Big Sant

Big Sant, greetings and welcome to murderdog.com let’s begin by you telling us a little bit about yourself. For starters, where are you from and what was it like growing up there?

I’m a rapper from the country. I’m from Meridian, MS and I’ve been writing and recording rap music since I was 13 years old. I grew up surrounded by family in a very close-knit community between my grandparents. My mother is Patrice Moncell, Mississippi Blues and Gospel legend. Her being a student of music, I filled most of my time singing notes for her so she could do arrangements for our mass choir.

I normally ask people what kind of music did they grow up listening to when they were a kid, but in your case, I know what kind of music you grew up listening to because you come from a very musical family, am I right?

Absolutely. Between my mom taking me to nightclubs, my aunt being a young woman that was consuming hip-hop and R&B at the time, and going to church 10 days a week, music basically followed me everywhere I went.

Tell us more about your mother and how she influenced you musically?

My mother’s influence on my music shows up in the way I listen to music. I’m trying to write more R&B and soul nowadays, at least participating in the writing process with my friends. I think about John Singleton telling Ice Cube that if you can write a rap song you can write a movie. Well, if I can write a rap, I can write lyrics meant to be sung.

How did you first come in contact with hip hop?

I came up with a lot of cousins around me. I had some girl cousins next door that in hindsight, were only 2-3 years older than me, but music videos and the latest tapes were all they consumed. Magazines. Word Up posters, all that shit. Once I got too old to need to be “watched,” I still hung out with them just to escape gospel music.

Who are some of your influences in terms of lyricism?

I spent every summer in Texas, like 15 summers straight. That was my real introduction to looking out the window and seeing the lyrics I hear on the radio. UGK. Scarface. A never ending amount of SUC albums. I spent every summer, once I became of age, listening to all the songs I heard on the radio screwed up when I made it back to Texas. My friend Amy really took me down the 2pac rabbit hole. My cousin Brandy gave me Biggie’s first album because some guy left the tape in her car. I’d wash dishes at my grandmother’s house with a headset on so she wouldn’t hear all the cussing and whatever else I was listening to.

You are widely known for your affiliation with Big K.R.I.T.S. how did the two of you meet?

I’ve known KRIT since he was 13 and I was 15. I met him the summer before school started for the year. He was 2 grades under me so I had never seen him before. On our initial meeting, I thought he was his older brother’s big brother. Cuz was already 6’1 with chin hair, [laughs]. I was already Big Sant at the time, so when he found out I was a rapper, he gave me a tape of him rapping over “The Funeral” by Clipse. I played that tape until it popped in my cousin’s jeep. After that, I tried to take him everywhere I went. If there was a situation for me, I tried to get him involved. In a small town where all the rappers were in cliques already, having freestyle battles and what have you, there was no way I wasn’t showing up with another big gun. His skill and dedication is what made him king before he was.

When did you start your professional career as a rapper?

I was selling singles in JJ’s Record Mart in Meridian. I was 13 when I recorded my first song in a “professional” studio. I had a song on the radio in Meridian called “Box Chevy.” Another song I had called “Paper Chase” got played on the radio too, but that was only because my cousin was the DJ. In a small town, that was all I needed. I made sure to show up whenever there was a show in the city, hoping somebody like P or Baby would sign me. In Texas, I performed at a weekly competition called “Jump On It.” I won 3 weeks in a row and opened up for Immature at the event’s summer finale show. I been Big Sant from the beginning.

You’re known in the underground for your fierce lyricism and you’re doing it at a time when lyricism seems to be on the decline commercially speaking. Does that pose any challenge to you to dumb the music down to become more commercial?

Not for me. I don’t really know what it means to be “commercial” in this day and age. I’m essentially writing raps for good rappers to listen to. I’m only concerned with the people that feel like me. That feels a little one-sided but what are you gonna do when Scarface, 8Ball and MJG or Bun decide that they really don’t wanna rap anymore? You gonna exist with the relics of Country Rap Tunes of the past? 35+ people need hip hop too. Boys with 401Ks and women on cruises need these raps too. We’re Retro South. I’m an adult contemporary gangster rapper now.

In addition to doing music well, you’ve also done acting. Is that something you plan to continue pursuing, or is music still going to be your main thing?

I’d love to act more. I’m in a few indie projects. I have a part in Brayvhouse’s Adventures of Black People series coming this year. I’m preparing to do some voice acting also.

Tell us about your current projects.

I’m in my 2PLAYER era right now. My rhyme partner RedCoat Da Poet and I just dropped our latest EP, WE N HERE. We dropped another called Vogues a few months back. All of this will ultimately lead to our next full-length album. Retro South and the debut 2Player projects are available also. We want the trust of our demographic with the hard-hitting traditional southern rap music that they know and love. We want to emphasize that we aren’t trying to imitate the greats; we are the evolution of the sound.