BOA QG is the newest artist signed to Quality Control, and he’s ready to take the rap game over. Hailing from Waycross, South Georgia—a small town four hours from Atlanta—the rising star exploded onto the scene with his viral smash “Voodoo,” which caught the attention of his dream label. While BOA QG was locked up, he manifested his deal with QC, the only label he wanted.

BOA, who describes himself as a “very soulful artist and a grinder,” says his name stands for Brothers Over Anybody, a testament to his morals and what he stands on both personally and professionally. This spills directly into his newest single called “Been Gone,” a message to the people who are calling his line but weren’t there for him when he was down bad.

AllHipHop spoke with BOA QG up his return from Memphis. He discusses his background, getting locked up, “Voodoo” going viral, manifesting signing to Quality Control, new single “Been Gone” and more.

AllHipHop: You’re from Waycross, South Georgia. How far is that from Atlanta?

BOA QG: Like four hours. It’s two opposite sides of Georgia.

AllHipHop: I know it’s small town. Are you the first person to get poppin’ out of there?

BOA QG: Yeah, mos def. There ain’t nobody from there, I’m the first person. People have been trying to do it for 20 years, but I’m the first person. I’m familiar with the Atlanta scene, my mama stayed there for 12 years. I moved around a lot, I was on like a state kid. A DFACS kid, so I moved around a lot. But that’s my hometown though, Waycross. 

AllHipHop: When did you fall in love with music? Favorite artists?

BOA QG: I always liked music since a kid. I like a lot of R&B artists. I like a lot of Jagged Edge. I like a lot of Aaliyah, Lauryn Hill. I like Michael Jackson. That’s my favorite artist in the whole world. As far as rapper, I’m a big Outkast fan. I’m a Lil Wayne fan, 50 Cent fan, Eminem fan. That type of branch. I’ve liked music my whole life though. It’s always been music, that’s all I have.

AllHipHop: How long were you locked up for?

BOA QG: The last time, I was in for six months. But the time before, I was locked up for two and a half years.

AllHipHop: What’d you learn from being behind bars?

BOA QG: Man, it’s a book I can write about what I learned behind bars! The main thing I learned is it’s up to you what you do in life. Ain’t nobody’s fault when you’re in jail but your own. At the end of the day, you’re making the decision that you’re making. It’s up to you, your life is in your control.I also learned that you don’t want to be controlled 24/7. You want to have freedom to do what you want to do in life, and it’s up to you. Jail really taught me a lot of lessons, to stop blaming everybody else for your problems. 

It taught me the value of freedom. It’s things that I appreciate everyday that I didn’t appreciate before. I enjoy being able to go to my refrigerator and pulling out a bottle of water, being able to use that when I want to without having some guy right there. Right here while I’m using the bathroom. Walking back and forth, smoking a cigarette looking at me. You have no privacy.

I appreciate freedom and being free. Not being caged in and seeing people getting stabbed in the face, getting robbed by the food and stuff. It’s crazy. You be in certain places and it’s crazy, it’s really inhumane. When you go to jail, be prepared to be an animal. I learned from jail that I don’t want to be a regular human like everybody else. I don’t want to be caged up like an animal.

AllHipHop: How did that make you go turn up with the music?

BOA QG: Jail changed my whole style. When you in the streets, you listen to a lot of other rappers. You have a lot of influences from different rappers because this is what you’re listening to throughout the world. But when I was in jail, I didn’t have no music. Only thing I had was my bunk where I was beating on to make a beat and me rapping. I didn’t have any influences over those two years that were influencing my sound, so only thing I’m hearing is myself off the beats that I’m making literally off my bunk. 

I ended up reaching a whole different pitch and tone in my flow and in my voice. Jail helped me create my sound because I was isolated and I wasn’t hearing any other rappers. I had no choice but to create my own sound over that time. The isolation and acoustic that I got in that cell over those two years, it did something to my voice. It put a snap in me. I was just rapping, and the more I rapped, people started coming to my cell like “what the hell was that?” I started noticing oh yeah, people messing with it. So I kept going with that approach. Now, the COs is like “boy when you get out of here, you better do something with it.” I never really looked back.

AllHipHop: That’s hard. 

BOA QG: I knew I was going to be signed to QC when I was in jail. How I’m having an interview right now with you, inmates were asking me: “So who are you going to sign to when you get out?” This that and the third. “What made you start doing music?” Man, get out my face with all that. [laughs] But I never thought I’d really be doing this forreal, at that time.

AllHipHop: How’d you know you were going to sign to QC?

BOA QG: Because that’s my dream label. I always knew if I was going to sign to a record label, I’d sign there. That’s always been my favorite label since I was kid, from when they first came out with the Migos to everything after that. Even every character from YRN, from Jose [Guapo] to Rich The Kid to Skippa Da Flippa to the Migos. There’s so many more, their whole campaign was crazy. The way they had with Yachty, Lil Baby, City Girls, it’s so many different chapters with QC that I was in love with ever since they came out. 

With me being from down south Georgia or being a Georgia boy period, you gotta imagine the effect they had over the state period. It’s like that’s gon’ be me, hands down. For us, it’s 1017 or QC. I’ve always been a QC fanatic, so I always knew I was going to sign to them.

AllHipHop: How did they reach out to you? It was when “Voodoo” went crazy right?

