When listening to SleazyWorld Go, his semi-automatic delivery grabs your attention first. Currently, the Kansas City rapper has been on a tear these last few months, amassing millions of on-demand streams for his single “Sleazy Flow.” Four projects in, Sleazy remains true to himself. His authenticity is a daily practice, used as a means to make his content more relatable – but that’s just who he is, naturally: “Ion have to persuade nobody for an image.” 

“That’s the main reason why I feel like my sound is successful,” Sleazy tells Dirty Glove Bastard. “People gravitate towards it because they know it’s something different, it’s nothing replicated.” 

Living in the moment with conviction is no challenge for Sleazy because his art is a lifestyle. His catalog is marked by a pocket of steadily improving and increasingly popular singles, each song arriving full-formed with more gun references than the track that preceded it. His music feels like war, which Sleazy himself adores: “That’s me, that’s the energy.”

Beyond sonics, SleazyWorld Go is a hope dealer. He aspires to inspire, using his platform to show growth in real time. While breadcrumbing is viewed as the latest dating trend for singles, the skeleton of this concept works for Sleazy’s well-paced approach to motivate others. He’s never had to do (or say) too much – he just needs to talk his shit into the ear of listeners. 

How would you describe yourself as a kid?

I was bad as hell: I used to want to fight a lot. I wasn’t getting into trouble in school, I was doing all the bad shit at recess, walking home from school – I’d try to fight other kids for no reason type shit. 

Where did that animosity come from? 

I honestly don’t know – fighting was just fun to me. 

Are there any parts of your upbringing that influence your sound as we see it today?

Nah, not really. Even with me just explaining my sound, I never got into music being inspired by another artist. I wanted to create something different. I wanted to make a sound that represents me and my personality. You can’t lose when you stay true to yourself. 

Authenticity is about knowing yourself. 

That’s the main reason why I feel like my sound is successful and it’s so different. People gravitate towards it because they know it’s something different, it’s nothing replicated. 

Four projects in – Big Sleaz, The Sleazy Way, Sleazy, and Thug You –  what does it mean to still be creative?

Those projects were chapters in my life. I still got a whole book to go: me being creative is just me writing another chapter. If you listen to my first project, if you play it from top to bottom, it’s different from the next one. It’s a different vibe. That’s one thing, too, Ion try to stick to one sound just because it’s working. Everything I did with my projects, it was working at that moment. My first project got me to a step to get me to the next project to get me to the step where “Sleazy Flow” is. Each one of those [sounds] worked.  

Have you mastered your flow, or are you still fine tuning your sound? 

I’m comfortable, but at the same time, it’s so much more creative that I want to become, it’s just steps. I be already thinking ahead, I just don’t give it to people at that moment because I feel like this isn’t the right moment for that sound. When I did “Sleazy Flow,” I been had Sleazy flow. I had Sleazy flow when I dropped my last tape [Sleazy] I just didn’t release it because it wasn’t the time. When I dropped my last project, I was already on a new flow. I got songs right now for my next project, and some ready after that. 

“Sleazy” is a big part of your brand. That word is used often across the different titles of your work.  

Sleazy is a lifestyle – it’s a personality. It means a lot to me. My music is a representation of my personality. Ion do too much. I’m a Capricorn: people say we nonchalant or whatever.

Would you say that personality is important in today’s rap landscape? 

That’s part of staying true to yourself. That’s how people gon’ relate to you because it’s people just like you in this world and they might not be good at expressing themselves, but when they find an artist that is, they can relate to it. I can make songs without tryna relate to people and they will gravitate to it because of my personality – because it’s real, raw. I ain’t gotta do too much. Ion have to persuade nobody for an image. My image is who I am. 

Are Glocks a part of who you are, too? 

[Laughs] I definitely love Glocks. I wanna be endorsed by Glocks. They’re so special to me because Glocks are supposed to be the perfect gun – they not supposed to jam, they shoot smooth. As far as my music, that’s how I describe my sound, like perfection. 

Metaphorically speaking, your music is a semi-automatic pistol. 

If you had to say what’s the top gun brand, you’d say a Glock. If you say what’s the top sound, I want you to say Sleazy. 

How do you keep those boundaries in place so you don’t overshare with your listeners, though? There’s a thin line between venting and shit-talking. 

Ion try too hard. Like I said before, I’m not gon’ overstep boundaries because Ion do too much. If you hear one of my songs, you’ll hear me say, “You know I’m finna talk my shit.” That’s what made me come up with the “Let Me Talk My Shit” series – that’s a whole different flow from “Sleazy Flow.” That’s me, that’s the energy. I’m still not doing too much with how I’m delivering it – the beats, the bass, it’s all different energy. I’m rapping faster on “Let Me Talk My Shit.” I’m putting more bars and metaphors in it. “Sleazy Flow” is striped, it’s raw. 

Is it hard dealing with the exterior shit – rumors, clout chasing, internet trolls – that come with fame?

Personally, I’m big on not responding to rumors. At the end of the day, a person gon’ believe what they want whether I say something or not. I ain’t tryna prove nothing to nobody. That ain’t gon’ stop me from doing nothing – I know what’s going on with me. It be irritating but I ain’t gon’ let it stress me. I’m already rich now: you making a rumor about me ain’t gon’ stop nothing now.

Money makes a difference.

I ain’t too focused on the money. My main focus is proving to the world my sound is the next sound. I’m tryna become one of the biggest in the game. That money will distract you. I ain’t focused on tryna compete with jewelry and all that. I’ma bust down me: I just bust down me a lil’ cool kit – I ain’t tryna do nothing too crazy, Ion need to. My fans gotta see that growth, they gotta see me elevate. Ion wanna just jump into this and jump into that. At the same time, they can’t really relate to that. Yeah, it’s gon’ get to a point where I’ma start doing that just to give ‘em motivation, but right now I want them to see me grinding. Ion want them to feel like I’m up and I ain’t gotta do nothing – I’m still grinding, I’m still hungry. 

Do you feel like your fans are invested in your come up? 

Fasho, me making it and doing this for the city – both the cities I’m repping for (Kansas City and Grand Rapids) – it’s like ain’t nobody really came out of here, it’s hard. The industry ain’t watching these cities so I feel like I’m putting on for two cities in one. People that’s watching me, they getting hope. I’m giving them hope because I was just in the same store as them, the same neighborhood, the same school, and I made it on my own. Now the other rappers in the city like, ‘Yeah, let me work hard – that’s what he did.’ People think it’s impossible until it happens.

That’s one way to use your influence. 

I just want to put light on the cities that I’m representing because it’s a lot of talent. It’s a lot of young niggas coming up where I came from that feel like they don’t deserve it. I feel like we all deserve a chance. Just off of history, what we went through as a race, ya feel me – we all deserve to be rich, in a good position.

Where do your interests lie outside of music?

Besides music, I’m into fashion. Ion know, I just feel like with my platform, I need to bring hope to people that ain’t got hope – give that type of belief to people that don’t believe. Where I’m from, even though this happened to me, I would’ve never thought in a million years it would have. Our city so small, you gotta be from Chicago or Atlanta to be noticed. With my platform, I just wanna show people that’s coming from these cities that Kansas City, Missouri and Grand Rapids, Michigan is good enough. Don’t doubt yourself because of where you from or the circumstances you’ve been in.