MELT Exclusive: Squadda B on ‘Evolver’

Legendary Bay Area rapper and producer Squadda B has been hard at work over the past year, releasing his first solo project under his new ventures with Detroit-based Bruiser Brigade, The Wonderful World of Squadda B, and following that project up with a number of production-centered releases, including SM6 and its deluxe version SM6 The French Deluxe Edition as well as an instrumental release of his well-received collaboration with J.U.S, 3rd Shift. 

But The Wonderful World of Squadda B, in many ways, was a compilation project— a testament to and a spotlight on the community he’d found with his Bruiser Brigade collaborators. His newest project, EVOLVER, is a staunchly individual project in contrast; it contains just one feature from Del the Funky Homosapien, and is both more ambitious and more spacious in its overall soundscape than his last solo endeavor.

Squadda and I sat down to chat about his new project and his ongoing creative ventures shortly after the release of EVOLVER. Check out the transcript of the interview below:

This transcript has been lightly edited for the sake of brevity and clarity.

You’ve been getting to work over the past year— a few new projects plus the 3rd Shift Instrumentals. Where do you find the constant creative motivation and energy?

Just being out in the country, man. Just being out in the wild, being in the country, getting that fresh air, seeing the nature, you know, hunting for our food and stuff like that. But nah, with Wonderful World, that was me kind of allowing the big homies to be big homies. I've never really had someone executive produce my album like that. I've never given my songs over. 

Even when me and homie was up in the labels, even with that situation, like 808s and Dark Grapes II was maybe the only album that I had where we let someone else kind of direct the flow. It worked out, both times worked out. Worked out with 808s II, and it worked out with Wonderful World. I feel lucky that I have the intuition and the selection to pick the right people for the job. With Wonderful World, that was kind of like, you know, me sending the songs in, me giving my all. And then J.U.S really did the due diligence of being like, ‘Yo, this is worth it. This isn't, this needs to go here.’ So J-U-S directed that last one. That creativity was a given to me. It was a gift. Whereas with EVOLVER, that was all me.

You gotta understand, since Main Attractionz and sh*t like that, I feel like I've lost a lot of people who previously listened to me. They don't know where to find me. That's just my theory. They don't know where to find me. They forgot all this sh*t. So with EVOLVER, it was kind of like, I wanted to put something together that was an accurate representation of my production style and the type of songs that I'm making nowadays. Wonderful World, for me, it felt like a compilation. It was a real album. I mean, I'm spitting on that thing.

It's a Squadda B solo, but kind of felt like a compilation. Cause you got songs where I'm not even on the song. You know what I mean? You got songs with all the Bruiser homies, who I love dearly and tight. But yeah, that was kind of a little different situation where it wasn't me picking and choosing. EVOLVER was something where it's like, all right, I got to show y'all what a Squadda B album feels like in 2026. So you get songs like track two where it just jumps straight into the song. It ain't no intro. It ain't nothing like that. It's a lot of creative ideas that I was really passionate about. And I didn't really have to get an okay for. That creativity came from the past, just looking at the past and being like, ‘Damn, I want to show people where I'm at today. I want to, people know my sh*t.’

People talk about my sh*t a lot. So let me show them where I'm at today, and let's get some feedback from that. So it was really fans, the people, the supporters, everyone who loves hip hop and all that. I mean, that was the creative energy that came through for that.

EVOLVER, it feels like, has a bit of a wider range and is more ambitious than your last solo project, at least production-wise. Did you plan on approaching this one any differently when you began working on it?

I mean, look, we got a song with Del on that thing. Like with The Wonderful World, we got Danny, you know him, J.U.S, Chips, Kevin Bailey, shout out KB. That's the homie, man.

It's a little bit more ambitious because, with that last album, that was a Bruiser party, man. That was a Bruiser Thanksgiving or, you know what I mean? But this album, it was more so like, I really didn't want no features on there, but we got Del on that sh*t. I feel like these types of albums are event albums for me. They're like my WrestleManias and stuff like that. But this one, yeah, this one's definitely different because I wanted to show where I am today. And I also wanted to give people something that made it feel big. I don't have a lot of albums where it's just me. And I really wanted that to feel still big. 

