The Thai rapper is regaining his bearings with his debut album, 'Legendary Member.'
Thaiboy Digital Is Rising From the Ashes
Trash Island was a compilation project from Drain Gang, and Legendary Member involves both DG and Sad Boys members. What are some important lessons or techniques that you’ve picked up from those two creations?
Don't take anything for granted. If it feels right, then go for it and give all you got, and then a little bit more. When you think there is nothing left in you, get right back up and make that banger even better. It's all above and beyond, never give up no matter what. And also stay true to yourself, always.
Your deportation was an unexpected hurl in your life but you’ve managed to overcome it and make the best of an unfortunate situation. Now that you’re slowly getting your bearings, how do you hope the next Thaiboy Digital album will sound?
I’m very lucky to have the ones I have around me who always reach out no matter where I am or what I'm going through. That's how I’ve managed to overcome all these things — I couldn’t have done it alone.
I’ve been thinking about my next album for a couple years now, how I can translate all the things that happened into songs and I think I'm getting close to finalizing my vision. My next one will have a lot more singing and a few slow songs, I think. I’ll have to reach the same mindset as when I recorded my first album. I’ll let my melodies tell the story and I want one song to make me cry.
You recently claimed that your priorities have changed since moving to Bangkok. Can you expand on why you’ve had to adjust?
I think what meant was like, what I wanted in life before has changed, but I still have the same dreams together with a lot of new dreams. You can say that my dreams are way bigger than before. Before it was like the rockstar lifestyle and everything, but now I dream of all the good things in life for me and my family. I guess I had to grow up and learn from the lessons through the mistakes I’ve made in life, and I'm lucky to have the chance to do so. I’ve decided to truly reach for the stars for myself and my close ones.
There’s a lot of unnecessary beef in hip-hop, particularly with groups that share similar sounds but Drain Gang and Yung Lean’s Sad Boys have had nothing but love and respect for each other since day one. Why do you think the two groups have consistently chosen to lift each other up?
For me, I think music-wise, if I hear any song from one of my bros and nine times out of 10 it’s a hit, I be like, “Damn, man I have to step it up." And outside of that, we’ve been friends for a very long time and got a lot of love and respect for one another. We’ve been through a lot together, so everytime we all meet up now it’s all love. Maybe I’ll meet them tomorrow for like three hours then fly back home; it’s like we never know how long until we’ll meet again, so when we do meet we always make the best of it.
If Tiger touched on your deportation from Sweden and S.o.S. revolved mainly around one of your intimate relationships, what has been the main source of inspiration for Legendary Member?
My brothers, man. All of them: ECCO2K, Bladee, whitearmor, Gud, Yung Lean, Yung Sherman and Woesum. They really put me on to become the Legendary Member, and I exceeded my limits with every song while making the album. It was a one-of-a-kind moment in my life, and one of the greatest times I ever had in the studio.
At the age of 18, Thaiboy Digital found himself getting deported from Sweden. It came as a shock; he’d called the country home since he was eight, but the deportation went through despite official petitions sent to the government and calls from fans to let him stay. Backed by the support of his crew Drain Gang and other Swedish artists, the Thai rapper — real name Thanapat Thaothawong — uprooted his life and returned to Thailand, a culture he’d been absent from for 10 years.
“I’m out here experiencing all these new things and we've been in a lot of places through our music, and there is no place like Thailand you can ask anybody about that,” the musician tells HYPEBEAST. “[The move] influenced my life and my personality, but I think it must have influenced music too because my songs are from my life — if I can’t express my feelings in words, I want to express it through a melody for sure.”
Born in the city of Khon Kaen in Thailand, Thaiboy and his family relocated to Sweden after his mother got a job at the Austrian Embassy in Stockholm. The family made a home in an apartment building in the southwest neighborhood of Alby, opening the young boy’s eyes and ears to a whole new world of music that would eventually form his career. “I first saw MTV when I was around 10 years old, then I went to a pop & rock class from grade seven through nine. That class taught me some stuff but it didn’t really help me shape my taste in music in itself,” he recalled. While the music class provided him some form, it was actually someone in the class that really made an impact on Thaiboy’s music — his friend Isak Bernalt, known by most as producer Vattenrum. “He just passed away this year but I will always keep him close to my heart, and it was through him I got to know Bladee, ECCO2K and whitearmor. And the rest is pretty much history.”
The late Vattenrum’s introduction of Thaiboy to Bladee, ECCO2K and whitearmor marked what would be the seeds of their artistic collective. Originally part of the 10-man group Smög Boys, the four crossed paths at the Red Cross show and eventually decided to break off and form Drain Gang. Signing with YEAR0001 and gaining prominence with their debut project GTBSG, they grew close and formed a bond with labelmate Yung Lean and his Sad Boys collective. “It was straight up Lean who pulled up at whitearmors’ apartment,” he reveals. “He and us was on the same tip and we clicked like instantly. Then after one to two hours, me and Lean had recorded a song called ‘Racks on Racks’ and we shot the video right there and then as well. He is like my brother.”
Thaiboy’s success was put to a devastating halt, however, when the deportation forced him to return to Thailand. Making the best out of an unfortunate situation, he used it as creative fuel to record his debut mixtape, Tiger, in 2014. He then moved from his parents’ home in Phuket to the capital of Bangkok and collaborated with local rappers such as Younggu and Dandee, all the while remotely working on music with Drain Gang. “I never considered giving [music] up,” he reaffirms. “Younggu took care of me, taught me a lot about how to live, how to behave in the Thai culture and how to make money out here. So all of that was new and exciting for me, it was a lot to learn and a lot to do so I didn't really have time to give up.”
As he entered the Bangkok scene and adjusted to his new life, his reciprocated loyalty to Drain Gang remained stronger than ever. “I feel like my bros and the label really fought for me to stay in Sweden, and that really meant the world to me,” he says. Bladee, ECCO2K and whitearmor flew in from Sweden shortly after to create their sophomore project AvP and experience Thaiboy’s new home. “After I got back to Thailand, they flew out here to visit me and it's a lot of love in that for real. We went through a whole lot together, good and bad, so for me those memories are always with me. And also we made a lot of music together too, so when I listen back to the old songs it brings me straight to that moment it was recorded.”
Fast forward to four years later, Thaiboy has managed to settle into a new home in the heart of Thailand with an additional four projects under both his and Drain Gang’s name. The 18-year-old who was once without home is slowly finding his bearings again, dropping Trash Island with Drain Gang and Legendary Member all in the span of one year. “I guess I’ve been picking pieces of myself the whole time since I had to leave Sweden, but I feel like I can stand up again like I used to do,” he says. “Everything has changed, of course, but I'm trying to not let it change my mind. I feel like anything is possible for me as always, but it feels very nice to have made a home here in Bangkok, it brings me peace rather than chaos.”
HYPEBEAST spoke with Thaiboy Digital to discuss his new life in Bangkok, Drain Gang and his future sound.
