MCM Raymond talks upcoming EP “Many Can’t Maintain” & Lil Tecca Co-Sign

MCM Raymond is only 23 years old and is already living out his dreams as a recording artist. Hailing from Inglewood, California, the rising star has been steadily inserting himself as a force to be reckoned with in the music industry, specifically on the streets of Los Angeles. 

With his smooth bars, clever punchlines, and storytelling in his lyrics, it’s safe to say MCM Raymond is up next.

In describing himself, he states he’s just “a kid from Los Angeles, always on the move. Grinding, getting to it. A go-getter forreal.”

His name is directly inspired by the luxurious lifestyle he lives: MCM stands for Making Cash Money. Simultaneously, MCM Raymond was always known for wearing an MCM backpack during high school. 

At age 12, MCM Raymond started making beats on Garageband… but it wasn’t long until he shifted his focus and efforts into formulating his rhymes over beats.

To date, MCM Raymond has a big moment with KingMostWanted on “In My City,” enlisted AzChike on “Rasta,” and most recently unveiled his newest single titled “Jimmy Choo Freestyle.” 

The latter record pays homage to living the good life, unapologetic when it comes to his attitude and talents as a rapper. 

Plus, fans have been going crazy recently on social media, with debates wondering whether he’s Cuban or not.

AllHipHop caught up with MCM Raymond in downtown Los Angeles to discuss his roots in LA, his dad getting him into music, Lil Tecca reaching out to him, freestyling versus writing, how “Rasta” with Azchike came to be, his relationship with KingMostWanted, forthcoming EP “Many Can’t Maintain,” and more! 

AllHipHop: How would you describe your sound?

MCM Raymond: I’d say more melodic, but more fun. When you hear my music, I have varieties where you could either get turnt up to my set, or I got music where you can sit back, chill, and smoke to type music. My sound’s definitely melodic in a way.

AllHipHop: Talk about being from Inglewood, that’s where we’re originally from right?

MCM Raymond: Yeah, I was raised in Inglewood. I went to school in Culver City, so I really claim all of LA. I really bounced around in LA a lot, but I say Inglewood is my hometown. That’s where I first started.

AllHipHop: What does Inglewood mean to you?

MCM Raymond: We got both worlds: you got the bad side of Inglewood, then you got the fun times in Inglewood. I got a mixture of both. I’ll always f### with Inglewood, it was an experience forreal. 

AllHipHop: Do you have a fondest memory? 

MCM Raymond: Well, I got some homies that stayed in Inglewood. I used to go to their house to do music. We used to f### around on Garageband, do music, smoke. Or we used to go to the skate park in Inglewood. I used to skateboard when I was younger, so I used to skate over there.

AllHipHop: Who made you fall in love with music? 

MCM Raymond: My dad actually, he’s a music producer. I’ve been around music since I was 5 or 6 years old. I used to go to my dad’s studio all the time. His studio sessions, I used to stay with him. I’d leave with him at 8pm, we wouldn’t get home until 5 in the morning. I really got into music from my dad for real. I was interested myself, I feel like took it further with it than him.

AllHipHop: Why didn’t he take it farther?

MCM Raymond: He still does music for himself. I know before I was born, he was doing music for big R&B artists like Smokey Robinson. He got nominated for a Grammy. When I came into the picture, he slowed/sat down in a way for him. But I’m living through his dream in a way, you know?

AllHipHop: I know you started out producing. Are you still producing? 

MCM Raymond: Yeah, I’m still producing, but I started off being a straight producer. I never made a song, never put it all out there, nothing. I was producing for a lot of local LA artists, like Almighty Suspect was one of them. I produced a song for him. I was working with other producers that had names before me, like Yike Mike. It was all types of singles, then that led to me putting out my own music later on.

AllHipHop: What was that moment you said, “I want to try the rap thing”?

MCM Raymond: I always been rapping, I just felt like I never took it serious until after high school. At my high school, I was kind of known. “That’s that one dude that be rapping and s###,” whoopty whoop. I took it serious after high school.

