WORDSPJ Some
CREDITS
Creative Director / Stylist - Ignacio de Tiedra
Photographer - Pascal Schonlau
Producer - Derrick Odafi
Production Manager - Bijoux Chima
MUA - Sophia Sinot
MUA Assistant - Taisha Sherwood
Styling Assistant - Ruby Mensah
Visual Director - Dante Richardson
CGI Artist: George Russel via Recomfarmhouse
Post Artist: Kate Brown via Recomfarmhouse
Photographer assistant 1 - James Bryant
Photographer assistant 2 - Tobias May
Photo Trainee - Danaia Konstantinova
Special Thanks to Labstore - @labstorelondon
Destroy Lonely doesn’t give a f*ck whether you like him or not. He doesn’t care whether you hate the music he makes and he doesn’t care if he’s not on your top five rappers of all time list. At the end of the day, all he wants is to be a vessel for his raw vulnerability. His jagged and spectral sonics feed into horror, like claws to flesh scraping through a brash lifestyle that he follows unapologetically, with the music bleeding through him into the world, seeking out those who ache in the same places who crave beauty laced with chaos.
Born from the shadows of Opium, the cult label formed by innovator Playboi Carti, Destroy Lonely exists within a new order of rap, trap, punk and hyperpop where peril reigns champion. Alongside his labelmates Ken Carson and HOMIXIDE GANG, he rides the edge between fantasy and fear, feeding his fanbase obsessed with destruction, gore and thrill. Together, a gothic underworld is formed where there are no rules and no order.
With his rise shaped by moments and experiences that he’s had through his life, he was given the chance to walk in Milan for Matthew Williams’ brand 1017 ALYX 9SM after the designer discovered his song ‘1017 ALYX’ from being friends with mutuals. Since then, the two have remained close and an abundance of opportunities have come Lonely’s way such as being inspired to create motorsport-style merch that reflects his strong connection with Alpinestars, collaborations with Marc Jacobs and making music with some of music’s biggest names right now. He cherishes every collaboration and every chance to extend his world into a new medium. Whilst surrounding himself with people who move like him in a quiet, focused and magnetic way, he shapes his identity into something deeper and darker that allows him to live out every fantasy that flickers in the back of his mind.
DESTROY LONELY'S STAR SHINES BRIGHT FOR THE EXPERIENCE ISSUE
WORDS Shenead Poroosotum
"I could say now all over the world, anywhere I step foot in, I feel loved. And maybe Thats mother reason why I like to share how I feel"
Hey Destroy Lonely! How are you right now and what have you been up to?
Destroy Lonely: Everything’s cool, everything feels good. It’s high energy and feels amazing. I’m working on new music.
Let’s go back a little bit to the early days, when you started making music around age14. Who were you at that time and the type of music that you were listening to at that age?
If I got my timeline right, when I was 14, I wasn’t your normal kid because I didn’t really give a f*ck about anything but music. I was really motivated and determined and focused on that. I was tunnel-visioned on trying to become who I am today so, whether that came with being in a little bit of trouble or not being in trouble or sitting inside or listening to music all day or whatever, it was just really all trying to become who I am now, even back then. I listened to Love Is Rage by Lil Uzi Vert over and over again. And probably Young Thug, Future, Chief Keef, and sh*t, Carti.
That’s a mix of different sounds from Philly to Atlanta.
I was very much into whatever sounded cool or sh*t that I could relate to that still represented where I was from or who I was, but just a little different at the same time.
Speaking of Love Is Rage, the concept of love is a big aspect of your music, and the titles of your projects. Where does that come from?
Every time I make a song or when I go into the studio and I’m about to record, I always want to make sure it’s fun or happy or emotional or even maybe sometimes depressing or a little off-putting. I always want to make sure that I can make somebody feel something through my music. And so my obsession with the theme of love, even though I never really realised it until you just said that, it’s probably me having a lack of feeling that in my own life and just trying to be able to portray that through my music and allow somebody else to feel that. Or even feelings that I fantasise to have or moments that I may have even shared with my girlfriend or somebody I love, whether they be a friend or a family member or anything. I just always want to convey some type of realness and vulnerability.
Do you feel like your relationship with your fans helps to fill that void a little bit as well?
Yeah. I could say now all over the world, anywhere I step foot in, I feel loved. And maybe that’s another reason why I like to share how I feel because I feel like love spans in so many different ways, like I said, whether it be between a family member or between a friend or between a partner or a fan to their favourite artist and the artist to their fan. It’s all just different forms of the same emotion and different depths of the intensity of it.
It definitely resonates a lot. Another good relationship that you have is with your producer, Lil 88. You both have very clear musical chemistry. Can you think of a time where he challenged you creatively when you guys were creating a project or a song?
