Not every rapper calls himself a poet, but then again not every poet knows how to adjust his rhyming to the beat. Luckily for Watsky, he learned a winning formula of rhymes + beats early on and has been adding a much needed dose of literacy and self-awareness into the hip-hop circuit for more than a decade now. Ever since he wrote a heated poem in defense of Pee-wee Herman.

We spoke with the artist about everything from a Twenty One Pilots collab to old strippers. Here are 10 things you should know about Watsky.

He Appreciates A Good Kebab Before a Show

An artist’s work is never done, especially when he’s only getting ready to go on stage. That’s a perfect moment to breathe, relax and, you know, get an overseas phone call from Myspace. Given the circumstances, we felt obligated to kick off our chat with Watsky by asking about the rapping poet’s pre-show rituals. “We all went to get some kebab food before tonight’s show in Manchester; everyone was very hungry. But I don’t really have any specific rituals. I just try to relax and have fun.”

He’s a Californian Hip-Hop Poet

Just like many talented poets before him, this particular San Francisco-native started rhyming words in his bedroom when he was a teenager. Then he added social and political commentary into the mix and has been on a roll ever since, releasing albums, touring the country and playing with words. “Poetry is a very big influence on my music. I used to do a lot of competitions and open mics for performance poetry when I was in high school.”

He Appeared on 'Russell Simmons' Def Poetry'

Watsky’s big break came in 2007, when he appeared on the final season of HBO’s Russell Simmons’ Def Poetry, a spoken word poetry series. “I was 19 at the time and got to make some money off my art. I used that money to fund videos for my music, and that helped me to jump-start an internet following. Then around 2012 I managed to make a shift from playing these college venues to doing ticketed venues with a band.”

He’ll Make You Pay Attention to His Lyrics

While hip-hop always has a way of sneaking into young listeners’ hearts, poetry, on the other hand, usually needs an extra push to get noticed. How does Watsky make his fans listen instead of just nodding to the beats? “I think the nodding to the beats is the first way in. The people who really analyze the music will listen multiple times and will start to understand what you’re saying. People who come to my shows do want to understand lyrics. At the end of the day rap is poetry as well. Songwriting is poetry. I have a following of people who love wordplay, language, storytelling and really appreciate lyrics”.

As any adventurous poet, he doesn’t like to repeat himself, but sometimes he accidentally does. “If there’s a rhyme that I’ve used already, I try not to do it again, but I still might do it accidentally. These little things that get stuck in my head and I forget that I’ve done multiple times. I think I’ve rhymed tourniquet with tournament in two different verses. I also try not to write about my family unless I have their permission.” Obviously we had to ask about his proudest poetic moment. “I’m proud of my song '4 AM Monday,' where I said:

"His flow is hole-y like the edge of abalone shells
"I want to flow holy like matrimony bells

"I’m really proud of that because it had four-syllable multi-rhyme and it also had homophones: holy and hole-y.”

Watsky is His Real Name

Unlike some of his finest verses, there’s hardly any mystery behind Watsky's catchy stage name. “It’s just my last name. I’m George Watsky. Sometimes I’m going by my full name when I’m doing my poetry or putting a book out. My friends called me Watsky growing up in school so it stuck.”

He Published a Collection of Essays

Apparently Watsky likes to be the only one reading his verses out loud, since he hasn’t put out a proper poetry book in a decade.

“I have only put out a printed poetry collection back in 2006 and I haven’t done one in over 10 years. I did put out a book this year that was a collection of essays called How to Ruin Everything. I’ll probably put out another poetry collection next year. It sort of got side-tracked by all the music that I’ve been doing.”

His essays collection, though, has already became a New York Times bestseller. “It’s comedic, in the style of David Sedaris, where it’s observational humor. It’s like my poetry and music: there’s serious stuff and there’s humor, but it goes from serious to funny stuff in a sentence or two. It’s 13 stories from my life. It’s not a memoir, just a collection of stories.”

He’s Inspired by Other Multi-Talented Performers

You can’t have a true artist without a detailed list of people who inspired him.

“There are two poets who influenced me the most. The one who helped shaping my stage persona is Beau Sia. He’s got this incredible charisma on stage that I always admired. Very funny, very subversively funny, able to control his audience by making very small things like raising his eyebrow or moving his pinky. The other one is Saul Williams, who inspired me to pursue different media on multiple platforms. He's an actor, a well-respected poet, had a music career. That made me believe that it was possible to have this multi-platform career and still have all of it, be very honest and true to yourself.”

His First Poem Was Pro-Masturbation

You always remember your first, right? Speaking of Watsky, his first was a short poem. “It was 90 seconds long, it was called 'Beliefs.' I was 15 years old. It was almost about nothing: I was rhyming and going back and forth, trying to come up with multi-rhymes. I think at the end I said something about how I believed that Pee-wee Herman shouldn’t have been arrested for masturbating in the public theater. That was the last line of the poem: 'Pee-wee Herman is innocent, the fucking system’s broken.'"

His Latest Album Features Twenty One Pilots’ Josh Dun

X Infinity is Watsky’s fifth record and it came out in August. “It’s 18 tracks long, so if anyone wants to listen to it, it’s a commitment. It’s very orchestral — there’s a lot of live horns instruments arrangements on it, jazz influences, little something for everyone," he explains. "It’s produced by Kush Mody. I’m very proud of it; there’s a mix of serious songs, funny songs, wordplay. It’s my most ambitious album yet — sort of a genre mash-up.”

One of the collaborator was Twenty One Pilots’ drummer Josh Dun. “He hit me up on Twitter, we arranged the session and he came in, super nice guy, played on a few songs and 'Midnight Heart' made the cut.”

Considering Watsky was a drummer in a jazz band when he was younger, did he ask Dun to teach him some cool drumming tricks? “I didn’t, but I’d love him to teach me how to do a backflip off the drum set, ‘cause I know he does that at his shows.” Josh, your turn.

He Had 65-Year-Old Strippers at His Birthday

This past September Watsky turned 30 and he did celebrate in style. “It was pretty crazy. I won’t go into too many details. But we did end up in Atlanta’s strip club called Clermont Lounge. It had non-traditionally beautiful older women, 65-year-old strippers. That was pretty wild.” Does he plan to be a decent gentleman and dedicate a poem to this wise stripper he met in Atlanta? “Maybe I get inspired when I get back home from tour.”