Lil Keed Talks Fatherhood, ‘Trapped on Cleveland 3’ and the Best Advice He Got From Young Thug

On this week’s episode of our podcast, Monday to Monday, host Mike Boyd chats with Atlanta rapper Lil Keed. We’re switching up the Monday to Monday format under quarantine, with every episode now being pulled from a weekly live stream on Twitch hosted by ONE37pm, called Stream and Greet. Every Monday, Boyd conducts a Q&A with artists followed by questions from the fans. You can watch Stream and Greet every week on our Twitch channel. On this week’s episode, Keed speaks about his upcoming project, Trapped On Cleveland 3, being a father and the best advice he got from Young Thug.

Early in the interview, Boyd asks Keed how it’s been being quarantined with his daughter (who makes an adorable appearance in the stream). “I can be a dad and record, still do what I do. Make the money. I love it,” he responds after first bringing her up to the camera to say hello. They then go to the fans for some questions. The first question is about an old video of Lil Keed playing his music for Young Thug for the first time. “Life-changing moment man,” he says, before adding, “I can show my child, when she get older, like, look, this where your daddy came from. This how it all started.”

One of the next fans that appears on the stream asks Keed if he thinks he would have experienced the same level of success were he not from Atlanta. “Don’t matter where I’m from. I’m gonna do what I wanna do regardless,” he says. He’s got a lot more gems about being from Atlanta throughout the stream, addressing his proximity to many other Atlanta hip hop stars, like Young Thug and Gunna. “Everybody’s so close. Atlanta’s small, so you know everybody. You gonna bump into everybody,” he says.

Another fan asks Keed if there was any moment or piece of information that really clicked for him as an artist. He’s got an answer ready to go: “You gotta be yourself. I let my Instagram, like my fanbase, everybody into my life. Like most people wouldn’t.” If you take a look at Lil Keed’s Instagram, that sort of ethos is on clear display. “I want all my fans to feel like they know me,” he adds.

Lil Keed has a close relationship with fellow Atlanta rapper Young Thug and so, naturally, the fans want to hear some advice from the icon. Keed’s got an amazing piece of advice locked and loaded, one which emphasizes brevity. “Save the money, it’ll save you. And [Young Thug] said, ‘Never lose the finesse,’” he says. 

In one of the final fan questions, Lil Keed lets us in on his writing process and how he goes about selecting songs out of the numerous tracks he produces every single day. “I go off the vibes. I’m gonna tell you something—I ain’t never told nobody this. Every day, I make a turnt up song, I make a slow song, I make a vibey song where you can just chill, smoke to, I make an emotional song. That’s how I do it. So now I can pick from them,” he says. He goes on to describe the effect this practice has on his albums: “In my opinion, your tracklist supposed to flow. It ain’t supposed to be like, ‘Oh I’m gonna skip this song, I don’t like this song. I’m gonna skip that, next.’ You ain’t gonna do that on my shit. You gonna let it run all the way through.”

Make sure to listen to the episode to hear all the fan questions and Keed’s insightful answers. If you loved this episode and want to hear Boyd chat with other rappers, managers and producers, make sure to check out last week’s episode, when he spoke with reggaeton star Feid.