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“I tattooed my face so I couldn’t get no job,” Southside tells us.
“I did it so I gotta make beats. So I gotta make it making beats. It’s like, what else am I gonna do? If I’m in the streets, I can’t thug it with tattoos on my face—I’m recognizable. If I do something wrong, it’s a dude with so-and-so-and-so on his face. There’s not too much I can do.
“So, I gotta go to the studio every day. I gotta go make beats. I gotta make this work. I can’t go to the interview saying, ‘Hey, y’all hired me to sell cars,’ when I look like I’m gonna steal the cars. It don’t make sense, you know what I’m saying? So, it’s like I ain’t have no other choice. It’s like this is what I had to do. That’s why I tattooed my face.”
Ctrl+B is a new series of conversations for people who live and breathe music culture—powered by Splice. For our inaugural episode, GRAMMY-nominated producer and rapper Southside sat down with us at Sound Factory to discuss his come-up, how hunting helps his mental health, working with Future, his producers to watch, and much, much more.
Get Southside’s sounds
If you haven’t checked it out already, explore Southside’s new King of Trap Vol. 1 sample pack here, and tune in to the Splice YouTube channel at 9 p.m. EST tonight (August 8th, 2025) to experience a one-of-a-kind live beat battle with him as the judge.
What was your favorite moment from the conversation? Who would you like to see featured on our next episode? Start a conversation with us and an ever-growing community of music creators via the Splice Discord, and subscribe to the Splice YouTube channel for more installments of Ctrl+B.
Incorporate Southside’s hard-hitting sounds into your own productions:
August 8, 2025
