Pressa is an artist’s favorite in his hometown and a positive example for those looking to make it out of a bad situation.

Already receiving co-signs from Drake and others from The 6, the Toronto rapper’s unique high-pitched voice, mixed with an uptempo delivery, has had him standing out over just a few years he’s been rapping seriously. Putting some intention behind his music saved him from the Driftwood streets.

During a recent interview with BET, Pressa described how putting out music on YouTube and social media got his hometown’s attention and then the world’s. It’s lent him the ability to show other kids from his neighborhood that they can make it too, even though he believes he’s far from hitting his peak.

Also, during the conversation, Pressa describes creating his latest singles/collaborations, “Unfollow Me” and “The Jungle,” his come-up in Toronto’s rough Driftwood neighborhood, traveling the world at its effect on him and so much more. Read below.

BET: You’re from Toronto and grew up in/on Driftwood, a rough area. Tell me about coming up under that and how it made you into you.

Pressa: I feel like I'm just a product of my environment. I rap about what I go through in the area. I'm kind of like an idol for everybody coming out of that type of struggle in that area. It's just a hard place. No one feels like they would have never made it until I made it out. Now a lot of people feel like they could make it as well. So I give my neighborhood and my community hope. They want to do what I do. I ain’t even make it yet, but I feel like I did a good portion. I'm halfway there.

BET: You’ve previously said that it got you out of the streets when you started rapping. Did it give you more focus and something to believe in?

Pressa: Yeah when I was first rapping, it was just a video on YouTube. It wasn't really too serious for me. Until my friends saw me do it, and then I said, Oh, let me put out some more content. I just said, Yo, I got the wave and I’m hot right now. I'm gonna just kill this s**t.

BET: Your new single “Unfollow Me” has been out for a couple of weeks now, and it’s already doing some numbers. How did that one come together?

Pressa: “Unfollow Me,” it's really just about like a hustler ambition – always on your grind and you can't make nobody or anything knock you off your grind. You just got to keep moving forward and keep going and going until you really make it.

BET: You were also recently featured on Bandokay’s song “The Jungle.” Love that one. Talk about hopping on that…

Pressa: Yeah Bandokay, he's from Tottenham. That’s like a rough neighborhood in London, UK. I went out there. I did the song. I shot the video, and the rest is history after that. I went to his neighborhood and we brought two [Lamborghinis] out and it was a fun shoot.

BET: What is that like going into someone else’s neighborhood that’s rooted in their identity like Driftwood is for you?

Pressa: I feel like there's struggle all across the world and everybody has that struggle, that mentality. And if you from that same gutter and that same bottom you’re going to relate. So I feel like we're just relatable people to connect with and that’s why I did the song. Such a good song, you know, because we're both from the hard knocks.

BET: Your hit “Mansion” with Houdini recently surpassed 10 million streams. What does that mean to you considering he’s been tragically gone for a few years now?

Pressa: I'm glad. I'm happy that passed 10 million. Houdini was a great artist. RIP Houdini. That's my brother. We grew up in the same neighborhood. He was also in America, in New York doing his thing, running around, getting a lot of traction. And he was independent at those times, and he was killing the game. So I'm kind of mad I lost Houdini. Houdini was actually a guy that I needed out here.

BET: Do you feel like you’re continuing on his legacy with your career and success?

Pressa: Yeah, definitely. Definitely. I carry it out because we're all from the same place and we're continuing each other's work. Just because he's gone doesn’t mean now we got to stop. We got to just keep it going and keep it flowing.

BET: Your last project was Gardner Express, which you did release as a deluxe edition in 2021 with features like Coi Leray on “Attachments,” Swae Lee, and others. Talk about putting that one together, even though it’s been a few years…

Pressa: Basically I feel like growing is part of the plan. My sound changes all the time. As I grow, I have different things to talk about, different experiences. I feel like I've been going through a lot, just traveling in America, traveling around the world. I went from Africa, to the Philippines to Poland, Italy, Paris, and came back to America. Just went to go hit the road real quick and came back. So I have a lot to speak about. I felt like that album is talking about your life and what you'd be going through. So that's a good way to express my feelings in my music. So when I get on the mic, I feel like there's time when I could speak.

BET: That’s a good point about traveling. How much have you learned about yourself being in all those different countries and continents?

Pressa: Traveling just gives me a different experience on how I see the would and what I never seen before. So there's nothing better than experience. Learning and experiencing things are probably like the top things in my life that I kind of look forward to. So when I go to Africa, and I see starving people – or even if it's just a kid that's controlling the sheep herd – he don't got no school and he's just in the mountains, controlling the sheeps, probably working for his mother or working for his dad. It shows how far you could really come and I probably got it much better than a lot of people that don't have it around the world. I used to probably feel like, Yeah, I got it hard, but there's a lot of people around the world that got it harder.

BET: What is your creative process like when you record generally?

Pressa: My creative process – I just go in [the studio], even if it's a beat pack or I bring a producer and I play a couple of beats, usually, the first beat or the second beat – I just be going on it right away. I just freestyle, I punch in, go on the mic, and I just vibe on the mic and talk. I feel like just talking to the mic is therapy for me. So I try to get off what's on my chest onto the mic. That way I could really, really listen to it and maybe show the world what I’m going through.

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