HipHopWired.com: Tell us what it was like growing up in Memphis.
Renegade El Rey: Memphis is a musical spot, there is music all around. I went to a summer camp in the middle of downtown and took field trips on Beale Street as a kid. My uncle played in bands with B.B. King. My dad is heavy into singing too. My mom was kind of nerdy, so she listened to Bach and Beethoven and took us to galleries. But my Dad put me onto The Gap Band and Morris Day and The Time.
HHW: How did you get into rap then?
Renegade: I wanted to rap off top. My dad was kind of young too, he had us on everything, he bought everybody album that came out. It was my step brother’s cousin who introduced me to freestyling. I was in the 3rd or 4th grade when I tried it for the first time, from there I was hooked. My cousin put together a group and we used to rap over instrumentals, we use to use the headphones as the microphone and record into the 4 track. At the same time I was into sports playing football and running track. But when that Nas I Am… came out, I was like, yeah, this is what I want to do. Especially that song where he goes, “I want to talk to the mayor, the governor, to the motherf*cking president.”
