When he picks up the phone on a Monday afternoon, LA rapper G Perico is positively glowing.
“I’m at my coffee table, I got my portable studio set up, and I’m just about to knock out a gang of [recordings] right now,” he says, a wide smile audible in his voice. “I’m feeling good. I got new energy. Been at my whiteboard. I ain’t go to the hood today. I’m weaning myself off the street shit, you know.”
There are several key words in that quote, and one of them is “weaning.” Perico hasn’t completely removed himself from the streets of his neighborhood in South Central Los Angeles, near where the 105 freeway meets the 110. He still shows up on the block, but these days, it’s for very different reasons than when he was actively running with the Crips.
“I’m really not in the mix at all, as far as the ignorant shit I used to do,” Perico says. “But I still bless people with my presence, just because I want other motherfuckers that might have a vision for themself… to be able to see me and talk to me and know that I’m their homie and they can do the same [positive] shit as me and there ain’t nothing wrong with it.”