AllHipHop: Did you work part-time jobs?

MCM Raymond: Yeah, I worked part-time jobs. After high school, my parents gave me a year off to chase my dreams or chase what I want to do. They said “if it doesn’t happen in a year, you gotta go back to school.” Unfortunately, it never happened when I wanted it to happen. I ended up going to Santa Monica College. I was working a part-time job with my grandma, my grandma gave me my first job. I was working there for a couple of months, but I was always putting out music. Finally my first song or second song hit, and I end up dropping out of school and not working. Really started doing music.

AllHipHop: Was there a moment that put you on?

MCM Raymond: When I dropped this one song called “Every Week,” it was my first song that got me out there. I had people like Lil Tecca reach out to me, and hop on the remix.

AllHipHop: Lil Tecca? That’s huge!

MCM Raymond: Lil Tecca actually reached out to me. He said he heard my song through a famous Instagram model, who was using my song. I asked who it was, he said he don’t know. He just heard my song, searched me up and looked me up. Found my Instagram. 

He DMed me, and this is way before he came out with his song “Ransom.” He only had 50K followers at the time, I had 10K. It’s crazy because the day before he hit me up, I seen his video on WorldStar. WorldStar posted him. He DMed me randomly like “bro, I really f### with your s###. I’m tryna hop on the ‘Every Week’ remix.” S###, I’m like hell yeah! I made an open verse, sent it to him. He sent it right back in a week.

AllHipHop: What was the reaction when you heard it back? 

MCM Raymond: He gassed it! He’s talented for real. He’s one of those artists I see already being the face of rap music, if he’s not already.

AllHipHop: I know you just released “Jimmy Choo Freestyle.” What inspired that record?

MCM Raymond: It was really a freestyle. I was in the car, I was on my way to the studio. The producer Omniimadethis sent me that beat on my way to the studio. I’m literally 10 minutes away from the studio, he send me the beat and I played it in the car. I instantly had lyrics to it, that’s why I call it a freestyle. It really wasn’t no topic, it was one of those songs I’m talking my s###.

AllHipHop: Do you freestyle or write?

MCM Raymond: I’m starting now to freestyle, because I only used to write. Freestyling came from me writing all the time, ideas flowing in my head. Most of the time, I write. It really depends on the beat for the song.

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AllHipHop: You also linked with my guy Azchike on “Rasta.” How did that happen?

MCM Raymond: I’ve been knowing Chike for two years. We were already familiar, we already talked before hopping on the song so that came naturally. I was in the studio and I had an open verse I felt Azchike could gas on. I tapped in with him, sent it to him. He f##### with it. He said “that s### was hard,” sent it back to me. We ended up shooting the music video two weeks after we linked up.

AllHipHop: Best memory from the video shoot?

MCM Raymond: S###, just the vibe there. We were all turnt, had all my homies there. We were all lit for the video. We were all vibing for real, it was cool. I f##### with it.

AllHipHop: I know you’re tight with OTM too.

MCM Raymond: Yeah, OTM. I know bluepesoss and ayeeduffy. We haven’t really talked about music yet, but I know them through my brother. He went to school with them. We linked up with them once, this was before they officially joined the Stinc Team. 

When I was talking to them, they were telling me how Drakeo was f###### with them. The homies was telling them like “yeah bro, keep going. Y’all really doing y’all s### for real.” One of my homies told them “watch, Drakeo and them going to f### with y’all.” They ended up joining them a week after. I’m proud of them, they doing their s###.

AllHipHop: Any conflicts with the Stinc Team?

MCM Raymond: Hell nah. The thing is, I don’t know really know nobody from the Stinc Team. I just know pesos and duffy. I f### with the Stinc Team, they got a big ass impact on the LA sound for real for real. Everybody back then & now are still listening to Drakeo. Ain’t no conflict. I just do good music. I’m trying to make an impact too in LA.

AllHipHop: New EP releasing August 19th, what can we expect?

