My Five Firsts: Dizzy Wright

Funk Volume artist Dizzy Wright is set to embark on the “House Party Tour” this Friday, October 10. The Las Vegas native is teaming with Boston-based duo Aer for a trek through several East Coast cities including New York, Pittsburgh, and Virginia Beach.

AllHipHop.com recently caught up with Dizzy to ask the 23-year-old rapper to discuss a few unforgettable moments in his life. The 2013 XXL Freshmen Class member reflects back on the first time he smoked marijuana, the first time he performed with his mentor Hopsin, the first time he heard two of the Hip Hop classics that helped inspire his The Golden Age mixtape, and more.

First Time Smoking Weed

The first time I smoked weed it turned out really bad. That night one of my homies at the time kinda got jumped at the show we were doing. He was upset, and the police came. He was so upset, he was just saying s**t. You know how n***as get. So the police kind of roughed him up, tased him, and hit him with their sticks.

It was a real tough night. That was the first night I ever felt weak, hopeless, like I couldn’t help my homie at all. I couldn’t touch the police. That was my first time smoking weed, and fortunately I think the weed made me deal with it a little better. I wanted to hit the police officer, but nobody would have ever known who I was if I had hit that police officer that day. I’d be somewhere locked up.

First Time Having Sex With A Groupie

I had groupies when I was in 11th grade [laughs]. The first time I was on 106 & Park’s “Wild-Out Wednesday” – let’s just say being on TV for 30 minutes, it does something to the ladies [laughs].

First Time Performing On Stage With Hopsin

My first time performing on stage with Hopsin was dope, because I had never seen a Black person crowd surf. I had never seen a Black person cause a mosh pit. I had never seen a Black person rap all the words to his lyrics. It was my first time seeing this new – at the time it was 2012 – rapper that wasn’t just getting up there and looking cool. He was jumping on motherf**kers.

I thought that was amazing. It made me just want to go more that route. I wanted to be more like Hopsin than just a rapper that walks around and holds his pants.

First Time Meeting A Musical Inspiration

I was in the studio with DJ Quik. That’s one of my inspirations. I was meeting him, not for the first time, but the first time as an established artist. I actually met DJ Quik when I was about 11 years old. My mom had me rap for him. We still got it on camera and everything.

Meeting him again and being able to tell him about that experience and explain to him the kind of songs I want to bring to the game are similar to the funk that he brought to the game…. For him to just break it down to me about originality, just smoking weed and not doing other drugs, and just staying true to Hip Hop, those kind of conversations remind me that the music that we do in Hip Hop is about how we express and explain ourselves.

You don’t have to over think it, overdo it, or try to be like anybody. You just gotta have fun with the s**t and be willing to grow. If you can remember that, you can do this s**t forever. You can be like the DJ Quiks.

First Time Hearing Nas’ Illmatic and Jay Z’s Reasonable Doubt

I heard bits and pieces of both of those CDs since they came out, but the first time that I listened to both those albums fully through was last year a little before “The Golden Age Tour.” Actually, a little before The Golden Age mixtape even dropped.

I was on my golden age s**t. I really wanted to dig into the roots of things. The roots of n***as explaining themselves – Nas, how he explained his Black experience; Jay Z, how he explained his Black experience.

I just wanted to tap into that. Being young and Black, you don’t have many people to look up to. We’re always looking to be like rappers to get the quick money. I always wanted to know – How did they get there? What were they even talking about before they got there? I wanted to dig into that kind of stuff to make sure I was doing the right thing, because that’s the way I felt like I wanted to go.