G-Eazy: Old School Songs with New Lyrics

G-Eazy is a rising new rapper, who's been featured on several popular college music websites, such as GoodMusicAllDay.com and ThisBeatIsSick.com. He's a white rapper raised in Oakland and Berkley, California and he comes off as an average kid. He goes to college, goes out with friends, and freestyle raps on occasion. As with almost every musician in the country, one of his main inspirations is the Beatles, as well as the Beach Boys. But G-Eazy takes his obsession with music from decades past to a new level. In several of his top songs, such as Make-Up Sex, G-Eazy uses music that sounds like it's from the 50's and raps over it. G-Eazy sampled a portion of Dion's "Runaround Sue", a 1961 pop song that ranked number 362 on The Rolling Stones list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of all Time."G-Eazy's album "Endless Summer" samples a lot of doo-wop music, which goes hand-in-hand with the leather jackets, ray-bans, and slicked back hair of his videos.

He also raps over current indie and pop songs, such as Matt and Kim's "Good For Great" and Grizzly Bear's "Two Weeks". His remix of "Good For Great", which is also called "Good For Great" has the same music and a similar chorus to Matt and Kim's version, but G-Eazy adds some down-to-earth lyrics in the verses that separate him from many other rappers. Instead of all of his songs being about sex, drinking, and fame, some of G-Eazy's songs are more personal, describing the ups and downs of his life, and his ever-present conflict between college and music. His cover of "Two Weeks" is in a song called "Acting Up". Although it talks more about sex and alcohol, G-Eazy raps about how he wants to change his "party boy" image and fall in love.

One of my favorite G-Eazy songs is called "Well Known", in which the chorus has deep lyrics that all listeners should take into consideration. "Only you can make you happy," he raps repeatedly. This short lyric is very true and makes "Well Known" a very inspirational song for listeners. "G-Eazy knows the truth in life" says an anonymous fan on G-Eazy's website.

In an interview with Earmilk, G-Eazy responded to a question about the 50's and 60's influence on his music with "I feel like that's a time period that's retained this sort of eternal cool. Like for instance, James Dean has never not looked cool, you know? And that's kind of what I want to do with my music, create something that will last." Luckily for G-Eazy, his popularity on major college music websites is soaring. On OhSoFreshMusic.com , G-Eazy was named one of the top "Hip-Hop Artists You Should Be Listening To In 2012". He also drops a lot of music, even with all of his college work, which gets his name out. He even has several songs on iTunes and occasionally does shows around the United States, mostly in California and his current city of New Orleans. The awesome thing about G-Eazy is that he gives all of his music out for free. Several of his songs are on iTunes where they can be purchased if users choose to do so, but he makes a majority of his money from live shows and merchandise.