Chicago-based up-and-coming rappers Lil Moe and Rooga stopped by the Clark St. Studio for a Q&A in which they gave us an insight on their joint project, Scrappers, and what it means to be a scrapper on today's episode premiere of season two of Q&A's with Clark Street. 

CSC: Introduce yourself and let us know what you do.

Rooga: My name Rooga. I'm a recording artist from Chicago.

Lil Moe: My name Lil Moe. I'm a Chicago artist. That's about it, though.

CSC: Let's talk about Scrappers, which just recently dropped. What's the story behind the creation of that project and its creative process? 

Rooga: It just started with us doing songs together. We realized we had did three, four, songs together and it was like shit might as well do a tape. Then you know Lil Moe had a situation going on, and we put it out through the label, know what I'm saying doing that shit the right way. 

CSC: Tell us about the first time you two worked together on "Scrappers," the single. 

Rooga: Honestly, Lil Moe ain't think too much of the song at first he was just not feeling it like that. I was telling him, 'bro this shit is it.' We was on some back and forth shit. We wasn't going to do it back and forth, but it was just like shit. I couldn't think of nothing, and it just turned to a back and forth on the song. 

CSC: What does it mean to be a Scrapper?

Rooga: Scrap is my lil brother who passed away. We just took it and basically made it a gang. That's what we rep. Basically, Scrappers is a way of representing my brother, and Scrap he was tuff, he had a brave heart you feel me, he wasn't an angel but that's somebody we really looked up to, a lot of people in the hood. When you say you a Scrapper, you gotta be damn near what Scrap was. Not saying you gotta be doing hot-dumb shit. You just gotta have that Scrapper in you. It's self-explanatory a lil bit. 

CSC: Let's talk about the studio vibes when you two are together. What does that look like?

Rooga: When we in the studio, shit, we make hits, we make sure the energy in the room is right.

Lil Moe: Yeah, that shit different.

Rooga: If one person feeling down that could fuck up the whole session, you feel me. The energy gotta be there. First, we play beats and shit, smoke a lil weed, get the energy going. That's how we just come up with good music. We don't really write or none. We just think of that shit and go bar for bar. 

CSC: Lil Moe, you recently signed to Capitol Records. How did that come about? 

Lil Moe: Hella labels reached out, but I stayed with Capitol because I feel like they had a future for me. I went with Capitol because I felt they was for me. I feel like there weren't nowhere other where to go but them. 

CSC: Rooga, what's your label situation like?

Rooga: Well, I ain't signed or nothing. I had plenty labels reaching out and shit, but no disrespect to the labels it's just not what I was trying to do at the time. I felt like I was doing better independently, and the deals they was coming at me with was cool, but I felt like they wasn't life-changing. Don't get me wrong; I'll sign a deal if the stipulation was right if the contract and everything is life-changing, that's the only way I'm signing a deal. I want my life to change overnight when I sign that motherfucker. 

CSC: Is there a moment in your lives in which you realized everything changed?

Rooga: Oh yeah, hell yeah, the moment I did a million views. That was back then, like in 2017 on the song "Members." That's when everything changed. Shit really changed. Everybody started knowing me. Then I started realizing people want to take pictures with me. Everywhere I go, people, knowing me and shit and couldn't go to certain places. That's when I realized shit changed when I can't even go in certain stores like that shit is different for me, because I'm used to doing shit for myself, so it's like other people gotta go to the store for me, and other people gotta do this. It's kind of like they treat you differently. Everybody treat you different when you get fame and shit. 

Lil Moe: The same can't go places everywhere I go somebody notice me. That's what it is. Like Rooga said, when everybody start noticing ya'll can't go nowhere, and when I did my first fuck a million but when I did my first ten-thousand views. I remember that that's when I knew my life changed.  

CSC: What is the best advice Rooga has ever given you?

Lil Moe: The first time I met him, he told me the same thing he tell me now. This block ain’t for you, and this block go be here when you gone, so he told me you got a choice you gonna go in the house, or you gone be out here, but ima tell you right now this block ain't for you. I took that, and I ran with it. 

CSC: Rooga, you're on DONDA. How did that come to be?

Rooga: My pops knew some people in the industry, and he plugged me with a guy. I don't wanna say his name too much to get everybody out there, but he plugged me with a guy who was plugged with Kanye. Basically, we was talking on the phone before I dropped "GD Anthem," I was talking to the guy for months. Then I dropped "GD Anthem," and that shit was causing a lot of controversy. It was going viral and shit. So he reached back out to me like, 'me and Kanye here listening to your shit.' I'm like, 'damn,' I ain't believe it, like, 'put him on the phone.' He put him on the phone damn. It was Ye, first thing he said when he got on the phone, he say, 'Trump shoul've freed Larry.' That's crazy, but um yeah, say the next day my guy hit me back saying Ye wanted to meet me. So I flew out to San Francisco, and it was history from there. Everybody was just feeling my vibes and my energy. I'm not going to lie on my way there I was thinking I was go be around billionaires, so I had to be on my best behavior type shit to make a person like me. When I actually got there, it was totally different. It wasn't like that. It was like everybody like me, everybody hood, everybody cool as hell, everybody being themselves. I actually got to be myself around them. I could literally say the fuck I wanna say, they cool as hell it's not like no boujee ass people or none of that. Ye definitely good peoples. 

