Name: Adot

Age: 22

Reppin’: East Side of Chicago

How did you come up with the name Adot?

It’s pretty simple. I was playing XBox with the same people I started rapping with, and you know how Kendrick had the K-Dot shit? Everyone was just calling me A-Dot, short for my real name Armani.

Is it true that you started rapping because a bunch of your friends were doing it?

Yea that’s true.

Was that you main motivation for getting into music?

I mean when I was young I had like Rockband and Guitar Hero and shit. I was so good at those games that I was like, let me actually try and get like a real guitar, and that shit did not work out the way I thought it would.  

Music theory is annoying as fuck to learn. I also tried writing my own songs, I was listening to hella rock and metal at that time, and then when I was in high-school, the people I was with were rapping. They was listening to shit like Kendrick and all that, and I just started listening too. Before that, I was listening to Kid Cudi and Drake and Odd Future. But yea, they was all rapping so I tried it, and at first I was super ass, but for some reason I just kept going and eventually I got better.

It’s crazy that you just sited Odd Future as one of your influences, because Tyler The Creator has these alluring and appealing music videos; and I noticed a lot of your music videos are also super enticing. Why are the visual representations of your music so important? 

I got all my inspiration from Tyler. Every time I make a video, I want it to be like a whole new experience. I feel like visuals are the most important aspect of an artist cause like how you look is pretty much how you are perceived. We gotta like uphold that and my image I just wanna be like a creative ass nigga. So, I want all my videos to be something crazy like every time or if not crazy at least clean as fuck.

So do you think music videos are underrated?

Yea, cause some niggas be having some weak ass videos and niggas just be letting it pass because it’s the artist. If you doing a video, you should at least try to do something different. I feel like every song can have something attached to it visually. If you think hard enough you can think of something that really goes with the song.

Out of all the music videos to come out in 2017 what are your top 3?

#1: The Weekend – Party Monster

#2: Travis Scott – Goosebumps

#3: Rollin – Adot

How does being from Chicago play into your sound?

One word, Chief Keef. Nah I’m just playing, but I see a lot of shit that I don’t like (no pun intended). When I travel out of state and go to LA and New York, all these like fancy looking places and shit, and then I come back to the South Side and I just be like damn this shit kinda suck. I wanna get out of here.  I want to get out here so bad so that shit just be motivating me to like get out of here.

Damn, I was going to ask what being from Chicago means to  you but it sounds like you don’t mess with it at all.

Honestly, I don’t. I mean it’s cool, but the people here…I just don’t really mess with a lot of Chicago people.  I don’t know, Chicago’s just weird to me.

Weird how?

They show love, but then they don’t at the same time. Most people in Chicago are negative. You go somewhere else, you’ll see it’s a whole different vibe, everyone’s positive. If you go to LA, everybody there is happy. I mean, it might be fake or whatever, but the vibe there is something that’s way more relaxed, but still fast-paced at the same time. 

Usually when I talk to rappers from Chicago, they have so much pride in the city and they wanna scream it from the rooftop.

Yea… I just don’t fuck with Chicago.

I have heard that it’s really competitive here and nobody wants to help each other.

Yea, nobody is helping each other and it’s just weird. I get more love when I got to other places, but now people are starting to take notice because they see I’m going crazy. 

Well, at least you on the come-up!

Yea, we finna go crazy.

Can you talk about the process for creating your new song HeartAttack?

I got that beat from 5heriff and just started writing to it an hour or two before my session, and then I came in and recorded and it was actually fye as fuck. Me and 5heriff been making hella shit ever since. 

How does it feel that your song is getting so much attention?

It’s weird as fuck because I sent it to some dude at Noisey, and the dude said he was gone pass on it. Then I was like, damn I don’t know what to do with this, and I started thinking it wasn’t as raw as it is. I was like fuck, let me just give it to Elevator and hope they post it. It got posted and mf’ers was fuckin with it.

Why haven’t you dropped a mixtape yet? 

Cause I’m a perfectionist and I just want everything to be completely  perfect.

Are you working on tape?

I’m working on a project of some sort. I’ve been recording a lot of stuff. I might have to Cardi niggas and not drop a mixtape until I’m on.

How would you even describe your sound? 

My sound is lost.  When I make a song, I never really have any direction like whatever comes to my mind and whatever flows best is what Imma do, but I never have a specific sound in mind.

Do you feel like that process sets you a part from other artist?

Yea, honestly a lot of people don’t incorporate lyricism with trap shit, so I just wanted to do that.  I stared doing regular rap, but then that shit got boring cause when I was performing, it was just people standing around nodding their heads and shit. I just wanted people to actually have fun and turn up.

So you’re making conscious trap music?

Yea but not too conscious

Why not too conscious?

Because that shit kinda boring and kinda corny!

Conscious rap is corny?

Sometimes, it’s a time and place, but if you play my shit you can turn up and listen to it.

That’s your goal?

Yea, I want to make music you can listen to whenever. You can listen to it at home by yourself or at a party.