Gustavo, 23, is already somewhat of a veteran in Latvia's small hip-hop circle. From 1995 until 2001 he was in the hip-hop group Fact, which won praise for their first single "Creepin' Shadows," relea-sed in 1997.
This month saw the release of Gustavo's maxi single "Jau-ta-jums" (Question) and during the summer his first solo album will come out.
Fact was the first Latvian group to release hip-hop here. Do you somehow feel that you have had a significant influence on how Latvian hip-hop sounds today?
Yes, very much so. You make something new in Latvia and everyone will start copying it. In America or France there are a lot more hip-hop groups and MCs, but many of them somehow have their own original style. Everybody steals ideas from each other in the Latvian music industry. They are like, "I didn't take your car or your house, did I? So what is your problem?" Some just want to rap and become famous, but they don't have anything to tell. You can see who does it for the fame and the money, and who does it for the love of it. Not many do it for the love of it.
How did you first get attracted to hip-hop music?
The music moved me somehow. As every musician I first listened, but it didn't take long before I started to write lyrics. When we started playing, we were about 14 or 15. We wanted to play something, but didn't know the exact style. So we just started playing some really hardcore metal-rap until I said, "I know now how we must play".
How has your music developed over the years from when you started making hip-hop until now?
Now it has more character, feeling and emotion. And the music is different. Before it really had to pump you up. Now the lyrics and the music make more sense and fit together in a better way.
You first started out rapping in English. Your new maxi-single "Jau-ta-jums" is in Latvian and your solo album will be also. Why this change?
Honestly, to begin with, we were ashamed of our language. That was wrong, but we were young. At that time I didn't know how to write something in Latvian.
People in Latvia liked our music and English lyrics, but in America they had no idea what I was talking about in my songs. They simply told me, "If you want to make it in America, you must live in America, know the streets, the problems and the slang." That was a breaking point for me.
I started to rhyme in Latvian. It was hard for me in the beginning because making music and lyrics is like sports, you need to train every day to get better.
Wouldn't it give you a larger audience if you rapped in Russian?
Yes, it would, but I'm staying with Latvian lyrics so far because I want to become better. Nobody in Latvia has yet reached the highest level of hip-hop. Some guys are good, but you can always do better.
Most people see hip-hop as being black, political music from the American ghetto. Where do you belong in this?
It is really strange when people say that hip-hop is black music. Blues was black, and many white rock musicians were inspired by it. Jazz was black and now everybody plays it. Why not hip-hop?
Hip-hop didn't start out as political music. It became political later with, for example, Public Enemy in the 80's. To begin with it was about local problems for the guys in the Bronx. And that is how it is here too. We sing in Latvian about local problems. But I also sing about political issues. For example about the years we were part of the Soviet Union, and how it affected people, and still does.
A lot of what I'm saying is maybe not the "correct" thing to say. People tell me, "You should not say this because it will affect your career." But what I feel, I will say.
Another rapper in Fact was Ozols. After Fact split up the two of you started your individual careers, and now you have developed this grudge against each other. How did you part ways?
We had arguments about the music every day in the group. He said, "People want this," and I said "F?k what people want, we should do what we like." He says he was keeping the group alive through his image and that he was pushed to promote the group. But I was in the studio making the songs while he was riding around in the streets on his bike and going to parties where people would notice him.
He has not done hip-hop a favor by giving it an audience in Latvia?
I think it is wrong that a lot of people listen to his music and think that this is how hip-hop should be. They ask me "are you a hip-hopper?' You look so simple! You have to have big finger rings and golden chains around your neck." But it is fake. If you are a Latvian hip-hopper you must be that, and not just imitate somebody from the States.
I don't want to become an icon with my naked chest on a poster on every corner. Why? I make music. When people understand my songs; that is what makes me happy. Not some screaming kids, crazy for me.
Many readers are familiar with the group Brainstorm. Would you like to repeat their success?
Well, sure. Success is good if you don't just change into what the public wants. Brainstorm makes pop music, and that is the kind of music they wanted to make in the first place, so it is cool with me. But if you say you are a hip-hopper and you really make pop music, that is not OK.
There is not a lot of money in the Latvian music industry, and it is difficult to live as a musician in today's Latvia. How do you get by?
If I have 100 Ls ($165) in my pocket it is good, and if I have 200 it is of course better, but I don't pursue money. I earn some money on music for commercials, and I do concerts. My maxi single is out and so is the music video for "Jau-ta-jums." And later this summer my solo album will come out. All this means more concerts. Things are fine for me. I'm not dying of starvation.
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