Hell yeah, one million per cent. Me and Lil 88’s relationship spans really deep, kind of like me and Ken Carson, outside of music entirely. I really look at him as a brother, like one of my real family members. So, whether it be recording this song and he’s feeling like I can go harder or say something another way, whether I’m playing him a song and he might not think it’s the one, he’s going to let me know immediately. If he feels like I’m lacking or even f*cking up in the real world or that I’m not on point or not paying attention or whatever, he’s going to let me know and vice versa. I feel the chemistry between me and him, or me and Ken, or even me and my big brother, Carti, just any of my family members. It just comes from the respect and the motivation that we bring each other. There’s real friends and brothers that keep each other going and always just wanting the best for each other, rather than it just being like, “Oh, we’re here working on this to make some money,” or “We’re trying to go up or get famous.” It’s really a family thing where it’s like, “All right, if I’m going up, I’m taking my brother with me.” If he’s going up, he’s taking me with him. We’re going to make sure that we’re all still doing the right thing while we’re going down this road.
Yeah, it’s an iron sharpen iron energy between you guys.
Yeah, for sure. Exactly.
With Love Lasts Forever and since the release of the big singles like ‘No Stylist’ and ‘If Looks Could Kill’, how do you feel like you’ve grown musically and in general?
Just by telling my story and getting deeper into who I am. I feel like I’m sharpening my pen a bit and I feel like I can explain things a lot better than I could have in the past, or even word it differently. Like with what I was saying earlier; convey a different emotion, translate it in better ways… Just really even becoming more transparent with my fans through the audio of it, whether it be on the internet or trying to talk on the phone, Tweets or Instagram or whatever, just really trying to share more of who I know I am as a person and how I want people to understand me through the music and just making sure that, as I was telling you earlier, every time I make a song, I’m always putting a real piece of me in it so people can take that and do whatever.
It comes out in the lyrics. You have a line that says, “This ain’t a lifestyle, this is just life”. What’s the difference to you between a lifestyle and just life?
Style changes, style is trends. Style could be today and not tomorrow. The style could be tomorrow and not today, but life is forever, until it ends. So, change is what we’re doing right now, what we’re doing for the fun of it, what we’re doing because it’s cool. This is who we are. N*ggas was doing this before and n*ggas gonna do it after. Like I was saying, I was trying to be this when I was 14 and I’m probably going to try and be this til I die. This is me.
How do you feel like you create balance? You’re a very stylish person and you’re in the know of what’s going on in style, culture and fashion. You have your own life and your own experiences, so how do you feel like you try to merge the two or bring both to the forefront?
I’m always just expressing a piece of me through everything, whether it’s sonically, whether it’s through the clothes I wear, a f*cking picture I want to take for social media, the way I’m talking to y’all, expressing myself through an interview. It just all comes down to just showing people who I am or who I even think I am at the time. We all go through motions and moments. I wouldn’t even call them phases because I feel like they’re all just different versions of myself, but phase is kind of like a style or a trend. But it’s just always, even with the clothes, just expressing that this is who I think I am, this is what I want to look like. And I don’t really give a f*ck what, what anybody thinks.
Setting trends rather than following them as well because you just live your life as well.
Yeah, definitely.
If there was a particular era or time frame that you are plugged into, what would that be? Would it be the past or would it be the future that resonates with you the most?
It would be right now. I’m always gonna be right now. Whether it’s in the past, in the future, I always existed, but I’m here right now.
What keeps you in the now all the time and not thinking about things you probably did before, or things you might be doing in the future?
I think that’s what keeps me here. I’m always constantly thinking about the past and the future. I don’t know how healthy that is, but those two thoughts remind me to always stay right now, because I can’t tell you what’s gonna happen in the future, and I can’t change the past so, I just got to stay right now.
You’ve previously said, in relation to the internet and the concept of the internet, that you don’t really understand it as much or anymore. If you could change one thing about the internet, what would it be?
You know, I wouldn’t change anything because the internet is right now. I feel like if I were to change it, it’d be a contradiction to how I just said I even feel about myself and I can even thank the internet for playing a part in some of my career. So, I can’t really act like, “Oh, f*ck the internet, everybody needs to put their phones down and everybody’s brainwashed” But I feel like people could use it a little healthier, even myself. [laughs]
You’ve said your creativity comes from real life so, what’s happening in your life right now that’s influencing what you’re creating, music or otherwise?
Just growing. Getting older. Becoming a real f*cking adult in this world but I’m still a f*cking kid. Learning from decisions I’ve made in my life and really getting a good feel for feeling like an underdog and being ready just to tell people what I’ve got to offer. I always feel like that. But right now, I feel like that’s a big focus of mine. I just want to continue to drop great music for people and continue to please my fans and just make everything about the music. I don’t even necessarily want to exist past my music anymore. I just want it to be DL and I’m just the audio.
You had an amazing show in London and the stage design was great. Talk to us about the stage design, how you put that together and what you were trying to convey to your audience with that.
