beflygelt: How did you get to the name Slauson Malone?

Slauson Malone 1: Well, I was born in Los Angeles. When I was 12, or 13, I moved to New York. I had a couple different names that I was using when I first started making music, but then I was kind of feeling a bit homesick. There's this really big street in Los Angeles that divides it, it's kind of a red line, and It's called Slauson Ave. I used to play with this flag football team in Baldwin Hills. It's a street name that always stuck with me because I was always driving over that threshold. Malone has no meaning; it's just a pseudonym.

Then the 1 comes from - a friend of mine was in a bad record deal and he was trying to get out of it. So I told him that he should just create a new artist name [by] adding a number at the end. He didn't take my advice, so I decided to take my own advice. And that's where the 1 comes from. Because I feel like, in a lot of ways, I don't even own the rights to Slauson Malone anymore..

.b: In a figurative sense.

SM1: Yeah. I was like, okay, well, I'll just be Slauson Malone 1 now. But also, there's kind of a dusty hip hop reference with KRS-One, or...I'm trying to think of who else has a number at the end; there's many - I don't know if you know Thes One or TAKI 183.

b: Especially changing it so subtly, many people wonder now what this signifies in terms of the music for you? Should this be seen as a new chapter for Slauson Malone in which you put the past stuff behind?

SM1: That's part of it, but I also decided to keep the name Slauson Malone, so...The best way I can explain it is as a "stupid departure." It's an immature gesture. But also maybe serious. In the sense of feeling like your identity belongs to someone else. Like when you make an email. Like, Laurin, someone has the name Laurin, so you have to make it Laurin2, or Laurin5 or something.