How did you develop as an artist early on? I was like, Man, I wanna rap, too! I been doing it ever since. Rocky was doing that shit, and I just seen like, a young, fresh movement. One of the people that was fresh out when I was 18, 19 was Rocky. I got my first mic and I was like, I’ma do it. When did you think you could go far with a music career? All my best friends, the whole Shoreline Mafia, OTX was a graffiti crew that I’m turn- ing into a label. It was like an ego thing, so rapping just went along with it.

The whole point of graffiti, it’s like an attention thing. I did graffiti my whole life up until this point, really. It was something that always crossed my mind, but I never got to do it, I kept doing graffiti. There wasn’t really Hispanic rappers that was doin’ it how I wanted to do it. When I was in elementary school, I remember, it crossed my mind, wanting to rap, but I never really did it. OhGeesy: I been doing graffiti since I was in elementary school, so I’ve always been like a bad-ass lil’ kid. XXL: How did you start in graffiti and then become a rapper? With the release of his solo debut effort behind him, OhGeesy speaks with XXL about the ups and downs of the last year, why he feels Shoreline Mafia broke up, having Kanye West-level goals and starting anew. But, with a love for rap and Atlantic Records behind him, OhGeesy, who’s of Mexican descent, found traction, most notably with his DaBaby-assisted single “Get Fly,” which has 20 million Spotify streams and counting. Being a new father to his 2-year-old-son, Sincere, trying to navigate life as a solo artist and working on his own sound was certainly a challenge. As quarantine life began to affect the process of making and releasing music, the Los Angeles-bred rhymer, born Alejandro Carranza, persevered. OhGeesy started to record the project shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic gripped the world last year. With the group now disbanded, he remained committed to music and pushed himself to drop his own songs, leading up to his debut solo album, GeezyWorld, released this past August. OhGeesy, 28, stood out as the most popular member of Shoreline, laying claim to the crew’s biggest hooks. They all went their separate ways due to creative differences, ahead of dropping their group debut album, Mafia Bidness, last July. To fans’ surprise, Shoreline Mafia broke up in early 2020.

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