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[HIP HOP] For many people, Houston-based rapper Riff Raff came into focus after actor James Franco portrayed the character Alien in the 2012 Harmony Korine film Spring Breakers. Franco’s character, like Riff Raff, sported a jumble of tattoos, light brown braids, oversized sunglasses, and a metallic grill—an uncanny resemblance to the then underground rapper. In an interview at the time, Riff Raff said “That’s like if Denzel Washington was playing the role of O.J. Simpson,” of the casting choice, which both Franco and Kroine claim wasn’t really based on Riff Raff. Of course Riff Raff milked it for all it was worth anyhow, with a simultaneous protest and embrace of the situation—Rap Game James Franco was born, a star made for the internet age. A lot has happened since then, including the release of several mixtapes and two studio albums—2014’s Neon Icon and last year’s Peach Panther, for which he’s in the middle of shooting a feature length film. This week we talked to Riff Raff about the film, his desert island candy, and his upcoming album, Aquaberry Aquarius. Riff Raff comes to the Waiting Room on Sunday, January 22 with support from Dolla Bill Gates, Peter Jackson, and more.

Where are you right now?
We’re in Charleston, South Carolina.

It’s a little colder here in Buffalo than it is in South Carolina. Do you have your wardrobe all picked out?
Oh yeah, yeah. I shop in every city so if I need a new jacket I’ll get one.

So this is the first date of your tour in support of your upcoming album Aquaberry Aquarious. What does Aquaberry Aquarius refer to?
I’m an aquarius, my birthday is January 29. So I’m dropping the album on my birthday at midnight. It’s my first professional studio album. Even Neon Icon and Peach Panther, it was all, I would record and just have my friends mix it and stuff like that. So this is my first actual studio album. I linked up with Wiz [Khalifa]. He’s on the single and it’s at his studio. He had his producer and everything make all the beats.

Just by the look of the album cover it looks like it might be a little bit of a different vibe than Peach Panther.
It is! It is! It’s about half my new rap style, and half instruments and songs, where we actually built the song and we had people help write the hooks. I write my lyrics but this time I had help like wording things properly, you know what I mean. We put the songs in the proper song format as opposed to me writing the hook and doing verses and just throwing the songs together. 

What’s up with the Peach Panther movie?
Peach Panther movie, yeah that’s dropping in theaters. We just got uh, an extra like half a million dollars in budget just for explosions. The movie is already done but they wanted to add more to it. That’ll be dropping in theaters in November.

What do you like about doing films?
To me it’s just the next step. It’s movies and being on TV, which I never have done. I’m still doing music and everything—I’m never going to stop doing music, but you know, you can’t eat pizza every day for 30 days straight—so it’s just something different. I might take a couple of years off and just do movies and TV and then go back to music if I want to. I’m not saying I’m going to stop or it’s one thing or the other, but it’s something new. I definitely like it. [The Peach Panther movie] will be my first movie in actual theaters and stuff so it’s like [makes explosion noises with his mouth]. 

One of my favorite tracks from Peach Panther is “I Drive By.” What is it like working with Gucci Mane and Danny Brown?
Oh yeah, Danny Brown is one of my favorite rappers and so is Gucci Mane. My favorite rapper is Gucci Mane so it’s like—working with people I’m fans of is always fun because I’m waiting to see what their verse is going to be and for me to release it to the public—and it’s someone I actually like and I listen to in general and I’m waiting for their album to drop—if I can hear them on my album, it’s pretty cool. That they’re also somewhat of a fan of me to be on the album. 

My last question is a crowd sourced question: If you could only eat one candy for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Oh. Ah. Hmm. Probably blue raspberry sour straws.