With the humid atmosphere hitting us like a brick of concrete, we quickly make our way into the quaint offices of STASHED. Chevy Woods, the Taylor Gang upstart and longtime hype man for Wiz Khalifa, marvels at the enormous photo of our cover story that features his friend. “Look at that!” he says, as he stares at the staggering 6-foot shot. “Sheesh does he smoke that much? His hair looks like weed!” He continued to gush over the photo, as we sit down in the now-cooler room of the office. Growing up in the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with the now epically famous rapper Wiz Khalifa, the Taylor Gang upstart has made his way into the homes of many. First known as Kev Tha Hustla and now as Chevy Woods, the up-and-coming rap artist has had one heck of a journey. “Funny story actually: I changed the name because I got locked out of my Twitter,” said Woods. “We had a show in Kansas and that’s when it happened. The rap name was always Kev the Hustla but people – you know like Wiz and everybody already called me Chevy. They just thought about it and we talked about and I used his Twitter to ask, and created the “Chevy Woods” Twitter that night. We kinda just stuck with it.”
Woods is no stranger to the music scene, as he has nine mixtapes prior to the release of his debut EP The 48 Hunnid Project. “It means everything to me,” said Woods. “We’ve been working at it for years. It’s not a project that just happened. I may have done the music recently, but I’ve been working towards this moment for a while now.” Chatting with me for over 20 minutes about the intense process that it took to complete the project, Woods outlined his expectations for the album and his thoughts on what it would take to become the next great rap sensation, as well as one key factor to making his compilation of music whole. “I’m looking forward to finishing the story,” said Woods. “I’m looking forward to fans hearing my initial story, and waiting to see what happens next.”
It hasn’t always been an easy road for the rapper, nor has he been the most vocal about his personal journey to reach this point in his career. However, Woods is finally ready to open up about his life and his plans to continue telling his story in this exclusive sit-down.
