617 Hip-Hop

VasJan, also known as Vas, moved to the United States from Albania last year. Since moving here he has made a quick impact in the Northeast. He had been a promoter at some of Albania’s best known clubs such as Cinco Cavalli and Folie Terrace. In his time in Albania he has met some of Albania’s most famous artists and photos can be found on his Instagram @vasjanzisi. He also had a lot of sold out shows and was nominated for best promoter in an award show in Albania! Vas knew when he moved here he did not want to stop the work he was doing over in Albania. Vas did a couple radio interviews to help build up his connections in the United States. Some of the shows Vas has been on are “Show me what u got radio, Amir Max Podcast, and also IHeart Radio Promo.”  Since doing these interviews Vas has worked with some of the hottest artists in the United States music industry, such as Dababy, Young M.A., Tory Lanez, Pop Smoke, Megan Thee Stallion and many more! Vas mentions he also promotes

1. When did you start to make music? I always wanted to pursue music but I did not know how to. I really started about six months ago.  2. What/who inspired you to make music? It started off with me and a couple of friends recording shitty freestyles as a joke and we would just uploading them to soundcloud. The songs somehow got a lot of views and people were liking it so I said screw it let me take this a bit more serious. 3. What is the biggest opportunity you have earned/received in music so far?  My biggest opportunity was probably the Longlivehshawn x Fajita performance. Before that I was not really sure what I wanted to get out of this music thing but after the show I decided I wanted to really take this music thing seriously 4. How does your music stand out compared to other artists?  My music is very unique because of my flow versatility and melody game. I am able to combine my soft voice to hard melodic trap beats. I think I am perfect for today's hi

At age 11, Greyhound started to make music himself, he had also started playing the cello at the age of 8 and shortly after starting to make his music he pickup up the bass. At the time, he was into punk rock, and wanted to start a band with his buddies. He wrote his first rap at the age of 13 and was releasing his music on YouTube. He would record his music with his Rock Band USB mic. At the beginning he had a lot of doubters telling him his music sucked. At the time, Greyhound listened to them, however he kept making music, but wouldn’t release it publically. When he was 20, he decided that he wanted to finally release his music and stop selling himself short. Greyhound has now release an album, and doing lots of shows in the Boston area. One of Greyhound’s biggest influences in music was Eminem. Greyhounds said “I fell in love with rap through Eminem’s “Recovery” album. I was 12 when it came out.” Greyhound also mentioned “So ultimately, as cliche as it is for a white rapper

Mula M.O.E. is a rap group consisting of eight members, NiyaB, Lyne, Jeneè, Steel Bvlencii, REEMXREC, Finesse, Mizzo, and Jrocc. Mula M.O.E., starting off as only hip-hop decided that they have explored most, if not all genres of music.  When asked how they group started, Mula M.O.E. responded with “Some of us have been friends since high school & came together for parties and we started a family. At the parties we’d freestyle and realized we all had potential.” When I first discovered Mula M.O.E., it was at LYF & FRIENDS SUMMER FEST. They hit the stage and Sonia went crazy. They started with a remix of City Girls’ hit song Act Up. The energy Mula M.O.E. had right off the bat was crazy. The group fit together like a tight knit family, they would huddle up and when the beat would drop they would all go crazy. In a small venue it is hard to get the crowd going, and Mula M.O.E. made it look easy. Mula M.O.E.’s success has just begun, they have started to build a solid follo

On August 11th, the last stop on the “LYF & Friends Summer Fest” took over Boston. The event was as close to a sell out crowd as you could get and the energy throughout the entire night was electric. We were able to interview the MC of the show JRUEBY and learn about his experiences through tour and his upcoming music.  Throughout “Summer Fest” there were many opening acts who brought the energy for Jay Gwuapo to follow throughout the night. Some of these openers include JWU, and Mula M.O.E. JRUEBY was a familiar face throughout the night. After each act he would hype up the crowd making sure they were ready to turn up. JRUEBY was able to perform his single with Bobby Doc “DroppaOpp”, which the singles music video will be dropping soon and will be featured on Elevator. When JRUEBY mentioned how his music video will be dropping on Elevator he was very excited. He said “it only takes on song to change your life.”  JRUEBY mentioned how he has a project called “STAR WARS”

Now two albums in Hero has started to create a new old-school sound in Massachusetts’ rap game. Hero started creating music about four years ago, but Hero has been listening and studying rap music for as long as he can remember.      Hero is very self-driven, when I asked him what inspired him to start rapping he said “ Two things, Boston and GangStarr. I love my city, it’s where I’m from and I’m trying to get this place back on the map. For the music inspiration, GangStarr is so smooth, and message and beat-making go hand in hand. I mean hell, it’s GURU and DJ Premier what else can I say. When I first listened to Hero I noticed an old school sound about him. I loved this sound. Personally, Hero reminded me of a classic Eminem. Recently, Hero dropped his album “Mission Hill”.  When I asked Hero about what Mission Hill meant to him, he responded with “ Everything. In short, it’s an open door, an outstanding platform for me and my music.”  Hero’s goal in music is to “bring that

1. When did you start to make music? I’ve started producing music when I was 16. I made my first song when I was 18 years old.  2. What/who inspired you to make music? Nav definitely got me inspired to create music at home due to the fact he came up using a $100 mic. 3. What is the biggest opportunity you have earned/received in music so far?  My biggest opportunity I’ve got from my music is I got invited to speak to get dough records out California. I have not moved forward with it yet.  4. How does your music stand out compared to other artists? My music stands out in different aspects from other artist because the lyrics/genres continuously change due to my emotions that very moment.  5. What should your fans expect from you in the near future? What to expect in the near future. Is me under a label with a bunch of collaborations with other artists along with mixtapes.

