There’s an interesting young artist out of Dallas who is creating an in innovative rap sound. Gotcha Ganja creates albums with an odd mix of background tracks combined with quirky, cool lyrics. He also addresses topical issues to make you think and re-examine your own beliefs. He confronts issues like homophobia and pushes the envelope of tolerance. Kind of a mix of philosopher and rapper, musician and muse.

In an exclusive interview with Deep Commotion, Gotcha Ganja answered a few questions about his life and career:

Can you introduce yourself to us?
My name is Gotcha Ganja, I’m 18 years old, and I live in Dallas, Texas.

What made you decide to go into rap?
When I was in elementary school some kids were bustin raps on the bus. I joined in and said ‘I got the bling bling cuz ima yao ming” and I thought damn that was actually pretty hot for 7 year old me. I kinda put the idea on hold and then at about 13 I started rapping full songs.

How long have you been creating rap?
Around 5-6 years now total. I started off just making songs for fun but around a year ago I started to focus on the craft and get my sound together.

Who are your musical influences?
I’m a really big Pusha T fan. A lot of what I do I think comes from Pusha T. I also bring in a lot from Lil Ugly Mane, MF Doom, Kanye West, and Two Chains. I like a lot of what all of those guys do with their music.

Why did you call the album “Life After Suicide”?
Well, I ran a social/musical experiment earlier this year. I was trying to make a statement about homophobes in an ironic way and I rapped under the name “Faggot”, a dead 13 year old rapper who committed suicide and his tapes were being released after his death. Obviously none of this is true, but it was fun to get reactions from everyone who listened to the stuff. It caused a pretty decent amount of controversy over the name. Rappers say faggot all the time but a rapper can’t be named faggot? Anyways, since the story goes that faggot committed suicide, this tape was the beginning of life after faggots suicide. A.K.A. Gotcha Ganja’s career.

You have a lot of interesting background tracks in your music, what made you decide to use kind of non-standard tracks like those?
Growing up in Texas I took from my roots and used to rap over very southern, very old school 3 6 Mafia inspired beats and the occasional Lex Luther trap instrumental when I was a young Ganja in training but as life threatening drug usage became a more prominent aspect of my life I like to think that it mutated my taste in music into a trippier, much edgier version of what it once was feel me.

Who do you think is the best rap artist today, besides yourself, and why?
That’s a really tough one. There are a lot of rappers I like and all of them have cool things about them. If I had to narrow it down to one it would probably be Lil Ugly Mane. His entire image and idea is so cool to me and I love that he produces all of his own stuff. Guy is lowkey best experimental trap producer of all time in my opinion.

Who is the worst rap artist and why?
Haha I don’t like to start beef with no one but I don’t like Hopsin very much. Dude has some technical skill but he has absolutely no sense in his beat selection and hook game. Did you listen to Knock Madness? Shit was terrible. And all he does is preach now. Oh my god there was literally a song about getting friend zoned it was hilarious.

What other kinds of music do you like, who do you listen to?
I am into EDM, I go to raves a pretty decent amount. I like trap and house mostly. That and ambient electronic music. When I get stoned and I’m tryna chill I throw on XXYYXX a lot.

What do you want to tell people about yourself, your music and where you are going?
I just want people to know that I’m doin me out here and I think that they would enjoy watching me do myself. My music is only getting better from here and everyday I’m thinking of great new ideas. Other than that my next mixtape is most likely going to be a group tape with the other two members of Finnigan’s Baked (my rap group).