Exclusive Interview: Bas Talks Revenge Of The Dreamers 3 , Representing Sudan, His NZ Tour, & More

Bas was the first artist ever signed to J. Cole’s Dreamville Records. Ever since he started rapping in 2010, after being coerced by a friend on a whim, Bas has built a cult following with his upbeat lyricism. Bas’ older brother is the manager of J. Cole and also the founder of Dreamville so Bas was there before J. Cole’s come up just as much as Cole was there for his. Bas has made bangers with names like Smokepurpp, Ski Mask the Slump God, JID J. Cole and A$AP Ferg. Bas has an extensive worldview and is very cultured as his father was a diplomat and so he lived in many different countries when he was younger. Sudanese blood, born in Paris, raised in Queens.

Bas sat down with us to chat about his journey with Dreamville, his experiences growing up, assimilating into American culture, being a symbol for Sudan and how New Zealand is one of the wildest places he’s ever been to. From talking with him, Bas is very intelligent, humble and inspirational. He’s someone to look out for (DUH!), if you haven’t been doing so already.

Hey Bas, thank you for taking time to talk to us today.

It’s all good!

We’ll just get straight into it. Revenge Of The Dreamers 3 is considered as one of the best albums of 2019. It must be exciting to be apart of Dreamville at the moment.

It is, for sure, y’know. It’s the combination of a lot of years putting out quality music, going on the road, being faithful to our fan base. It’s cool to like, reap the rewards from that. 

Yeah, definitely! Especially because it’s been a journey, and knowing the impact you and as well as Dreamville have had on the culture and on music today, it must be crazy to think about that.

Yeah I mean, y’know, it’s been a blessing; it’s been a journey especially. I don’t think any of us knew what it would become but especially with this album and the commercial success it’s had, it’s just grown the brand even more. It’s just affirmation that everything we’ve been doing, that we’ve been doing it the right way. 

Spilled Milk Vol 1 is just the first of many releases you will be doing collaborating with other artists. What inspired the idea to release music episodically?

Um, I think a lot of the time we get super caught up the album process and I’m an album guy. I like to have cohesive albums with y’know, sonic beams and themes in the writing but those things take a lot of time to develop. You really gotta live life, gotta experience life. You got to have a ton of new experiences to convey something new to the audience but y’know in the meantime we’re making music like, all the time, collaborating with our peers and our friends. Those songs might not necessarily fit within the theme of an album or a theme of THE album I’m working on but its songs that I love, that the fans might really enjoy and that’s spilling the milk. 

Who can fans expect to appear on the next volumes?

Ohhh, EarthGang, Vince Staples, Smino, Saba, The Hics, Ari, Ari again, ummm. Yeah, it’s just a lot of cool collaborations.

You moved around a lot in your childhood. You have a very interesting background where you’re Sudanese, born in Paris, raised in New York. How has that like, shaped your worldview and knowledge of the world?

I mean I think at the end of the day music is about being able to connect with people and being able to say things that connect with people. The more people you expose yourself to… Especially when it comes to different cultures cause you know often you’ll just find everybody wants the same things. Like, from an emotional level, I know that the things an artist tries to tap into when they’re writing a story or trying to convey an emotion is something that not just they feel but they know and hope their fan base will feel as well so I think it has definitely helped me tremendously from that standpoint to be able to communicate with people from all different walks of life and all corners of this earth. It’s almost a cheat code, you know, you just grow up listening to them and when it’s your turn to make music your self-conscious kinda takes over. All the stuff you grew up listening to in childhood whether its West African music or New York hip-hop or French house, all those things blend together and help you create your own unique sound. 

Did you struggle when you were younger trying to navigate through your every day life trying to balance Sudanese culture, values and ways of thinking versus Western culture and ways of thinking?

There’s definitely some challenges to assimilating but I think that’s all really based on having a strong family unit, which I did, you know, I was the youngest of five siblings. My parents were like very Sudanese but like very kinda liberal in a sense, they really let us explore the new culture. I grew up with kids who had much stricter households and that can kind of inhibit you when you’re new to a country or new to a city. Our parents, they always drove our traditions, our Sudanese identity to us but they also let us be American, let us be New Yorkers and let us be Parisian. So it is just a credit to my family really

I know one of your dreams is to bring American hip-hop and rap shows to Africa more regularly. How was the tour you did there last year? Especially performing alongside Desiigner and Stefflon Don that must’ve been a good experience. 

