Published on April, 11th 2023
If you’ve ever been to an AG Club show, you’ll never leave the same.
The Bay Area-bred, Los Angeles-based hip-hop duo pride themselves in their live shows, equipped with explosive energy and delivering unforgettable performances each and every time. Members Baby Boy and Jody Fontaine both rise to the forefront as recording artists and creatives, with one rapping and one singing. Their sound has been compared to the likes of A$AP Mob and Odd Future, but it’s important to highlight their originality. The guys write their own lyrics inspired directly by life experiences, and it’s their cinematic visuals that inspire their fans that they too can make their wildest dreams come true.
AG Club – Baby Boy (left), and Jody Fontaine (right) // Photography by Zia Avenue
A few months back, AG Club unveiled their highly-anticipated new album titled Imposter Syndrome. The 13-track project is executive produced by Vic Wainstein, who’s worked with Tyler the Creator, Mac Miller, Game, and Frank Ocean. One thing fans can appreciate, Imposter Syndrome is super relatable, and the guys suggest listening from top to bottom because there’s no skips!
TheFoxMagazine spoke with AG Club in Little Tokyo, Los Angeles before their cover story shoot. Read below as we discuss their sound, their inspiration, preparing for shows, touring with Denzel Curry, how they linked with A$AP Ferg, meeting Pharrell, goals, and more!
How has your guys’ sound evolved since you first started?
Jody: We always wanted to make whatever came to mind, and we like a lot of different music. Since we started making music, it’s kind of been that: pushing ourselves to go a little bit more beyond the box every time, and tapping whatever we haven’t tapped.
The Fox Magazine is all about inspo, who inspires you the most?
Baby Boy: Frank Ocean for sure. I love reggae music. Michael Buble, that’s my dog.
Jody: N.E.R.D. Lauryn Hill. Every single rapper that’s ever existed. Then lots of directors, like Quentin Tarantino. Wes Anderson, they’re a big inspiration for us. Just people with really cool workflows.
You guys are in LA now, how are you liking it?
Jody: It sucks. Nah I’m just playing. [laughs]
Baby Boy: It’s alright. It’s not the Bay for sure, but it’s where it’s at for us right now.
Jody: It’s where the money’s at.
Do you miss the Bay?
Both: Yes, every day.
Jody: All the time.
What do you miss about it?
Jody: The food, the people, and the weather.
Baby Boy: Our family’s over there.
Jody: Just the feeling, places being walkable or movable. Being able to move around, and the warm feeling that you get from being in a community like that. An environment like that, you don’t get that in LA. Everything’s very distant and a little cold.
The Bay’s colder than LA!
Jody: Oh not like weather-wise. In the atmosphere.
What did it mean to drop Imposter Syndrome?
Baby Boy: That was something we were battling with. During its making of it, it came together in a bunch of different ways. But, we beat it though. We don’t have it anymore. [laughs]
Jody: Yeah, we’re healed. We’re great, and we’re confident. That was our biggest project to this point, so that was definitely a milestone. We did some shit on that project that we’ve been trying to do for a minute.
We got to do a show in Oakland for the release. We got to do a free show at The New Parish, which was really sick. Our buildout and everything we did for the album, it was a lot of stuff that we really wanted to do for a while. The narrative and all the videos, it felt like a big accomplishment.
Favorite song off the project?
Baby Boy: “Long Division.”
Jody: Yeah, that’s damn near the one. It’s smooth. It’s cool to think that we made a song like that, that’s got such a groove in it. That sounds like something that could’ve been made 10 or 20-so years ago. We’ve been chasing that dragon for a while, making a song like that. That one’s for the OGs.
How excited are you for Coachella?
Baby Boy: So excited for Frank Ocean.
Jody: [laughs] Honestly, I’m just glad we got free tickets so that we could go and watch Frank Ocean perform.
How do you guys prepare for a big show like that?
Baby Boy: We do a tour.
Jody: Nah literally, we’re doing a tour right before just to get all the tweaks out. Performing wherever you perform, it’s all the same. Every show is a show, no matter what it is. It’s all the same in the sense of nerves, what you have to bring and what you should expect. We get our setlist right and we get our production right, because we do care a lot about what it looks like. Not just how we perform music-wise, but the whole atmosphere. You go out and you leave it all on stage. That’s all you can do.
How do you get over the nerves?
