TORY LANEZ TALKS TOURING, PRODUCTION, MOVIE PLANS & TAKING OVER THE WORLD

From losing to his mother at a young age, to being homeless at the age of 14, the son of a preacher, Tory Lanez, has been grinding since day one. With mixtape after mixtape, rapping to singing to producing to directing, Tory Lanez has a vision to be the greatest. Our new writer, Tiki Cofer, had a chance to sit down with him before his Portland show on Sunday. Being the first interview Tiki has done for us, he was a bit nervous, but after 15 minutes with him he realized that he is one of the most down to earth people out there and his vision for the future is bright and unmatched.Tiki Cofer: You’re on the last leg of your tour, how has it been? Any favorite moments or crowds?TL: I mean I love all my citizens, but I definitely had a lot of fun when I went back to Canada, I haven’t gone to the last two Canadian dates but, Vancouver was crazy, Seattle was retarded, Denver was amazing… Everywhere was amazing honestly. I haven’t had a bad show, by the grace of God. TC: Anyone come out with you on this tour?TL: My brother Rocky Diamonds he’s here. I been following his music for a long time and we stayed in contact and he came out on tour with me.TC: For the nation: What’s Tory Lanez favorite artist ever?TL: Dylan, Dylan, and Dylan (laughs).  All jokes aside, not to sound cocky, but I’m my favorite artist. I swear. There’s not a lane of music that I can’t tap into. I don’t really know an artist that can tap into all lanes. I hate to sound like that guy, nahmsayin? But I’m my favorite artist. TC: What are some of the first hip-hop songs that really affected you during those rough young years?TL:  “Soon You’ll Understand” by Jay-Z was one of them, “Only God Can Judge Me” by Tupac. Even records like “Brenda had a Baby” and stuff like that. I love the art of storytelling. I think it’s amazing when an artist can tap into life experiences that are similar to yours, the viewers, the listeners, whatever the case may be. I think that’s where I try to kind of draw a lot of my inspiration, and do things as well like that. You know, storytelling through music that made me feel crazy, or a certain way, so I try to do the same thing back, you know?TC: On Lost Cause, you work with Noah Breakfast/Ryan Hemsworth/RL Grime/you speak highly of Play Picasso, but are there any producers you messin’ with/wanna collaborate with to further elevate your sound?TL: Right now I have a mental plan in my mind of what I wanna do. I want to get a group together of like 5-6 super producers, just amazing producers, and really build a team and take over with them. The only person I really have in my corner right now that I co-sign and put that stamp on is Play Picasso. There’s a lot of new people I’m starting to work with and doing things that are opening up more horizons in my music. I’m trying to take things slow and meet these producers when I do,  like organically, nahmsayin?I’m gonna have that team of producers eventually, but right now it’s just Play Picasso, that’s my main dude I work with because we produce together. I’m not just going to him like, “You got a beat for me today?” We’re going in and making a beat together. TC: Beat makers that helped influence your style of production?TL: Definitely J Dilla, of course, you know, that dreamy music. Even people from my city like Boi-1da is an incredible, incredible producer. He’s one of my favorite producers he just doesn’t know that, I never told him. And 40 as well, I think everybody in Toronto, in a way, 40 has change a lot of our lives just with his sound of the music. There’s a lot of producers just off the top, Premier of course, he’s one of the nastiest, The Alchemist, you know people like that. The heatmakers, like Just Blaze, those are the instrumentals I’d hear and be like “Wow, this is what Hip-Hop is”. You know, stuff like that.TC: Side note - I read on one of your most recent interviews that you been listening to JMSN and Toro y Moi. JMSN is playing here next week, I’ll let him know we talked. TL: Oh yeah? JMSN is the greatest. I actually texted him like 3-4 weeks ago and I just told him, “Bro, fuck what anybody else has to say you’re the best”.TC: You have your hand in directing/editing/all of the video work, most people don’t do that.TL: The difference between me and a lot of people is that a lot of people don’t respect the art. I never sacrifice the art for anything. I believe in progression. What makes me thrive and what motivates me is progression, the momentum of something happening. When I started directing it made me want to dabble into the editing, which made me want to dabble into what made the shots look this way, and what is the difference between 60 frames and 24 frames, and what is the difference between all this stuff. And eventually I found that out. I never knew that it was 7 different lenses I need to get 7 different kinds of shots. Certain things you don’t know until you dabble into it, and the more I learned, the more I wanted to be a part of it. All of my videos on YouTube have my hand in it in a way, in a very strong way. TC: Is there anything in the works, visually speaking, for 2015? Short films, visual EP, etc.?TL: I always had a vision of making films. I’m gonna come out with a TV show, but like a real serious plot though and it will be an ongoing thing. Also this year, I wanna create a movie. But this is something I’ve been writing, like I have the movie already. It’s one of those situations, I’m letting it bubble, but I’ve already wrote it. Originally “Conflicts of my Soul” was a project I did a while back and that project is actually an audio visual. If you really listen to it straight forward and back, it’s just a full movie, nahmsayin? There’s sound effects and you hear things going on, there’s interludes, things like that. I’ve been writing a real story since then. The plot that I have for my story and my movie is amazing. Even if a bunch of rappers go do a bunch of movies cause they think that’s the “thing to do”, I don’t think they’ll have a plot as great as mine, you know? I look at my shit like Michael Jackson used to look at his shit. You’ve seen “Thriller”, “Smooth Criminal”, things that make you feel like this is larger than life, and I love to bring that feeling back because I don’t make music that doesn’t make you feel a certain way. My music makes you feel like you’re in a trance of some sort, and I wanna add that to the visuals. I want you to get lost in the visuals just as much as you get lost in the music.TC: Final question, what is Tory Lanez role in the industry?TL:  People don’t wanna go as hard these days, you know? My whole, I shouldn’t say purpose, but my whole reason for being in the industry at this time, that God has blessed me to be in it, is this reason of pulling people out of the swamp that we’ve been in. Believe it or not, I am the wave of transformation and change for this whole industry. And I know it sounds weird, it sounds funny, and you’re like why are you telling me this, but the reality of it is, and it is hard to see it because I’m not everywhere, but I’m gonna be the biggest artist in the world one day. It’s a day that’s very soon and the thing about it is, when it happens, it’s gonna come out the blue. And when it does, that’s it. Everything is gonna change; everyone is gonna have to come to a certain standard level. If I’m bringing it up here and this is the new standard, you’re gonna have to either put up or shut up.Photos, video & written content by Tiki Cofer Catch his brand new song & music video for Dímelo by Snakehips x Tory Lanez.