Gerald Earl Gillium aka G-Eazy is a 26-year-old rapper who has been tearing up the Rap and Pop charts lately with his hit ‘Me, Myself & I’. With his whimsical lyrics and undeniable stage presence the future seems to be tremendously bright for him. But being a successful Caucasian rapper in an industry dominated by African Americans was no easy (no pun intended) task.
G-Eazy was born on May 24, 1989 in Oakland, California to Suzanne Olmsted and he has two brothers named James and Noah. Olmsted divorced G-Eazy’s father when he was 12-years-old and moved the family to Berkeley, California to live with her parents. Soon afterwards, Eazy’s mother came out as a lesbian and began dating a woman named Melissa Mills. Unfortunately once Mills had gotten herself acclimated to the family she overdosed on pills that she was taking to cure her manic depressive disorder. After getting over that initial heartache, G-Eazy picked up the pieces in his life and progressed forward. He graduated from Berkeley High School in 2005 and was destined to make music into a career.
In 2007 he enrolled in Loyola University in New Orleans to pursue a Bachelors degree in Music Industry Studies (which he completed in 2011) but he also wanted to continue to make music to get his name out in the music industry. He indulged in all aspects of music from rapping, to being a song writer, to even being a producer. He even joined a local band called ‘The Bad Boyz’ who released several songs on their official Myspace page. In 2010 G-Eazy began to gain some notoriety when he began opening for such well known artists such as Snoop Dogg and Lil Wayne. He released his first mixtape in August 2011 entitled “Endless Summer”. This led to a nationwide tour in November of 2011 with Shwayze. The tour was a success which led to bigger successes when G-Eazy released his first full length album entitled “Must Be Nice” on September 26, 2012. The album ranked Number 3 on the iTunes’ Hip Hop chart.
On June 23, 2014, G-Eazy released his major label debut album entitled “These Things Happen”. The album topped the US Billboard’s Hip-Hop/R&B and Top Rap Albums charts, also earning him the Number 3 spot on the US Billboard 200 and the Top Digital Albums Chart. The album has sold nearly 265,000 copies to date. His sophomore album entitled “When It’s Dark Out” was released on December 4, 2015. To promote the album G-Eazy launched a world tour on January 6, 2016 which will consist of the United States, Europe and Australia.