Jody: You don’t. You shouldn’t, because that’s how you’re gonna do good. If you’re not nervous, you don’t give a shit. You don’t care. So if you’re nervous, that’s how you know that you care enough to put on a good show and make sure you do what you’re supposed to do. You gotta be a little nervous, but you can’t be too nervous.
Because one time, there was a show where I was too nervous. I psyched myself out. Remember when we were in Salt Lake City the first time, with Denzel [Curry]? It was right after Denver, and Denver was great. It was the beginning of the year. Because Denver was so good, I was hella nervous.
Baby Boy: Oh yeah.
Jody: It wasn’t a bad show…
Baby Boy: It was bad.
Jody: [laughs]
Baby Boy: Just in comparison. Not because the show itself was bad, the crowd was not as active as Denver was. That was fucked up. That’s what got us like aw dude, we suck.
Jody: But we had to learn out there that every show is the same. You do every show like it’s the same, you can’t think too highly of one. You gotta perform the same way every time, as hard as you can.
How was touring with Denzel Curry? Because he can perform!
Jody: It was sick dude. It was so sick.
Baby Boy: It was great.
Jody: Bro’s breath control is stupid, oh my gosh. He’ll go out there for an hour and a half and do every song rap it fast, rap it slow. Every single word, hardly any backing track. I don’t even know if he had backing tracks.
I feel like a lot of rappers nowadays be rapping over their own songs.
Jody: Nah yeah, he made us want to take the backing tracks off of our songs. Try to get our breath control right, because just the way he does it… Once you’ve seen it done like that, you can’t go back. That’s real pure artistry, attention to detail, and mastering your craft right there.
What are you most excited about when getting back on the road?
Baby Boy: Performing, I missed that so much. Just getting out there. You become a different person up there, just let it all out.
Jody: I kind of miss hotels. I like how sporadic road life is. Doing a show, having to figure out something to eat after the show. Going to the hotel at whatever time, having to get up at 5 mornings to go to the next place. Going to crazy food spots, honestly that’s what I’m most excited for.
In Portland, there’s this place called Dumpling House. It’s this dim sum spot, we went there last year. I had it twice while we were there and I was thinking about it for the rest of the year. I’ve been thinking about it since and I can’t wait to go there. That’s all I want. [laughs]
As good as the Bay’s Asian food?
Jody: No, not at all. I haven’t found any place that really compared. There’s a place in Antioch called Da Nang, that’s our Vietnamese spot. That’s the best shit. That’s my favorite. It’s my favorite restaurant ever. Whenever I’m there, I eat it every single day. Love that. Nothing touches that in LA. Somebody change my mind please.
What inspired “Memphis Pt. 1” and “Pt. 2”?
Jody: “Memphis Pt. 1,” we were working on our album for a couple months. Honestly, I don’t think we were working with intentions of making a new song. We just found the sample, that “North Memphis n*ggas.” We’re like aw, it’s got a rock to it. The producer we’re working with at the time we had been playing with it and we couldn’t figure out what to do with it. he was gonna give up, I said “No, don’t give up. This goes.” We kept playing it over and over and over.
The sample had this really great repetition to it. We started messing around, then came up with that flip on the sample. It sounded like “let them know, let them n*ggas know.” We started saying that a little bit, then boom. We had it.
For “Memphis Pt. 2,” Ferg is GOATed dude. First off, he’s one of the coolest rappers we’ve ever met. He’s super down-to-earth, super nice and chill. Gave us a lot of good advice. Also, he fucked with the song. Him getting on that was super special, that was one of the biggest things that had happened to us at the time.
How did that happen?
Jody: We work with this guy named Vic Weinstein, he’s an engineer. Very talented dude, and he knows Ferg. Before we did the “Memphis Pt. 2,” the [A$AP] Mob had heard about us a little bit. Caught wind of us a little bit. Vic talked to Ferg about the song, talking about us in general.
He said that he really liked it, said he was down to hop on it. Vic told our manager, our manager called us and we lost our shit. We listened to “Shabba” like six times, just jumped around in our room. [laughs]
What was it like meeting Pharrell and Pusha T?
Jody: Oh shit, crazy.
Baby Boy: It was out of body.
Jody: It’s crazy. I showed him my tattoo, then you said something to him.
Baby Boy: I said hey Pharrell, what’s up? I don’t remember what I said. I blacked dude. It was a pretty blackout experience.
How’d it happen?
