As you were recording for the project, did you come across facts about the Negro League that you didn't know beforehand?
Oh, yeah. Rube Foster, the founder of the Negro Leagues was from Chicago, which is my hometown. Looking back on all the things the League managed to do in the past, I just want to apply some of what I've learned to my company, Get It Man Entertainment, so that my brand can be as popular as the Negro Leagues one day.
Although you haven't released your major label debut yet, you have managed to garner the respect of people from all over the globe. With such high expectations, how does that push you to become a better artist?
Oh, man, it's my fuel. Even when people have low expectations, they make me say okay, if you have low expectations of me, I have to change their mind so they all understand and they can grasp the concept. I'll just present them what they expected and give them a little bit more just for their patience and waiting for my project to come out.
At what point did you adopt GLC as your stage name?
I grew up in a gang and they used to call me Gangsta L because back then I was rapping and my name was Legend so it's GL. My real name is Leonard. So instead of calling me Gangsta L or Gangsta Legend, GL just sounded real smooth. Then the C came in from my other rap name Crisis like losing your father was a crisis. Losing your mom at 12 – that's a crisis. Going to funerals all your life, losing your uncles and aunties, people just dying around you every other month as a kid, losing your house in the fire, the diabetes, having to go to the hospital every other day, your friend getting shot at right in your face – you know what I'm saying? So many dire situations when you sit back and be like, "Damn, how the hell did you make it through that?" That's basically what my whole life has been. That's where the name came from. I decided to keep the name because I'm showing kids that hear the gangsta, crisis, all this negative sounding s**t, you can really be somebody walking around speaking at high schools and putting smiles on people's faces. I am redefining what gangsta is. Gangsters were in politics this year. They have economic and political control of communities this year. That's what I'm set to outreach; that's what I'm reaching for.
Your debut album has been entitled Love, Life & Loyalty. Since love is the crutch upon which one's life and loyalty should be centered, I pulled a quote from Jean Anouilh dealing with love. If there's a specific life event or recording experience that you can relate to it, please give me some insight on that. It goes, "Love is, above all, the gift of one's self."
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