This week on A Waste of Time with ItsTheReal, we welcome Queens’ own Grafh to the Upper West Side! Celebrating the release of his latest collaboration with DJ Green Lantern, The Oracle 3, Grafh talks growing up in the rough environs of Jamaica, Queens, an only child living with his mother, the unthinkable realities of his father entering his life as a teenager and leaving just as quick. We discuss his talents in music and sports, and the steps he took toward a career in medicine, obsessing over Royce da 5’9 and Eminem’s rhymes on Stretch & Bobbito, going to St. John’s until his campus talent show performance caught the attention of Busta Rhymes, and music took full control. We get into his early work with 88-Keys, DJ Clark Kent’s encouragement to rap for days, and Kanye’s guidance in focusing his storytelling to 16-bar phrases. Grafh breaks down his time at Sony, at Roc-a-Fella, at Def Jam and at Koch, his working relationship with Chaz at Black Hand Entertainment, how he was too headstrong to truly succeed in his twenties, how he never completely left the streets behind, and the epiphany he had in on a work trip through Virginia that allowed him to totally reset. We discuss his friendships with Bun B and Royce, almost signing to Scarface, writing music for J.Lo and LL Cool J, spitting straight heat for over a dozen years, happily watching the pendulum swing back to lyricism, and much more!
