Humility is a trait that many artists are lacking in this day and age, and it is rarity to find a hip hop artist who has this. Spac3man proves to keep his humility, even with his career becoming a success. Spac3man made the quick transition from hypeman to his labelmates on Sportn’Life Records to a hip hop artist with singles that continue to grow in popularity everyday such as the upbeat tracks “Fly Dena Mufuka” and “L’s Up.” Last year Spac3man was dropping his mixtape Featuristic, and this year is performing on the Maine stage at Sasquatch Music Festival in Washington. MVRemix caught up with Spac3man to talk about his Sasquatch performace, people he wants to work with, and his upcoming tour with the king of mash-ups, Girl Talk.
How are you feeling about your Sasquatch set Sunday?
I don’t really get excited until I’m about to go onstage. I get to the microphone and when I jump up there that is when I’m excited. Overall, I feel blessed about the show.
Are you new to playing the festival scene or have you done some festivals before in the past?
Nah, I’ve done quite a bit of festivals. Not a whole lot, but I’ve done like four festivals. Rockin’ outside… I love rockin’ outside! I like rockin’ inside for the acoustics, but at outside shows I always tend to do a lot of fun songs just because we’re outside.
Are you going to stick around and catch any sets from fellow performers at Sasquatch?
Yep, I’ll be there early enough to catch sets before me. Also, I have a lot of friends that are performing too. So hell yeah, I can’t wait to get there. I’m more a fan than anything when it comes to music… That’s what I feed off of, other artists that be doing there thing.
How was it transitioning from a hype man to your label mates to being a rapper?
I mean it’s cool but for me, it wasn’t something that I was only doing, it was something that got me somewhat seasoned for the stage; to be up there and to be what I wanted to be. I got like 200 credible performers that I’ve always looked at and was like, “Damn, these guys are rockin’.” Then I met up with them and stuff. I knew I didn’t have that on stage, so to be able to hype for them and them to show me what they do, it helped take me to another level.
Girl Talk’s shows have been known to be completely crazy and chaotic are you looking forward to touring with him?
Yeah, I can’t wait to get out there. I’ve watched a few videos online, but I’ve never actually met him in person, but I’ve seen what he do and I respect it. I can’t wait to mash what I do, my type of energy to his type of energy. ‘Cause we have different energies and stuff.
What is the craziest thing that you have seen at one of your shows happen?
Uhh… females showing me their titties. [laughs] I have this song that I only do live that I did with this group called Soda. Pretty much, the song is just about females showing titties, it’s called “Flash”, but they never finished their part, so I was like “Man, I just wanna enjoy this.” Everytime I played it, females were really showing their titties to it. I don’t know… I enjoy it. It’s a fun part for me.
I’m sure you’ll see a lot of them at Girl Talk.
[laughs] Well, it’s all ages though so I don’t know.
How do you usually wind down after a performance?
Ain’t no winding down. [laughs] Ain’t no winding down! We hype until we just sleep!
So you go party?
Nah, we go to eat… something like that. Then most of the time we on some stuff where we go try to find an after party or something you know. So, it’s not always a winding down thing. Vocally I’m winding down, but I’m still having fun.
Let’s talk about your mixtapes…I know you dropped your mixtape Featuristic last year – when is your next one going to drop?
I plan on putting out another one, another Featuristic 2. I have a lot of features. I have a lot of people that I do features with. Some people put the songs out, some people don’t. So, I’m like “Fuck I love that song!” That’s the thing with Featuristic, it’s an extra push for the songs I was on. It’s a way for some of the artists I work with to really be seen. I might put it out right before I put out my EP, because I just want to keep it alive because you know, everyone is excited, so I just want to keep feeding them and keep them happy.
If you had to pick one producer that you could work with, who would it be?
I’m really big on local producers, I’m not really big on finding big producers because I feel like those dudes are… you know what you will get from them. But from a producer that no one really knows. Well, what producer would I like to work with? One producer that I have been wanting to work with for a long time. [pauses] Damn, this is hard as hell [laughs] Can I break it into two people? It would be Timbaland and The Neptunes. Those are like two producers that I always thought, “These dudes are crazy.” If I wanted a crazy beat, I would go with them. If I wanted like an amazing song, I would work with Kanye West on the production because just the progression and the way he produces beats is marvelous. It would be between those three. If I wanted a crazy album, it would be between those three.
You’re from Seattle and some icons came from there like Jimi Hendrix and Kurt Cobain. I noticed a little bit of a Hendrix vibe at the beginning of the L’s up video. Who are some icons that inspire you?
I always look at people that… Just hip hop or anything?
Anything.
I would listen to a lot of gospel and R&B when I was hella young. I don’t know, hella R&B inspires me. What are some icons that inspire me? On some like performance shit, probably Michael Jackson. The passion that he put into it, and every move that he does conveying what he was saying. Being able to vocally say it and mean everything? That was crazy. That’s what I try to do. I wear gloves on stage. It’s a real serious thing for me. Aside from making music, making sure my performance is right is the big thing. I think that Michael Jackson and Busta Rhymes are the cats that I see and I’m like, “I have to rock this shit.” You know what I mean? I can’t come out here and play around. That’s that type of shit that I get from those types of dudes. Micheal Jackson, Busta Rhymes, KRS-One…those type of motherfuckers. They aren’t standing for a wack show.
What is coming up for you in the future?
My EP, Beyond the Stars is actually really different from a lot of those songs that I have now. They have a lot of upbeat energy, but Beyond Stars is a lot of me expressing emotion and bring a different type of energy; a different type of emotional energy. I wanted to create a lot of emotion from me within the people, where if I am talking about this in my life I want you to feel like you are there too. If I say, “Life sucks,” I want you to be thinking at the end of the song, “Life sucks.” Like you know what I mean? I’m not pushing that, but that’s where I am trying to go with it. With this project it is more into my life, and different from what I really do. That’s why I’ve tried to do a lot of upbeat songs around this project, because when they get this project there isn’t going to be a lot of that side of me. You have that now, here is this. You know? All in all, I want people to know I’m a person. Not that I’m a damn juke box.
Any last words?
Yeah, spell my name right S-P-A-C-3-M-A-N. Shit, hella new shit coming and I apologize for the wait. The wait will be worth it. Beyond the Stars coming soon.