Having never fully envisioned himself as a recording artist, OG 3Three Never Broke Again, née Roderick Jeanpierre, would eventually cave in to the constant and persistent urgings of his younger sibling; multi-platinum rapper, YoungBoy Never Broke Again. The end result is his impressive debut mixtape, “The Appetizer,” which serves as a tastemaker for his full length debut album to be released in early 2021 via 38 Records/eOne as NBA OG 3Three told us.
Fueled by the set’s latest offering, “3 Shit,” featuring his superstar brother, the 14 track collection is only further proof that this Baton Rouge, Louisiana, representative is definitely in it for the long haul.
Yo! Raps linked up the rising superstar for an exclusive interview to talk about a wide range of topics.
For those who don’t know, tell me your whole inception into music. When did you first became interested and kind of how it all began for OG3?
I go by the name of NBA OG 3Three and I came in it with my brother, NBA YoungBoy. I come from Baton Rouge, Louisiana… 225 Northside 3800 block and that’s where it started, on the porch, me and YoungBoy. The reason I’m rapping is just because of him.
You mentioned your brother as well as y’all coming from out of Baton Rouge. So growing up, in addition to the family influence, who all else kind of inspired you or influenced to do what to do today musically?
Like Tupac, Lil Phat um Boosie. Like B.G., everybody, like all the old heads, you know what I’m talking? The old people, like real OGs in the music industry.
I was just going to say with that being said, influences that you mentioned, how do you describe or define, or even classify the style of music that you create and you perform?
I don’t have no style of music. I tell real life stories. So whenever you hear me, you gonna feel me. I’m either talking about something, I’m meaning something, or I just went through something that I recorded on a track. I don’t have like a specific style because I’m so diverse, you can’t even catch up with me. And I ain’t saying like, ‘I’m just saying it to be real because like I go through so much where you really don’t know what I’m going through or talking about.’ You just gonna feel my story. But I could say if I had a style, it’d be like my life, real life story, my story.
Now, in having said that, OG 3Three or Never Broke, where did that name originally derive from? How did you come to be known as that?
NBA came before me, YoungBoy started it. So that came from that. And the OG, I was the youngest OG doing something like, I always been the big brother and the oldest to do everything and handle all the business. So it’s just like, that was just my role. That’s just always what I was. I was just OG.
Let’s talk about this latest single of yours titled “3 Shit.” Tell me how this track came to fruition, how did it all come about?
Me having fun in the booth, just playing around. Just wanted to make a song by myself. Just ‘3 Shit,’ you know what I’m saying? It just came from me, having fun with the record, me in the booth.
“3 Shit” is featured on your mixtape, “The Appetizer,” and although the title is self-explanatory, tell me, conceptually, why did you decide to name the record, “The Appetizer?”
I decided to name the tape “The Appetizer” because I’m warming them up before the meal. You got less than a full course. You got everything, you know what I’m saying? So I just want to warm them up with an appetizer, let them know I ain’t to be played with and I can stand alone.
So obviously this is a precursor to your official solo debut. Is there a target date for that yet? Are you looking at a particular time to have that released or what can you tell me, even though it’s probably still early on about your upcoming debut album?
I can tell you it’s going to be a craft of art. It’s going to be very critiqued because it’s one of my best projects Imma hope for to put together. It’s like me becoming into who I want to be, and I’m going to lay it all out on the tape and let them know what it is. I can say probably like January/February 2021, the album will be out.
You and your brother have the label, 38 Records. And aside from both of you as being artists, what are your other future goals and plans for the imprint? And do you have a roster in addition to the two of you?
I’ll say like us just taking both sides of what we got and putting it together to bring up the next youth that’s behind us too, because we done got like four new artists this past month and a half. And they all are young, young kids and they are great at what they got going on. So I think really putting that back into the community and building the youth to be greater than us and be bigger and really just be inspired by what we have going on.
Let’s switch gears a little bit here and let’s talk success. What do you feel has been your key to it so far? And of course, what’s going to sustain you in terms of longevity for the future months and years to come?
I wouldn’t even say my success is a thing yet. I mean, I’m successful because of how I feel, but the success didn’t even come yet because like, I didn’t finish accomplishing not even two to three goals. So it’s just like one goal down and it’s like we got 100 more to go. I don’t even feel successful yet. I’m still hungry to get more striving and hunger to get more success. So I can’t sit here and say I’ve been successful because I haven’t yet.
