You see, I believe in self-expression, like pure authentic self-expression from the soul. And music is just one of the things that helped me do that.

I always saw the lifestyle, the, you know, all that and I wanted that for myself, you know, the fast cars, the fast women, the fast life. But, I don't feel like that's the deeper core meaning.

That was just the enticing thing that made me say, you know what, there's something there. But, it's really when I had the ability to express my soul just with the songs I made, the things in my head, the things in my heart, that's really what did it for me.

But, I'm sure it's the, elegant lifestyle that attracted me at first. At the same time, I've always been a poet. I was a poet back in, fifth grade, writing poetry and shit. I was that nerdy kid I guess. Yeah, but I really started music because my older brother, he was a rapper ish.

He didn't take it seriously, but he he was, he was really good at rewriting songs, like writing songs. So he used to impress all the older kids and, as his brother, I got that clout too. So, yeah, those are some of the reasons why I do what I do.

Alright. Siblings, I'm the middle child of three. I have one older brother and one younger brother. A mini small football team, I guess. You know, a dad, a mom, nothing really spectacular.

Just an average Nigerian small nuclear family, I guess. But, yeah we're Nigerian. My younger brother was American born. Yeah I mean, there's more to it.

But I don't know how deep I should go into that, but, you know, family is family means everything to me. I believe in family as a core value, And, I love my brothers, I love my parents.

And, you know, there are people outside of them I'll consider family that are not even directly through blood. So, for me, family family, everything. I mean, like that, like that, Fast and Furious Dominic Toretto Family. Family. That's a that's a horrible impersonation. Yeah. Yeah. Family is everything.

I kinda answered this in that last question. But yeah, let me revisit it. Like, what got me into rap specifically? There are two very, very pivotal periods in my life. One of them was, in my childhood, my my older brother was a really good songwriter, and I was, very, very steeped into battle rap culture, you know, your mama jokes and the whole thing.

So, I would gather and do these battle raps with classmates and people and just throw disses at each other. And, my brother would write songs. He wasn't part of that, battle rap community like that if I remember, but, he was a really good songwriter and I always heard, I always used to look at what he wrote and, yeah so that's that earlier point in life.

Then, the thing that made me really get back into it, because I shifted from hip hop to rock and heavy metal as a thing I love and was focused on, but, later in life, maybe around twenty thirteen, fourteen, when I came back to Africa from Philippines is, I saw this Travis Scott music video, Anecdote. And it it reignited my passion to to want to become a musician. Especially at that time, I was living in Ghana and I was a photographer, so I was hanging around a lot of musicians, especially musicians in their early days. Some amazing ones I met that really made me wanna get into this.

Man, I believe that question for everyone is always. I mean, even when you're in the womb, I'm sure you can't go nine months without hearing a song or like a song being played around you as an infant, so I guess it's always been a part of life from that perspective. But, yeah, the very first song I remember and I remember falling in love with, sorry, was this song. Damn. I forgot forgot the name of the band or the singers, but it its name is Blue. It goes, now listen up. Here's a story about a little boy who lives in the blue world. And all day and all night and everything he sees is just blue like him. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's it's an amazing song, and that made me that's the first song I heard like when I was maybe this 02/2002, '2 thousand and '3, and then I was like what is this like what's this thing, I just wanna put it on repeat. I think that's my first song on repeat. So, shout out to the makers of that song. I need to go, I need to go check that shit out on Spotify.

I'm not even sure I fully realized that. I mean, I have, and I'm moving forward with it with a whole new, a whole new veracity. But, but yeah, I think it gotta be that whole, when I was in Ghana with the other musicians, and I was really, really in with them, like in studios I've met, like back in 2015, I've met Quacy Arthur, I guess, Stoneboy, Rebel, like there are whole, there are a lot of top musicians I was in the studio with in my early days, that then they're like somewhere now. And, like just the fact that I'm like wow these are my peers, these are the people I'm in, I'm moving with, you know, I'm locked in with, it made me feel like yeah there's something there. But also it's like every time I really see or a fan, not even a fan, a person, like just listen to my music and then they're like really, really, really digesting it. Whether they're vibing it to it or not, I just feel this, deeper level of connection with the like you're almost touching my soul and I'm touching yours type feel. I don't know. That's some deep poetry intimacy right there, but yeah. Yeah.

Alright, so now I'm gonna be on a name dropping frenzy. So, I'll start with the people who personally influence me. The musicians I know. I'm heavily influenced by Cole Black's music. Rebel Wave, Roman CDXX, let's see. Mostly Cole Black and Roman. They're my niggas, they make music with me and our sound has just been so blended over time. We influenced each other, I guess, to a degree. But, in terms of big artists in the world, now here's the list. J. Cole, Travis Scott, Pop Smoke, I guess. Chef G, Young Thug, Future, Kevin Gates, Michael Jackson, Queen, Chino Moreno, a bunch of rock bands. I have too many, like, I'm just I feel like I believe in finding inspiration in anything, anywhere, in anyone. So, I don't limit myself to, like, certain music influences, or certain genres that just kind of go wide and deep. Yeah.

Yeah, nah, that's, that's a ASAP Rocky. Yeah. He's a fresh nigga. Like, he wore a blanket to a runway show. Like a, like a, he made a, like a blanket. And he's also made a onesie look cool. And like, I don't know if it was, I don't think it was Grammys, but I don't know what it was. I don't keep that in the head. But he, he, he really, he knows how to drip. And so yeah, he, he, and that's why.

