Ben WesthoffOur feature profile on the rapper Riff Raff, published last week, still has the internet doing a collective OMG. Tracing his story from childhood days in a tranquil Houston suburb through community college in northern Minnesota through a rapid ascent in hip-hop (with each step documented by a hastily-obtained tattoo), it's a Gatsbyian tale of a man who has been completely absorbed into his character.
Riff Raff himself didn't like the piece — in a flurry of direct Twitter messages he called this writer a “SNAiL” and insisted “YOUR BODY & MiND COLLECT DUST” — but it has been extremely well-read, making sense of a cultural figure who is as controversial as he is entertaining. Ahead of the print edition of L.A. Weekly, which drops today, and which features him on the cover — yes, despite his concerns when we interviewed him, Riff Raff made the cover — here are some of his most hilarious and oddly-poignant quotes that didn't make the story.
On how he deals with adversity:
“When you have people saying that you're lying or doing this and that, and staying against you, you have two choices: You can either fall under pressure or you can use that as fuel to the fire. So now I'm like a damn Amazon forest but just caught on fire so it's like you can't just throw water at me and put me out. Thats some bullshit ass water right there. It's not that easy.”
On the book he said he was working on with Spring Breakers director Harmony Korine:
“It's not happening.”
How come?
“You have to ask [Korine], I've been lied to so many times.”
Do you wish it were happening?
“Yeah of course. I'm sure everybody would've. But when you're dealing with shady people then, you know, you can't get too far.”
See also: Our Riff Raff slideshow
On a book he's really coming out with:
“It's not an autobiography. It's um…it's a book. So whatever it's about you'll have to see.”
Is it fiction or non-fiction?
“It's not a fiction book, it's whatever I want it to be. It's about whatever I think about. It's like my diary. Like Twitter is like my diary. So my book is like…a diary. It's whatever I talk about. It doesn't have to be anything I don't want to, it doesn't have to be about the world, it doesn't have to be anything, it can just be things that I'm thinking about. It's my world.”
On what he thinks makes for a good video:
“Girls, and a good camera, a good director.”
On his forthcoming debut album Neon Icon:
“This is gonna be my best work, so that's why it's taking so long. We wanna make sure that all the songs are the best. It's not a mixtape, it's not going to be like my normal stuff that I just put out. [First single] “Dolce and Gabbana” as far as I'm concerned that ain't going to be on the album, it ain't good enough for my album.”
On what he admired about Houston rappers like Paul Wall, who were blowing up in the mid-aughts:
“Everything. It's about the music, it's about a whole way of life. You just have to be there. I can't explain it. It's fun. What can I say? It's like askin' kids, 'Why is riding roller coasters fun?' It's all just fun.”
On Vanilla Ice:
“He seemed cool. I'm about cool vibes and fun 'n shit. So if something is fun to me or it looks cool then I gravitate it to it. I don't care about what other people think.”
On how he would describe his mentality:
“Careless. Luxury. Reckless luxury. Careless luxury. Luxurious. Luxurious carelessness.
On what he did to pay the bills after high school:
“I don't know. Nothing. I won the lottery. $50 million.”
On the kind of work his parents did:
“My mom was a pilot, and my dad wrestled polar bears.”
Did he survive?
“He still alive. He's roommates with the polar bear. They got bunk beds.”
Did you ever want to get into that yourself?
“I did. I used to wrestle penguins when I was a baby. My mom would get mad.”
On living in Hibbing, Minnesota, Bob Dylan's hometown:
“Who Bob Dylan?”
You don't know who Bob Dylan is?
“Bobby Knight?”
On the house he bought in Las Vegas:
“We in the middle of remodel right now. We gotta put pipes and in the living room put a hardwall. There's a big hole in the living room right now. Walls need to be knocked down. Once they done with the pipes they'll probably be done in February… It has a jacuzzi in the living room. It's like a club. It has all these speakers in all sides. It has moonroof, some dome shit, jacuzzi. It's like a high rise…There could be, like, a rave in there, if we put black lights and shit. It's going to be crazy.”
On what he wants to be doing when he's 85.
“What would I do? Shit. What would I want to do today? I don't know.”
On the type of phone he has:
“iPhone 7.”
See also: Becoming Riff Raff: How a White Suburban Kid Morphed Into Today's Most Enigmatic Rapper
Like us on Facebook at LAWeeklyMusic.
Top Ten Musicians of All Time, In Any Genre
Advertising disclosure: We may receive compensation for some of the links in our stories. Thank you for supporting LA Weekly and our advertisers.