Jody: We did the tour with Pusha, we did six shows with him. At the last show at The Novo, it was the second time we did the show there. That shit was crunk, fucking Pharrell performed there. We didn’t know he was gonna be there until after we did our set. When we did our set, we saw him like oh shit! We’re all starstruck. We’re trying to figure out how we’re gonna see him, because I have this N.E.R.D. tattoo on my hand. I wanted to show him, but I was super scared. [laughs]
We were trying to figure out how we were gonna get it done. After they performed, they went up into the green room. They were up there for a minute. We were waiting for them to come down. Finally, our manager said “You know what, fuck it. We gonna go up there and see what’s going on.” He walked us up the stairs. We went up the stairs, they were all linked up taking pictures.
We snuck in, we’re like, “Yo Push, can we get a pic? He was with Pharrell. He said “yeah, let’s do it. Let’s get it.”
I went up to Pharrell, I pointed at my tattoo. He bowed at me like “that’s crazy. Yo, really appreciate that.” Josh said something to him, what did you say?
Baby Boy: I could not tell you bro.
Jody: You said something, because he smiled. It was really sick, then I cried for 30 minutes.
Any other collabs we can look forward to?
Jody: Honestly, we’re trying to work with a lot of producers right now, so hopefully we work with some cool people. We want to work with Leon Thomas from Victorious. We really want to work with him because he’s raw. That would be a childhood dream.
Any goals at this point in your career?
Baby Boy: Just bring it back home. Get mama that house.
Jody: Facts, bring it back home. That’s all I want to do now.
How proud are they?
Baby Boy: Pretty proud.
Jody: Beyond dude. We thought this was something that we couldn’t imagine, so it’s double time for them. They like to flex now. They get to stunt and tell people like “look at my son.” [laughs] That’s super sick. That’s a part of what keeps us pushing at it, because giving your mom something to flex about is dope. Making your mom feel like the coolest person in the room is the shit.
Anything else you want to let the people know?
Jody: We going up, all 2023. AG Club, AGCNCSF. All the homies got all their brands poppin’. Impressions is coming soon with some shit, caches still running everything.
Connect With AG Club!
Production Credits
Writer: Shirley Ju
Photographer: Zia Ave
Styling: Tony Logan
Creative Direction: Mike Fox
Wardrobe: Milk Room
Getting To Know The Bay Area Bred Supergroup: AG Club Talks Upcoming Coachella Performance, Going On Tour, Meeting Pharrell & More
If you’ve ever been to an AG Club show, you’ll never leave the same.
The Bay Area-bred, Los Angeles-based hip-hop duo pride themselves in their live shows, equipped with explosive energy and delivering unforgettable performances each and every time. Members Baby Boy and Jody Fontaine both rise to the forefront as recording artists and creatives, with one rapping and one singing. Their sound has been compared to the likes of A$AP Mob and Odd Future, but it’s important to highlight their originality. The guys write their own lyrics inspired directly by life experiences, and it’s their cinematic visuals that inspire their fans that they too can make their wildest dreams come true.
AG Club – Baby Boy (left), and Jody Fontaine (right) // Photography by Zia Avenue
A few months back, AG Club unveiled their highly-anticipated new album titled Imposter Syndrome. The 13-track project is executive produced by Vic Wainstein, who’s worked with Tyler the Creator, Mac Miller, Game, and Frank Ocean. One thing fans can appreciate, Imposter Syndrome is super relatable, and the guys suggest listening from top to bottom because there’s no skips!
TheFoxMagazine spoke with AG Club in Little Tokyo, Los Angeles before their cover story shoot. Read below as we discuss their sound, their inspiration, preparing for shows, touring with Denzel Curry, how they linked with A$AP Ferg, meeting Pharrell, goals, and more!
How has your guys’ sound evolved since you first started?
Jody: We always wanted to make whatever came to mind, and we like a lot of different music. Since we started making music, it’s kind of been that: pushing ourselves to go a little bit more beyond the box every time, and tapping whatever we haven’t tapped.
The Fox Magazine is all about inspo, who inspires you the most?
Baby Boy: Frank Ocean for sure. I love reggae music. Michael Buble, that’s my dog.
Jody: N.E.R.D. Lauryn Hill. Every single rapper that’s ever existed. Then lots of directors, like Quentin Tarantino. Wes Anderson, they’re a big inspiration for us. Just people with really cool workflows.
You guys are in LA now, how are you liking it?
Jody: It sucks. Nah I’m just playing. [laughs]
Baby Boy: It’s alright. It’s not the Bay for sure, but it’s where it’s at for us right now.