Longlivehshawn, a talent who is starting to become a well-known name in Massachusetts. In his Junior year of high school, Longlivehshawn had an important decision to make between basketball and music. Longlivehshawn said, “I had asked god let me know which I should take, is it music or the NBA.” The decision he made is music and now the rest is history.  In Longlivehshawn’s family, music is something he and his older brother are both very involved with. Longlivehshawn mentioned how his brother inspired him. When talking about his older brother Longlivehshawn said: “ he’s been doing music longer than me and he made some really big numbers on SoundCloud.” Longlivehshawn also mentioned A Boogie and Michael Jackson as inspirations because of how they have unique sounds and how they can expand their talents better than most artists.  Longlivehshawn’s music stands out to many because he likes to switch his style up in his music, he likes to mix his rap style and his R&B style a

One night just about 6 months ago Fajita’s music career changed in a major way. Fajita and his friends were freestyling like they normally would. When it was Fajitas turn he freestyled what turned into the lyrics of his song “Not the Same”, which has over 19,000 plays on SoundCloud. The next morning Fajita and his friends hit the studio and began his journey to fame. Since that freestyle Fajita has dropped songs such as “Paranoia” and “Hit” which have also had thousands of plays of SoundCloud.  Recently Fajita has been preparing to drop his EP “Deadrose”.  The official release date for this EP is May 29th (all streaming platforms). Fajita mentioned how on his upcoming tape “you should expect a whole new Fajita”. Fajita elaborated about his EP saying “I want people to go into this open-minded and not expecting the music (I’ve) put out prior to this EP.” Every time Fajita makes a song there is always a person he does it for, his late stepmom. She was the one that convinced him t

MajorBaby, once a kid in high school messing around making parodies and remixes has started to make a name for himself in the rap game. Releasing songs such as Stereotypes, That’s Life with Bouvé, and Puffy Coat have allowed MajorBaby to make a name for himself rapping, but this isn’t the only thing MajorBaby can do. MajorBaby is also a songwriter who has had the opportunity to get his songwriting to a larger platform. He talked about he has “started to cut tracks for a lot of dope people in the industry.” By the way, MajorBaby made that sound we should all keep an eye out for some upcoming songs written by him.  MajorBaby grew up all around hip-hop. He said, “when I was a baby that is all my parents would listen to.” MajorBaby mentioned how his mom would always send him raps that she wrote, he mentioned how she would write like Will Smith. He also talked about how artists such as Mase and Lil Wayne have inspired him as an artist. MajorBaby elaborated on how he “always loved Mase

Heath240, born and raised in Jamaica Plain is starting to create a buzz around Boston.  Heath started rapping in his sophomore year of high school which was a time in his life where he was “wildin out”. Heath told me “multiple things and people inspired me to make music.”  He said, “as musical influences go Andre 3000, Kanye and Chance the Rapper have all been a major influence on me creating music.” Heath commented on how each of those artists has unique and individual sounds.  A personal mentor to Heath is the late Brother Ox. Heath mentioned how “Brother Ox pushed me to be expressive and creative when I didn’t have any inspiration.” Through this motivation and hard work, Heath has released songs such as OFF IT, 24K (Rose Gold), and L.A. which have combined for over 22,000 streams on SoundCloud.   Recently Heath has been earning more opportunities throughout the country as he was able to travel to Chicago to work with one hip-hops elite producers Supa Bwe. During h

Divine Minds is a record label, a clothing company and much more.  Divine Minds began with tragedy in 2012 as the founder Dom Ciccone’s brother tragically passed away.  At that moment Dom Ciccone (also known as Dommy Divine) said, “I wanted to do something positive with my life”. That is exactly what Ciccone did.  Divine Minds began with Ciccone and his two best friends. They all wanted to do something special;  they had the vision to make Divine Minds “a global movement of people spreading positivity and awareness to each other” said Ciccone. The name of the company came in a very unique way. It was created by Ciccone and his two best friends writing down hundreds of words that they liked crossing all of them out until they were left with the words divine and minds.  Divine Minds started with very little, but Ciccone was determined to make sure that his company would be the best. Soon after founding Divine Minds, Ciccone would go to local colleges sleeping on students couches

On Friday, April 19th, Cousin Stizz, Tim Larew, and No Label Live teamed up for the event of a lifetime.  I was able to listen to Tim and Stizz speak about their experiences in the rap game.   During this event, Cousin Stizz and Tim Larew talked about the days before they signed their current deal with RCA Records as well as their present day lifestyle. Tim Larew elaborated how he started a blog which gave him opportunities to meet many local rappers including Cousin Stizz, Jefe Replay, and Michael Christmas. Stizz mentioned how he spent most days in the studio and sending completed songs to Tim.  Stizz talked about how Tim would give him honest feedback on the songs and even though he sometimes would not like the answer he would get back to the studio and keep working.   After Stizz released his first two projects “Suffolk County” and “Monda” (named after a close friend who died of cancer), he moved out west to Los Angeles.  It was there where he recorded his most recent proj