With two mixtapes out right now, his own “Blended 2,” and a collaborative project with childhood friends—The E Team, Oakland bred emcee Quentin Thomas, also known as GQ could be said to have the Bay Area on his back.  Making the transition from a well-known basketball player for the University of North Carolina (same school as Michael Jordan) where he made many first of records, to an emcee on legendary 9th Wonder’s independent label Jamla. Rawe Mag got the exclusive opportunity to speak with Mr. GQ himself.


Bella: First and foremost, can you give people a little background on who you are as a musician, and how long you’ve been doing music?


GQ: My names Quentin Thomas from Oakland California.  As far as ambitions in life, I’ve really had one goal for me, was to do well at whatever it was that I was trying to excel at or whatever I was putting forth the effort in.   Always try to look out for somebody or give advice or just do something to give back because I know people always did it for me growing up so I just wanted to do the same thing in return that’s about it


Bella: You initially started off in Basketball, so how’d you make the transition to rapping, or did you always do them both?


GQ: Yeah, pretty much my whole life I was just doing basketball and then up until 2008 when I got my Bachelor’s Degree from the University of North Carolina but after that I was hopefully looking into possibly playing professional over seas but I wound up having to get surgery on my knee so I just still in out there in Carolina living and working out in rehab trying to get my knee back and just randomly through my barber out there in Carolina he knew a guy that knew 9th Wonder–Grammy award winning 9th Wonder and my barber was like, “Yeah, I know this guy that does music in his spare time for fun but he’s real good” and the guy was like “who is it” and he told him me and he was like alright I’ll tell 9th and all that.  and the guy who knew 9th came by and we hooked up one day and I played him some old stuff that I recorded around the house and with some friends of mine back at home and he liked it so he told 9th and actually before I knew I had knee surgery I wound up going to the Laker Basketball Camp that they had during the summer and my knee started bothering me so I couldn’t continue with the workout and all of that, that very same day is the day that 9th called me so I guess that had talked and he was just trying to find out where I was and all the information and I told him I was in LA but I’d be back in Carolina by the weekend and so on, so long story short I got back that weekend and hooked up with 9th and played him some stuff you know and he was just talking to me about a lot of stuff and just a lot of artists he worked with and everything pretty much but I never thought anything about the independent Jamla label I’m apart of that he’s having and the NBA Live song with David Banner that I was blessed to be apart of just everything.  As far as the Blended 2 I never suspected any of this coming but I always had a passion and love for music so I figured why not?


Bella: So then when you’d get signed to the Jamla label?


GQ: It was sometime last year because like I said, when I met 9th I didn’t even know anything about the independent label I thought I was just going in there and basically just meeting 9th Wonder and maybe get the chance to work with him and do some music but I never thought anything big about it you know but it led to one thing and 9th has his independent label now and just a lot of stuff.  I want to say that I’m overwhelmed but I’m also anxious and excited to see where it goes from here.


Bella: Speaking of 9th, he’s gone through I guess a lot of ups and downs in the industry, what have you learned from him?


GQ:  I’ve learned a lot from 9th just being around him aside from talking about music you know 9ths a great guy and a great role model for any young man and just being around him he has so much balance he’s been around the music game for so long and he’s met so many people and worked with so many people so every time I’m in the studio or even outside the studio and I’m around him I just try to be like a sponge and soak everything up that I can because I know he knows a lot


Bella: Okay, so you know a lot of people who do music in the Bay Area, their music kind of stays in the Bay Area but yours is reaching out all over.  Do you have any advice or wisdom to help other artists branch out?


GQ: Well, for me it’s kind of hard because like I said when people ask me about music it’s real hard telling other people what I think they should do because for me everything happened so suddenly and unexpected but I think the thing that helped me was just going to the University of North Carolina and just being blessed to be out there and having a support base from basketball and that transferred over to the music having people know that I did music so a lot of people that supported me with that were like “oh okay we’ll support him with this” and some people wound up hearing the music and really liking it and it made it a lot easier and I know for some people I would just say be you know with music be yourself just have fun with it because everything else will take care of itself.

Bella: So your new mix tape Blended 2 just came out and it’s a continuation to Blended what can people expect from this project?


