Akillezz – Q&A Interview

Tell us about yourself. Where are you from? How long have you been making Hip Hop?

I’m from Astoria, Queens. I spent a lot of time honing my craft as an MC and ultimately finished recording my debut album, Transgressionzz, over the period of approximately a year. The album was released on 5/5/15 and housed 17 tracks. I’m of Greek descent as my pseudonym Akillezz indicates.

What influences you in making Hip Hop?

Hip-hop, to me, is a not only a genre of music but a culture from which a platform for expression was born. Today, hip-hop culture has become synonymous with pop culture but I maintain that the true spirit of hiphop is to be able to speak truth and call attention to a plethora of subjects, to tell stories, and especially to voice opinions. I find myself most inspired by poetry and real life occurrences, personal experiences, all of which are always somehow relevant to me. Of course, as a white rapper who identifies with hip-hop culture, I also find myself inspired by other artists and spend quite a bit of time pushing racial boundaries even when I don’t always realize I’m doing so.

Describe your music, and what separates you from other MCs?

Dense, syncopated, technical, and lyrical. It seems to me, the architecture of my writing is primarily what distinguishes me from other MCs, which is to say that my approach towards writing music is singular, and as a product of such singularity I necessarily treat rap with unexampled posture: as an interrogation process of the English language. I seek to work away at some greater truth by use of unorthodox rhymes, uncommon patterns, and a variation of rhythms.

Who have you collaborated with? Who would you like to collab with in the near future?

It was an inward feeling of mine that I needed to make Transgressionzz without any features on the album so that I could have a body of work both capable of standing on its own and defining me as an artist. I felt like I needed to achieve this prior to trying to find records which worked with my style and also gelled with another artist’s. Looking forward into the future, it would be a dream of mine to work with Dr. Dre on an album or some full-length project because of his unparalleled ability to produce and make great artists even greater.

Your definition of “Underground Hip Hop”?

I suppose the term refers to any and all hip-hop music outside of the commercial canon. It seems to me that people often confuse the term “underground” as meaning more aggressive or grittier but that isn’t necessarily always the case. Artists who are unsigned or independent are referred to as being “underground.”

We noticed on your latest music video PUNCHING BAG you shitted on the competition when it comes to super Hi-Quality Visual Productions with excellent directing which the BLOG staff really enjoyed. Why is it so important to you to push such music videos that are super Hi-Quality such as this one?

I certainly appreciate the compliment. Thank you. A core philosophy of mine is to create uncompromising content that makes its best effort to reduce the ideals and the thematic constructs which are presented in the
song itself as little as possible. “Punching Bag,” is very personal to me, especially because I wrote the treatment for the music video myself. Moreover, the song is itself was written regarding a past personal experience of mine and writing it was almost a self-governed therapy which required my extending myself to create the treatment and
committing to the scale of it precisely in the way that I did. It was something I had to see through to end in order to repair myself. I was fortunate enough to work with Ben Griffin in Los Angeles who afforded me creative liberty in the way that he did, bringing the treatment to life.

Any current or future projects you are promoting?

Transgressionzz is the most current project and also my debut album. If anyone is intrigued after watching the music videos and listening to the singles on SoundCloud and still wants to discover more, I would recommend turning to the album which can be purchased on iTunes. A potential tour might also be around the corner but I’m not at liberty to disclose any information as of yet because nothing is confirmed.

Can you give us a brief description of the creative process behind Transgressionzz? Also tell us a little bit about the concept and idea behind your Album Cover Art?

Well the title refers to breaking a law or violating some command, disrupting some code of conduct, a sin. Similarly, I felt as if I was breaching my way into the music industry in creating Transgressionzz which ultimately proved to be somewhat prophetic because the first single, One Level, was my first time charting on Billboard Hot Single Sales. The album-cover image was shot by photographer Mark DeLong which I turned over to graphic designer Ryan Patterson to further develop. I wore all my own gear on the cover just like I do in my music videos; I wanted it to be accurate in that way. When I spoke with Ryan about designing the cover I urged him to consider the theme of macabre, which I think he did with expert perfection.

Where can we find your music and info?

Music videos are available on both the VEVO and YouTube platforms; the singles can be downloaded for free on SoundCloud and if any of these things appeal to you Transgressionzz is available in the iTunes
store. I can be located on all major social media platforms @Akillezz
More information is available on www.akillezzrecords.com