What's up bro first things first I wanted to start by thanking you for coming on Nefarious Supply! So to get the interview started tell us about yourself, who is 2baggshawty, what's the meaning behind your moniker, and what should the audience know about you?
First of all, I would like to start off thanking you, Xavier, and the Nefarious Supply team for giving me this opportunity. My name is Ro Harper and I am from Gretna of the Westbank of Louisiana. My artist name is 2baggshawty which is funny because I never intended to make it my artist name. Initially, it was a nickname I kind of got because I was selling drugs when I was in school at Xavier. I had one school bag for my books and one bag with ounces and shit. So people would originally start calling me Baggboi Ro and then I started thinking of the name 2bagg. So probably around October of last year, I changed it officially to “2baggshawty” and people immediately started picking up on the name and loved it.
I see you're based out of NOLA! Tell us about the area, and how has it played an influence on you and your artistry?
I love NOLA man. It’s crazy to see how much-hidden talent is in one area. I grew up on both sides of the river because I got family all over. My people from the 9th ward and the 15th in Algiers and I spent some of my childhood in both of them areas then we moved here in Gretna. New Orleans is just a huge melting pot that holds such a special place in my heart. I think I have absorbed so much from the city in my years and through my own lens, I’m able to push out how I view the world from my perspective.
Who has been the biggest influence on your sound and how have they done so?
I would say the biggest influence on my sound is definitely Future. To me, he has sculpted himself into a worldwide icon simply from conveying his emotions through music. I started to actually study how he made music because it was so interesting to me how one person could put so much raw emotion into a song while flexing his drug money and accomplishments and in the next sentence telling you about his past drug addiction. And I really focused on how the power of his words would have such an intoxicating effect on millions of people and I started to take that blueprint and run with it. So far it seems like I’m going in a pretty good direction but there’s always room for improvement. You gotta want it that bad to damn near drive yourself insane.
So let's talk about music, what got you into making music, how long have you been in the industry, and how has your experience been so far?
Well, what got me into music originally was my potnas in high school. We started making some shit as a joke and one of the songs on SoundCloud got like 8000 plays. It’s still up there it’s called NBA League Pass and it was back when I had a stupid ass rap name for myself “King Zeus”. The first official song I put on SoundCloud was like March 2019 called motions which a lotta people surprisingly liked but I feel like I’ve progressed so much since then that I sound nothing like that anymore and it hasn’t even been a full year yet.
So I haven’t even been in the industry like a full year yet probably about 9 months. I started out last year at the beginning of the summer looking for any opportunity to perform and show people what I can do on a stage. I remember I signed up for this open mic at the jazz market and waited all night until about 1 in the morning and once I finally got on the mic after being so excited all night, the dude who runs the place said we shutting everything down and I had to get off the mic. Of course, I was drove. It took a number of months which seemed like a lifetime but I finally had my first ever show in September 2019. It was surreal because there were already people in my crowd knowing the lyrics to some of my songs. Since September I haven’t gone a month without a show and a few months along the way I had 2 shows a month. So I have been working nonstop and loving every minute of it.
So you have a pretty nice discography out right now but stand out singles are “Blue Pill” with Orphan Boy, “Flex My Pain”, tell us about each one?
Thank you very much for listening and I am glad you enjoy those songs so much. What’s interesting about “Flex my pain” is that I actually wrote the lyrics to that when I was in rehab over the summer. Yes, I did go to rehab and now I am much healthier now. I thought it would be an interesting concept to take the pain I was going through in my life at the point and turn it into a positive. So that song is me flexing my pain, showing everybody that if I went through some fucked up shit like a week straight of withdrawals and rehab and made it out then anybody else can too because I’m just a regular-ass dude from the Westbank.
Blue Pill has an interesting story too because at first, it was just Orphanboy’s song then he asked me to hop on. The line that everybody loves in that song is when I said: “she calling me by my government, bitch how do you know that”. This was just really funny to me because it just came from a situation I had with this chick I was joking and I don’t really be telling chicks my government name like that I just always go by Ro. But when she knew my government without me telling her I was like…how the fuck you know my name I ain’t tell you that haha. So I had to put it in a song
Bro so who is doing your production cause every beat goes crazy, and how is it in the studio working with them?
My main producer is Orphanboy, shoutout my dude Orphan, he’s such an amazing person. We started meshing really well and we always fed off of each other and just went with the flow of whatever we was feeling when we would hit the studio. Most of the time I wouldn’t even have anything written before because I really enjoyed making my music off the cuff. And orphan is so talented that he mixes, masters, and engineers everything himself on top of being the amazing artist he is. I also have some other producers by the name of Otisdanjo and WestlyPBE. Both of them also DC natives and wonderful producers. BIGGG shoutout to them as well they all have phenomenal talents.
Tell us about Bruce LeeShawty EP, what was your goal with this EP, who handled production, and what’s your favorite song on the project?
Bruce Leeshawty EP to me is a huge milestone in my career. I wasn’t ready to give the album away already but I knew that an EP would be perfect for my first project just to get my foot in the door. So my goal with the EP was to put together a small piece of work with some songs people have already heard and a never before heard song with my bruddas Peso and Flee. Of course, Orphan was the mastermind behind the entire production for the EP and engineered and mixed/mastered all of it.
My favorite song is definitely Fetti and the reason is just the significance behind it. Peso and Flee came in town for one of my two shows in October and was able to perform with me a song that we had made earlier in 2019 called OD. It’s still up on SoundCloud on Culture Fiend page. But then I think it was a couple days after my show they was leaving to go back home soon and so we thought it would be a good idea to get a song in with all of us on it again. So that’s how Fetti came about. Nobody even knew I was gonna put it on the EP at first cause I wanted it to be a surprise to everyone listening.
In addition to Orphan Boy, Kid Pe$o, and Flee, who else have you worked with and who you eventually want to work with?
The other people I have worked with is my dude Malems based out of the Westbank too. He actually grew up a few minutes from me and he’s the one that really got me introduced to all this music shit. He was the one I was making shit with in high school as a joke and then we had that NBA League Pass song kinda that blow up. Other than that I have also worked with Reidlyfly from DC, $eptum, Po the God, and RIP Chiquet all from NOLA and a few other artists in the city that I haven’t gotten around to yet but it’s in the works.
So what can we expect from you in 2020?
In 2020 you can expect a really big year full of crazy shows and my debut album coming soon. I already have one show I am headlining at the Willow on February 13th. My second time performing at the willow. And the album I’m working on is gonna be very unlike everything I made last year. In this year, I am finally going to show everyone the different ideas I can use in my music and I feel like a lot of people will surprised once they hear it. By the end of this year, after lots of hard work I see myself making it on a large festival like Rolling Loud.
Any last words?
Last words I hope y’all enjoyed reading this shit about my life if you even care. I ,2bagg, do not endorse selling drugs, don’t do it just because I made it my rap name. But anyway I’m just a happy ass dude. Life is great. I’m living healthy and I got my bruddas every step of the way.
Who should we interview next on Nefarious Supply?
I think yall should interview “Rare Tazo” who is also from NOLA. She hard as fuck. Yall will definitely like her energy if you enjoy hearing my duckass.