OPPORTUNITY COST

G - EAZY GETS DEEP OVER A BOWL OF INSTANT RAMEN AS WE DISCUSS HIS RECKONINGS WITH FAME, HIS LATEST ALBUM, "THESE THINGS HAPPEN TOO," AND MORE.

- CHRISTINA LEE

At first, life at Gerryland—what G-Eazy calls his Hollywood Hills villa, with its reclaimed wood beams—isn’t quite what I imagined. For our Zoom call in October, his trademark slicked-back hair is hidden beneath a black Oakland Athletics cap. And when he instructs a chef outside the frame to top his late lunch with “lots of sesame seeds,” that lunch turns out to be a bowl of instant ramen. His favorite toppings are cayenne pepper, Sriracha, crushed red pepper flakes, black pepper and Tony Chachere’s Original Creole Seasoning. “I’d easily crack an egg in it,” he says, like someone who knew of this trick before it’d be called a “ramen hack.”

But the multi platinum-selling rapper behind “Me, Myself & I,” “Him & I,” and “No Limit” also sits his wicker dining chair in front of a wall-sized graphic ink piece by Los Angeles artist Kai, a friend of his. Kai’s signature 3D stickman, “If,” is buoyed by a heart-shaped balloon with one arm, and tethered to the ground by a bag of money with the other—“torn between love and success,” G-Eazy explains. The piece is instantly recognizable because it’s what G-Eazy has inked on his left rib cage, having mulled over the personal sacrifice he’s made as a public figure throughout his career.