Jody: It’s where the money’s at.
Do you miss the Bay?
Both: Yes, every day.
Jody: All the time.
What do you miss about it?
Jody: The food, the people, and the weather.
Baby Boy: Our family’s over there.
Jody: Just the feeling, places being walkable or movable. Being able to move around, and the warm feeling that you get from being in a community like that. An environment like that, you don’t get that in LA. Everything’s very distant and a little cold.
The Bay’s colder than LA!
Jody: Oh not like weather-wise. In the atmosphere.
What did it mean to drop Imposter Syndrome?
Baby Boy: That was something we were battling with. During its making of it, it came together in a bunch of different ways. But, we beat it though. We don’t have it anymore. [laughs]
Jody: Yeah, we’re healed. We’re great, and we’re confident. That was our biggest project to this point, so that was definitely a milestone. We did some shit on that project that we’ve been trying to do for a minute.
We got to do a show in Oakland for the release. We got to do a free show at The New Parish, which was really sick. Our buildout and everything we did for the album, it was a lot of stuff that we really wanted to do for a while. The narrative and all the videos, it felt like a big accomplishment.
Favorite song off the project?
Baby Boy: “Long Division.”
Jody: Yeah, that’s damn near the one. It’s smooth. It’s cool to think that we made a song like that, that’s got such a groove in it. That sounds like something that could’ve been made 10 or 20-so years ago. We’ve been chasing that dragon for a while, making a song like that. That one’s for the OGs.
How excited are you for Coachella?
Baby Boy: So excited for Frank Ocean.
Jody: [laughs] Honestly, I’m just glad we got free tickets so that we could go and watch Frank Ocean perform.
How do you guys prepare for a big show like that?
Baby Boy: We do a tour.
Jody: Nah literally, we’re doing a tour right before just to get all the tweaks out. Performing wherever you perform, it’s all the same. Every show is a show, no matter what it is. It’s all the same in the sense of nerves, what you have to bring and what you should expect. We get our setlist right and we get our production right, because we do care a lot about what it looks like. Not just how we perform music-wise, but the whole atmosphere. You go out and you leave it all on stage. That’s all you can do.
How do you get over the nerves?
Jody: You don’t. You shouldn’t, because that’s how you’re gonna do good. If you’re not nervous, you don’t give a shit. You don’t care. So if you’re nervous, that’s how you know that you care enough to put on a good show and make sure you do what you’re supposed to do. You gotta be a little nervous, but you can’t be too nervous.
Because one time, there was a show where I was too nervous. I psyched myself out. Remember when we were in Salt Lake City the first time, with Denzel [Curry]? It was right after Denver, and Denver was great. It was the beginning of the year. Because Denver was so good, I was hella nervous.
Baby Boy: Oh yeah.
Jody: It wasn’t a bad show…
Baby Boy: It was bad.
Jody: [laughs]
Baby Boy: Just in comparison. Not because the show itself was bad, the crowd was not as active as Denver was. That was fucked up. That’s what got us like aw dude, we suck.
Jody: But we had to learn out there that every show is the same. You do every show like it’s the same, you can’t think too highly of one. You gotta perform the same way every time, as hard as you can.
How was touring with Denzel Curry? Because he can perform!
Jody: It was sick dude. It was so sick.
Baby Boy: It was great.
Jody: Bro’s breath control is stupid, oh my gosh. He’ll go out there for an hour and a half and do every song rap it fast, rap it slow. Every single word, hardly any backing track. I don’t even know if he had backing tracks.
I feel like a lot of rappers nowadays be rapping over their own songs.
Jody: Nah yeah, he made us want to take the backing tracks off of our songs. Try to get our breath control right, because just the way he does it… Once you’ve seen it done like that, you can’t go back. That’s real pure artistry, attention to detail, and mastering your craft right there.
What are you most excited about when getting back on the road?
Baby Boy: Performing, I missed that so much. Just getting out there. You become a different person up there, just let it all out.
Jody: I kind of miss hotels. I like how sporadic road life is. Doing a show, having to figure out something to eat after the show. Going to the hotel at whatever time, having to get up at 5 mornings to go to the next place. Going to crazy food spots, honestly that’s what I’m most excited for.
In Portland, there’s this place called Dumpling House. It’s this dim sum spot, we went there last year. I had it twice while we were there and I was thinking about it for the rest of the year. I’ve been thinking about it since and I can’t wait to go there. That’s all I want. [laughs]
As good as the Bay’s Asian food?
