Since the release of his 2019 album From My Point of View: Reloaded, Landstrip Chip has been pretty quiet. Besides a few singles and collaborations, we haven't gotten too much music from the East Atlanta native.
Behind the scenes, Chip says he's been making a transition on the business end. The former Def Jam artist, recently signed with Asylum Records, and says he now feels more comfortable with his deal and his team.
Now, Chip is ready to get his feet back wet, and has dropped off a 9-track EP titled Catch My Good Side.
Atlanta Decoded caught up with Chip to discuss creating his latest EP, his new record deal, and mastering his trap/R&B sound.
Where are you from in Atlanta, what neighborhood?
Born and raised in East Atlanta.
You go to high school out there?
I went to high school in midtown. I went to Grady.
So I know you started rapping in high school, got a record deal in high school too. How did that come about and what was that experience like for you?
I mean it was cool, the situation really came about, me and one of my buddies, Rico Cash— we really just started rapping. We put out a mixtape called No Feelings. We were just taking everybody’s beats and rapping over them. One of our homies was in the music industry and he heard it and reached out, and that’s really how that whole Rebel Gang situation came about, with me and Rico and a couple other dudes. It was cool. I always tell people I don’t regret the situation because I learned a lot from it, I garnered a lot of relationships, and I've kept a lot of relationships that I made back then.
You still rock with them boys or y'all doing your own thing?
I mean everybody still cool, but everybody do they own thing too.
So you started out as an artist and you kind of migrated into the songwriting thing. Who got you to make the leap into songwriting, and do you remember the first artist you wrote for?
Yeah I do—I don’t really like to say I write for people, some people take it the wrong way—everybody don’t know how to differentiate. So I like to tell people that I work with people. The first person I ever did write a song for, still a buddy of mine, his name is PM. And then who got me started was Keith Thomas. Keith was really good buddies with Usher and a couple other artists in the industry...he's an executive in the industry. At the time I wasn’t taking my music seriously, so Keith was like even if you not gonna do your thing right now, I feel like you could be of some help to other artists. So he had me working with PM, and then from there it just kinda blossomed. But that was my intro to it.
Did the songwriting thing come natural to you? Was it something you had to get use to, cause you were already writing for yourself...did you basically write what you would write for yourself?
At first, I ain’t gonna lie yeah. I was just doing what I would do for me in the studio and just giving in to other artist, but then I realized people were—I don’t wanna say running off with my sound, but they liked how I sounded, the words, the cadences, so they were leaning towards my stuff. And then when I would wanna put my stuff out, people would be like oh you sound like such-and-such and I’d be like nah. But I ain’t gonna jump out and be like nah I write for them, they sound like me. It was always a conversation like, I’m me, I came in the game with my own sound, and I kinda put it on a couple of other people. I just learned that I had to fall back a little bit from giving my sound. I gotta give them a better them.
Yeah and your sound is one of the most unique in the city—when you listen to the old mixtapes and you listen to the last album, you hear the evolution of the sound. How did you master your sound? What was the actual process of finding your sound like?
Trial and error, really: just trying new things, taking a break, listening to where music was going in the whole industry. Just listening to what everyone else was doing, and seeing where music was headed, and trying to be quicker than everybody else. Definitely trial and error, and just seeing what people like and what they didn’t like, and then using the stuff they did like.
Do you think the fact that you worked with so many artists helped you find your sound, or do you think it kinda hurt it?
It definitely helped. Just being in the room with people who work so fast—that’s kinda what got my speed up and how fast I like to do songs. Because when you’re working with certain people you don’t got two days to work on one song, you’re trying to get as many songs done as you can. So that definitely helped me with my speed. And then just repetition: it’s like being in the gym, practicing my jump shot until it's game ready. So definitely working with other artists for sure helped me produce my new sound.
So who are some of those artists? I don’t wanna name drop for you, but you've worked with some of the best.
I worked with Usher, A boogie, G Herbo, Meek Mill, City Girls, Osiris, Tinashe, P&B rock, Dreamville, Ty Dolla $ign, Jeremiah… But it’s like, I was telling somebody the other day, the industry is so small, once people know there’s a new dope person, they catch on. And at first it’s kinda like, oh let me see if he really fire like everybody says he is, and then once it start becoming a thing where everyone knows about it, it’s kinda hard to not wanna—
You got people reaching out to you now.
