Life Advice You Didn’t Know You Needed From Yung Gravy and BBNO$

Yung Gravy and BBNO$ (pronounced Baby No Money) have a musical love affair. They’re friends and avid collaborators. Known for their lax, semi-comedic music and their girl-chasing antics (or maybe it’s the other way around, maybe girls chase them). 

The first time I heard of Yung Gravy it was because of some MILF-related antics. He was a self-proclaimed lover of older women, known for a quasi-rumoured relationship with Addison Rae’s mum. 

But in an interview setting, the two artists are quite different from their online personas – really, they’re just two normal dudes. And with a third collaboration album on the horizon, Baby Gravy 3, all about life, relationships and everything in-between, we thought we’d ask the two for some life advice, with questions sourced from our readers. Here’s how it went.

VICE: The questions I have are based on advice that our readers wanted to ask. The first one was: How do I boost my confidence?

Yung Gravy: Boost your confidence? I had a lot of my friends when I was growing up that were better looking than me. So I had to teach myself how to have game and how to go succeed at things. So I would just put myself in uncomfortable situations, like going out and trying to meet a random girl or something. It isn’t just confidence in that regard but just putting myself in weird situations and dealing with it and failing until you win.

BBNO$: Once you accept the fact that you really can't change much about yourself, if you profoundly accept that fact…I don't know how long it would take anyone but I remember I used to be a competitive swimmer and I was a little bit more overweight than most people. I was conditioned to not give a fuck, because I was more chunky than most people in swimming. So I was just like, “whatever”. Like, I'm faster than most of these kids anyway. 

So it doesn't really make a difference, right? So that was how I just ended up gaining confidence. And then I realised that the art of not giving a fuck is just way healthier and way more enjoyable. Everyone has insecurities. So don't shame yourself for having insecurities, because we're all insecure.

Yung Gravy: But we still have a lot of those. People think that once you're successful artists, it changes, And I talk a lot about the L’s we take.

BBNO$: We take W's, but everyone takes L’s. That's just the nature of life.

I thought, if anything, being in the spotlight would make insecurities more exacerbated?

BBNO$: I mean, yes. And no. There are several aspects of my life where I'm like, “I'm set”. Like, I don't even have to think about that anymore. Whereas there are smaller, weird pronounced aspects of my life that I feel like a lot of people don't really deal with. So I don't know how to relate to other people sometimes on some of the insecurities that I may have. You're kind of alone in them. 

Yung Gravy: Yeah. And I think we're in the limelight. And also, just, people want to hate more. So then you just have to not take any of it personally. Someone's going to put in the effort to comment something that’s bad. So I just try to avoid looking too much at the numbers and the comments and everything. 

Second question: My housemates and I sometimes hook up, but now I've caught feelings. What do I do? 

BBNO$: Communicate. I would say I feel like that's a bit of a fumble, low key. But I mean, it depends on the situation. Because it's like, you guys could have just ended up dating. So just talk about it. Be like, “Hey, I don't know what to do. Because I have feelings for you now”. Be vulnerable, that’s my take.

Yung Gravy: It’s not like you’re gonna get out of the house. Because you’re in the same house, you got a lot of time to be around each other, so just be straight up. 

BBNO$: You make the situation worse, by not talking to them about it, because it's gonna be awkward. Just tell them because you're just gonna hurt yourself. 

Yung Gravy: It sounds like it could be a cute situation. I’m kind of into that. Like roommates/ business partner type relationship stuff. And I think some people have sort of a fetish for that. 

BBNO$: I will say if the other partner – not the person who asked this question – if the other person is willing to openly have sex with someone that they live with, I feel like they would probably date you. Because everyone knows to not do it, because it will ruin your living place. So just talk to them. That's the best.

Alright, next question: How do I get over an ex? 

BBNO$: Everyone has this weird assumption of getting validated by other people. Just don't do that. Do shit that you want to do and have fun. Keep your homies and family close. I literally just got over my ex. I went to China and I did 19 shows in 14 days and got my ass torn apart. But it was super fun. And I genuinely couldn't think about her because I literally would have to be on stage not thinking about her. So do things that will take you away from thinking about that person. That's the best way to do it. Because time will heal. Time heals everything. 

Yung Gravy: It just always does. But the last break-up I had was right after COVID started. And two of my other really good friends got broken up with at the same time. But I was down bad for a while. And I would describe to them the situation every day and I would say that I was desperate. And they were like, “Gravy…desperate bro?. Like what? No.” If you have  feelings for someone like that and then they ruin it. It's pretty hard. But after about six months of doing positive things, and not beating myself up. I got over it. Also, I saw her again. She was being a bitch and it made it way better. “Oh, maybe she wasn't cool.”

BBNO$: I feel like if you don't keep the relationship going, you dodged a bullet. Because both parties have to be kind of willing to work on it. But I will say, I've definitely noticed that however many years that you date. Say a year. It'll take like 12 months…wait, no? Every year you date is a month to get over it or some shit like that.  

Oh yeah, I’ve heard that before. It's like, every year you date, it'll take at least six months to get over them. Or something like that.

Yung Gravy: Yeah, I'd say it took me a while, we dated two years. And then it took me six months to get over it. But also, I did a good job of kind of manoeuvring down the scale of how much I was into her. I think if we had broken up at the peak, it would have been way worse. 

Alright. We're kind of getting into some questions that aren't related to relationships now. Someone asked: Is smoking the devil's lettuce every day still productive? 

BBNO$: I know people that are like absolute geniuses that smoke weed every fucking day. I know people that are absolute roaches that smoke weed every day and don't do anything. So it's really dependent on the person you are. 

Yung Gravy: For me, it just changed how it affected me. I used to smoke weed every day and I was killing it in life. And now weed makes me anxious. So now I smoke weed once every five months maybe. I think it's pretty easy to look and see what you're doing and you'll probably know. Maybe take a break and see.

BBNO$: If you think being productive is making food and eating it while high. Oh boy, you are wrong. 

Yung Gravy: I’d listen to my favourite music while I was high. I'd also freak the fuck out and have an anxiety attack when I was high. 

BBNO$: I don’t think I've ever made music when I’ve been high. It’s just way too difficult to focus.

Yung Gravy: Our first album, I think I did a few of them high, like “Boomin” and “Gasoline”.

Last question from a reader: How the fuck do I be as cool as you? 

Yung Gravy: Well, honestly, I think a big part of why people like us is because we're nice, and we're not dicks. I mean, we’re both lucky to come from the Midwest, he's from Canada, which tends to be nicer people. And that's just kind of the culture. But I think a lot of people that I meet are really surprised that I’m a down to earth person. And I care about people. And I think that's the most important thing to be cool. It’s to be nice and make people like you by just being a normal, nice person. 

BBNO$: Yeah. I feel like there's this weird thing where society deems people in the music industry, slash influencer people, to be dicks in general. But in the grand scheme of things, we're not actually cool. We just did something funny, and got successful at it. I'm just a video gaming nerd. I think the best way to be cool is just be yourself. To be honest. 

Yung Gravy: And be nice to people. 

‘BABY GRAVY 3’ will be released August 19th.

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