Shout out Del for helping me make that happen. It's a big thing, you know what I mean? It's all my beats. Ain't nobody else on the beats and stuff like that. I wanted it to feel kind of ambitious. I wanted it to feel different. I stepped into it being like, ‘Alright, I just really want to give y'all where I'm at today.’ Actually where I'm at. Not just the newest songs. I wanted to pick each song to have you see where I'm at. I think I did that pretty well. 

We got songs like “Split the Goods” where I'm storytelling and whatnot. We got beat changes. We got songs like, you know, “No Discrimi” where I'm just doing new stuff. “7th Heaven”, that's a whole new style of things that I'm doing there.  “Call Me Two Times” feels like classic Squadda but with a little new edge. And a lot of these beats aren't the newest beats that I have. I definitely intentionally picked each beat. “7th Heaven”, that beat is from before COVID. “Call Me Two Times”, before COVID. “No Discrimi” was right before I recorded it.

So that's probably the newest beat on there. “Evolver”, before COVID. A lot of these beats are beats that I picked that I was like, this really shows where I'm at today. This one was definitely a reincarnation of Squadda B.

You just mentioned a bunch of notable moments from the album, but right now, do you have a favorite song or a favorite moment on EVOLVER? Or a couple? I'm not gonna hold you to just one.

Let me try to prioritize them real quick. Like I said, “Split the Goods”, my storytelling, I don't even consider it storytelling because it's real life. It's just more so me. Like Jeezy said, ‘I recollect’. It's more me recollecting the past and sh*t like that. So I'm always storytelling, but it's more so just, you know, telling y'all about my day, telling y'all about something that happened in the past. But this one is like  half fictional, half real life. The second half of “Split the Goods” was real life. That actually happened. Once the beat changes on Split the Goods, all that sh*t I talk about on that, that actually was a day in the life. But the first half of the sh*t was me coming up with a story and sh*t like that. So that's notable for me as a lyricist. I don't really do that type of sh*t.

And the fact that I could take a fake story and blend it into a real story was dope as fu*k to me. 

There's a song, what's that? ‘Get back up, greener pastures full like pasta.’ At the end of that song, I'm counting money at the end of that song. I ain't never did that before. When I'm talking sh*t and being like, you've been up for 24 hours, I'm counting through money I made that day. So that was real cool for me. 

I did a Spice Girls, ‘Ziggy zig, ah, ziggy ziggy zig, ah’. And then I ended it with ‘No more ziggies, no more ziggies.’ That's from Canibus, they would call it crashing out nowadays. But Canibus was on the radio and they asked them to freestyle and they was playing the record and they kept scratching. Cannabis was like ‘No more ziggy ziggies, no more ziggy zig’ (laughs). So I did some culturally important shit. I blended Spice Girls with Canibus at the end of “Greener Pastures Full Like Pasta.” That's pretty big for me.

I mean, even the beat for “Dream Ever”, that's one of my favorite beats I made for a long time. and I never got to spit my flame or hear nobody else spit their flame on that. So that's notable for me. 

Del, getting Del on the album, that's very notable for the world. People love Del. I went to summer camp. My mom made me go to summer camp for like three summers straight. And shout out Micah, I think. I forgot this man's name, sorry. My counselor, the only thing me and my counselor had, he liked rap. So this is like 2001 or whenever. But me and him was rapping Del's part when I was a kid. And just for full disclosure, I'm black, he's white. But I was able as a kid, like eight, nine, me and him was rapping Del's part. We both knew the words. Del's part on Gorillaz, “Clint Eastwood” or whatnot. So that's big for me to be able to have a song with Del, with him on my beat. It's just a full circle moment.

But there's a lot of moments on there, man. “Some Nights” was a song I did in Detroit at a random studio. I got gifted some studio time, and I went in there and did [the track]. I also did “It Was All a Dream”. Those two, I did those two on the same day at a random studio, and that's big for me because that was my first studio outside of the Bruisers’ that I went to and recorded. All these songs kind of mean something to me, man. It's all creative highlights for me. I'm happy about all of them, all the songs. Every song kind of has a moment in there or its existence is a moment of something that's creatively a breaking point for me. It's like, ‘Alright, I've evolved. You know, I feel like EVOLVER as the title is a great title for it because it is showing my evolution. It is an album that I've listened to a billion times. I don't really do that with my stuff. It's not like I'm weak, I'm wack or nothing, but I like music. So I'm listening to all types of stuff. But this album, I was able to put on repeat and listen to it all the time. I could still take a break and come back to it and listen to it. 

