#183: Sylvan LaCue

This week on A Waste of Time with ItsTheReal we welcome Miami rapper Sylvan LaCue to the Upper West Side! Sylvan discusses his upbringing in a one-bedroom apartment with his mother and brother, growing up playing video games, writing rap fan fiction at school, recording music after school until the equipment was stolen, walking miles to a new recording studio, working at Outback Steakhouse, battle rapping with The Sunshine Boys, falling out with his mom and moving out, and why his barber deserves a ton of credit in his journey. We talk his connection to TAG Records, what NaS, Lil Bow Wow and Lupe Fiasco meant to his career, reconnecting with his hustler father until they got evicted from their apartment, making a name for himself as QuESt, putting a bunch of mixtapes out, falling in love with the blogs at the height of the blogging era, meeting with Atlantic Records, connecting with Ro Ransom, Mickey Factz, PreZZure, XV and ultimately Logic, who took him on tour, let him perform in front of giant crowds, and signed him to Visionary Music Group. Sylvan gets very honest about what he was looking for and why he left Logic's crew and how tough it was to start anew, with a new name, a new sound and a new outlook. We talk falling out of love with music, falling in love with coffee, moving to Oakland, stumbling onto an instrumental that spoke to him in a new way, putting a subsequent song and video out without any expectations, and watching the song catch on through streaming and YouTube plays, launching Sylvan's career in a wholly authentic and inspiring new way. All that plus bath salts, opening for DMX, having a car with no windows, why he's named Sylvan, visiting Harlem and looking for Un Kasa, Kanye announcing his album's name was the same as Sylvan's, why you shouldn't eat the Blooming Onion, and much more!