by Benji Heywood (@benjiheywood)
7xvethegenius — “Love” for the uninitiated — has one of rap’s unique flows. Poetic in rhythm and biting in delivery, 7xve’s wordplay is like a prize fighter, ducking jabs and delivering knock out blows. The Buffalo, NY rapper’s debut Death of Deuce for Drumwork Music Group, Conway the Machine’s label, has been turning hip-hop heads since its release, but 7xve is far from a novice.
“I was out on the Buffalo scene since I was 11,” she recalled in a recent phone interview with Post-Trash. “I’ve been out, networking, going to different cities, down to Atlanta and New York, since before high school, before college.”
Growing up, 7xve bounced back and forth between the Nickel City and Atlanta. Atlanta was “lit,” especially during her second stint there after college as she hit the open mic scene, but the unexpected death of her grandmother brought her back to Buffalo. Grieving, the young rapper put her music on hold and pursued a career in tech. But a fateful hang with Benny the Butcher returned her to the fold.
Here’s our interview, lightly edited for length and clarity.
photo credit: Eula Banks
Post-Trash: You started rapping so young. Who was the first person who blew your mind at 10 or 11-years old who made you go, “I want to do that.”
7xvethegenius: You want to know the real answer? At 10 or 11? Raven Simone.
PT: I feel old. I don’t know who that is!
7xve: The actress! From The Cosby Show!
PT: Wait, she rapped?
7xve: When I was a kid, she was on a show called Hanging with Mr. Cooper, and she was a rapper. And I used to see her rapping, and I say, I want to do that. If you’d asked me a few years ago, I would have said Missy Elliot, but that was way later.
PT: We don’t choose what inspires our younger selves.
7xve: I don’t even know if I would have remembered that if I hadn’t gotten to the point where I was questioning why I was doing certain things.
PT: When you were in that questioning period, were there times where you were discouraged, maybe thought “This just isn’t happening”?
7xve: Oh, yeah, I spent a lot of years not even doing music. So, I moved to Atlanta (after college). I was there doing my music thing; things were going well in Atlanta. But then my grandma passed away and I moved back (to Buffalo) and I just was discouraged in general. I didn't know what I was gonna do. Then I had talked with Benny the Butcher, and he was like, you could do this. He told me it's real now, because we've been doing it for so long. So, I'm like, okay, well, I gotta at least try. At least I have some things to write about.
PT: When you look back at your life, can you see what the other path would have looked like if you hadn’t moved back to Buffalo in 2019 and had that conversation with Benny and reconnected with Conway?
7xve: I knew those guys from when I was 12, before Griselda popped off. I was on the back end, engineering, shooting videos and photos, anything creative. When I moved back from Atlanta, I didn’t understand how things happened. I’d been outside the scene for a long time, I’d started doing web development. It was a lot of “ifs.”
PT: In your recent interview on “Breaking Atoms” you talked a lot about working off your gut. It made me curious, when you're in the studio, are you a first take type of performer? Or are you working on your verses over and over?
7xve: Over and over. The first take I do is not even a real take. That's just for me to get in the mood. I want to be in on the song. The first take is for me because of the different flows and pockets that I do. I'll record a verse in parts and have it played back to me, so I can hear it, and then I’ll record the whole thing.
PT: Are you writing outside the studio then bringing it in and seeing how your flow might work within the beat someone’s made for you?
7xve: No, actually. I have to listen back because of how many times I’ll flip my flow. So even if I wrote to a beat, I still got to go back and be like, Okay, remember how I said it here?
PT: What is the feeling like of listening to a beat and feeling, “I want to rap on that”?
7xve: Nobody's ever asking that before. Wow, um. What does it feel like to me? It feels like I could hear it in the car. Like, if I hear a beat, and I feel like I want to hear it riding down the street, that’s what it feels like.
PT: You’ve said you’re hoping that Death of Deuce would be an end to what we've all become accustomed to in hip-hop and breathe some new light into the culture. Why do you think hip-hop and, by extension the culture at large, feels stuck?
7xve: I think it's because we're in such a crazy and emotional place because of the state of the world and the state of the country. People want to enjoy themselves (when they listen to hip-hop), but it's no longer making sense because people aren't actually enjoying themselves anymore. We haven't found the balance between escapism and art. People want the escapism of music, but we haven't found that other side, the art in music, you know? I think that's where we need to go, because the outside no longer matches.
PT: In the song “Deuce” you rap that you wrote your own obituary. Is that metaphor or did you actually do that?
7xve: No, I actually did that. I really did. I don't even remember where I got the concept from, but what you’re supposed to do is write it and then see where you're not living up to how you want to be read or seen, or what you want to leave behind, and where you are right now and what you need to do right now, to be able to get to there.
PT: What did you discover about yourself when you did that?
7xve: I discovered that I want a lot for myself. I already knew that, but it's different when you write it down and read it, actually learn it. I just remember thinking like, I gotta figure out how to do all this.
PT: “This,” as in rapping?
7xve: That but a lot of philanthropy, too.
PT: Is there a particular cause that’s close to your heart?
7xve: I’m really interested in minorities becoming a part of the tech world and not just be consumers. I feel like we're going further and further into just consuming it where we could be a part of making it. Understanding tech needs to be a part of everyday conversation. As we head into the future, we need to go into it with the everyday language to understand it, especially in the hood, especially with kids. That means a lot to me.
PT: What’s the biggest barrier in getting kids tech literate?
7xve: Access and resources, definitely. Look, the same way that we’re pushing trade schools—and I agree with that, trade schools are important—but we should be pushing tech learning, too. it doesn't make sense to go forward as users and not go forward in the day-to-day understanding of it. It would be a huge missed opportunity.
PT: Do you mind if we finish up with a couple 30,000 feet, big picture questions?
7xve: For sure.
PT: Is the rap industry more female-friendly than it used to be?
7xve: Yeah, I think it is just because of how many female rappers there are, how many female rappers on competent game there are, and because of that, how much money those women are bringing in. The reach of female rappers is much broader. Like last season, Stefon Diggs quoted GloRilla after a touchdown. I remember years where I would never even hear a man saying that they listened to women, let alone an NFL player on TV. So, I think it is definitely more friendly. You know, other male rappers are becoming more open to it, understanding women are here to enjoy each other, and bring other women there. It's more collaborative in that way.
PT: In your career so far, what’s the one memory where you’re like, that was the fucking shit. That’s the one I’m taking with me.
7xve: Definitely my headlining show at S.O.B.s (Sounds of Brazil in Manhattan) last year. That was my first headlining show ever in my life, and it was in a different city, and it sold out. So that was dope.
PT: What did that feel like?
7xve: Really good (laughs). I would say it was probably my most calm show, and probably because I had a lot of love in the building. Backstage at my show, it was just love, my family, my friends, you know, people I invited. It was a vibe.
PT: I noticed you produced one of the tracks on the album, too. What that was like?
7xve: I produced the record “Deuce” with Raheem Devaughn. There's no actual beat on it. The idea just came to me, like I never heard this before, and I have a lot to say. I didn't have any beat and I just wrote everything out. I'm like, I don't think I even want to beat on it. So, I hit him up, and what he sent me was not what you hear today. I did a lot of piecing it together, you know, where to put certain parts, and where to stack certain parts. I put the whole thing together.
PT: That song is really powerful because of that different approach. Any plans to produce more on other artists’ records?
7xve: I definitely have plans to produce other things.
PT: Who would you love to produce with?
7xve: Damn, okay. I’m pretty sure I’d like working with JID.
PT: Knowing you, you’ll make that happen.
Death of Deuce is out now via Drumwork Music Group.