BOA QG: Most definitely. When he hit me up, I wasn’t even into social media at the time. Man, I’m trying to  get signed to QC. We in the studio, all these labels hitting me up. But QC ain’t hit me up. I said somebody from QC hit me up, but I want P to hit me up. I’m looking at it and they’re like, “Are you slow? You don’t know how to read Instagram? This is QC P right here!” I’m like nah, for real?! 

So I text him back like “wassup.” He shoots me the number and we go to talking. He said, “I’m going to take a flight. I’ll be back in the A in two weeks, I’m finna leave some time tonight.” I said I can meet you right now, it’ll take me four hours. I ain’t trying to wait till you get back two weeks later. 

AllHipHop: Good for you!

BOA QG: I went, and we met that day. We kicked it a few more times, we kicked it a lot more times before I signed. Feeling the temperature, and everything was what I thought it was going to be. I was starstruck when I seen P. I’ve never been starstruck with too many people I’ve met. But him, I was starstruck because this is who I’ve been wanting to meet my whole life. It was crazy. It was wild.

AllHipHop: How much did they turn you up?

BOA QG: They changed me, I can’t even lie. I was a country guy, on God. It’s a lot of stuff that I’ve seen, but this is a different level. It changed my whole mindset for the better. My mindset was messed up too. Every day I woke up, I thought about murder murder kill kill. But now, my mindset is so different. Every day I wake up, I think about my next move and my next source of income. Elevating, my mind is so far gone from what it used to be. I used to be straight street. Now my mind is on something totally different. You can’t even pay me to get involved in no BS. I’m just tunnel vision.

AllHipHop: Did you anticipate “Voodoo” would go crazy?

BOA QG: Yeah, I can’t even lie. It was few songs that I knew would go crazy. I was putting out the other songs, those songs were going viral before “Voodoo.” But it built up a fanbase for the attraction. Once I dropped “Voodoo,” I already had all those people watching me from the other acapellas I was doing. They’re like ”this right here the one.” I already knew that was gonna go crazy though.  Because when I made it, I’m like yeah, I done tapped into something. 

AllHipHop: I saw NLE Choppa commented.

BOA QG: I know. He hit me up too. I’m tryna keep that on the low.

AllHipHop: Who else cosigned the record?

BOA QG: It was a lot of people. Tee Grizzley hit me up, The Game. Melly hit me up from jail, his team reached out. There’s a lot of people. Me and The Game, he did a remake putting my chorus on his album for a song he did on there. 

AllHipHop: I’m on the West Coast, you know The Game is legendary right?

BOA QG: That’s why I did it. A lot of people reached out to me about doing a remix. Melly reached out, then The Game. I let The Game do it because I’m a big fan of him, since a kid. Come on, you a legend. That’s crazy. 

AllHipHop: “Been Gone” out now. You say you been MIA, where you been?

BOA QG: Working. I’ve been working, I’ve been grinding. The lifestyle that I used to live, you can’t pay me to get into that. People be calling my phone, but none of y’all were there for me. Ain’t nobody helped me do nothing. People be asking, “What you got going on?” I’ve been gone. Riding around the city, I’ve been trying to get it. I’ve been gone for a minute yeah. I ain’t hit your phone in a minute yeah.

I’m focused. This is the song describing how life’s been going. Really, all these people hitting me up. Y’all was not there for me when I was going through what I was going through, so now I’m focused on me. I’m focused on my life and getting what I need to get better. It’s that type of song. This my inspiration song. I’m leaving this all behind me and I’m focused on bigger and better.

AllHipHop: Best encounter you had with a fan?

BOA QG: I’ve had some crazy encounters with my fans. I love my fans. Y’all coming to the shows to come see me, that’s crazy. What? Y’all pay to come out here to see me? Y’all done fill this b#### up, damn. That’s a crazy feeling for me. I have a fan grab my neck, hold me and cry. “I can’t believe this. You remember me?” I’m like yeah, I remember you. [laughs] You crying to see me? That’s wild.

AllHipHop: That’s love.

BOA QG: That’s real love! Fans from across the world hitting me up. A fan hit me up the other day for a feature and we ended up working out the feature. He was OD happy because he said, “I’m so glad I got this feature with you, and I got a Priority beat too!” Man, this is crazy. He’s from Belgium. It be folks from Africa, Australia, Ghana, London, all over the place hitting me up. It’s amazing for me. Having fans across the world, knowing that my music is heard in these places, that’s one of the most amazing things for me. I’m from down South.

AllHipHop: What can we expect from your mixtape 3Teen?

BOA QG: 13 is when I hopped off the porch forreal. That’s when I got outside. I got kicked out my mom’s house when I was 13. A few months later, I seen my dad get killed the front of me. I’ve been on my own since I was 13. I’ve been an orphan, in and out of group homes since I was 13. In the streets  since I was 13, that’s when I stepped into manhood.

AllHipHop: Does that mean it’s going to be super vulnerable?

BOA QG: Vulnerable is a vulnerable word. You could say so. It’s going to have some touchy standpoints on there. Because I got a song like “Grandma’s Heart”, that’s a vulnerable song. That came from out the heart for real. I got “All I Breathe” on there, that came from out the heart. So you can definitely say that.

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

BOA QG: Be looking for a 3Teen, this project is coming. On the way! Look for it this month and we lit. Be looking for me, see me a lot around. I’m coming and I’m back, so let’s get it.