G-Eazy Channels Hard Lessons About Love Into His New Album, ‘Helium’

Whether he’s in front of a hometown crowd at Oakland’s Fox Theater or at sold-out clubs in Europe, when the lights go on, G-Eazy makes sure to take a second to pause and be present.

“Just stop and take a breath, look around,” he tells himself. “Hold that moment. Smile. Let it in, you know what I mean? And allow yourself to enjoy that, feel that happiness and gratitude.”

It’s a moment at each show that G-Eazy doesn’t take for granted. Over the past few years, the Berkeley- and Oakland-raised rap star has been through a period of grieving, facing his past and healing. It’s fitting for someone born in the Year of the Snake; in 2025, he’s shedding old skin and calling in a new era of creativity and abundance.

G-Eazy is currently in the U.K. on his first international tour in six years, supporting his 2024 album Freak Show. One of his most vulnerable works to date, Freak Show showed G-Eazy dropping his sleek, put-together veneer and opening up about the life-changing loss of his mom, the visual artist Suzanne Olmsted.

Now, he’s following it up with his next project, Helium (out Feb. 28 via RCA), which explores a force that’s fascinated G-Eazy since his career took off a decade ago: intense — at times addictive or even toxic — love. On the album, that can mean romantic love, or even G-Eazy’s love of music, the two intertwined and complicated by the pressures of notoriety in a high-demand industry.

“It’s kind of like an entendre: ‘Helium’ is like healing,” he tells KQED in a recent video call from his New York apartment, where he’s dressed down in a black hoodie. “It’s just about embracing the ride and feeling all the things that life brings you — not pushing them away, but leaning into the feeling with honesty.”

In April, G-Eazy heads out on a North American tour to support the 12-track project, marking a return to form for the hitmaker. He first exploded into the pop stratosphere in 2015 with the pensive, five-times-Platinum track “Me, Myself & I” featuring Bebe Rexha. He climbed the charts again two years later with “Him & I,” featuring Halsey, with whom he was in a relationship at the time. The song’s exaltation of a Bonnie-and-Clyde-style romance mirrored the swirling rumors online and in tabloids about the couple’s volatile relationship.

Several years and album cycles later, G-Eazy has taken time to do a lot of work on himself. He sought treatment for substance abuse (a letter from his mom was the catalyst), started therapy and moved to New York. There, he takes long walks, absorbing inspiration from its many cultural enclaves, and hits up basement comedy, indie rock and rap shows on spontaneous nights. It’s from a place of finding himself, of introspection and greater maturity, that he returns to writing about the highs and lows of love on Helium.

“What’s attractive to you, what lures you in and draws you back, can sometimes bite you and burn you, unfortunately,” he reflects. “But I definitely feel like all of life’s experiences have helped me mature and grow and become a better version of myself.”

The latest single off Helium, “Kiss the Sky,” is a piano-driven, downtempo track about escaping reality. (Bay Area hip-hop fans will hear the influence of Zion I and K.Flay’s 2009 hit “Coastin’,” released when G-Eazy was still unknown and grinding in the local scene.) Over the past few months, he also released the dark, danceable single “Vampires” and braggadocious “Nada,” which has an 808 knock and middle-fingers-up attitude that clearly stem from his home turf.

G-Eazy recorded Helium in New York with a core group of powerhouse collaborators: producers Carter Lang (who’s worked with SZA and Omar Apollo) and Weston Weiss (Post Malone, Kali Uchis, Camila Cabello). Rodaidh McDonald, whose credits include Adele and The xx, oversaw Helium as executive producer. The album leans into a melodic, moody style that blends elements of pop punk and alternative rock.

“I say this openly, I don’t always make the most ‘Bay Area’ music,” G-Eazy reflects. “[But] I wave the flag everywhere I go.”

For G-Eazy, waving the flag of the 510 means intentionally uplifting and collaborating with the brightest talents of the East Bay’s eclectic rap scene. He recently featured on P-Lo’s “Players Holiday ’25,” where the influential producer assembled a “Bay Area Avengers” crew that included Larry June, Saweetie, Kamaiyah, LaRussell, thuy and YMTK. Last fall, he brought LaRussell — the industry-bucking Vallejo MC — out on the road with him.

“He’s a generational talent — he’s that special,” G-Eazy says of LaRussell. “He knows who he is and that’s a beautiful thing. This game can push and pull you in a lot of different directions sometimes.”

That self-assurance is something G-Eazy’s mom, Suzanne, instilled in him. A professor at San Francisco Art Institute, when she saw he had a creative spark, she engaged with his work seriously. Their philosophical conversations about what it means to be an artist have stuck with him.

“She talked about how important it is to you to have your grounding, and your bones, and your self,” he recalls. “In terms of living a creative life, how extremely essential that is, but how rare it can be. … It’s one thing to be able to learn the craft, but if you don’t have anything to say through it, you know, what’s the idea?”

Taking his mom’s advice, G-Eazy is intentional about keeping himself sharp, staying curious and absorbing new influences. To hone his storytelling, he reads a lot of fiction (There There, Tommy Orange’s bestseller about a complicated cast of Indigenous characters in Oakland, is his current read). And he’s constantly Shazaming songs that catch his ear; Okay Kaya’s downcast, stripped-down cover of Cher’s “Believe,” Bruce Springsteen’s acoustic ballad “My Father’s House” and Weezer’s “The World Has Turned and Left Me Here” are a few recent favorites.

“I’m still hungry and driven because I’m still so in love with [music],” he says. “But in terms of what drives me or goals that are left — sustainability is a hell of a goal, you know what I mean? Just to get to keep doing this is never something I take for granted. I always feel like this could be taken away at any moment.”

G-Eazy is on tour in Europe, Australia and New Zealand until March 1. On April 4, he kicks off his Helium tour in the U.S., with Northern California stops in Sacramento on April 26 and Santa Cruz on April 27. Details here.