Basically, my stage from my first leg was pretty much the same, it’s just a speaker tower. And the first leg I had LED lights around it with my video on behind it, but that wasn’t necessarily part of it. It was supposed to look more like how it looked in London at the European shows. Just minimalistic, how I was just saying about music. It’s just to portray and be looked at as just a great musical artist. I don’t even want it to go too far past that anymore. I just want it to be about music and eventually my stages will get crazier but this time I just wanted the speakers, myself and just the sound. Even with the DJ putting a backing track a little bit because I just wanted to simplify it and make it about throwing a really good show, and people having a good time. It feels like when you arrive at a rave or some sh*t.
You pour so much energy into it and into your performances and your music. When you step away from that, how do you recharge or how do you get re-inspired?
I’m a very still person. I move around a lot, I travel a lot and I’m always working but there are lots of periods and times where I find myself just sitting in my house doing absolutely nothing for days on end or just downloading from the world. Just constantly teaching myself and learning from the world instead of riding my own d*ck all the time. Listening to new music or watching new movies or listening to a whole new artist for a week straight.
“When I work with people, They've got to strike me a whole other way. We've done and seen everything ”
To your fans, you’re like a superhero. But one of your biggest songs is called “Bane” which is inspired by a villain. Do you relate to that energy or to the superhero energy instead?
I feel like there’s no such thing as either, because if you ask the villain, he thinks he’s right. And if you ask the superhero, he thinks he’s right too. Sometimes I feel like a villain, sometimes I feel like a superhero. But everybody’s got their reasons.
If your music were a soundtrack to a film, what kind of film would it be?
It would be a whole new genre of movie. One where it would feel like four grams of shrooms or a super f*cking disgusting horror f*cking blood fest.
What feeling do you want to leave with people when they hear your music for the first time?
If n*ggas’s like it or if they don’t like it, I just want to have something to say. Just like “Wow, I either really love this, this is like my favourite song or album of all time” or “I completely fucking hate this shit” Either way, it’s fine with me.
Pivoting into the fashion world, it’s a big part of your brand. LABSTORE came through with some great pieces for our shoot.
Yeah, shout out LABSTORE.
You’ve previously done collaborations with 424, Marc Jacobs and many more. What are some moments from the fashion world that have stayed with you or that you cherish a lot?
Every f*cking moment that involves me in the fashion world on a wide scale sticks with me. I cherish it the same as every moment in my musical career because fashion is another passion of mine. You wouldn’t think I would know sh*t about fashion and I’m not going to sit here and act like I’m this crazy design guru, nah bro. I just like really fly sh*t. To be recognised even on the scale that I’m getting recognised in that world, small, big or whatever the case may be, that’s a huge dream of mine. It fulfills me every time I get an opportunity because people see me as different in the way I’d be looking for people to see me or respect my brain and the decisions and the way I think. That’s my favourite part of that world.
The collaboration you did with Alpinestars blends a lot of that energy with your own vibe. What drew you towards that silhouette and lane involving motorsports gear into your fits?
I pretty much had a real experience in my life. I went to a motorcycle trail, and we were just riding our bikes and I fell in love with it because I never really rode a four-wheeler dirt bike before. That sh*t kind of f*cked my head up because like I said, I’m really obsessive so I was just stuck on that for a while. I was wearing this sh*t as clothes. I recently just bought two bikes and I’m learning how to ride and wheelie and sh*t, going crazy. But like how I was saying earlier, that was something that came from a real part of my life that I just started expressing through the music. I just look at it like “F*ck, this sh*t hard!” I’m really good friends with Alpinestars.
The owner of the brand and his wife, Ms. Denise, they take care of me a lot. We always talk and chop it up about things that we could do together or what they could do with the brand. And they actually took me to F1 probably about a week or two ago. When I’m meeting or working with people or brands, it’s always stemming from another real part of my life. Whether it’s a relationship that I have with somebody or somebody that I truly believe in, or they truly believe in me, it’s always genuine and that’s important to me. Like, I don’t really f*ck with AI and that type of sh*t, I’m not into that.
Is there a particular reason why?
Specifically with AI. Computer generated art is cool, real people create that, but I don’t f*ck with AI because it’s not real art. Imagine if everybody’s like “wow, we really like this artist because they make all their music, this is real sh*t bro” and then the n*gga comes out one day and says “man, all these songs are AI”. That sh*t is fraud. It’s just disingenuous, I don’t f*ck with that.
You and the crew have been very successful with Love Lasts Forever, Music and MORE CHAOS. Do you guys feel like you’re changing the landscape of music?
Yeah, man. That’s why we’re here.
In this new era of music that you’re stepping into, you already have a lot of different aliases such as Look Killa, Top Floor Boss and Dark Lord. Which one are you channelling at this time for the next phase of your career?
I’m on some new Top Floor Boss sh*t, you know what I’m saying? I’m on some new Top Floor Boss sh*t! That’s all.
Dress, TRACY CUI.
Ring (Right Hand), KHIRY
Rings (Left Hand), AGMES
Nose Ring, ARTIST’S OWN.