Interview with Wes Blanco

You may remember earlier this month when I wrote a profile on a local up and coming hip-hop artist, Wes Blanco. Well shortly after that spotlight was published, I was asked if I would like the opportunity to interview the talented wordsmith. I jumped at the opportunity and found myself at the Lil Uzi and Playboi Carti concert at Numbers earlier this month. Here’s what I learned about one of the most exciting new voices from the Bayou City.

Here is the audio of the full interview, sorry the audio is not as loud as I had hoped. WARNING INTERVIEW IS NSFW

Wes Blanco isn’t the kind of guy that’s extremely boastful in comparison to his contemporaries, he prefers to let his music, which he puts his heart and soul into, speak for itself, which is extremely admirable for a guy who hasn’t gotten nearly enough exposure for the talent he possess. Blanco describes himself as versatile, an apt description, because as I said in the profile Blanco only needs a beat, it doesn’t matter if it’s a downtempo minimalist production or full out club banger complete, he can slow it down H-Town style or speed it up for a stream of consciousness flow that rivals that of anyone from Houston. He told me the bassline is never what carries his flow through a song, instead its the high hat that helps him traverse the booming bass or the meandering melody that his songs are littered with.

Blanco shared that he had spent a year in jail for undisclosed reasons, and because of that year he lost, Blanco feels as though he has to grind twice as hard as anyone else no matter where he is in his music career. His music is a way to exert that energy in a constructive way instead of letting it out in the streets. Blanco was fully aware of the comparisons I made between him and Maxo, noting that Blanco has a human touch to his music and Maxo is more of a mythical character, to that he said there’s nothing else he could give, he is who he is, and he isn’t trying to build a facade or an image of something he is not, his music represents who he is and who he was. Blanco told me Maxo, who he considers a friend, was the reason he got into the rap game, but he had to create his own lane.

More important than anything in Wes Blanco’s world, even more than his music, is his family. His family isn’t just his blood relatives, it’s everyone who supports him and has shown him love, he even called me family. Blanco knows how to make people feel comfortable in any situation and always wants to see his people succeeding. His mom is by far his biggest fan  supporter (he doesn’t like to call his fans supporters, because the supports aren’t just cheering him on, they’re helping to put him on) he told me how she prints out anything written about him and how she helped him release his debut mixtape Wes Be Blanco while was behind bars for that year. Because his family has been there supporting him since day one, he says he has no choice than to support them, but I get the feeling it’s not an obligation, but a privilege for him to help out those who got him to where he is.

We ended our conversations with a list of his favorite music, which included Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Maxo Kream, Kevin Gates, and a McJenkins songs called “Martyr.” We also talked about what 2016 would hold for him, to that he slyly smiled and told me he can’t tell me everything, but there will be more music videos and shows, all indicating that Wes Blanco is going to be blowing up in the coming months.

As long as I was at Numbers, I figured I would stay and see what Wes Blanco brought onstage for a sold out audience, well after a few hours of observing him with his friends at the venue, I realized this guy is way more true to his word than you’d expect. He was bouncing around the patio backstage from group of people to the next, always exchanging jokes, smiles, handshakes, and hugs. He even showed me off to a couple of his friends bragging about the profile I had written about him, and it made me feel apart of his crew. Once Wes finally got to strut his stuff onstage, I realized this guy isn’t just a rapper, he’s an entertainer. He had told me earlier that his friends always thought he was going to be an actor or a comedian, how fitting is it that he was able to find the limelight in a medium that freely allows him to be all three at once. He is just pure energy onstage, jumping around the stage like a rabbit, smiling from ear to ear. I think that even if there was just one person there, Wes wouldn’t have done his set any different. Like the title of his first mixtape, Wes be Blanco, he wouldn’t change who he was even if he could, because he recognizes that no matter who you are, you have to make the moves to get to where you want, nothing is ever just given, you have to take it. That’s precisely what Wes Blanco intends to do.