MusicoolArts Interview

 

Hip-Hop artist, MusicoolArts!

What inspired you to pursue a career in music?  In all honesty, I never thought I’d seek a music career, was more of a passion to me, especially Hip-Hop; as a seed I rapped about the big daddy long legs spider with a funny beat-box to it, yet I didn’t even know what Rap was; household was extremely religious, so my life was equal to that of a tomb keeper, only there were no tombs to keep. Eventually the rabbit ears were allowed and the movie we knew as Break Dancer (Breakn’ today), airing on WPIX 11, brought me into the culture of it. But this is the hood we’re talking about, once a certain age was reached (I think 11), I got to go visit my neighbor’s home being introduced to “Enter The Wu-Tang: 36 Chambers” album. These were the first MCs I ever heard followed by many greats that I loved to listen to; from there free-styling became a hobby, when finally meeting the outside world (beyond class), Hip-Hop became my culture, landing me in the studio sessions with my MFS fam (known as Querit, Hunnid P and Tri Pola today), on The Brooklyn Mob’s record label. I only got in their booth once in my teens, thanks to its CEO, See Islaam. That freestyle along with attending my relative’s sessions with Steve Lobel, silently unlocked that which came later, which is that which you see today; Musi©oolArts™. So the reality of it is, Hip-Hop itself inspired me, but I always loved music, my mother was very universal, hence my style (you’ll see), so after years of it being a hobby, I took it from mix-tapes as another alias to singles, and so the career began.    

Can you tell us about your creative process when it comes to writing and producing music? It’s a long process; I write, produce, engineer, perform and even do the artwork to my songs; writing varies by subject because I most prefer to tell a story and that takes time (days to even a month by verse). When producing my own beats, it can take weeks to reach a close enough, to satisfying sound. When making music, it’s a full focus, but when drawing the artwork I multitask with a screen playing the music I made for it, or a movie (or something) to keep my mind at ease. But once I’m in the booth, the booth becomes my ease. I lock myself in it with my tablet displaying my computer on its screen, and get in the zone recording tirelessly, until I am pleased with the performance (which can take hours to sleepless nights), I don’t believe in punching in.

How do you differentiate yourself from other artists in the industry?  Well, for starters, I combine Music and Art as one; many have done either/or separately, but no one has done both. Musi©oolArts™ is not just a new style, but truly a new platform designed by yours truly, best presenting itself in music video form. Another thing is my concepts, which time will reveal very soon (excluding the first song giving you a taste of that). Still, with this question being asked, I must also add that this style is not just created for innovative purposes, or even entertainment as it once was. MusicoolArts is also a fight against Algorithmic Intelligence (AI), deliberately being used by their makers to replace both musicians and artists with machines. I can’t allow that, no one should allow that. I know what people will think about this answer, but I gotta be me, fam, just stating the facts. It is what it is, and like the writers and Snoop, I am tired of it; this is how I fight back.

Tell us how you have combined art and music. I did not see this question coming, this is a good one.  
  Music is Art, only instead of painting on a canvas with a brush, we paint tracks with our words; myself being capable of both, I realized this long ago, but I didn’t have the equipment to manifest it [shoutout to Seth Kearsley for introducing me to The Rover device which allows artist to see themselves draw on camera, this helps a lot]. I have done both styles of art separately for quite some time, but deep inside I knew the world needed more than “just another rapper” or “just another artist”, I knew that when they saw me, that was all they thought, I was “just another”, Lawd knows I’m not just another, and I got tired of being a needle in a haystack. That in itself proved to me the world needed something new, and that desire is what sparked the idea to be my magnate out. I’ve been wanting to do this since 2009. What you saw ain’t all you’ll see, you ain’t see nothin’ yet!  

How do you handle criticism and feedback on your music? I am my own worst critic; I am never satisfied with my work and beat the BLEEP out of myself for anything I do. It’s just always lacking, it’s very annoying *In my Chappelle voice*. Because of this, I am always open to words of improvement so as long as the suggestion is coming from someone who exceeds my level of skill, experience, and comprehension of it. Critics aside, I like to ask questions; for example: What would you like to see in a MusicoolArts from? This is a whole new world, sky’s (and then some) the limit.

Do you perform live often? Often no, I'm legally blind (no P-O-P), I can't drive, but I have won a Coast 2 Coast Live contest with my friend Ad Infinium, who was known as Addict the Infamous at the time, and man did I love it. Preformed many times prior to that and would love to do that often with my own vibe this time around, it's about time I did.   

What steps do you take to stay current with trends and changes in the music industry? In truth, I prefer to be as innovative as possible. Why follow a trend when you can be the trendsetter.

Describe a challenge or setback you faced in your music career and how you overcame it. This is a deep question, and I’m trying hard not to be deep or long-winded, but to best answer this one, I’d have to say check out my track “Ten Years (Still Here)” to get a strong part of your answer. Guess the cat had to get out of the bag for MC MIC-X sometime, eh? It’s all good, keeping up with multiple appearances can be a headache, and I no longer need, nor want to.   

How do you engage with your fans and build a strong connection with them? Can you tell I’m a chatterbox? (Laughs) What can I say, I’m a people person, I love getting to know my fans, getting new ones to want to know me online is the tough part, so I ask questions about them, and send comments to them when I am online. Musi©oolArts™ is still new in the game, but as X, I have best connected via social media, unless they are outside of the net, which makes them easier to connect with. Text is often read with the reader’s emotional assumption instead of the writer’s emotional intention [hence why words should never be removed from an interview; not to say you do that but to say that others have, I can’t stress this enough]. But times have changed, and it has been tough starting over, they think I’m new, with or without my other profiles involved because of the ten-year gap, another migraine.

Tell us about any upcoming projects or releases that your fans can look forward to. Oh man, hard to answer this without spoilers, but let’s just say that the next tracks will introduce some cool characters, dedications, and commissions I made for other musicians in art style [I really don’t want to say too much but it will be epic, and most definitely musicool]. So sign up to the site, follow up on the socials, and subscribe to the Tube, because I’m just getting started sun, and you don’t want to miss what’s next.
Something like that.

http://musicoolarts.com