Key Glock Talks His Mindset, His Upcoming Project and His Musical Inspirations

On this week’s episode of our podcast Monday to Monday, host Mike Boyd chats with Memphis rapper Key Glock about his upcoming project and his approach to making music. Glock’s been rapping since early high school, but he never stays static; he’s always changing and always overwhelmingly committed to his game. 

Boyd and Glock talk about the rapper’s introduction to making music; he started rapping at high school with his friends before making beats in home studios. Even from the beginning, those around him knew he was something special: “In school, we would always be just rapping in the class or at the table. And they’d always tell me, ‘Glock you hard. Like you really can rap.’” He taught himself to record and how to put his music out, and ultimately caught a big break with his viral track, “Actin.” The original Youtube video from 2013 is up to this day and gives an amazing look into the rapper’s genesis.

Glock is very intentional with everything he does.”I know how to speak shit into existence,” he says. And he’s always known he was on the path to something great. “Since day one, bruh like, I knew this shit was gonna happen,” he tells Boyd, going on to add, “In my mind, I know where I’m finna be and I know where I wanna be.” This mindset is clear in the way he talks about his upcoming project Yellow Tape. The project notably includes no features (Mike tells him, “You’re killing shit, you don’t need features”) and the reasoning behind it is clear. Glock doesn’t want to be an artist you hear about from some other rapper’s track. “If you gonna hear about Glock, it need to be in a Glock song,” he tells Boyd. “It’s just different. It’s like, I just move different. I think different. Everything different with me.”

The Memphis rapper certainly is different, and his deep belief in his power to achieve what he wants is palpable. When Boyd asks him how he decided what songs to release as singles, he says he told his team, “Man, I don’t care what you put out first. That’s what kind of faith I got in my music. I was like, I know what it’s gonna do. So whichever one you put out first, it’s gon’ go.” And he was absolutely right. Although he’s deeply unique, Glock does acknowledge the importance of some major rappers on his music career. He tells Boyd, “Nobody influence the way I rap but Lil Wayne and Gucci. Because like, Gucci’s aggressiveness and Lil Wayne, like metaphors and punchlines.”

Glock is full of amazing quotable lines. When Boyd asks him how he’s preparing for his tour, Glock laughs and tells him, “This tour need to prep for me.” And he has equally amazing responses when asked about his favorite aspects of being independent. Some advice: “If you know what you wanna do and how you wanna do it and you just stick to it, that shit gonna happen.” And then something fun: “Ain’t too many cuts in this one. *Laughs* Ain’t too many cuts in this check.” If you want to hear more advice from Key Glock, make sure to listen to tune in. 

If you loved this episode and want to hear Boyd chop it up with more rappers/managers, check out last week’s episode, when Boyd sat down with rapper Lonr. about winning a Grammy and going viral on Tik Tok.