CSC: What are some artists in the city ya'll fucking with?

Rooga: The artist I fuck with is JHE. We got artists coming out JHE Al, JHE Travv. They on the up-and-coming right now, they dropping, so I feel like they some hot artists that's out right now, and they really should be looking for them because they the next to blow fo real. 

Lil Moe: My homie Juice Man. He ain't got too much out, but he's definitely coming though he next up. 

CSC: Now, let's talk about FBG Duck. How's life been since his passing, I know you two were really close, and also tell us one of your favorite memories of him. 

Rooga: I can honestly say a lot of doors have been opening, but it's sad that it's happening now. It's been good you feel me. I've been in a good space, making good money, meeting new people, good energy, but like I say shit, that pain don't go away, that's my cousin. A lot of shit changed, too I had to adapt. Me and Duck was hanging damn near almost every other day. So even when it had nothing to do with music. I done dealt with deaths a lot before Duck passed. It's not like a new feel for me; it's something I was kind of numb to already, but it kind of opened my eyes a lil more and made me really take music more serious; you feel me. As far as the best memory with Duck, real talk me and Duck was like the same fucking person. We use to laugh all fucking day, crack jokes; he knew when I was cracking jokes on ni**as, sneak cracking jokes, he knew every fucking thing. My best memory with him is around the time my best friend Dooski passed away. That's who I was rapping with at the time, before me and Lil Moe got into the music. When that happened, it kind of made me draw to my family more, and like two days later, after Dooski passed away, Duck had a show in Ohio. Me and Duck was from different hoods we wasn't always hanging together, and that was a time where me and Duck grew to each other. We was doing kiddy shit in the hotel room. I'm talking about we downstairs running on the treadmill and just playing and shit playful as hell. That whole time made me realize Duck really was the one who took my mind off me losing my best friend, you feel me. He helped me cope through that shit through music. 

Lil Moe: When Duck passed, that did make me like push and go harder because he showed me how easy it is and how quick it is for everything to be gone from you. That made me do everything I do; I put my best into it and go ten times harder. 

CSC: Who inspires you to keep going?

Lil Moe: Dooski, that's my blooda. 

Rooga: Honestly, who inspires me to keep going, no cap, Lil Moe. I won't even lie just seeing him come from where he come from because I been rapping before that, but honestly, before that, my head was still in the streets but seeing him change his whole life around at a young age and really wanting to do this shit you feel me like that inspired me for real. 

CSC:Let's now talk about the creation of the "GD Anthem." 

Rooga: The GD Anthem came upon; honestly, it wasn't even a song at first. It was a live on my Instagram. I was in the studio just playing beats, and I just got to freestyling. Then I'm like, believe it or not, that will be a hit. Somebody took the live and put it on Facebook, and somebody shared it and captioned my mood all 2021. So that shit start going viral that one live did about 300,000 views on Facebook. Now everybody hitting me in the DM asking me to do the song, they thought I had already made the song, and I hadn't even made the song yet. I had to go in the studio and think because there was a lot of pressure at that point, so I had to come with my A-game. As far as, um, a remix, I got my boy Kanye he ready on the way. I'm waiting on my boy Offset to send that back too. It might be that you never know man, it might be another surprise guest.

CSC: You two work with Billy Kauck quite a lot. Tell us about your working relationship, and what is one of your favorite and most fun visuals he's shot for y'all two?

Rooga: Billy, one of the guys I ain't go lie to you that's the homie, he is my really close friend like for real. I can call him anytime, and he go answer, ask him for anything and give it to me, its vise versa. Billy, a good person to even be in this type of field he in, because I know he deal with a lot of crazy people, but he really a down-to-earth person. He understanding, he belive in whatever we believe in. Whatever we tell Billy we want to do, he with it. That's the energy I like about him. And my best video with him, the funnest video...

Lil Moe: Scrappers...

Rooga: Scrappers was cool. We had a lot of foe n em there. It was like a party in that motherfucker. I don't wanna discredit his work, but the funnest video to me probably was "Do Bout It." We was in that bitch turnt in LA. We had nice ass houses, nice ass cars. Everyone was feeling good, drinking a little bit. It was good vibes. It was out of the city. There was no worries. It was fun. 

Lil Moe: For "Scrappers," we weren't out in the environment, but we was having fun. It was more like a get-together than a video. We was chilling, and it was all vibes. 