Everything. I rap different, I sound different, different topics. Like right here I'm connecting with you on this level. I'm I'm sure there's some rappers that definitely do it. I'm not the first one to do a documentary or an interview. But, I'm interviewing myself at 04:20AM in the morning with questions I wrote that will sound interesting as, like to get to know me type shit. And, I I didn't have a manager or anybody tell me to do this. I just kind of like did it. So, I guess it's in the way, in how I do things and why I do things. I'm doing things for like, to experience a bigger life out there, you know. And, to do it with the people I consider family. And, I don't know what their motivation, other rappers motivations are, but it's probably around the same thing, I guess. But, I just feel mine is different. Everyone's different, so it's a dumb question.

Keep it independent, keep it in house. Be able to make enough that the business is self sufficient running itself. Create a new culture with merch. You know I'm trying to create something different, something unique, something that's it's own slice of the world. That didn't necessarily need or use the old world to, to exist, didn't need permission from any gatekeeper or didn't ask for anything, something that is its own, with its own life, not just in my music, in my clothing, in my brand. And that is why with everything I do, I really just give it my all into trying to make that a vision, like, I wanna go to space one day and it's a big dream, so you know, you gotta really have all your eggs. That was a dumb start of an analogy, but you know, you gotta have everything aligned. Yeah. Have your eggs aligned if that's an analogy.

Well, my name is Etienne Bong. So, that's where, many people shorten my name to ET or Bong depending on which one they were able to pronounce. But, a lot of people lean towards E.T. And, that was the, my first stage name and that was my name is like the extraterrestrial dude. So, I guess that's where x kinda comes from, but the x had no meaning at first until extra energy, extraterrestrial, extra whatever. I don't know. It's weird. But, yeah. That's, that's the name, I guess. No really big major story there. Oh, okay. Here's the story. I released a song in 2016, '20 '17 and it landed in another person's profile named E.T. So, when I did my research, you know, there's E.T. The movie, 10 different rappers named E.T. E.T. By Katy Perry, so I was like, let me shift away from it. And, some people were calling me extra that time and I just kind of blended it, added it to my name, like suffix. E.T.X.X. Was born. I also kind of went a slightly different direction with my music when I did that, but yeah, that's the story.

Well, since this is the last question, let me tell you about my evil plan for world domination. I will I will have to dominate your your minds and hearts with with my music, with my clothing, with my brand, my story, and not just mine, but with yours too. Your story, your brand, your clothing, your everything. Because I feel like we share the same story to some degree. Different faces, different places, different different, different, but, yeah. I just wanna get the shit out there to the real people, the right people. And, move from there.

Alright. I'll say, my tagline where I put everywhere says, I make big balls of music for your soul. The reason I say that is because, that was the description of my, one of my niggas at Canada My Super Brother, Cole Black, gave of my music after hearing a bunch of them. It's because I just make music that, you know, you don't give a fuck, balls to the wall, say anything, rage anything, you know, I don't know. People, you know, categorize, I don't know, people, you know, something around, cloud hop, druggy, rager music, Let's call it cloud hopper rap, yeah. Or cloud hopping music, music you make while hopping from cloud to cloud to cloud.

Alright, back in 2020, 2017, between 2017 and 2020 before Corona, I made this album, 20 track album, LP called Grey Days and it was like a masterpiece to me. The songs flew into each other. It was, sonically pleasing to me. It was very, very, very ahead of its time, if you ask me. It's it's one of my favorite projects that I've made. It's one of my favorite projects to listen to. And, I might not even release it to the world, just you know bits and pieces put and scattered around the internet, mostly uneven. I have it on some exclusive. I only want the real ones to hear it, at least for now. Maybe later deep down, every we could give it to everybody everybody. But, you know, you you were one of the real ones that I wanted to hear this project. And I'm really grateful that you've copped it to be honest. Because, you know, we're connecting soul to soul now. Yeah. Appreciate you.

Well, I'm a hybrid rapper, so I have songs that I write and I'm intentional with the lyrics, very in-depth, painting stories, telling stories, painting pictures, etcetera, etcetera. Of recently, in a few, couple years now, I've been, just freestyling, because I'm a freestyle rapper. So now I've been actually making songs with freestyling, and they come out way more rough, raw, and more emotional, like more instead of being so deliberate with the words, it's like I might I might describe something like I might describe heartbreak with pineapple fruits or some shit like that. Say it's sour or some bullshit like that. And it's like, it's it's I don't know. That's how I've been, that's my creative process now. So sometimes I make the beats and if in the middle of making the beat I hear that yeah now this is fire, I might start writing on it or start free freestyling on it. But, of lately, a lot of the songs I make, I just go on YouTube, grab a beat, and grab my mic, hit record. Yeah, so that's my process now.

I've always wanted to perform in Coachella. I believe I'm gonna perform in Coachella. Why is is Coachella? I mean, I don't know, man. Like, O2 Arena, Coachella, I just doesn't even have to be a big, amazing place. I'm okay performing anywhere, to be honest. It's all the same to me. Backyard Coachella, a million people, 10. It's just, you know, as long as we're there to fuck shit up, make music, cry, feel something, be different, get lost in that sonical sauce. But yeah. Yeah. And why? Because fuck it, what's the difference of where you perform as long as it's who you're performing with or for or about? I feel is more important than where? Well, it's my take on anyway.

Keep going niggas. Yeah nah. Keep going. Keep going. Never quit. Just keep going and never quit. Have that hustle. You're gonna get knocked down by this, that, those, obstacles, challenges, but that's just what they are. You know, obstacles or challenges, something to just get over. So, shit is life, you know, just keep going, you know, enjoy yourself. Enjoyment is part of life, make sure you're doing that and just, just, yeah have authority over your own life, you know. Just live your life. And when I say your life, I mean the life you know you want. That life that, that life that's in your heart. Take that and live it. I I got I'm got so tired of not doing that, and that's what I'm doing right now. And it feels amazing, and I'm just saying you should do it too. Do that thing. Get that business plan. Ask that girl out. Live. Live. Yeah.