A man of many hats and varying responsibilities, Pusha T’s hands are mainly full, as is his schedule with the daily tasks that come as President of G.O.O.D Music which includes the completion of his upcoming album, King Push. But no matter the extent of his responsibilities, T keeps his head up and his ears open at all times, and it goes beyond the music — like issues affecting society. He’s voiced his opinion on various social issues that have dominated news headlines and recently joined the #SchoolsNotPrison Tour to advocate for the alleviation of California’s massive spending on incarceration in favor of investing more in education, health and the youth. When he was called to upon to serve as the student mentor for the opening of the newest adidas ‘Sound Lab’ in Kanye West’s hometown of Chicago at Curie Metro High School, Pusha called his decision to get onboard a “no brainer.” Founded in 2015, the ‘adidas Originals Sound Lab’ was created as an initiative to foster creative collaboration, innovation and proactively support music programs in public schools lacking in financial support.
“This program gives students a head start in pursuing a career in music and allows them to collaborate with other aspiring musicians on studio albums,” T said. “I wish I had a program like this in high school because it would have helped me stay focused and excited to attend school daily. Kids today need more creative outlets and I think it’s important to keep art programs in public schools because it provides a creative outlet for students to express their individuality. I am excited to continue work on this project and help the amazing students involved in the adidas Originals Sound Labs pursue their dreams.“
We caught up with Push at the unveiling of the newest ‘Sound Lab’ to get his take on his role as student mentor, his outspokenness on social issues and what we can look forward on his upcoming album.
How did the idea of the Sound Lab come to fruition?
It basically started with Big Sean and adidas. Him wanting to give something back to Detroit in regards to giving kids an opportunity to pursue their dreams like he did. It was an awesome idea and when adidas asked me to do it, it was a total no brainer.
You’re listed as the ‘Student Mentor’ for this program. That’s an obvious title, but what exactly does some of the responsibilities entail and what are you looking to put into that role?
First of all, in regards to just the kids, I just want to give them an honest and truthful outlook on the opportunity they’re getting. This coming from somebody who started off not thinking music was real and then I thought it was real and no one else did. Then, being from an area that was so rich in talent, but never at one time did we ever get the backing and support from the area or the school system. I’ve been sitting here, doing these interviews and I’ve just been thinking about how I just walked into a full-fledged studio that looks like my studio at home that I work out of. When I walked in the room, I just thought damn, we had to save up and rent this, go grab this and we couldn’t do this because we didn’t have this this week and so on and so forth.
This is really an opportunity to really take off for anyone of these kids in here. I just want to let them know that it’s an opportunity to take off and connect with all the creative. When I was coming up, if you liked music, you just got into band. You played whatever instrument you wanted if you got there in time because there wasn’t a lot of instruments. With this place, this is a grooming station for people in my position. I would totally look at all of these Sound Labs – the ones that are built and the ones to come – for talent and I would know that they at least have been through some level of training.
You’ve been very outspoken lately on a lot of social issues. Recently, you performed for the #SchoolsNotPrisons Tour and overall there are more artists and athletes voicing their opinions on issues. For you, why have you been more willing to speak out?
You play different roles as you grow in life and in this business. You can see the impact that you have on people. In this chapter of my life, I feel like I have an agenda that’s based around perpetuating the youth, fostering their creativity and helping getting it out there to push it forward. Me speaking out, that’s me speaking out for my people and wanting them to do better. To be a little bit self-governing and when you see something going wrong, you pull the coattails before things spiral out of control. In speaking on the social ills, it’s like I’m older. When I was younger, I was desensitized to everything. I didn’t give a damn about anything. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve gotten re-sensitized, if that’s a word. I see things and they bother me now, as opposed to when I was a kid, I would just ignore shit. That just comes with age and understanding. I’m here to show that and hopefully the kids get that same energy from me.
In this chapter of my life, I feel like I have an agenda that’s based around perpetuating the youth, fostering their creativity and helping getting it out there to push it forward.
The press on the city of Chicago has been negative for several years here with the gun violence, particularly amongst the youth here. How do you see a program like this being a tool or in helping lay the ground work to combat that issue?
I feel like it’s huge. Kids need an outlet. They need an opportunity. They need something to do. This is just the first step and this is something that can take kids and point them in a different direction. Not having direction and not having an outlet, you’ll get into anything. I’ll get into anything today without an outlet (laughs). Imagine if you’re 13, 14 with all the other ills that are happening and you grow up around. Come on, man. From poverty, single-parent homes and everything else. It’s programs like this that at least take a little bit of stress off from those other scenarios.
With everyone anxiously awaiting King Push and you seeming to want to take your time to produce the best album you can, what kind of project would you say we can look forward to?
Well, I gave you Jay-Z with “Drug Dealers Anonymous.” That was a bucket list track for me.
That is one of my all-time must-have collabs. Of course, you’re getting production from Kanye West, Nottz, Mike Will Made It, The Neptunes, Swizz Beats. Desiigner will definitely be on the album. Ty Dolla $ign will be on there. It’s a cast of characters. I’m just trying to make a great album. That’s it. I’m really just going for it. It’s fun creating like this. Right now, I do have other things on my plate, but the music now is even more of an outlet. I’m going to probably feel like these kids are once they see this space.
How different do you think your upbringing would have been if you had a program like the Sound Labs when you were in high school?
Look at what we did without it. When I say we, I mean the Clipse, The Neptunes, Timbaland, Missy Elliott, Nottz, Big Dawg — D.R.A.M. is from Virginia and he has the No. 1 hip-hop record with Lil Yatchy and he’s from the 757. Nothing has changed in regards to how they treat and look at the arts. Just think if they would have just fanned the fire back then. It may have been greater for all of us and greater for the area.