G-Eazy

The Rise & Marketing 

G Eazy is DIY. Even if he now has gone more corporate, his still in control of his career and everyone on his team. He is on a major label, but I cannot help but thing that he is still in charge and just got the major label to play into his plan. He knows exactly how his fans view him. He has a degree in music business and utilizes it well. His latest album, When It’s Dark Out, is the album that shows that he is where he wants to be. There are no more songs about the journey to the top or what it will be like when he makes it, that is what Must Be Nice was for. On this album he is showing how he got to where he is. Like on the track “Random”, he clearly states “I got it all, yeah I'm young, rich, and handsome. This shit is not random.” He formally introduced himself on his debut The Endless Summer, basically being like ‘Hey this is me. This is what I am going to be, a dapper young rapper who is going to sample the beach boys’. Then on Must Be Nice he laid down his goals and personal agenda. These Things Happen was his stretch into the mainstream. I feel like that album was more about try to garner the masses. Which worked, considering he also only been playing bigger venues and selling more albums since. I first saw him play the Middle East Upstairs, and now he just sold out that arena in Lowell. So many rappers say they are going to make it to the top, but when G Eazy said it in 2011, he was stating a fact. Because he knew it was all business and he had everything planned out. He didn’t rush anything. He focused on the fans in the beginning, by doing free meet and greets at all of his shows and executing every release with the professionalism of someone with a much bigger stature. Most importantly, his first four mixtapes were free downloads, which is definitely the best thing he could of done for himself, because it just makes it that much easier for people to get his music.

I think When It’s Dark out is much better than These Things Happen. When It’s Dark Out is more of a throwback to his earlier music. He even uses some of the same beats he used years earlier. He can do this because his longtime fans will love it, and his newer fans won’t know the difference. Like I said, this album shows that he is where he wants to be, but also tackles the feeling that maybe getting everything you want won’t make you as happy as you thought it would. The song “Sad Boy” is about just that: “Man stop acting like a bitch. Forgot you're all famous now and rich? Gerald what you so sad for?” He address himself using his really name (Gerald Earl Gillum).

In the video for “Me, Myself, and I”, there is a scene where G Eazy is talking with two other versions of himself, fighting and getting yelled at saying that he signed up for fame and should not complain at all. There are three G Eazys in this scene, a sad one, one that yells at him for being sad, and one that just wants to party. It makes me sad to think that G Eazy is unhappy considering his success and mad at himself for being unhappy, especially after watching him make the climb up the music latter for so many years. He knows that he thought he has already worked so hard, that he is really only at the very beginning of his career, and probably feels more pressure than ever. I always wondering if his newer fans will understand these songs as much, since they have not been along for the whole G Eazy journey. They can backtrack his releases and grasp some understanding, but how could they view the transformation. The new fans may get it, but will they really get it?