The Playground Meets: GLENWORLDTOUR - to Discuss New Album ‘I Wanna Talk 2 Samson’
Written by: Brianna Nestor
GLENWORLDTOUR is starting 2021 with reinvention and a new grasp on his aspirations. The Queens native spoke with The Playground about his beginnings, the importance of support and what to expect from him moving forward. His newest album, I Wanna Talk 2 Samson, was released January 5th of this year as a follow-up to his 2016 debut album, For Real This Time. He also releases music within his rap collective thebaremax, alongside artists Bert Knox, lamuse, yeahCALEB and executive producer Khozy. Through GLENWORLDTOUR’s music, listeners can get a sense of his versatility and how much he values those around him.
Brianna: To start, could you tell me about how you got into rapping and producing music - and how you came up with your name?
GLENWORLDTOUR: I first started making music back when I was 13 or 14, in eighth grade. It kind of just happened, it wasn't planned. I had never really thought about making music, but my cousin was making music at the time with his friends from high school. We were playing Texas Hold'em and he was showing us a song. I was like “yo, Josiah, I'm a better rapper than you.” Then from that day on, after I said it, I had to prove it.
From there, it was just a bunch of going to a crib after football practice, getting the iPad and Beats headphones and sitting at a computer desk for hours. I got in the studio for the first time when I was 16. The first thing I recorded there was a freestyle over ‘Shook Ones Part 2.’
As far as my name, to be honest, there's no hype backstory behind it. My Instagram name at the time was rapgameirving, and I was kind of copying Joey Bada$$’s name rapgamejoseph. So I wanted something that was going to stand out. So I was sitting on Instagram, stuck in the settings for mad long, and I just typed the first thing that came to mind — GLENWORLDTOUR. I was like that sounds kind of ill...imma keep it. I have no idea why, I don't know what it was. With all the other names I had before, I never wanted people to know what my rap name was, but when people said this name it was like… that shit felt right.
Brianna: So after you started recording, what led to that first album in 2016 and how did that come about?
GLENWORLDTOUR: When I made For Real This Time, me and my cousin were just putting out a lot of music and I was in a space where I was feeling ready to blow. I wanted to make music and I just wanted people to hear my music, but what I was doing at the time wasn't really garnering the attention that I wanted. I used to record with this guy named King Sage in Jamaica, and we were just sitting down one day and he was trying to figure out where I was headed, where my direction was. He started to say that he liked my voice. So when he started to compliment my music, I was like, aight shit. So every time he gives me a compliment on the song or a compliment on my voice during the creation of a record, I'm gonna put that record to the side and it’s definitely gonna go on something. It was like three days before my birthday, I was sitting in the studio and I was like, “Damn, niggas really don’t fuck with the music that we have out so I’m bouta just branch off,” because I also was a part of a collective then called Alpha Omega with my older cousins, my other cousin and his friends from Long Island. I was like I'm about to just branch off and kind of do my own thing and that's when For Real This Time came about. That was supposed to kind of just be like an introduction of who I was, but it wasn't really conveyed well on my part. At the time I felt like I needed to put something out so people could hear my music aside from just seeing the content that I was putting on Instagram.
Brianna: How did you go from working with your cousins to the collective that you’re in now?
GLENWORLDTOUR: With my cousins…. That really happened because the studio was right by my school and where I lived in Jamaica at the time, so we were always together and making music so the group kind of formed naturally. That was the first studio we ever recorded in. In the studio, I would get on the song, my cousin would get on a song, his friends would get on a song and by the time we left everyone would have a song with somebody.
But as far as me going from that to the collective, I met Bert Knox and Khozy when I started Hofstra in 2014 - and we were friends before we ever made music. Khozy used to come to the studio with me back in 2014-2015, once Bert Knox started making music he would come too so it was kind of just natural - there was no plan or nothing like that. At that time, I was kind of away a lot, like I wasn't really around. So when I kind of came back into the picture, It was like “Aight bet, now niggas is lit because we're all here.” They're really the reason that I'm here. If it wasn't for them I probably wouldn’t still be making music. So shout out to them.
Brianna: You mentioned you were on a hiatus, how come? And Do you feel like getting reconnected with them and everything kind of like, re-inspired you?
GLENWORLDTOUR:
I was away because I got into a decent amount of legal trouble. At the time, like, I'm not from where everybody else in thebaremax is from. We all come from different backgrounds, but I'm from the projects in Queens. So the stuff that I was into, I wouldn’t want to bring my homies around, or even really tell them what I was into. In my eyes, they wouldn’t understand why and would look down on me. But everything that happened was because of my circumstances, nothing was like, “Oh, I'm gonna do it just cause…” But yeah, being away and then coming back around really did inspire me because I could stay away from all the distractions and really focus. Shout out to the guys once again.
Brianna: So you were able to work with Ron Browz in 2016 on your single, “The Basement.” Tell me how you got into that and what that experience was like.