Yeah, but I still reach out to people too, cause I'm still a fan of music. It's people who I feel ain't on the platform yet where they deserve to be, and I reach out to them. I let people know I listen to they music all the time.
I talk to a lot of up-and-coming artists in Atlanta who moved from other places to pursue music here, and one of the big things they say is Atlanta is so much more collaborative than other cities, more artists are willing to work with each other. You’ve been in the Atlanta music scene for years now, do you feel like it’s still like that, or are people more closed off once you reach a certain level?
I feel like music as a whole, don't matter where you are, is about collaboration. No matter what tier you're at, it’s always gone be about collaboration. We got so many studios out here, you never know who you’re gonna bump into. Sometimes you might bump into somebody and they don't know you, and sometimes they’ll know you and they’ll be like come in my room and let’s work on something. So I feel like there’s more opportunities to collab out here, definitely. You know, some people don’t rock with certain people so you gotta be mindful of that, but at the same time you can’t get into nobody else’s business. At the end of the day I always tell people I’m all about the music. I don’t really care who got a problem with who. I’m gonna try to make good music with whoever wants to make good music with me.
So new project: Catch my Good Side. It’s been a little minute since we got a project from you—is that your usual pace, 2 or 3 years between projects, or was there a hold up?
There was definitely a hold up. I don’t wanna say the project was done, but a lot of these songs are probably a year old. Just label situations: going from one space to the next space. I was getting out of a situation that I wasn't really happy in, and getting into this new situation. So Catch My Good Side is just a culmination of the last two years of work. These are nine songs that I wanted to give to the people.
You got out of that old situation, you're rocking with Asylum now. Congrats on that. For someone like you who's already got that core fan base and is already established in the industry, what do you think you were looking for in a label this go around?
Definitely ownership, cause I’m real big on ownership, and being a big fan of Nipsey Hussle, even before he passed away, the message he was preaching— some of that stuff really stuck with me. And then just having somebody that I can talk to, because in previous situations if I had a question about something, I couldn't get in touch with nobody, and there were no answers for me there. So with my team now it's more transparency and there’s more knowledge being kicked both ways, honestly.
So earlier you were talking about how you still reach out to artists who you enjoy. Who are some of those artists that you would say are up next?
Right now I’m listening to CEO Trill, GT, one of my boys out of Detroit, my boy Simba he outta the Bay.
You got any music coming with any of them?
All of ‘em. I like working with niggas who's music I like. I ain’t scared to reach out to nobody, and the way the world works, it be people I post their songs sometimes and they be like damn I didn’t know you were a fan of mine; I didn’t know you liked my music—and visa versa. So we just lock in from there.
So I know you gotta album coming. When can we expect it, and is it gonna be the same sound or are we going for something different?
I feel like I found my sound, I honestly feel like I’m ten steps ahead, but at the same time there’s always room for elevation. So the next project, the next body of work, is definitely gonna be a higher level of production and the features is crazy. I can’t really say nothing about the features right now just yet, but definitely more songs, I just feel like I had to give them this EP to get my feet back wet. But the album is definitely crazy, it’s coming together real well.
Yeah we looking forward to it man. The features on this EP are lit too though: Latto, Seddy Hendrinx, Vory, how did some of them features come about?
Like I said, just people reaching out. Seddy he not from the A, but he been up here for a couple years, and that's my dawg. We talk just about every other day. Vory, that's just my brother. That goes without saying. Latto is definitely a frequent collaborator on the music. We been locked in for a while. I always tell people, I like to do music with people who I catch vibes with. I don’t really do music with people I don’t know, like I’m not a send a verse guy. I want to get in with you, and really build that foundation and that relationship.
Yeah, and you can hear that in the music. You’re reaching that next-level celebrity status now, how has that been, like can you still move about the city the same, or is it different now?
I mean, when I’m born and raised here it’s kinda like—
It’s hard—
I wouldn’t even say it’s hard, it’s just like everybody knew me even before I was doing music, so it’s just mutual respect. You know, I get people who come up and wanna take pictures, it’s getting more to that point where people be like, ain’t you such and such--it’s becoming a known thing, but I’m adjusting with it. I’m not having no issues adjusting with it neither though. It’s what comes with this life.
Let people know where to keep up and what they should be on the lookout for.
It’s Landstrip Chip, you can follow me on all my social medias @landstripchip, Instagram, Twitter, Tik Tok, Facebook, Snapchat. And Catch My Good Side right now, that’s what we pushing.