GQ:  I think the concept that I had with Blended and Blended 2 was just as far as I know a lot of people had no logic of what was blended but it was just a lot of mixed up feelings, emotions, ideas and everything the beats I wanted to rap on whether they be industry beats or original beats just whatever I was feeling from Day 1, Day 2 or Day 3 or whatever you know it was just a mixture of everything so I was like okay, it was like a blend I was just like it’s blended it was no right way to go with this or no wrong way to go with this everything and just thrown them together that’s how I came up with.


Bella: So as far as the beats that you used that weren’t original, did you feel like you had to come harder with them because they were songs that were already out before?


GQ: I know for me sometimes it’s hard for me to write to a song or redo a song or rewrap over a song that I really enjoy or artists that I really enjoy but at the same time its just a fun challenge or competitive challenge for me to write over an artist that I might like or really admire and do that same song and be like “okay I can almost not compare myself to that artist but I can kind of challenge myself and be like make it to the point of like what if I was on the song with this person and go from there I don’t know I was just try to have fun with  music and whatever happens as long as for me I feel good with it.


Bella: Well for me, one of my favorite songs on the mix tape was “2010 Summer Madness” I like that song.


GQ: Thank you!


Bella: Your welcome.  In that song you put references to the Bay Area.  How important do you feel it is to incorporate aspects of your home in your music?


GQ:   I think it says a lot, you know because I know a lot of people probably hear my music for the first time and maybe wonder where I’m from and when they find out I’m from Oakland, it’s like wow whether it’s from Oakland or The Bay Area a lot of people just know us for the Hyphy Movement or only know us for this or that but it has always been so much talent in The Bay Area as a whole not just music but talent and good people who are doing a lot of positive things out here but on the music side of things there’s a lot of upcoming artists, people that’s already in the game who have led the way for artists like myself and for other artists– there’s a lot of talent out here so I definitely feel like the Bay Area will do a lot of big things in the future that will make a lot of noise in hip-hop and in music.


Bella: And do you really think that we are having a new “movement” in the Bay Area?


GQ: I don’t know it’s kind of hard a lot of people say movement and use the word movement for a lot of things but I’m happy about it because around here whether it be music or something else we always get a negative slack for things even for the city of Oakland or The Bay Area a lot of times we just get negative exposure it’s never really anything positive so when I see on the music side of things, when I see a lot of people performing and having videos and songs on the radio and just doing a lot of positive things with music it’s a good feeling you know because I see a lot of people bringing back good music to the Bay Area.


Bella: Just like a random question, but what music are you listening to right now?


GQ: I listen to everybody.  Right now Drake’s album came out–love Drake’s album.  I know I’m anticipating Rick Ross’ album about to come out.   But I listen to Rap, Hip-Hop, Jazz, Gospel; I just love music in general.  I think that’s the thing that adds to my music because it’s like I take pieces from everything from the little country I might listen to or rock in roll I just try to take pieces from everything and everybody and just try to throw it in my music with my feelings and emotions–whatever I’m going through at the time and try to make something work.

Photo Credit B.Younger & Gravity Music Group

Bella: In the future what could we expect from you and who else would you want to work with?


GQ: Man, I don’t even know where to begin with that.  I’d just love to work with so many different artists.  With rappers, I think I’d like to work with a lot of young artists: the Wales’, the Wiz’s, the Curren$y’s, J.Cole, it’s just so many I’d love to work with.  Then R&B singers, the list is endless so to speak I would just love to work with any and everybody that I could.


Bella: In five years, where do you want to see yourself musically?


GQ: In five years, I just want to be happy truthfully.  I keep telling people I couldn’t really just see myself doing music until I’m 40 not to say anythings wrong with that but for me right now I love doing music but I want to see how far it can go and then it might lead me to something else I might enjoy doing or something else that can benefit myself financially and my family.  But I just want to see myself having fun and hopefully successful at whatever I’m doing in five years.


Bella: Lastly, where can people get Blended 2 at?


GQ: You can go to Datpiff.com right now, I just uploaded it.   Also 38thnotes.com a Bay Area website around here which helps promote a lot of artists and a lot of information about the Bay Area.  There should also be a lot more websites putting it up.  Also, if anybody wants to follow me on Twitter, that’s another way I keep people updated.  My Twitter’s @GQnHD, I’m going to do a lot more music and a lot more projects are coming out and hopefully keep people interested.


Download “Blended 2” here, and Download the E-Team album here.