Do you have any future aspirations? I know right now the focus, of course, is on the music, but anything else that you’d like to branch out and do, or even started doing maybe behind the scenes, even outside of music altogether?
Yeah. I mean, outside of music, I’m creating my own manual, “The OG Manual,” to let the youth know how to approach life and business and a woman, how to approach a man in any situation and just really a guideline to life. I got another thing is these action figures of ourselves. We gonna protege ourselves as action figures. Another thing we coming out with accessories really like smoking accessories like glow trays.
We’ll definitely look out for all that! Now on a more serious note, would it be fair to say that you’re happy with the current state of Hip-Hop? Like, what are your personal thoughts on it?
My personal standpoint on Hip-Hop right now, I mean, it’s great because all the youngins running it. Like you see all the young dudes and the young girls, just running dominating, and I appreciate for all the OGs stepping back for us as young cats in the game to even let us take over. But I really love the game right now because they got a lot of beautiful young women that’s coming out and doing their thing and they have a lot of dudes like us doing their thing too. So it’s really a salute to all the youngins like for a fact.
Being that you brought up women, this wasn’t an actual question, but is there a female artist that you may be grooming, in terms of a 38 Records signee?
I’ve been looking at a girl to sign but I really want to critique her before I even take a chance on her because I don’t want it to just be like here and go. I really want something all the way down the line. I need you to be here and understand the loyalty. I mean, if we can get that up out the girl, it’s going to be lovely. But yeah, we for sure been looking at them, but we didn’t make a final decision just yet.
Now, let me ask you this. I know, you’ve probably had many and obviously, there’s going to be many, many more to come, but thus far, what do you feel has been your biggest career moment, at least till today’s date?
My biggest career moment was making my brother successful and the biggest thing he want to be. That’s all I wanted. All I wanted to see was my little brother shine. As long as YoungBoy is happy, and he’s shining, like that was my major goal in everything we got going on. That was my biggest success and I really loved the enjoyment of watching him grow and just to get to where we are right now, it’s just amazing!
Now, because YoungBoy had such success and he was the flagship artist for this whole kind of movement, was it always in the plans for you to be in the forefront as well? Because I know in the beginning or at least with his career, you kind of played the back. So was it always in the plan that you were going to eventually like be on the mic yourself or was that something that just kind of organically came about?
It organically came about by YoungBoy telling me, he got tired one day and was like, “Man, you might as well do this, too, because I’m tired of doing it myself.” And he’s like, “Come on, man. Just get in the booth for me please.” I’m like, “Man, come on, bro. You going to try me on this, bro? Please, don’t do this to me.” “Hey, come on, man. Get in the booth, Imma help you.” I’m like, “Man, come on bro. Let’s do it then.” So nah it really didn’t come about, like I wasn’t ever on the forefront. I didn’t ever even picture myself on the forefront. Like I always played the backfield and I always just helped him businesswise. So it was just like, for me to be on like putting out music now, it’s like it’s just funny sometimes because like, we just laugh about it because he knows like he made me start doing it.
That’s funny! It was a good thing he pushed you because it’s good to have you as an artist now. When you sit down to pen your rhymes, where do you find your inspiration? Where do you draw that from?
My inspiration comes from my story, everything that I’m going through, everything that my brother is going through, everything that family being just aware of period. It’s like everything.
Looking ahead, say 5 or 10 years down the line. Where do you see yourself, where would you like to be?
I see myself sitting back in the office, artist management, project managing these younger dudes and just making the world greater. I just love success. I love positivity and just keep moving up… like I love to go up, if we going up on the incline, ain’t nothing on the decline, so that’s how we move.
As for the immediate future, what’s next for you? Obviously, the single “3 Shit” is out doing its thing, “The Appetizer,” the same thing, out there doing well for you. You mentioned an album coming in January/February of 2021. Is there anything I left out or forgot to mention that you kind of want to leave the readers with?
No, not really. I mean I’d say if anything I want to tell the readers, like never give up, keep striving, be yourself, trust nobody, don’t let nobody tell you, you won’t be great. Always push! The whole youth, I want to give that to them.
I want to thank you so much for taking the time out with Yo! Raps today. Continued success to you and good luck in all future endeavors!