We Talked to Denzel Curry About Nostalgia, the Zodiac, and Fiji Water

Photographs by Justin Staple

A camera clicks repeatedly as the afternoon breeze sends a wad of cash fluttering above the sidewalk. I lunge for errant bills, snatching a twenty from under a tire. Another almost escapes into a storm drain. Eventually I’ve rounded it all up, a cool $500. Again the photographer counts down, a brief wrist movement fills the air with legal tender, and the lens snaps like a claw.

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The object of this commotion is Denzel Aquarius’Killa Curry, an 18 year old Floridian phenom in New York for the first time. He’s enjoying himself, not taking the cash antics too seriously. He’s earned it, after all–this has been Denzel’s year. 2013 saw him explode out of the Miami scene with “Threatz,” one of the most effective bangers rap’s fringes have produced this decade. It’s an elemental force. The night before I’d watched Curry perform at my suburban liberal arts school—he’d incited nuclear meltdown hype levels by the second verse.

Denzel came up over the last few years under the wing of SpaceGhostPurrp, drawing attention for his Raider Klan cuts and features for the enigmatic Lil Ugly Mane. This summer he amicably left the Klan, an understandable move from a purely creative angle. Denzel’s vibrant, kinetic flow doesn’t have all that much in common with Purrp’s mystical, stylized take on Mystic Stylez. His first post-Klan mixtape, last month’s Nostalgic 64, finds him using colors beyond gothic black on nimble tracks like “Parents” and “Widescreen.” Where he’ll go now is anyone’s guess, but one thing’s for sure: Denzel Curry is up next.

Noisey: You are…
Denzel Curry: Denzel Mothafuckin’ Curry.

And what have you been doing in New York this past week?
Doing shows, getting money, interviews, watching TV, smoking weed.

What TV have you been watching?
Shit, I was watching Demolition Man earlier today. That shit was raw. You feel me, with Wesley Snipes and that other motherfucker Sylvester Stallone. Killin’ that shit.

How does the weed here compare to Florida?
It sucks. You gotta get it from certain people to have good weed. The difference is we could get good from anywhere in South Florida. Over here it’s like, selective.

Do you write better when you’re high?
No. I like writing sober because I get my thoughts flowing and I can just sit there and come up with good shit. When I’m high all i think about is just sitting on the couch. I be lazy as fuck, you feel me? Freestyling high is pretty fun though.

You’re most recent tape was called Nostalgic 64. What are some of your favorite N64 memories?
Shit, when we used to play 007 Goldeneye we used to put on super fast mode and DK mode where niggas had big heads and ran super fast. That and Super Smash brothers.

Who would you play as in Smash?
Super Smash brothers it’s either as Sonic, Donkey Kong, yeah that’s pretty much it. Oh, and Kirby.

Do you think growing up playing all those video games changed our generation in a certain way?
It kinda did. Because everybody’s always trying to get the new new. It really shifted. When you first started with video games it was like, “Oh shit, what’s this!” And then when that gets old they look for another one. It really shifted us, along with other technology such as iphones. Everybody’s just looking for the new, bigger and better.

What’s the rap scene like in Carol City?
The scene is really crazy because the guys who rap from where I’m from talk about some real real shit. Like, niggas could murk niggas and make a song about it the next day. And then they’ll get caught and they’ll probably die, and you got other people who speak up on their friends and shit who they lost, but it’s all straight aggression, you feel me? Carol City music is really aggressive.

What’s your relationship to the scene? Are you inspired by it?
I’m inspired by it but it inspired me to do something different. I’m not gonna sound like the next person. I could respect your sound but I could also do my own, you feel me? So if I come out as how everybody else came out then I’ll be stuck in another position than from where I’m at now.

What’s unique about what you bring to the table?
Art. Like you gotta put art into it. When I listen to other Carol City people and they hear my stuff it’s like, mostly it could be the same thing, but sometimes it’s different. They bringing their world into it like, okay, this is where I’m from. This is how fucked up it is. Me, I bring in my world but I add surrealism and the way it relates to me, feel me? Like they do what relates to them and they respect my sound because I respect their sound.

