“Can You Sign My Bloody Towel?”

Photographs by Emmanuel Campos

From starting to write music at age 12 to headlining shows in recent years, A-F-R-O has come a long way in his music career. Reckless Creative Eddie Gonzalez talks with A-F-R-O about performing shows in Europe, writing scripts, and his mentor R.A. The Rugged Man.

Los Angeles, USA

What’s a valuable lesson you learned from these last handful of years?

“Appreciate what you have in the moment when you got it. Having loved ones around, the process and time it takes to chase dreams and goals. Time just moves too fast sometimes”

What’s a memorable experience you’ve had through music?

“Wow, yeah I got a few. Through the years I’ve been able to meet a lot of my favorite guys. Producers, musicians and even film producers; all types of stuff it’s crazy. Being able to meet a lot of those guys feels so surreal. I grew up watching and listening to all the things they would do.. and just to be able to chop it up with them have a conversation it’s really unbelievable and sometimes I even forget who I’m talking to for a second and it’s like WOOOOW....takes a second to click back in.”

One thing that really sticks out for him is his mentor, RA The Rugged Man. Since about the age of 13, A-F-R-O can remember listening to all his work.

“Shout out to my big bro RA the Rugged Man for taking me under his wing; I love that guy. When I was barely turning 17, he took me in and it was just a domino effect from there. One of the first things he tells me was ‘Give me a list of all of your favorite guys. Write it down and gimme the list’. Some time goes by and after I gave it to him he was like ‘man I can knock out like 60-70% of these guys! No problem’. And I was like DAMN…. that’s my favorite guy telling me he can get me to meet all my other favorite guys.”

What’s the music scene like here in California compared to Europe and the other places you’ve performed?

“Oh man, oh my lord. So I love my States people but I feel like at those shows people are more laid back and chill, maybe not too excited. When it comes to my performance, I like to kind of feed off the crowd and bounce back with the energy. If the crowd is a little dead, that kind of weakens me a bit so it’s a little hard to pick it up. Over here we’re all laid back it’s nice.

In Europe, shit is insane! I can be up there and say “Go crazy!”...and they’ll go nuts. Before I even finish a verse they’ll be on it. I think it’s just that Europe appreciates hip-hop like a hundred times more. These guys push each other, these guys mosh, and it’s like a straight up punk rock show but for hip-hop these people are insane.

But in Ireland! I’ll never forget it. I did like three shows out there and they’re wild every time! They just chant something like ‘OOOHH OH WHE OHH WHEE OHH WHEE’ they go in! I fucking love Dublin they treat us so good every time we’re there. One time it went so crazy it was just moshing and this young white girl comes up and she’s got this bloody nose right and I’m pretty sure it’s broken or some shit. She had this towel that’s all red covered in blood and looking RA dead in the face saying something like ‘can you sign my towel!? Can you sign my bloody towel?’. We just looked at each other like Yooo! Shit is insane.”

Do most shows out there get pretty wild?

“Yeah a lot of the time and another thing I can remember off the top of my head is Barcelona. Out in Spain it was RA, myself, and KRS-One and there were like 800 people at this show. I’ll never forget it though it’s like they all had electricity in their body and everyone’s just yelling. Hands down one of my favorite shows ever and because there was this one guy in the front row and this other guy next to him with a glass bottle or something. So the main guy turns to the friend and dude hits him with the bottle breaking it over his head. and the main dude just turns back towards the stage, no expression, and then starts screaming ‘AAHHHHH!!’ and just keeps moshing at the show. It was like some movie shit.”

Who influences and inspires you? How did your style come about?

“ A lot of what I take from and look at are people like Guru, DJ Premier, RA, Gang Starr, Dilla (J Dilla), MF Doom, Rakim, RZA. For me it’s a lot of the voice and just studying a lot of the OG’s and it shows in the way I do things. I try to mix it up a lot but definitely mix of all those guys . I kinda like the grimy sound so for sure all those guys influence my own work.”

What’s been one of your favorite songs you’ve put out?

“Oh man, I don’t know if I have a favorite but one of the ones that I do really like and actually to this day still get DMs about is ‘Use These Blues’ off the album with Marco Polo. Lot of people tell me it’s helped them out and it does good for them.”

If you could collaborate with any 2 artists, dead or alive, who would they be?

“Damn. That’s a good ass question. Any artists dead or alive. I’d have to go with Guru and ol’ dirty (Ol’ Dirty Bastard). Shit if I could put all 3 of us on something it would go fuckin hard.”

Besides the music, what are other things you do with free time?

“Other than the music, I love movies. I’m actually in the middle of writing a handful of scripts for some ideas that just come up real random and I just have to get it down on paper. I have three completely done and one of those I’m in the middle of filming for. But they range from action stuff and drama categories but I got a lot of different ideas.”

With a love for both music and film, A-F-R-O strives to one day be a successful music artist but also hopes he can break through as an actor. At some point he would even love to direct some of his own works of art. Featured on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, The Queen Latifah show and after his debut as an actor for VH1’s “The breaks” playing the role of D-Rome, he’s thought about really trying to get into the business.

What would be some go-to favorite movies?

“Honestly, I’d have to say The Shawshank Redemption, the 1985 Day of the Dead, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Green Mile. I really like stuff from George A. Romero, to the point of getting his name tattooed on my arm. Tarantino’s whole catalog is great. I like a little bit of everything.”

If Rugged man never had that contest or if by some chance you didn’t win, would you

still have pursued and invested time into your music?

“ Oh yeah of course. It’s crazy though because before that whole thing even ended he posted my song on his page. So for me that was like ‘Wow RA knows who I am and he likes my song.’ All these other guys in the contest where just trying to murder each other and trying to knock anyone out who was in their way but that’s not me. My whole thing was to submit my music for a chance of being heard by one of my idols. I never really anticipated him reaching out and after posting my song he was asking to link up. It just kinda left me in awe because after that he flew me out for a meeting and it all just took off from there.”

Given your start and perspective on what the music world can be like and overall making

some big moves at a fairly young age, what’s something you want to let your

fans know?

“If you want to do something for yourself, something that you really love, and at least think you can do it AND as long as it’s not harming anybody do it. Easier said than done obviously because you’re going to run into a lot of obstacles but if you got the ambition it’ll be worth it in the long run. All the sacrifice, obstacles, and hard times you go through and just the middle time where you’re just idling trying to figure out what to do builds character. I could even say it makes your music or whatever you’re working on stronger too. Just go for it.”

With a debut album on the way, A-F-R-O mentioned he’s been able to lock in a few features he’s really proud of. He’s got a few OG’s in the mix, Chubb Rock and DJ Premier. With 20ish songs, the album will focus on the rap style he’s developed and will have some R&B type tracks in the mix, and definitely some big surprises.

With a guy like A-F-R-O, you can’t help but be excited for a project like this. Knowing the people he’s already met and worked with, who knows, you’ll probably end up seeing this kid on TV real soon. Until then, you can find him on Instagram @allflowsofficial , music on all platforms, and his movie related content at @ultimatemovienerd97.

Thank you GCS Santa Ana for showing some love and being home to a fucking amazing ass mural of MF Doom by Tha Sloe . Crazy thing is, we were just in town finishing up the photoshoot and turn the corner where the paint shop is, GCS, and Doom’s face is on the wall…His music was playing out of the shop speakers when we walked up and we just kind of looked at each other in awe like wtf...Crazy. R.I.P DOOM the King Geedorah.