COVER STORY: Gringo Gang

Photos By: @ZanezWorld

Words By: @LeDeana

How did the Gringo Gang organize? That kind of happened when we quit doing Kobra Kai. Me and B PZ needed to do something else and our friend Trappa John gave us the name Gringos, because he said we were like the white Migos. I don’t think we really rap like them, but I like how they work well together musically. We kind of move like them, we’re not trying to say we rap like them. It was kind of like a funny thing, like a joke and we ran with it and our name became the Gringo Gang. We’re a group still, but more like a movement. A collective of artists that came together, but we’ve all got our own solo stuff too.

Who are the members of the Gringo Gang? Spacedad, Shawn Ham, J Mo, Mason Pressley, Two Celly Relly, B PZ, Kaz LilDaddy, and BrownTime.

You all got the name Gringo Gang being compared to the white Migos, but actually the Gringos are not totally white contrary to what some might see in photos? It’s just Americans, there’s like 4 black people in the Gringo Gang. 

You guys go from one end of the spectrum to the other. Like you said you performed at the Redneck Rave. What’s that like? It’s like Hick-Hop. It’s like country rap, and country people. I’m the first rapper to ever rap at it. I got on there through Zane, the guy that does our videos. It’s like a different genre than what we are into. They still love Slappin Bacon so I performed that one song there and they loved it. I got more fans off the Redneck Raves than I have doing everything else I’ve done. I opened up for Gucci Mane one night and I went to the Redneck Rave like the same night. From the hoods to the woods that’s my thing.

It’s one thing for you to say you believe in yourself, and you push hard, but to have other people believe in you so much that they do it for you and with you... How have you gotten people to believe in you the way that you have? It took a lot of money time and giving stuff away. I can’t tell you how many shirts, stickers and flyers we have printed up and given out for free. We’ve printed over 10,000 CDs. We’re just doing the most and doing more than what we think we should. Like, if we think we need 5000 CDs copied we get 6000. Promoting ourselves and driving, I go to every open mic. Consistency, just staying at it and keep showing our faces and being everywhere. Getting the song on the radio helped a lot. We’re bringing something new to the table.

 

 

Can people buy your products also? We sell merch too, a few hundred of the hoodies I’ve sold and not given away. Most of the time we give away merch for stuff like giveaways and contests. We make it make sense so it’s them helping us help them. It’s like free promotion to have somebody wearing a Gringo Gang shirt and they wear it everyday. If you look they have it as their profile picture and people will have one hoodie wearing it three times a week. That’s what we want that’s why I don’t mind. Some fans, I can’t charge them. The ones that post all day like “I’m Gringo Gang’s number one fan,” I’m not going to charge them, I can’t do it. Every single show we go to we throw out like 5-10 items. We’ll have booth set up, we sell our stuff at the booth. But, we use our vibe and the side of the crowd that’s going the craziest we’ll throw them a shirt or something. Of course people come and buy stuff at the end. Us giving away all the stuff we have has made it to where we can sell our merch. It seems like a lot of the rappers here, a lot of them not all of them, are trying to sell their CD’s for $5 but you have never heard of them. We’ve given out so much stuff that if we asked for $5 they might give it to us now.

Can you explain the term and single “Slappin Bacon” to me? “Slappin Bacon” pretty much means gettin money, hustling, whatever. If it’s illegal, legal, it’s just gotta slap bacon! It’s the hottest song in the city, and in the world. They love us in the country, the hood, everywhere!

What makes it so hot? Everybody loves bacon.

I guess you’re right. LOL! Everybody loves bacon!

 

Follow @GringoGang on IG and @GringoGangGG on Twitter

 

 

 

ABOUT "SLAP BACON"

Everybody loves bacon, from the hoods to the woods they all love bacon. The stickers, how we be slapping the stickers up, incorporates that with slapping bacon. That's helping us promo-wise. Shoutout to Brown Time for producing it and Kaz for mixing it.

 

ABOUT "WE GOT IT"

It's called "We got It" featuring Lil White, and you should check it out because it's basically digging into how we get down all the way from Naptown to Memphis, and really it's just a really hot song. The beat will make you wanna stand up if you're sitting down and nod your head to it. Like it's something that you can make some money to or something. If you out here in the streets or it don't matter where you at, it's something you can really get down to. You can find it on YouTube and SoundCloud. It's produced by BrownTime. Lil Wyte was someone I liked as a young kid and listened to all the time. I was like I need to get a feature. I didn't even have a song yet, we actually linked and made it from scratch. We have performed it together once and we going on a small tour.

 

ABOUT "LIGHTS"

My new single is called "Lights.” I want people to feel connected to it. I just feel like everything I do is the realest stuff that I have lived. I want people to connect to it. I’m talking about life and how much it sucks, and how much it can be good. Basically, the bad parts and the good parts, and then what we are trying to do. That's what I put on every song, what we are on the brink of as Gringo Gang.

 

 

ABOUT "BACK AT IT"

My single is called "Back at It", and it's basically based off of prison music. I came from prison with my music so everybody really knows me from prison. Everybody in the city going to love it because it's real life, you can't even fake it. It is me really getting out of prison and living my life to the fullest, doing everything that I ever dreamed of. I'm rapping and doing this music!