Fresh off the release of his latest album, Face, Babyface Ray has solidified his place as not only one of the best artists coming out of Detroit but one of the best artists anywhere. Over the last decade, from dropping Team Eastide’s debut to eleven projects as a solo artist, Ray has quietly become one of your favorite rapper’s favorite rapper. With features and cosigns from Future, Moneybagg Yo, Pusha T, and Tyler, The Creator, Ray is poised for a gigantic 2022. Somebody give Brad Jordan a call – there’s a new Face in town.
What are your current influences?
That’s a tough question. I ain’t going to lie. That’s tough: Fashion and just music, period. Just being able to be somebody, be recognized in music. Music and fashion, for real. Couple cats with their music, that was already solidifying the industry. I used to listen to a lot of Jay-Z, depending on my moods. So it would have been Jay-Z. I always say Kid Cudi a lot because I remember there being a point where I listened to a lot of Kid Cudi. But really, whoever was fire, you know what I’m saying? They all definitely influenced me in some way, so it could have been OutKast, whoever.
What do you think is the most overrated right now?
Most overrated? Social media. Because social media’s influenced so much these days, especially as far as people, if they don’t see it on social media, they don’t believe it – you know what I’m saying? Social media got so much influence over everything – over kids – it’s taking over. It’s brainwashing, and it’s kind of scary a little bit when you think about it. So that’s overrated for sure.
What’s the most underrated right now?
Being a hard worker – just being hard-working and just the thought of knowing you got to work to get it, that’s underrated. People don’t believe in that no more. They think everything should come so easy. So it’s very underrated, just doing hard work and knowing that hard work gets you places. That’s an underrated thing right now.
What are you excited about?
With the new album, just maximizing my capabilities of what’s going on with me. I just want everything to be open, so I can travel to places that I always wanted to go and do the things that I need to do. I do a lot of chitlin’ circuits [the name given to the network of smaller black-owned venues predominantly located in the south that books and showcases African-American artists]. So even when COVID was going on, I still was doing shows in the places that could be a little lenient on what was going on. So I still performed.
What’s next for you?
Everything that I haven’t reached yet, that’s there for me to get. That’s what’s next. If it’s possible to grasp, I’m after that. So, whatever you ain’t seen me do yet that other artists are able to do, that’s next for me. So I don’t really know, I can’t really pinpoint it, but that’s what’s next.
Bonus Question: What’s it like representing Detroit, which has such a deep, storied musical history?
It’s cool. I feel like it’s cool because I’m giving it a different outlook of what’s going on, about my generation, what I’ve seen and what’s been going on. Giving it a different look, so, I feel like it’s cool right now. The story had been, before our generation of musicians came in – as far as the people that got it going right now – the story was told a little bit different from the Detroit artists’ side. Now the artists that we got now are kind of giving it more like a “street view”, I’ll say. Before then, it was like the Detroit artists was more, I would say, hip-hop-ish, slicker. It’s like the artist before us was Eminem, Big Sean, DeJ Loaf – they kind of give you a hip-hop-ish vibe. And the artists that we got now be giving it the street perspective, kind of a different view.
