 2024

He declined to answer follow-up questions about Atlanta’s influence on the fight and whether it led to the cancellation of his opening show, saying his focus was on rehearsals.

As he approaches his 40s, ScHoolboy Q seems genuinely happy to continue rapping and improving his golf game. While heroes like Andre 3000 are trading in mics for wind instruments and embracing his 40s, he doesn’t see that kind of career change in his future.

“He’s still making music, for sure, but I’m not as good as him with instruments,” ScHoolboy Q jokes about Andre. “I want to rap and leave the door open… I don’t know how you can turn it off.”