Rapper, singer and songwriter Alexander Leon Gumuchian, better known as bbno$, said Champaign, Illinois, is “way too f—— cold.” Though Gumuchian said he’s Canadian and is somewhat used to the cold, he also said he wasn’t prepared for the weather Champaign would greet him with for his performance.

“Once you get into the Midwest, it’s just so not nice,” he said. “My DJ and I went to Target to get some vegetables, and we got stuck in the snow and had to push the car.”

Gumuchian said he grew up in the chilly city of Vancouver with an incredible family life. He was close with his siblings, swam competitively and loved to eat candy, and he said he still does. 

He said he was also surrounded by a large amount of Asian influence. 

“I grew up on Asian food,” Gumuchian said. ”I was pretty much the ‘token white.’ I grew up with a lot of Asian culture around me, which is cool because I blew up in China first.”

He said growing up, he was homeschooled and chose to learn Mandarin, which would prove to be useful during his time in China. 

Gumuchian gained a following when the youngest brother of the popular band, TFBoys, danced to his song, “Yoko Tokyo,” at his 16th birthday celebration. It was televised across China. 

“What’s the luck?” Gumuchian said “That choreographer chose out of probably 30 different ones, was like, ‘Damn, I’m f—— with bbno$’s music right now.’” 

He said he put “Yoko Toyo” on SoundCloud for about a day and deleted it, so it was a surprise to him when he heard it playing and gained recognition for it.

“But that’s pretty much how people blow up in North America,” Gumuchian said. “It’s through association, an influencer, this and that.” 

Gumuchian said that though his Mandarin is weak, it was still impressive to native speakers. 

“It’s super funny because everyone’s like “Damn he’s white, he’s speaking Chinese,” Gumuchian said. “And when I’m on stage I go out and I’m like 我爱你 (I love you), and everyone’s like whoa!” 

And he loved visiting China, he said. He hasn’t been able to go back for a while, but he said he loved that each area of China is unique in its own way.

“Each region has its own flavor,” Gumuchian said. “You don’t really get that in Canada. The further out East you go, the worse the food gets. West, you have more Asian influences, East you have more French douchebags – poutine, maple syrup. Then, you go super East, and the food is just bad.” 

Gumuchian said he rose to fame by staying true to himself and making music that makes him happy and spreading infectious positivity through funky and unique beats. 

The now 26-year-old wasn’t always this successful, he said. He started making music with his friends back in 2015. 

“My friends and I were super bored one day, and that was pretty much it,” Gumuchian said. “We smoked a huge blunt, I laughed over a beat, and I was like, ‘Dang this feels good.’” 

He said the song was “absolutely atrocious,” but he still enjoyed the process of making it.

“I was like, ‘Dang why wouldn’t I want to do this more?’ Gumuchian said. “There was no negative side to it, so I just ended up doing it more and more often.” 

He then started the group “Broke Boy Gang” with his best friends. 

He said the process of making music is something he really enjoys and that nothing he’s ever done has ever made him quite that happy.

And though Gumuchian said he didn’t think he’d make it to where he is now, he loves that he can create something others can enjoy, too.

“I think it’s really cool that I can make something in my bedroom and people can show love to it and enjoy it so much,” Gumuchian said.“I can help so many people through just taking them away from things.” 

Despite Gumuchian’s success, he said he didn’t always have a positive experience in the music industry. 

“You kinda have to be a crazy person to make music because you’re repeatedly putting yourself on the Internet; you’re vulnerable 24/7,” Gumuchian said. “So you’re searching for emotional destruction, to be ridiculed and made fun of on a 24-hour basis. But when you make music, you don’t really think about it because it makes you happy.” 

But just like any other artist, not all comments Gumuchian receives are positive ones. But he said these types of comments seem to stick with him more than the positive ones.

“I find it very interesting, the psychological effect,” Gumuchian said. “Let’s say I have 100,000 positive comments and one negative one. I’ll remember the negative one.”

Despite creating and performing music, Gumuchian said he hasn’t actually listened to much music.

“Most of it is garbage that you have to sift through,” Gumuchian said.“I would rather just listen to jazz because it’s pure raw talent, and most of the things that are stimulating our brains are not relaxing at all.”

He said he does have some musical inspirations, though, such as Biggie and 2Pac. He said artists on SoundCloud were big inspirations as well, such as Yung Lean, Bones, Chris Travis and Denzel Curry.

Gumuchian said that being from Canada, things that are often talked about in America, like politics, don’t really come up as much. But he said being in America, he’s been able to see how different politics are treated.

“It’s interesting because in Canada, no one really talks about it,” Gumuchian said. “Hopefully, through generations of people, they will finally realize that there should be ethical and moral ways of living and what not. It’s interesting because every single conversation I have with almost every American leads into Trump or leads into politics.”

Like many other performers, Gumuchian said when the pandemic hit, he had to cancel about 120 shows during what he said was during his biggest year.

But he said he was able to accept it and is now in a really good mental place after learning not to take everything so seriously.

“I realized, what does it really matter?” Gumuchian said. “It was a break, unfortunately, but it showed me that I do have problems, and I have to figure out what my issues are. It was a good time to grow.” 

Due to the pandemic, Gumuchian said he has strayed away from using social media other than for promoting his work and business opportunities. 

He said a lot of people lose their minds by relying on social media as a source of entertainment, which has caused a toxic herd mentality. 

The lack of social media has done wonders for Gumuchian’s mental health, he said. He said he’s the happiest he has ever been.

He does, however, use Reddit, he said.

“Those people have taste,” Gumuchian said. “They have cool information. Why do I see stupid news over… They just shot a telescope that is 100x the power of Hubble. And, nowhere in the world does anyone ever talk about this s—. All these social media forms don’t promote things that actually matter.” 

Gumuchian said he’s looking forward to visiting more cities this year and seeing more people come out to see him.

“I’m gonna be doing what I’ve been doing for the last five years straight: put a bunch of music out, hope for the best and do a bunch of shows,” Gumuchian said.  

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