CSC: Where do you two see yourselves within the next decade?

Lil Moe: I see myself in Miami on a beach somewhere. I ain't rapping, though. Be on the beach somewhere smacking the shit out of Billy. You never know, but that's where I see myself in 10 years. 

Rooga: Within a decade, I see myself being a mogul in the game. I'm talking about being the next Kanye, that's my energy, that's my vibe, that's how you gotta think. I probably won't be where Ye at, but you never know because he probably at a billion or some shit like that. I see myself being successful. Even though I'm being successful right now, I'm becoming that you feel me. I see myself in a comfortable space. Family took care of nice houses, my momma got a house, and I just wanna make sure all my family good within a decade. I plan on having businesses, multiple cars. I just plan on being successful and living a comfortable life. 

CSC: Since you mentioned something about owning multiple cars. What are some of your dream cars? 

Rooga: My dream car is a Cullinan Rolls-Royce truck. I need that. That's my dream car. The lamb truck is cool, but everybody, all the young ni**as wanna get in the lamb truck and drive the fast cars. I wanna be bossy. I wanna pull up in that shit with the stars on the top, red seats, and shit. 

CSC: What about the Maserati?

Rooga: Maserati, I like it because it got G's on it, but Maserati's, I don't know. Ima still buy one just because of that, though. Put it to the side strictly for that. 

Lil Moe: The same I was just about to say that the Rolls. That's the only car. I don't care about none of that fast dash shit. Pull up in that bossy shit like he just said. 

CSC: Who is the most famous person on your contact list?

Rooga: Kanye, shit, I would say. Kanye, I don't wanna give the name of everybody, but I got a couple of famous friends, NBA players, and shit. Ain't nobody bigger than Kanye, though. And um, I forgot Kylie Jenner. 

Lil Moe: Folks right here. 

Rooga: Nah, you got some big people in your phone, bro, you got Drakeo.  

Lil Moe: Yeah, yeah, Drakeo The Ruler. Action Pack AP, that's my boy. We got some shit in the cut. Drakeo The Ruler, Action Pack, and folks, you know I keep in a circle. 

CSC: Late at night or after a studio session, what type of food are you getting?

Lil Moe: We always order Harold's and shit. 

Rooga: Billy orders with no mild sauce bro. Who orders wings with no sauce on them?

Lil Moe: That ni**a crazy as hell. 

Rooga: Billy be like, "yeah I'm going to order some food." I'm like, "gone head." He come in that bitch with chicken. Harold's with no sauce on it bro. But no cap I be eating everything bro. 

Lil Moe: My shit is Portillos. 

Rooga: Portillos do be a hit. They lines be long as hell. I hate Portillos how long they lines is. 

Lil Moe: That's my shit, though. In the studio, you be high and hungry that's going to do it. 

Rooga: I like Uncle Remus. It's Out West 290. A lot of out South people go be mad at me for this, but 290 got the best chicken over there. 

CSC: If you could change something about Chicago, what would it be? Also, do ya'll ever plan on leaving the city? 

Rooga: If I could change anything about Chicago, I'd try to change the way people think. How everyone is just killing each other like that, I'd make shit peaceful. I feel like it be a great thing if it was to happen, which we know it ain't, but I hope it do. As far me leaving Chicago, I left already. I could never forget about my city. I'm always in the city. One thing about anywhere, not just Chicago, is that you cant stay where you grew up at if you become famous and shit, you can't stay there. It's not just about a ni**a would kill you or you got opps, nah. When you become, famous people get weird as hell, no cap. What's crazy the hate always come from your city. It be love too, but it's like the hate come from your city the most. 

Lil Moe: Like he said, if I could change some shit, I'd change how fucked up it is out here. I'm still in the city though I ain't going nowhere I be out of here soon. It's not that I can't get out of here it's just that I ain't get out of here yet. 

CSC: What's next? What are you working on, and is there anything you'd like to let your fans know. 

Rooga: I got a project coming its called Heartache. I been promoting it a while ago, but I pushed it back because I felt like it wasn't done. I got an album on the way, new work with Kanye on DONDA, new features with big artists coming, and later on in time, me and Lil Moe go do some more work too. New artist from JHE, we all go be working together, keep it all in-house and build our branding and keep going. A message to the fans keep subscribing, keep watching, we go keep giving y'all this fucking heat. I appreciate all the fans that support me and that take they time and pay for my music and don't ever give up. You can do whatever you put your mind to. This is living proof right here in front of you. 

Lil Moe: I got "8Block" coming out. It's a single, and I also got a mixtape coming out soon. I wanna let my fans know, as Rooga said, it ain't nothing you can't do because I ain't go lie I've been in that situation; I ain't had shit, and I turnt around and did what I had to do. I turnt around, and I looked up I had more than I thought I ever had you feel me. So just wanna let them know to keep going, keep pushing.