*This article originally appeared in RVA Mag #36, on the streets now at all your favorite spots.
Segga Spiccoli is only in his mid-20s, but he’s been a visible and productive member of the Richmond hip-hop community for quite a while now. I got a chance to sit down with the East End rapper shortly after the release of his latest project, The Skinny V Tape, which dropped in the fourth quarter of 2018. We discussed The Life Company collective project — of which he is a core member — and his Green and Gold Label. We were then joined by fellow Life Company member and sought-after Richmond producer Bandolero, who produced almost all of the tracks on The Skinny V Tape. We started out by discussing that very release.
Tell me about The Skinny V Tape.
Segga Spiccoli: We’ve been working on it for a while now. Some songs we had in the cut — Bandolero produced like six, six out of the eight. But Skinny V Tape is basically everything that I’ve been thinking about, everything that I’ve been going through for the last year and a half. This feels like the most complete body of work that I’ve put out so far, and I was super proud of that, because I got a chance to say everything I wanted to say. Get it off my chest and have people have a better understanding of me as an artist, you know what I’m saying?
Who is Segga Spiccoli?
Segga Spiccoli: I’m just an East End nigga. You feel what I’m saying? Like, I’m humble and down to earth, I’m laid back, and I think that is reflected in the music, honestly. I feel I give a great description of where I came from in the city, and I give a great description of how I look at the city. People always say to me, like if they ain’t never been to Richmond before, listening to my music gives them a description of the city even if they never come to it. I think about it because when I used to listen to Snoop, or I used to listen to UGK, or 8 Ball and MJG… wherever they was at, whether it was Memphis — Orange Mound or wherever it was — or Port Arthur, Texas, or whatever. I felt like I was there and I knew what was going on. So I just wanted my music to be the same way for this city. For Richmond.
I remember first seeing a video of yours a few years ago and it had the label of the The Life Company at the beginning. Now I have noticed that it has shifted to the Green and Gold Label. Was there a change?
Segga Spiccoli: It’s still The Life Company, its TLC/Green and Gold. We started The Life Company just on some independent shit. The “LIFE” in The Life Company statement is Living Independent For Ever. That’s the umbrella of everything; Green and Gold is just the set. The Life Company is going to live forever though. Life. We might not be pushing it as much as we used to, but it’s still gonna reflect in Green and Gold. And we still gonna keep the clean visuals — shout out to Flexico.
How many are with Green and Gold?
Segga Spiccoli: It’s five of us. Me, Bandolero, Young Flexico, A6, and Wayne. It’s us, and we’ve been moving together for a minute, know what I’m saying? Bando came in like three years ago. Flexico, me, Wayne, and Nard, we have known each other for damn near ten years. This Green and Gold is serious, we’re worried about us. We doin’ us, we don’t have time for the bullshit. We’re trying to prosper.
[At this point, Bandolero joined in to explain how he joined the crew, and their vision for the future of Green And Gold.]
Bandolero: I didn’t even really get involved until me and Segga had a conversation one night outside of Gallery 5. With young motherfuckers in general — like, we’re all around 24, 25, so we’re not teenagers but we young. But we didn’t see a lot of organized young guys making moves, know what I’m saying? And that was our thing: we got to pick up that slack for the next generation, to be something that people can look at and be like, “Oh, they actually doing it.” Originally when I came in, I asked to be in Life Company, but when we started pushing the music as a collective with all of us, we figured that we’d make Green and Gold the label. That’s our Death Row Records. Know what I’m saying? That’s our artistic outlet.
Now that we are in 2019 and with the buzz of Skinny V, What’s next for the Green and Gold Label?
Segga Spiccoli: My new project, On the Eastside: Side B. Flexico is working on his album, that shit’s done, it’s in the stash. He’s working on all his shit to make it perfect. Like I said, I’m working on On The Eastside: Side B, keep going with that series [which began with On The Eastside: Side A, released in 2017]. Bando and I have two songs in so far.
Bandolero: But I mean, for real — 2019 should be a really good year. We’re picking up a lot of pace on putting ourselves strategically. That’s the other thing is, like, you’ll see a lot of motherfuckers out here doing shows. That ain’t worth shit. And that’s not to take away from anybody’s performance or anything like that, but at the end of the day, we’re not gonna hop on a bill with 30 other motherfuckers just so you can hear five minutes of me and forget about it. You know what I’m saying? We want to get on the stage with people we fuck with, we’re gonna make moves with, promoters that we fuck with. We’re not going to do all this weird shit; nine times out of ten, we gonna be trying to do the shit ourselves.
Photos by Branden Wilson
Music Sponsored By Graduate Richmond
