NIKI: What has the proverbial road to the Grammys been like for you?
MACK WILDS: It’s definitely been an abundance of hard work on all sides, from the management to the label to making sure that I’m visible for everyone to see. But I’ll just say it’s amazing to see the hard work really, really pay off. If you would’ve told me when we talked that I would be nominated for a Grammy, I’d probably look at you like you were joking, but here we are today.

You didn’t even see this coming.
At all. I watched the nominations just to see if they would even utter my name and they didn’t. I was about to go on Twitter and start blasting out for K. Dot [Kendrick Lamar] because I’m so proud of him. He’s killing right now. But then I get a call from a label rep and they’re like ‘Yo, you’re nominated.’ I was like, ‘Fuck you, prove it.’ [Laughs] I didn’t believe it.

So when did the reality of being nominated off your first project finally sink in?
I still haven’t given myself that time to sit down and reflect. It happened and I went into a real numb feeling. All my friends and family in both LA and New York are hitting me up, ex-girlfriends are hitting me up, people that I owe money are hitting me up, it’s crazy. I’ve been giving myself pep talks like, ‘Ok, Mack. Congratulations but this mean you can’t not be ready for it.’ So now it’s a wake-up call for me to put the pedal to the metal and go even harder so I can be ready for the stadium when they ask me to do it.

What’s it like going up against the other artists in the category – Rihanna, Tamar Braxton, Fantasia and especially Salaam Remi?
I called Salaam after it was over and he was like, ‘We have equal opportunities to win.’ [Laughs] It’s like a cheat code. This album is so much of my baby; born from my thoughts. I wrote the majority of the record. Me and Salaam sat down and pieced this record together, and to see it getting accolades like this so early on, really the only thing I can do is thank God.

As you should. After taking inventory of all the Grammy nods, what other artists are you looking forward to winning on Grammy night?
I want to see what Lorde does because [“Royals”] killed radio. She burned up the charts with that song, and I like her message. I want to see what Jay Z and Kendrick do. Kendrick, especially. Him being one of my homeboys, I felt like a proud little brother. And I’m a big fan of Macklemore.

Where do you stand on the conversation about Macklemore not being hip-hop and Macklemore vs. Kendrick?
We’re in a place now where hip-hop where the hip-hop that we remember from back in the day has grown up and had children. Its children are evident in the music we listen to from the southern trap music to the Kendrick Lamars of the world to the Macklemores. Macklemore is very lyrical, so there’s no way you can say that he’s not hip-hop; he’s just coming at it in a different way. And that was the one thing that hip-hop was always about. It was more of a socially conscious thing, so I feel like he brought it back to what it was but still keeping it relevant to today with “Thrift Shop” and “Same Love.” Even Kendrick doing the same thing, but he’s telling his perspective. Being from the hood, he’s not necessarily talking about how fly he is; that’s not the message. Both those guys are bringing back hip-hop in such a strong way and it’s amazing.