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How has being in Col-Der-Sac helped you, both personally and professionally? WAKAI: Everybody makes each other better in a certain way. They genuinely make me a better person. In 2016, I was putting out my first tape. Everybody (in Col-Der-Sac) really cultivated it. They were really helping me make something bigger than myself and make something more full, and I don’t feel like I could’ve done that alone. It’s 2021 now and people still talk to me about it, and it wouldn’t have been that way if it was just me. NOCHVLL: Everybody is just inspiring. I was with Wakai in high school, underneath the staircase, just making songs, and he’d just be making something crazy, and I’d be like, I got to step it up. It’s friendly competition, and it’s helped me as an artist. RONDAY: I’m always trying to achieve or get to the next step, and subconsciously, I attract different things into my life that’s gonna help me build the bridge to get to that next step. People say you can’t do it alone, or it takes a village; I feel like this is my village. JOSHSIMMONS: On an even deeper level, they’re all like my brothers. I actually lost my (biological) brother, so these guys are the closest thing to that that I have. Blood couldn’t make us deeper. We’re really here for each other, we really talk, and we really have those uncomfortable conversations that people are scared to have.
How would you define being part of an artistic collective? JOSHSIMMONS: We’re all individual artists with common interests. We’re all doing our own thing, but at the same time, we’re still coming together to create something that’s bigger than us. We’re standing on something; we have a real foundation.
COURTESY ARUM JOSEPH
WAKAI: If we think about food, we’re really the gumbo. There’s so many things you’re putting into this pot, but when it comes out, you’re feeding the whole table. … We’re giving you a whole little plethora of things to like and gravitate toward. V!LLA: How I like to say it is, when the Avengers would get together, Iron Man would be doing his own thing, Captain America would be doing his own thing, Hulk would be doing his own thing—but when they got together as the Avengers, you’re seeing a bigger picture. We’re all doing our own thing, we’re all being ourselves, we’re all on our own journey—but we’re all in it together. You can’t say we’re all the same, we dress the same, we make the same music; each one of us is a different individual.
Find Your Fun
Support DBA Members in Downtown Baton Rouge Visit downtownbr.org for upcoming events and places to eat, stay and play! ch ec k ou t al l of ou r me mb er s!
225batonrouge.com | [225] October 2021
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