Jody: No, not at all. I haven’t found any place that really compared. There’s a place in Antioch called Da Nang, that’s our Vietnamese spot. That’s the best shit. That’s my favorite. It’s my favorite restaurant ever. Whenever I’m there, I eat it every single day. Love that. Nothing touches that in LA. Somebody change my mind please.
What inspired “Memphis Pt. 1” and “Pt. 2”?
Jody: “Memphis Pt. 1,” we were working on our album for a couple months. Honestly, I don’t think we were working with intentions of making a new song. We just found the sample, that “North Memphis n*ggas.” We’re like aw, it’s got a rock to it. The producer we’re working with at the time we had been playing with it and we couldn’t figure out what to do with it. he was gonna give up, I said “No, don’t give up. This goes.” We kept playing it over and over and over.
The sample had this really great repetition to it. We started messing around, then came up with that flip on the sample. It sounded like “let them know, let them n*ggas know.” We started saying that a little bit, then boom. We had it.
For “Memphis Pt. 2,” Ferg is GOATed dude. First off, he’s one of the coolest rappers we’ve ever met. He’s super down-to-earth, super nice and chill. Gave us a lot of good advice. Also, he fucked with the song. Him getting on that was super special, that was one of the biggest things that had happened to us at the time.
How did that happen?
Jody: We work with this guy named Vic Weinstein, he’s an engineer. Very talented dude, and he knows Ferg. Before we did the “Memphis Pt. 2,” the [A$AP] Mob had heard about us a little bit. Caught wind of us a little bit. Vic talked to Ferg about the song, talking about us in general.
He said that he really liked it, said he was down to hop on it. Vic told our manager, our manager called us and we lost our shit. We listened to “Shabba” like six times, just jumped around in our room. [laughs]
What was it like meeting Pharrell and Pusha T?
Jody: Oh shit, crazy.
Baby Boy: It was out of body.
Jody: It’s crazy. I showed him my tattoo, then you said something to him.
Baby Boy: I said hey Pharrell, what’s up? I don’t remember what I said. I blacked dude. It was a pretty blackout experience.
How’d it happen?
Jody: We did the tour with Pusha, we did six shows with him. At the last show at The Novo, it was the second time we did the show there. That shit was crunk, fucking Pharrell performed there. We didn’t know he was gonna be there until after we did our set. When we did our set, we saw him like oh shit! We’re all starstruck. We’re trying to figure out how we’re gonna see him, because I have this N.E.R.D. tattoo on my hand. I wanted to show him, but I was super scared. [laughs]
We were trying to figure out how we were gonna get it done. After they performed, they went up into the green room. They were up there for a minute. We were waiting for them to come down. Finally, our manager said “You know what, fuck it. We gonna go up there and see what’s going on.” He walked us up the stairs. We went up the stairs, they were all linked up taking pictures.
We snuck in, we’re like, “Yo Push, can we get a pic? He was with Pharrell. He said “yeah, let’s do it. Let’s get it.”
I went up to Pharrell, I pointed at my tattoo. He bowed at me like “that’s crazy. Yo, really appreciate that.” Josh said something to him, what did you say?
Baby Boy: I could not tell you bro.
Jody: You said something, because he smiled. It was really sick, then I cried for 30 minutes.
Any other collabs we can look forward to?
Jody: Honestly, we’re trying to work with a lot of producers right now, so hopefully we work with some cool people. We want to work with Leon Thomas from Victorious. We really want to work with him because he’s raw. That would be a childhood dream.
Any goals at this point in your career?
Baby Boy: Just bring it back home. Get mama that house.
Jody: Facts, bring it back home. That’s all I want to do now.
How proud are they?
Baby Boy: Pretty proud.
Jody: Beyond dude. We thought this was something that we couldn’t imagine, so it’s double time for them. They like to flex now. They get to stunt and tell people like “look at my son.” [laughs] That’s super sick. That’s a part of what keeps us pushing at it, because giving your mom something to flex about is dope. Making your mom feel like the coolest person in the room is the shit.
Anything else you want to let the people know?
Jody: We going up, all 2023. AG Club, AGCNCSF. All the homies got all their brands poppin’. Impressions is coming soon with some shit, caches still running everything.
Connect With AG Club!
Production Credits
Writer: Shirley Ju
Photographer: Zia Ave
Styling: Tony Logan
Creative Direction: Mike Fox
Wardrobe: Milk Room
