G-Eazy’s latest album is called When It’s Dark Out, but the spotlight appears to be shining brighter on the rapper every day. While the West Coast wordsmith has been on the mainstream’s radar for a few years, stemming from the breakout success of his ’60s-pop-sampling “Runaround Sue” single, the last couple of months alone have seen a major uptick in demand for the rhymer born Gerald Gillum. Case in point, the Vancouver stop of his current tour was initially booked for the 5,000-capacity PNE Forum before being bounced to the triple-sized Coliseum next door.

When the Straight reaches G-Eazy on his cellphone, he’s ordering a triple-shot latte in a Bay Area coffee shop to help him get through a busy weekend that’ll have him hitting the studio to hammer out a stack of feature verses for other artists, hopping on a plane for a gig in Texas, and then blasting off to Europe. A week before this, he was smashing massive crowds Down Under. It’s been hectic, but the globetrotting hip-hop star reports he also managed to sneak off the grid to enjoy a luscious, snowcapped northern California mountainscape.

“I just disappeared,” he says of his brief time off, an Instagram pic of a golden retriever on a highway serving as proof of the getaway. “I turned my phone off and went somewhere without Wi-Fi. I went up to the mountains, just sitting and doing nothing. It felt great.”

The rise of G-Eazy is catalogued early on When It’s Dark Out, with the record’s “Random” pointing out above a powder-keg kaboom of beats and rocket-screech synths that he’s no overnight success. At face value, it’s a self-assured anthem about how the “young, rich, and handsome” MC is currently cashing cheques and signing body parts, but he notes that is because he’s “put in the hours and stayed passionate”. Back before the buzz, he was just a teen recording tracks in his bedroom. At the time, he was lucky to even hawk half a dozen demos out on the streets.

“I would buy a bunch of blank CDs and burn copies of the albums that we were making,” he recalls fondly of his early entrepreneurial efforts. “I bootlegged Photoshop and taught myself how to use it so I could design covers. I would take it down to a local print shop in downtown Oakland and put them in jewel cases and sell them out of my backpack. It was real DIY. “

Several mixtapes and two studio albums later, G-Eazy’s solid work ethic has brought him to top-tier status on the stadium circuit. Accordingly, he’s talking about an excess of riches and pleasures on hedonistic bangers like “One of Them”, as well as on the perception-melting after-hours number, “Order More”.

There’s more substance to When It’s Dark Out than Champagne and a bag full of molly, though, with the vocalist digging deep into personal tragedy for “Everything Will Be OK”. The rap ballad traces Gillum’s youth, from the breakup of his parents’ marriage, to his mother finding new love with a woman named Melissa, to a heartbreaking scene of the rapper finding that woman dead following a lethal overdose. It’s an especially raw look at his past, and one he wasn’t sure he could bring to his fan base, especially in a turned-up concert scenario.

“It’s a real story, and it’s taxing to go there,” he says of the cut, which he explains is too tough to play every night. “I broke down halfway through recording it the first couple of times. I knew there would be a challenge in performing it. I also didn’t want to do it so many times so that it became muscle memory.”

G-Eazy taps into a different kind of darkness on “Sad Boy”, a song that takes a Drake-style look at the rigours of fame, where being on top can leave you feeling twisted and isolated. The song isn’t exactly a sob story, as he calls himself an asshole for complaining about the acclaim.

“It’s an extremely different lifestyle than the one your friends and family are living back home,” the rapper explains. “There’s a distance that grows between you and your loved ones. And all that shit wears on you, man. It’s not really natural to live a Saturday night for 15 days in a row, but that’s the reality of tour.”

As he does in “Sad Boy”, G-Eazy is quick to point out in conversation that the nonstop grind isn’t as bad as he’s making out. When you’ve gone from working solo in your bedroom to conquering stadiums worldwide, you have to know you’re doing something right.

“I’m literally having these conversations with myself, like, ‘Cheer the fuck up, what’s wrong with you? You’ve dreamed of this forever. Be appreciative of all these blessings that have come your way.’”

G-Eazy plays the Pacific Coliseum on Wednesday (April 6).