Maxo on Drakeo, NBA Youngboy, Alchemist, & Why He Never Fit In with the Industry

Maxo joins Jeff Weiss & Free at Gold Diggers in LA to talk about how he feels like an anomaly in an industry that doesn’t fit his wide-ranging artistic sensibilities. The Pomona-raised rapper opens up about life in the Inland Empire & LA, creative frustrations with industry gatekeepers, ayahuasca, LA’s jazz history, his friendship with Alchemist and more. He drops plenty of unpopular truths about sex in jail, Linkin Park, Bjork, the NWA movie, NBA Youngboy and Kid Cudi.Make sure you hit that like and subscribe button and leave a comment letting us know what you thought about the show!00:00 Not Fitting the Industry02:20 Growing Up in Pomona & Inland Empire 03:45 Why LA Is the Worst City to Party In05:24 Family, Working-Class Parents & Being the Middle Child06:58 Parenting, Attention & Raising Kids in the Screen Era08:18 Finding his voice in music11:51 Gatekeepers & Algorithms16:05 Earliest Musical Influences18:09 Being Different, Moving Between Worlds19:44 Basketball, Discipline & Staying in Your Lane22:16 Fitting Everywhere and Nowhere at the Same Time23:18 Early Influences: Bay, Hyphy, Wayne, DOOM & Mixtapes26:14 LA’s Jazz History, Central Ave & Cultural Memory29:07 Why Most Music Biopics Are Bullsh*t35:13 Complexity, Kendrick, NBA YoungBoy & Expression40:26 What Actually Inspires the Sound47:06 Losing the Monoculture (Chappelle, Boondocks, TV)51:08 Def Jam: Creative Frustration & Industry Reality54:20 Trend-Chasing Labels & Refusing to Compromise56:13 No Regrets, Staying Pure & Owning the Work