SBG: Tell us about your self and how you got your start into rapping?

Lucki Eck$: I used to play football and shit. Then right before 2011 started, I used to play hella Kanye West and we used to play that song… what’s that song J. Cole remixed?…

SBG: “Last Call”

LE: Yeah, “Last Call” and I kept playing that shit, that’s all I could play. Then one day my dad paused it and was like ‘get into production’ and shit. He bought me a laptop and got me FL studios, and that shit was hard as hell. [Laughs] I always used to write raps too. When I was in 7th grade, I was in a group called TF… no, TNT… no, T3!… and that’s when I met this n***a right here Casey. Then I got into dressing quote-on-quote weird [Laughs]. He was looking goofy at the time but that shit was raw as hell to me. Then I saw that this n***a rapped, and he took me under his wing on some corny shit. And I went to this thing at YouMedia, that’s where I met Chance at. First, I saw this dude Black Rafael rap and I was like “Damn, he cool. He cold as hell”

[Stops] Am I talking to much? Or…

SBG: Nope

LE: Then Chance did a piece with Talent and when I heard Chance rap and was like, “damn this n***a raw as hell”. Ever since then I started trying to be a rapper for real, for real.

Sean CK: So you saw Chance doing it and you where like “I need to get on that shit”?

LE: Yeah and he put me on Vic Mensa. Vic had that song “Shoes, Sneakers, etc” where he was the shoe. That shit was crazy as hell! Ever since then Vic was my idol, and Chance was like who I got hella influence from.

SBG: Did you start going to YouMedia?

LE: Yeah I started to go to talk to Chance and shit like that.

SBG: YouMedia helped groom so much of young artists here in Chicago

LE: Helllll yeah, it brought hella people together. People were coming from the west suburbs, then you got people from the south side… the west side… I never seen no east side. [Laughter]
SBG: So I feel like at this point, with the people who have really been fucking with your music on the media side of things, it’s been a case of quality over quantity. You’ve been noticed by some major players right away: Fake Shore Drive, The Reader and Pitchfork. How does it feel to get that type of attention early on from people who are so established?

LE: Shit. It’s weird as fuck G. First blog I ever made it was this blog called Kween K, then my homie was one of the Elevator interns and posted me on Elevator. It took a minute for me to make Fake Shore and Ruby. I used to be sad as hell like; “Damn, they don’t fuck with me”. Then a column with me came out and Andrew (Barber of Fake Shore Drive) tweeted me and he was like “Dope track Luck” and he tweeted the song. After that, Pedro (Gonzalez of Ruby Hornet) got me on Ruby. When I released “No Troubles” I was nervous because before that I was releasing everything off the Elevator page and I was putting that one up on Soundcloud. And it’s scary when you get a Soundcloud cuz now when you release a song you see if your buzz real.

SBG: Yeah, you actually see how many plays you’re getting

LE: It did good though. I emailed it to Andrew hoping he’d post it and he did. He’s been helping me out a shit load ever since then, like for real for real. And then I made the Chicago Reader and Pitchfork, that shit’s crazy as fuck.

Sean CK: That’s the fastest I’ve ever seen anyone hit pitchfork.

Lucki’s Friend: I didn’t realize how big Pitchfork was until this man [Points to Lucki] called me. This man is in school and he called me like “G I just made Pitchfork!” I thought “Oh, that’s just another blog” and then I hit the link and was like “Wait. Pitchfork, Pitchfork?!” [Laughter]

LE: I’m in my class on my phone and I see “No Troubles” and am like “Someone jacked my song title and made Pitchfork, fuck!”. I go up and see a the dollar sign and was like “Who’s that with the money sign?” because those people are always the most interesting and saw it was me and was like “WHAT!” My teacher was looking at me like I was crazy.

SBG: That brings me to my next question; being like 16 – 17 and seeing that type of career path ahead of you, is it hard to go to class?

LE: My grades were all B’s, then recently I’ve been going to hella meetings and shit. I’ve been getting home at like 12 o’clock and only getting 6 hours of sleep and that’s been fucking me up. Like I just don’t have enough time. I’m thinking of doing home school next year.

SBG: What year are you in school?

LE: Junior, I am about to turn 17 in 5 days now.

SBG: I want to get into your alternative trap sound/genre, is that something you came up with yourself?

LE: No. I mean, my producer would just label beats alternative trap, but I never fucking thought of it before as a genre. Then one day I was in class my 4th period English class, I got my name from my fourth period English class too, and my teacher Mr. K was playing Ritchie Valens and talking about how he got his start and he said, it was like a movie in my head, “To be a great artist you have to be able to mix one genre with another.” I heard that and it came to me. Then around that time I started to see drug dealing, and not to be corny or anything, but when you think about it alternative trap is a real ass way of living. There’s a lot of motherfuckers who trap, but they just not hood and shit. I wrote “Master Plan”, and that was like 1 minute and 15 seconds and I took two weeks to write that shit. After that, we made “Never Pay” and ever since then I’ve been alternative trap. At first, I didn’t know if I wanted to like push it out, but now I’m like that’s fucking genius. I don’t care if I made it or not, I don’t care what nobody else is doing, I don’t care what producers think. It’s alternative trap.
SBG: As far as the upcoming tape, what can you tell us; any features?

LE: I don’t collab. I collabed with Dally because that’s my homie and we had to make something for the west side. There’s a few others too, but I just feel for me it’s not good to collaborate, because if people don’t wanna do what I wanna do… I was an only child [Laughs]… If I want the song to be this way, I want the song to be that way. I don’t care if it a hood ass Lex Luger 2009 ass beat if I want to make it about love, you got to do it. [Laughter]

SBG: How about the producers you’ve been working with… Hippie Dream, Nate Fox on “No Troubles”

LE: I got put on to Nate Fox through the homies at Elevator, I don’t think he even knew I got on “No Troubles” until it came out. Hippie Dream is Outsiders, he’s a in house producer, I’m going to be always using his beats.

SBG: Final Words?

LE: Alternative Trap in the month after June… This going to sound corny as hell, look out for everybody because everybody can rap, I don’t know. Stay in School. [Laughter]

Interview by Eric Montanez