GLENWORLDTOUR: Alright so first, I do want to say shoutout to my homies uptown and my family from uptown because if it wasn’t for them it really wouldn't have happened. My brother-in-law is from Harlem, so all the people like Jim Jones, Vado, Cam’ron, like these are all people that he grew up around. I sent him music and he had played it for one of his friends and they liked my music. He was like, “Yo, come to Harlem.” So I did. Honestly, I was unsure of who I was meeting. He didn't tell me nothing, he didn't say nothing. I got to Harlem, his friend was like, “I fuck with the music. We’re gonna get you in the studio. We got a producer there who loves your beats, we'll record and work on some stuff.”
Now when people say studio I'm thinking we’re going to some warehouse type shit. But no, we pulled up to some townhouse in Teaneck, New Jersey. When I got out the car I asked who lived there, and the guy we came with said “Ron”. I said, “Ron who?” He told me “Ron Browz” and instantly I had butterflies in my stomach. I dead used to be jumping out the window over Ron Browz. He literally produced some of my favorite records. We used to listen to ‘Pop Champagne’ all the time, it was a big part of our childhood. Meeting him and then having him listen to my music and fuck with my music was crazy...and then having him as someone I can go to for a critique on a friendship level… that shit is so cool.
Brianna: Let's move onto your newest project, I Wanna Talk 2 Samson. I was listening today and I really love your production and overall sound and I was trying to think of how I would describe it. When you think of your music what comes to mind?
GLENWORLDTOUR: Car rides, getting fried with the homies, wings, like 4am. There’s a bunch of significance because that music was made around a time where me and my man Caleb were always together, like six nights out of the week just driving around, hitting functions. Then it became a pattern where we wouldn’t get back to our respective cribs until like 5 in the morning. A lot of what we did during that time and the shit we got into was a big part of the creation of the music.
Brianna: My personal favorites are “Afro Pick” and “Blair's Interlude.” What would you say was your favorite to work on? What songs came very naturally to you? Did you have a bunch that you chose from for the album?
GLENWORLDTOUR: The records were chosen from a vault. I have a bad habit of just making and stashing music and not ever putting anything out, so all the records are over a year old. It came down to 7 out of 23 songs. My favorites to work on I have to say were probably “No$tix” and “Cherry Juice.” Those are the two most opposite of everything else that’s on the project, and the two most diverse songs I have in my entire catalog. The most natural song I would have to say would be “Clouds 2 Parlay.” I wrote that not too long after the first show that I did when I first came back home after being locked up. Then “Nino's Back,” that was something I felt a strong connection to because I was really just talking. It was really just a bunch of venting and I feel like I do my best when I get in that zone. I just feel like I'm allowed to just be myself and talk on a record so I thought I’d bring my best out.
Brianna: I felt it was a great closure to the project because it leaves you with what to expect. I also wanted to talk about some singles you've released in the past two years. You dropped “Tropical” with Bert Knox in 2019. Was that another situation that just came naturally for you both?
GLENWORLDTOUR: The story behind “Tropical” - I don't know if you've ever heard “Callin’ for a Riot,” but CFAR was a record that Bert Knox did. After Bert Knox did it, I wanted to do something that kind of brings the same energy behind it - and this was going to be my first feature from anybody. That was pretty much that. I'm not gonna say that it's one of my favorites, but it's definitely something I cherish.
Brianna: Is that the same way you feel about your other single, “Groupie List” (ft. lamuse and Bert Knox)?
GLENWORLDTOUR: No, “Groupie List” might be my favorite single that I’ve released. I feel like we all walked on that and it was really a vibe. That's one thing that I try to stick to when I'm making music, I just want somebody to feel it. I don't feel like it has to be so intricate with my words, but it's more about how you feel when you listen to the record. The fact that I can put it on and vibe out, or other people can put it on and it doesn't feel forced or like a corny record. Like I can sit down and smoke, drive around, or go get some Mcdonald’s to it at 3 in the morning and it still works.
Brianna: I know it’s probably hard to see into the future with the pandemic and everything, but where do you see yourself in a year or two?
GLENWORLDTOUR: At this point in time it’s all or nothing and there’s no letting up. This year’s plan is to flood a bunch of music from me that has been backed up in a vault. One of the holdups is really being in front of the camera. I really do have a disdain for social media, I'm not a big fan except for Twitter. I love Twitter. Right now during this interview there’s three people sitting in the car on this interview. In one or two years, I predict us doing the same thing, smoking a spliff on some side block, but instead of in New York we’ll be doing this interview after a show from like California or Arizona, Wyoming even. I predict that we’ll be doing everything that we're doing now, just better and on a much bigger scale.
Brianna: Okay last question. Since we are called the Playground we have a question we like to ask everyone. Did you have a favorite part of the playground growing up?
GLENWORLDTOUR: My favorite part of a playground? Probably the Monkey Bars. Yeah. Probably the monkey bars forreal, and then a close second would have to be the slide.
Brianna: And lastly, Is there anything you’re working on we should be looking forward to in 2021?
GLENWORLDTOUR: Yes, absolutely. The “Nino's Back” visual is gonna drop on my birthday this year, March 4th at midnight. And more music from the vault coming soon.
Check out GLENWORLDTOUR’s latest project I Wanna Talk 2 Samson below - and be on the lookout for the “Nino’s Back” set to drop on March 4th, and more releases throughout 2021.