In the track “ØWay,” Tezzus delivers a喊声 that feels almost reverent: “Shout out to my mama/Shout out to my bros.” The opening verses sparked a viral trend, propelled by the Atlanta rapper’s unmistakable energy reminiscent of the city’s fertile 2010s rap scene. “ØWay” serves as the closing anthem for his project *The Resurrectiøn*, capturing that electric club‑ready vibe that once defined Atlanta’s music culture.
During a late‑summer afternoon at Rolling Stone’s Manhattan office, Tezzus sits beside fellow YSL talent Diamond*. The night before, the pair had taken the stage at Central Park as part of Young Thug’s New Generation Tour. “I brought my whole crew on the tour, you know what I’m saying?” Tezzus remarks. “Like, we’re building our own family.”
The two first crossed paths when Diamond* drove an hour to buy weed from Tezzus. Clothes were also for sale in the car, and a little extra cash seemed like a good idea. Upon arrival, the neighborhood looked like a biker hangout—friends gaming, hanging out, talking to girls. “Just like a little get‑together for the bros, for real,” Diamond* reflects. “So it was just cool to be around.”
Tezzus sums it up succinctly: “And then he never left.”
The duó calls their collective ØWay, a phrase that has resonated with fans as both a greeting and a rallying cry. Its versatility has helped cement their brand.
“We so fucking awesome that the world just ran with it,” Tezzus notes. “The world just love to say it so much.”
Their discography has kept pace. After 2024’s *Tezzus Khrist*, Tezzus released projects such as *Tezzy Pendergrass*. Diamond* broke out with “Bada Bing, Bada Bøøm” on his *Nø Idøls* mixtape, later collaborating with streamer Plaqueboymax on “Duality” for the joint April release *UY Scuti Bøyz*. Both artists continue to drop solo material: Tezzus’s June project *The Resurrectiøn* and Diamond*’s July *Bling Slime Vøl 1* hosted by DJ Holiday.
The duo has taken 14 collaborators on the road, emphasizing that their bond extends beyond music. “That’s why I feel like we’re going to last longer than everybody, because we really had to grow up together, more than just getting put together to do music,” Tezzus says.
Tezzus’s childhood was marked by resilience. By age five or six, he was performing on his bed for an imagined audience, declaring, “I’m gonna be a rapper.” His parents, teenage when he was born, served as both siblings and caretakers. After being expelled from school for a fight, his father asked what he wanted to do next. “I’m gonna be a rapper, bro,” was the reply.
His dad bought him a CD player and three discs of beats, a gift that arrived after Tezzus lost phone privileges. “I used to write all day,” he recalls. “I write raps and I studied like kings and conquerors.”
Diamond*’s father was a poet, an influence he tried to emulate before mastering beat‑writing. “Try to do poetry, just like him type shit,” he says. His own music venture began after graduating high school.
Early listening habits shaped Tezzus’s sound. Tupac was his father’s favorite, while Lil Wayne ignited his own interest. Atlanta’s mid‑2000s scene—featuring Johnny Cinco, Rich Homie Quan, and Young Thug—dominated his middle‑school playlists. When Thug and Wayne fell out, Tezzus’s loyalty settled: “Hell no. I gotta ride with the city.”
By the time he reached high school, Tezzus focused intensely on his craft. “I went mute on the world,” he admits. “I’m like, I’m going to be the greatest.”
The path to success demanded lifestyle changes. “I kept getting in trouble and kept getting locked up,” he explains. He and Diamond* spent two years consciously eliminating the N‑word from their vocabulary and lyrics, aiming to “find any sense of strength and power and just being Black.”
“We didn’t rap with it. We didn’t say it at all. We took it completely out of our vocabulary.”
Tezzus acknowledges the evolution of his voice, crediting Diamond* for noticing his growth and citing Young Thug’s storytelling as inspiration. “Every time he say a story that somebody said, he try to talk like them,” Tezzus observes. “You got to try to say it in their tone and, like, you gotta kind of paint the picture when you’re an artist.”
For Diamond*, collaborating with DJ Holiday fulfilled a long‑standing ambition sparked by mixtape days. Holiday’s work on Chief Keef’s *Bang 2* was a personal benchmark. “It was like a childhood checklist,” Diamond* says. “He’s still in the streets. He’s still for the people.”
Another highlight arrived at Magic City, the club he grew up near. He once dreamed of being among the crowd outside. “I look at all the foreign cars at the front,” he recalls. “I’ll take over this one day.” Performing there, surrounded by fans who remembered his early days, felt validating: “First of all, I’m with the same people that I struggle with,” he notes. “We around some of the most gorgeous women in the country.”
Gratitude runs deep for Tezzus, who likens his nostalgic moments to the TV show *That’s So Raven*. “You ever seen *That’s So Raven* when she go see the future?” he wonders. “I really get the moments and I see the past and I see how far I came. And I’d be so grateful. And I’d be so happy,” he says. “And I be so grateful for everybody around me. Like, I really love my friends, bro. I really love my family. I really love my mama.”
He’s noticed a pattern: songs centered on his loved ones boost his reach. “Every time I fucking make a song about my mother” and shout ØWay, he says, “I get bigger. And I love my mama and I love my crew. So, like, that’s beautiful, right? Thank you God.”
Currently, he’s counting down to an Atlanta show where his mother will see him perform live for the first time. She already defends him online, prompting Tezzus to joke, “I’d be like, ‘Mom, stop.’”
He credits Diamond* with creating a “home for the homeless,” describing the family dynamic they’ve built. Maintaining harmony among 14 members requires effort; conflicts arise, but dialogue usually resolves them. “We’re doing this shit our own way,” Tezzus insists.
His Hollywood ambitions are evident: while discussing Atlanta’s parallels with Wakanda, he pauses and says, “Marvel, put me in the movie, please. I’m ready. I’m a fucking dragon, kid.”
He watches *Game of Thrones* ten times a year and admires *House of the Dragon* for reviving the dragon mythos, though he still favors the original series. “I like to see that dragons have really came back. We got to see what they were really for.”
The facial dragon tattoo isn’t just pop‑culture flair; it marks his birth year in the Chinese zodiac. “I was born in the Year of the Dragon,” he explains. “That’s why I initially got it tatted in my face.”
He streamed the tattoo session a few years back, attracting six viewers at the time. “Look at me now at Rolling Stones,” he remarks, contrasting the modest start with his current platform.