MCM Raymond: I really took my time on this EP for real. This EP was really supposed to come out months before. I felt the songs that I was making while putting together the EP, that wasn’t on the EP, was better than the songs on the EP. It’s the first time I really took my time, instead of slapping 6 or 7 songs together. It’ll give people that old me, but a newer version in a way.

AllHipHop: What’s the project called?

MCM Raymond: It’s called Many Can’t Maintain, basically many can’t maintain their position. A lot of people end up blowing up or end up getting the opportunity where they can change their life, other people’s lives, and end up messing up because of certain things. It’s a common thing around me. I know a lot of people that got put in positions where they could change their whole situation, but end up messing it up because of certain things.

AllHipHop: Talk about making MCM hoodies with the album cover.

MCM Raymond: I teamed up with TMI (The Mentally Illest brand), we gon’ come out with 50 to 100 limited edition hoodies. It got the EP cover at the front, then it got the tracklist on the back. It’s some hard s###. We got the rhinestones as the drawstrings, we gon’ do some hard s###. They really gon’ f### with it.

AllHipHop: I actually interviewed KingMostWanted right here. Talk about linking with him on “In My City.”

MCM Raymond: King, we been knowing each other for a cool ass minute. “In My City” was really our first collab. How that came about, I remember King was in jail for a quick minute. But that time he was in jail, he was dropping music. One of the songs was “In My City,” then the other song was “Different Varieties” that I produced too. When he came out, his manager Adrian had told me he wanted me to make the beat for the songs he had. So he sent me a video of him beating on the table to “In My City.” 

From there, I already had an idea of the beat. We hopped on FaceTine and created that whole beat. I sent it to him, then he hit me back on the tip like “I need you to hop on the second verse.” I’m on the tip like “hell yeah, I’ll hop on the second verse. That’s nothing.” That’s really how the song came about.

AllHipHop: Talk about producing for Blueface and Mike Sherm.

MCM Raymond: My boy Yike Mike, he knows Blueface. He produced “Next Big Thing” for Blueface, so I really got that connection to him. He was in the studio session one day with Blueface. He was going through hella beats with Blueface, I guess he came across my beat with Yike Mike. Me and Yike Mike collabed on a beat, he heard the beat and was f###### with it. Yike Mike told me,” I’m like oh s### that’s crazy. Bro had posted a preview to it on his Story. I just remember people sending me it, telling me “this yo beat.” That’s how it really came about, through Yike Mike.

Mike Sherm, I met him through KingMostWanted because I produced “Different Varieties.” I met him at the “Different Varieties” video shoot. He real cool, I f### with bro. He’s humble. I can tell he’s about his business too. He was f###### with me, so we followed each other on the Gram. He found out I make my own music too, he f#### with it. We’re going to have some s### too, soon.

AllHipHop: What can we expect from your new single, “Come Back”?

MCM Raymond: “Come Back,” that’s going to be one of them ones. It’s a song that everybody’s missing in LA. There’s so much s### going on in LA: people dying, gangbanging, all types of s###. This more of a fun song, a real fun party song. It’s going one of them ones for sure.

AllHipHop: What do you want people to get from your story?

MCM Raymond: Don’t give up on your dream, just keep grinding. I’m heavily into the Law of Attraction. Once you put something in the universe: you work for it, it’s going to come. If anybody has a dream that has to chase it, keep chasing it. It’s not going to happen when you need it to happen, it’s all part of God’s plan at the end of the day.

AllHipHop: Do you have any goals for yourself? 

MCM Raymond: Really I want to grow my name and my brand, outside of LA. Hit other cities, states, really worldwide for real. That’s my goal with this music.

AllHipHop: What do you like to do when you’re not working?

MCM Raymond: It’s crazy because people think I like to go to clubs, I don’t really be in the clubs. I like chillin’ with my people, we be smoking and s###. We hop on the game. I like to go shopping a lot, to get clothes. Really just chill, I like to be to myself.

AllHipHop: Anything else you want to let the people know?

MCM Raymond: I got more s### coming after the EP: single, video. Big features too! Letting them know I got more s### coming.