What do you think is the single trippiest experience of your life?
Shit, like going to Art Walk in Miami, where they show galleries on shrooms was some of the most craziest shit that I been to. You can hear everything, everybody talking, everything, lights was brighter. It kind of feels like you’re in a dark bubble. But all that inspired me. So I could say that’s one of the craziest trips I had.

Let’s talk about your nickname, Aquarius Killa. What does that mean to you?
Aquarius Killa. I’m an Aquarius. I was born February 16th, 1995 and the “killa” part just comes in, you know, with the flow, because Aquarius is a water bearer and he dumps the water and shit. You could see it in the sign, and that flow, it just goes into it, like “killa”, like you could die from drowning. Think about it. It’s a killa flow. Aquarius Killa. And then it just goes into a rapid fire spasm, like a samurai coming in killing things.

Does being an Aquarius affects how you rap?
Yeah. I’m powered by that sign and so I gotta take it as that. I use it as my willpower.

What other Zodiac signs are you most compatible with?<
Pretty much Gemini’s and Sagittarius’s. I’m really compatible with them. But I fucked a girl with a sign that I’m not compatible with and the sex was really good.

What was it like blowing up while you were in high school?
I got a lot of support. Certain people hassled me but everybody respected me and like they like where I’m going, so they just all rooted for me. Even when I graduated it was like, “Yo we’re gonna be here counting on you and looking at you, feel me?” It was a lot of love during high school.

What were the parties like?
Didn’t really go to no high school parties, man. They would always end up crazy because like, Carol City you can’t even go to a party without somebody “Ay nigga…” and violence breaks out. So I stayed away from parties, but I would get invited.

Did you go to prom?
Nah, I didn’t go to prom. I had an Adidas shoot that day so I just said fuck prom.

That’s a good look, to choose a photoshoot over prom.
Yeah, but there be times where I be thinking, “Yo I shoulda gone to prom,” but I’m like like fuck it! You gonna see these guys in the future and you have bigger and better shit. I wasn’t really into high school shit even though I was kind of a popular kid in high school. I was still hanging with my same friends and whatever, but still keeping it cool with the jocks and the popular kids.

How did you meet Lil Ugly Mane?
I met him through Purp, but Purp didn’t introduce me. What happened was, I can’t give you his name, but he sent a friend request on Facebook and it was just this guy posting Lil Ugly Mane this, Lil Ugly Mane that. I asked him do you wanna work and he was like, yup. I showed my big brother Lil Ugly Mane that same day and he was just laughing. He was like, what is his name! I showed him “Bust A Sag” and he was like, “This shit hard!”

If you could design any piece of merch, anything outside of reason, what would you make?
I would make beads around your neck and bandanas.

Speaking of which, I noticed your Fiji water bandana. Is that your favorite kind of water?
If it ain’t Fiji water we don’t what it. That’s the movement.. No Aquafina, no Dasani, just Fiji water.

Poland Springs?
Nope. If it’s not Fiji water, we don’t want it. [whispers] At all.

Would you ever get a Fiji water tap in your house?
Yeah. I would.

What new direction can we expect from your upcoming Planet Shrooms project?
Expect the unexpected. It doesn’t sound like the shit I’ve been doing. It’s gonna sound way different, like really left field. But it’s still gonna have my original sound and better lyrics. More aggressive and I’m just gonna bring y’all into my world, a different part.

If you were in control of Earth, what’s one thing would you change?
The sky color.

What would it be?
Damn, didn’t even think about that. I know it’s not gonna be blue. It’ll change colors during different people’s moods. Have you ever seen the ocean when it hits the shore? It’s gonna look like that.

Like crashing waves?
Yeah, but it changes colors with everyones mood. It could be indigo, red… but it flows like an ocean. It would be cool.