Oh, incredible. Honestly, the South Africa one especially was my favourite run, honestly, it was just such a beautiful country, such a wild crowd. I think the country itself is like so rhythmic you know like dance and culture is so big there and the music culture is so big there. There’s such a huge appreciation for it. This year I’m hoping to go back to my native Sudan and do a show there and try to start bringing artists there. That’s not a country that’s really had many if any hip-hop artists; current hip-hop artists do shows there. I want to bring that to the youth over there, you know, they’ve had a tough go at it with all the political unrest in the past year but the country looks like it’s turning a new leaf with some more freedoms to bring the arts and to bring music and I want to be a conduit for that. 

That’s beautiful to hear. How does it feel to be a symbol of Sudan, to be able to represent your homeland and be someone many people look up to. It must be a full circle kind of feeling.

Yeah, you know, it was nothing I was very conscious of earlier on. It wasn’t until I got more successful and doing shows and getting first hand accounts of Sudanese kids that would come to the show and say like “we’ve never had anyone do this like my parents wouldn’t usually let me go to a hip-hop show” and things like that. Also knowing that we can break some barriers. And again, like I said, it’s a testament to my family, to be able to have that freedom growing up is something I wanna promote and give back and kinda keep showing these kids that, y’kno, when you come from a third world country, your parents are looking for security. It’s like be an engineer, be a doctor, be a lawyer so for a lot of these kids who are very creatively inclined and talented, the option never seemed like a reality until they hear that me doing what I do makes it feel like a reality for them is just incredibly humbling and motivating to start doing that consciously, you know what I mean? Like right now I’m doing it unconsciously through gaining success and notoriety but it’s like, what if we really put resources to doing these things and showing these kids what they could really do and what they could really become.

I think what you’re doing is really inspiring. 

Thank you!

How has it been having J. Cole by your side as someone who’s been supporting you since all the way back before you started doing music to now? And I know you were there for his come up as well and now, look at the both of you.

Yeah I mean it’s just a testament to what can happen when you really build a community, when you have friends and brothers and you know, not subscribing to that crab in a bucket mentality that is really kinda plaguing a lot of especially young black youth in America. Simply put he’s a great leader, he’s a selfless guy, you know, he’s very knowledgeable of music and the music industry. He’s always putting effort and weight in and encouragement behind us. It’s cool to see what we built. It’s cool to see all the other artists we’ve added to the label, how they’ve contributed and how they kinda share that same mentality to the rest of us. Now it’s an example for people.

It’s crazy what you guys are doing, it’s honestly amazing. So, are you excited about coming back to New Zealand? We haven’t seen you since J Cole brought everyone down in 2017, and that was a crazy show I still remember it well.

Yeah, absolutely.  That’s one of the wildest places I’ve ever been. That whole tour was just incredible. It’s cool too because when you’re touring internationally there’s not too many markets where there’s no language barrier, you know what I mean? So the fact that some of the banter you could share with the crowd, you can’t necessarily do in like, Eastern European countries. They just kinda look at you when you crack a joke and when the music comes on its turnt up again. But it’s cool to have a crowd that really understands everything you say and not to mention, it’s just a beautiful, just the sights there, the landscape, the nature, it’s just a very beautiful place to be.  It’s kinda like a vacation, like I can’t believe I’m getting paid for this.

That’s so nice to hear, to be honest! So, who are some up & coming acts you’re listening to?

The Hics, I’m a big fan of The Hics. I’m actually working on a collab album with them, so very excited about that. This kid Sheff G a young rapper from Brooklyn, I’m really enjoying his music, B.B King, B.B King is dope. It’s a few young artists I’m rockin’ with.

What’s your favourite track on ‘Revenge Of The Dreamers 3’ & why?

That changes all the time but I’ll probably go with Sacrifices, yeah I like Sacrifices.

And what’s your favourite track that you like to perform?

Oooooh, uh, Costa Rica, I’m having a lot of fun with Costa Rica, Down Bad, Tribe is always a good one to perform. Yeah Down Bad just them drums go crazy.

Well thank you so much for chatting with us Bas and can’t wait to see you here in October.

Interviewed By: Breanna Tugaga-Rogers
@bretugs