"It all started with a booty call. Not my booty, my sister’s booty."
Twitter, one of the leading apps in late night hookups, never fails to show you women you can’t get and men you have already been with. But one thing I wasn’t expecting to see on my timeline is one of my sister’s exes cuddled up with some…Persian cat? Unapologetically and uncertain if it was really him, I tagged one of my friends in the picture typing “Is this the same boy my sister was with?” And instead of my friend replying, the guy in the picture assures me that he isn’t an ex at all, instead the superbly talented, 6-foot-7 skyscraping, 26-year-old oddity Asston Kusher, that I would go on to write my very first article about.
DMV born, Detroit raised, and Downtown Atlanta living, not only does Kusher invite us into his studio to ask questions and take pictures, the artist grants our team a private tour behind the mind of an abstract sound.
Can you describe your music in three words?
Abrasive, Esoteric, EPIC.
Can you describe yourself in one?
Anomaly
Kusher’s room had an ambiance identical to Eric Forman’s Basement from “That 70’s Show”; an infamous couch and rolling table, possibly over one hundred vinyl records stacked in their own corner and a Kitty that’ll support him no matter what. Bill Klinton, Kusher’s obese Persian roommate, didn’t greet us with warm welcomes. “I don’t want to be like him, because he’s caged in all the time,” The producer looks down at his fluffy cat and cracks a smile, Klinton looks back at him straight-faced. “But he’s so stress-free; you know…he has nothing to worry about.”
What about you makes you most confident?
My height and my energy. I don’t realize how tall I am until a motherfucker be saying that shit and I just feel like when I walk in somewhere it’s just like [mind] blowed. And I got supersonic hearing, so I be hearing “ That [man] tall” it’s just funny as hell, I guess it just adds confidence to me. I’m a confident motherfucker off top, I don’t know, that tall shit make me a little confident cause I hate hearing it.
Besides your musical talent, what other talents of yours are impressive?
I’m like an encyclopedia of like hip hop and music history. It’s just in my blood that’s how my mom is. She always knows everything about every artist. All that ill shit. She’s like a fucking book, and I get that from her. I guess that’s a talent.
Kusher leads us to warehouse down the street to take pictures at an aged door he admires. He sprawls out onto the ground and clears our confusion by saying, “I’m trying to look as trashy as possible”. On the subject of bums, we begin to talk about Donald Trump and the war on power in the United States.
What message can you give to the men and women standing up for #BlackLivesMatter?
Educate yourself on how the world really is, bruh. Like, we’re here. We are indigenous people of America. America was created on blood and killing and corruption and it’s not even a place that’s supposed to really… it’s a ticking time bomb. Police aren’t here to protect us, they’re here to protect people who pay mad taxes and own shit but don’t own shit, you know. Like, niggas been protesting for mad years like MLK got popped. And we don’t even have a leader, not saying we need one but we don’t have one. We gotta educate ourselves on how the world is going. I fuck with BLM, cause BL do matter, but we have to educate ourselves, this country was never set up for our success. We have this false sense of freedom and shit.
We talk more about himself over this short course of time we met, and I find out we have three major things in common. Both of our favorite F. Gary Gray movies is Set It Off, we don’t mess with fake people and bad energies, and we both would recommend listening to his music.
Which producers influence your music and overall yourself?
Prince Paul, DJ Premier, DJ Paul & Juicy J, Alchemist, Marley Marl, Lil Jon, Mr DJ… Beastie Boys [smiles], RZA, Lord Finesse, Diamond D
Ponder Me This proceeding BLACK CHOLO is Kusher’s newest masterpiece featuring the best song to play for one of your friends who never puts in for the boof pack titled NIGGA WE GOT MID. “I got Ouija Radio coming and Im dropping Tokyo Yacht Club 2 both albums [are] works from me, instrumentals and songs, works from people im producing, all types of bugged out shit, I got comedy shit coming and we writing a movie, it’s going down in a major fucking way” Stay tuned!
Strange Ang
Text: Angel Wildgoose
Visuals: Evan Berry
Visuals: Evan Berry
Great article Strange Ang!
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