At the age of 12, Casey Veggies (AKA Casey Jones) had the dream of being a rapper, and by the 9th grade his dream was a reality when he dropped his first mixtape – Customized Greatly Vol. 1.
At the age of 12, Casey Veggies (AKA Casey Jones) had the dream of being a rapper, and by the 9th grade his dream was a reality when he dropped his first mixtape – Customized Greatly Vol. 1.
In his adolescence, Veggies was a founding member of Odd Future, the now-infamous rap and hip-hop collective lead by Tyler The Creator. But after Customized Greatly, he left the group to start developing his own style and brand.
And he developed both quickly, with his own clothing line, Peas and Carrots International, which was called one of the “coolest L.A. streetwear brands” in 2013 by Complex.
Seven years after his first mixtape, Veggies has signed a record deal with Jay-Z’s Roc Nation and has his debut album scheduled to release this summer around the same time of his 22nd birthday.
But Veggies admits his aggressive pursuit of music throughout high school left holes in other parts in his life.
“I felt like I didn’t really have a test to like experience just the regular, you know, cool college lifestyle,” Veggies said in an interview with RVAMag after his show with Big Sean at the National earlier this month. “But I had to go just chase the dream when I felt the time was right.”
It’s not always fun and games when you’re trying to brand your material on your own. Veggies put out his now hit single Backflip (below) out by himself around the time of his 21st birthday and began to perform it at clubs. He hand out the single to DJ’s for more exposure, hoping he’d make it hot on his own.
Veggies spoke some about the style in “Black Flip” as being a party feel type of track, “…I had a few records that was in that lane, but Backflip was the first one that was just all the way there,” Veggie said. “and I just had to take it up a notch, show my versatility as an artist and as a person.”
Veggies makes a point to have a good time and enjoy himself while making music. “
Going out, partying, girls, and you know all those things that come from that lifestyle, that’s what Backflip is, depicting that lifestyle,” Veggie said.
It wasn’t for another six months after pounding the pavement that labels and others really took notice, and some help from from Rapper YG didn’t hurt either.
“YG heard it a few weeks after it was out and was like ‘this is crazy, like I wanna be on this record,’” Veggies said. “I felt like YG would have killed the song and I felt like he would have sounded great on there because it just got that feeling, that West Coast vibe so I wanted to put him on it from the beginning.”
Without even asking, Veggies came out with a Backflip remix featuring Wiz Khalifa and ASAP Ferg because they wanted to be a part of it.
“I was just excited people was gravitating to the music, that’s when you know you got a hit record, when people wanna get on it without even asking,” Veggie said.
Since signing a record deal with Roc Nation, he admits it has been significantly different than working independently, releasing mixtapes, saying the larger backing and the upcoming album added extra pressure. “Now it’s about taking that creative and that vision, and taking it to a more business aspect,” he said, “That’s what I did on this album, just think more of, ‘this is my career, this is my hobby’, and I just try to be more straightforward and real with what I’m saying.”
Veggies doesn’t believe himself to live a regular life anymore, but he still hopes his fan base are people who can really connect with him.
He described the upcoming album as a medium to speak to this vision. “I just wanna put [the music] out and let it live, let the music speak,” Veggie said “I think that’s going to be my highest level of marketing in life, word of mouth… just people vibing with the music.”
