Baton Rouge rapper Shwerwood Marty sits down and chops it on Open Space with Mass Appeal.

“Once the money start coming in,” he advises, “it’s best you get out.”

“Honestly, shit—Tupac got killed. Ain’t nobody untouchable. You get too much fame, n****s don’t like that shat. You feel what I’m saying? They got places like Atlanta where all the rappers fuck with each other. In BR, niggas hate over anything! A n***a hate cause you got a raw-ass car. You feel what I’m saying? I bought an Aston Martin and I hear them saying ‘I’ll shoot that bitch up!’ They ain’t shot it up but shit, you supposed to be motivated by what the next man do. That shit fucked up.”

“Everybody wanna be robbers in Baton Rogue,” says Marty. “That shit really a follow-the-leader campaign. But they got a lot of raw talent. Most of the people rappin’ in Baton Rogue really can rap.”

In 2016 Marty dropped his first video—a song he made two years earlier when he was 16. “Sherwood Marty Intro,” that bitch on YouTube. My first and only mixtape, “Stuck in the Trenches, Self-Made Volume 1.” Since then he has major labels callingt to get a piece of the empire he built off Youtube and Instagram.

Until then he’s doing his best to avoid the whole “Rappers getting smoked” thing. “The biggest instigator is the fans,” he says. “When you look under the comment, it’s 13-year-olds, 11-year-olds writing crazy stuff like “I’m glad he’s dead.” The fans, they will cause World War 17.”