There are countless perks to being a creator, one can vent and channel their emotions and energy in to their art, and carve a lane for their truth. Co-founder of the Maryland based musical collective Grammy Family, Matt McGhee is a talented young man whoʼs been oft slighted and doesnʼt mind proclaiming it to the world. Heʼs been called ʻcockyʼ because of his strong will & confidence, packed along with his exuberant amount of ingenuity.
Matt’s a young man who has known what he’s wanted to be since the age of seven ‘the best rapper’ and he’s taken steps attain that goal. His wordplay is witty and the truth in his music is sometimes too brutally honest to look straight at, whether he’s touching on frustration with his place in the game, friends being fake, or misadventures while drinking, it’s his truth.
Earlier this year Matt released his debut album AWARD, and it definitely blew the lid off of expectations for this gifted emcee.
Throughout the interview, McGhee peels back a glimpse of who he really is, revealing a leader, a visionary, and trendsetter.
WRITTEN BY: Jordan Baylor
PHOTOGRAPHY BY: Al Hostile
FS:Who is Matt McGhee?
MM: Matt McGhee is a suburban kid who loves to make music, and heʼs been doing it forever. Iʼm pretty much just a normal person who happens to make music and has the same problems as everyone else. Iʼm just able to make music for other people that have problems like me….Oh Iʼm 19, from Maryland…What else?….Ugh…I really like Chipotle!
(*laughs) FS: What is the music scene like in Maryland?
MM: Thereʼs two different scenes, itʼs the trap scene, gangster music and then thereʼs our shit which is kinda hipster.
FS: I see, so the scene is essentially the ʻsuburban kidʼ versus the ʻneighborhood crack dealerʼ?
MM: Yeah, thatʼs exactly what it is, thereʼs a lot of separation. But for me, I listen to alot of different stuff; I fuck with a lot of people on the trap side. Iʼm just waiting to make it so I can work with them, and hopefully bridge that gap.
FS: Youʼre a producer as well as a rapper, what did you do first? Produce or rap first?
MM: I started rapping first, because when I was seven one of my cousins, was in a local rap group. He passed away, and I always thought he was cool, I didnʼt really know him that well, but every time I saw him I always thought he was really cool, so I kinda wanted to do that, and I just stuck with it. I was able to write about different stuff, I was writing about how my parents got divorced. I was writing about how much I hated the people at school, just regular seven-year-old stuff. I was just rapping about it.
I remember I wrote a rap about the Ravens, they had won the Superbowl around that time. So I wrote a song about that, and I was writing it in class then somebody saw and started making fun of me.
You know stuff like that happens, because nobody aspires to be a rapper when theyʼre that young. Everybody wants to be a football player or something like that.
FS: Youʼre apart of the Grammy Family Collective, you and rapper rMell founded it. What was the idea behind it and the overall goal for it?
MM: rMell used to be in the group the Kool Klux Klan thatʼs another DMV group. Theyʼre more hip hop, like ʻIʼm going to take this beat and rap my ass offʼ, then just put it out, and there is nothing wrong with that. Iʼve worked with the people countless times, but me and rMell weʼre into making complete songs. Weʼre into making albums, and complete projects. It came together just because what we had in common. The thought process behind creating music. We just had alot of similarities.
I was already working with Jaylen!, I was working with him before I met rMell, I brought him into the Grammy Family group. Then Miles, I saw him perform one time, rMell already knew who he was but I was like ʻWe should probably bring him in too”, so then we brought him in, then CRASHprez then we have this singer rMell brought in named Chelsea. Everybody in ʻGram Famʼ, besides Chelsea is from Maryland.
FS: So you guys bring your resources and talents and knowledge together, the team then puts it in one project at a time? How do you choose whoʼs the next artist in line?
MM: How we did it was rMell already had people waiting for ʻNeo Geoʼ he had been promoting that. I wanna say a year and a half, maybe two years so he had people waiting for that. When he became apart of Gram Fam, we all got on board and we all helped him out with it. We already came up with the order because the order people were waiting on Neo Geo, and then my project is just the one up next. rMell is the most popular out of all of us, he already had a built in fan base, since Iʼm the second most popular I was up next. Miles was the least known, so we were just going to work on all that, and make sure people know who Miles is, and as time goes on, drop his project.
The way that we just ordered it was based off of importance and the fan bases that we had.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY: Criminal Preist
FS: I noticed that you frequently collaborate with rMell from Grammy Family, and whenever you two are on a track your levels go up! What do you two bring out of each other when you create?
MM: Honestly, rMell & I did the song ʻHidden Messageʼ and everybody was like ʻYo man Mell got you on that song!” so the next song we did I was like ʻI gotta get him.” So itʼs really like a ʻfriendly competitionʼ the song ʻColdʼ that we did I had to get on him and I was like ʻYou gotta re-do your voice because I know you got it in you.” So itʼs those talks , and those competitions that we have that bring out the best in us. It always works.
FS: So Miles is on the first verse of ʻAt The Topʼ on your album correct?
MM: Actually heʼs on the whole song, thatʼs his song. I did have vocals on it, I come in on the part I say ʻ You not even feeling these beats?” thatʼs me, but I gave him that song, just because people donʼt know who he is, and I want people to get to know who he was. I felt like AWARD was going to be really popular so I wanted to add that.
FS: So you think like a general, in the sense that you think for the good of the PEOPLE other than yourself.
MM: Thatʼs the thing, you canʼt be selfish when youʼre working in a collective. Honestly, I feel like everything I do is for the advancement of the group. I talk to these people everyday, itʼs bigger than me, and I understood that going into the making of Gram Fam. That itʼs not just me, so we canʼt be focused on that.
FS: You have the collective burgeoning this time, people are going to be like ʻWow they have that much talent coming out of the DMV?”
MM: Thatʼs was actually the plan. Thatʼs what I mean when I say itʼs bigger than me, and itʼs bigger than us (re: Grammy Family.) We have to make sure that weʼre doing everything on our part.
You can DOWNLOAD Matt’s debut album AWARD by Clicking HERE.
