Highway has always taken the road less traveled. “I like to surprise people,” he tells OGM host Hakeem Rowe, who doubles as an A&R at Victor Victor — the Seattle rapper-producer’s home base. “It all still feels like a dream.”
With an infinity stone gauntlet of new wave collaborations over the past few years, touting tracks with Joony, Dro Kenji, Dom Corleo, Destroy Lonely among others, Highway is truly speeding towards stardom in the fast lane. Known for both his beats and bars, already nabbing one of his “dream collabs” with Trippie Redd on the remix to hs breakout hit “Better Float,” his co-signs span from Ty Dolla $ign and DotCom Nirvan to MIKE HECTOR and Nick Mira — all legends within their own right.
“Someone asked me once, who would be your dream collab? I had three,” he explains. “Trippie, Uzi and Future. And those are still my Top 3. I gotta get those. A month later [I said this], [Trippie] had posted himself listening to ‘Better Float’ in the studio. Instantly, I hit him like, “we gotta work.” And he was like “let me hop on the remix.” That didn’t even cross my mind. AND we finished the remix in that same night… That sh*t was hard as f**k.”
The “underground’s best-kept secret” is no longer hushed, as projects like Count Fast Untitled, Highway, Livin Like That EP and his latest MONOCHROME (May 5) bring Highway’s stark, black-and-white aesthetic to new light. It reflects in his music, filled with woozy trap beats that are injected with the underground’s unbound style. Slant rhymes, slurred bars and high fashion are Highway’s M.O., as MONOCHROME looks to put Highway in a new category altogether.
“I want to add a new feel to what’s going on right now in a way where people feel like they’re apart of something [bigger]. I want my fans to feel like they can join in on it. People want to know the depth behind [the project] or the roots, but sometimes it’s a feeling — sometimes people want to feel fly as hell in all-black or black and white… whatever it is, it’s about expressing yourself creatively with a color, or a style. I feel like I have a lot of people behind me and [more] will join in.“
Highway on ‘MONOCHROME’
Just after his first set at Rolling Loud California, Highway and Hakeem Rowe chopped it up about his new album MONOCHROME, dream collabs, his producer journey, XJay, JetsonMade, Trippie Redd, Destroy Lonely, DotCom Nirvan, “Better Float,” his passion for fashion, career aspirations and so much more in this exclusive OGM interview.
For more context on the album, read here.
Watch Highway’s OGM exclusive interview below!
