Lui Diamonds
By Paul Jimenez on April 21, 2015
Representing both Awful Records and NRK from Atlanta, Ga is LuiDiamonds, an established producer who just recently introduced the world to his rapping capability. In his latest solo-project LEWIS, the up-and-coming musician gave us a solid preview of his overall sound. Wavy beats and spaced out flows is really what sets this kid apart from the rest of today's merging artists. The deft 21-year-old manages to find inspiration through films, specifically Tarantino's, which explains why everything he cooks up is so smooth and entertaining. Aside from his own music, LuiDiamonds has also teamed up with Pyramid Quince to bring us FreezaMode. The deadly duo is already looking to drop their second project after a strong debut tape they had towards the end of last year. Don't forget to check out this dude's jig moves all over his visuals and also his An Appointment with Hector EP with Slug Christ, just one of the few projects leading up to KILL LEWIS.
INTERVIEW
Who is LuiDiamonds?
“LuiDiamonds is a producer/engineer and Lewis is a rapper."
I understand you consider yourself a producer before a rapper. Talk about that.
“I've been producing for something like 8 years and rapping for about one year now. I just always pictured myself as a super producer rather than a really tight rapper. People like my raps though, which is cool.”
What program are you currently using to make your beats?
“I've always used Logic to produce everything. I had Ableton for like a week and it was just lame to me. Logic is the tightest program out in my opinion.”
What type of feedback have you received on your debut tape, LEWIS?
“I've received really positive feedback from LEWIS surprisingly. You know being an artist and all you are your own biggest critic, but I mean this new shit I've been cooking is insane. The growth is clearly visible.”
Are there any influences in your music?
“Zaytoven is my biggest influence right now. My influences are constantly changing though. I don't always look for inspiration in music, movies really bring out the best in me. Tarantino is my favorite director, his films always draw out crazy inspiration.”
Did you come up with the visual concepts behind videos like "Movie" and "SaturdayNightPimpin"?
“A lot of the videos I shoot are really spur of the moment and they just come out crazy. I've kind of taken on this m.o. for one shot videos, but anyway "Movie" was something I shot with Mike Ellwood like on some "hey, I'm here, you're here, let's shoot a video". We were at Father's rehearsal before he went on tour with Theopolis and we just ran up and down the block and shot the video. These random kids were like "yea, y'all are cool we want to dance in your video", so that was cool too. "SaturdayNightPimpin" was supposed to go a whole other way. I was actually trying to shoot something that favored Curren$y's "Example" promo he did for PT1, but it ended up raining that day so Morian of the Bach Agency came up with the idea for the snapchat themed video.
What's it like being on a team of 15 artists deep?
“There's just constant competition, it's friendly but very serious at the same time. We all honestly just want to stunt on each other, haha.”
Can we expect anything from FreezaMode to come out soon?
“2 Player is the next project from FreezaMode. It's really just about a track away from being completed. It's also a full length, so it'll be about 11 tracks long.”
Talk about NRK.
“I'm still a member of NRK. Those are my brothers, I grew up with them. There's just an issue of distance right now, but we still get all the work done through the grace of the beautiful internet.”
What was it like spending your 21st birthday at SXSW?
"Wow, that's crazy you knew I was out there for my birthday, but it was amazing. It was supposed to be our "off day" that day, Slug and I were chilling and out of nowhere he's like yea I got a show at 1 a.m. this morning, so I'm like cool when the clock strikes 12 I'm getting lit and about to rock the stage. So that's exactly what we did and we were the most turnt set of the night point blank. It was all that and a bag of chips, haha."
Lastly, where do you see LuiDiamonds in a few years from now?
"I'm smart so I'm about to make this money. I'll be rich, but like living in an apartment with money in the mattress and a bad broad. I really just want to engineer eventually. I'll always produce too, but continue to rap..."