So it's a hot album, man. All of it is a creative peak for me. 

Del was your one big collaboration for this album. He was the one big feature. Do you plan on going back to that sort of collaborative work anytime soon? Are you trying to focus in more on the solo stuff?

Last night, I'm doing my research. Something like that (laughs). I'm on Twitter.

I came across a thread where they were asking on Twitter, not Blu himself, but it's a cool rap account was asking, who do you want to see Blu work with for a full length? Because I think Blu and Exile just dropped a new album. Shout out to them. Y'all go check that out. 

And my name was included in it. And so I saw replies to it saying my name. So I clicked the thread, and the account owner himself said that he wanted to see me and Blu  work. So I'm like, I got on my Cowboy Eddy sh*t, threw on my hat, and hit up Blue. And here we are today. 

We talked a little bit, and now I can sit here and say Blu got about 40 beats from me right now. I feel like I'm definitely a producer at the end of the day; I love being a producer .And I'm always looking out for people to produce for and make music with whether I'm rapping or not. I love rapping.

I was a rapper first, but producing is my thing. Like, I probably will, after this, start working on a beat. Get some steak and potatoes, get some eggs and then get back here and start working on a beat. So there's a lot of collaborations I feel like are on the way. 

We got someone out here called BossLife Big Spence, and I saw him engaging with some of my stuff on Twitter. Him and Young Bari, shout out Young Bari. Legend from San Francisco, legend from the Bay area. They got a song that's buzzing out here. And I saw he liked one of my posts on Twitter. So I sent him a good amount of beats too. You know, I'm always looking out to work with people.

That's always going to be a thing, whether it's on my albums or not. But I think on my own albums, I'm going to try to keep it a little more solo-based. So people get the full gist of who I am. My albums would all be like The Wonderful World of Squadda B if I didn't calm down. I got a lot of friends, I could say. I got a lot of people I hang around. So you will always get collaborations from me. But as far as the Squadda B albums, there'll be a little less features on there, but I'm going crazy on the producer side. I'm going to be working with a lot of people that you'll be shocked to know about. I gave you one. I gave you one and a half.

But keep your eyes open, man. The producer's producing. Yeehaw! 

And I saw on your socials, is there an expansion pack of some sort coming for EVOLVER or something extra coming our way? Just tell me about that. What can we expect?

I usually put the instrumentals with the original one, but this one I wanted people to focus on the songs themselves. So I'm going to put the instrumentals out. I've got about four or five songs that I want people to hear that I've collaborated with some people with. I did an album for emmyBOOM not too long ago.

There's this dude, Nick Avery, he's not in America. He's somewhere else, but he's been sending me beats for like seven years and I don't think anything has ever been released. So I'm finally introducing his music to the world on the EVOLVER expansion pack. I got my fiancee and a friend of theirs. They produced a song for me that really brings me to the essence of the cloud rap age. It's a really good song and it really brings you back to the times when I was first coming out. So I'm excited to give that to y'all. 

I got a song I produced for Fatboi Sharif and THEFOODLORD, and I'm on that song too, rapping. It's another one of them songs. Like you might have heard some songs that sound like this before, but it's one of them songs that you don't get from me a lot. So I put that on the expansion pack. I feel like people are going to really like that. If you don't know about Fatboi Sharif, get in tune. And shout out for THEFOODLORD. He's putting out a lot of music lately. He's grinding.

I don't want to forget anything, but those are the songs I'm really excited about. There's some good stuff on it. The expansion pack is going to be great. And if you like instrumentals, you'll hear the EVOLVER instrumentals for the first time on streaming with the expansion pack too. So beware, I'm going to put that out next month. Next month is almost here. So it'll probably be, by the time you see this, it'll be out sometime soon.