Iko the Rainman – Q&A Interview
Tell us a little about yourself. Where you are from? How long have you been making Hip Hop?
My name is Jack Paraiso, I’m a 24 year old male gigolo and co-founder of Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters. I’ve been making music for almost four years now.
What influences you in making Hip Hop?
Musically ? Macho Man, Shaquille O’neal, and John Cena are probably my favorite rappers of all time. Aside from that, it would have to be the friendly competition me and my friends have as artist, that and just being around people who make music, not just hip-hop. It’s almost like playing a fighting game with your best friend, if you lose, and you know he’s better than you or has the upper hand, it only motivates you to get better.
When I need influence and inspiration, I seek the guidance and poetry from my fellow emcees and musicians. Like when I hear a hot verse, or hook, it only motivates me to go back home and craft something a little bit nicer. I think just being around good music motivates and inspires more of it.
Describe your music, and what separates you from other MCs?
What separates me from my fellow emcees is probably not much, when you first take a glance at it. Hip-hop is really just a way of musically sharing the autobiography of what is going on inside your head. When you take hip-hop and what it is, in its truest form. It can only be approached numerous ways until eventually, you start to repeat yourself. Everyone eventually, in hip-hop, will all start to sound the same.
What I’ve done to try to fight this in general that is so competitive is create a new alternative sound around the number one basic fundamental in hip-hop — poetry. Now me and my best friend/producer (Eric Miles) have found a way to do just that. We have created our own genre in hip-hop (name still pending), trying to give it a breath of fresh air and different take on how it can be approached and crafted. We have utilized what we learned and found a way to popularize it, so that we can become increasingly more successful. Wait until you hear my next two personal projects.
Who have you collaborated with? Who would you like to collab with in the near future?
I have collaborated with myself a couple of times on some songs, but I’m not that great at rapping and I charge way too much for a verse, so we will see what happens in the future. — But I do have a list of favorite artists that are on the “If I can make a song with that person, I can die happy” list. For now, that is only a dream. \
Although, I have been very blessed to have been contacted by one of my favorite rappers of all time, Brotha Lynch Hung, who hit me up after I bothered him several times on twitter. He seemed to enjoy very much what I showed him and blessed me with his kind words. I’ve been waiting to do a song with him for quite some time, but was just waiting until I was established enough and had more leverage with my name for such a feature. But I can promise, soon (hopefully) there will be an IKO THE RAINMAN & Brotha Lynch track in the future (fingers crossed).
Your definition of “Underground Hip Hop”?
Underground definition: “Get away with murda, innovative and fresh and I bet you never heard of : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjTlhenxEtI&list=PL8aXTIHoDxkd1erxmi7slH1nQgXVrSy1e”
I have a song called Basement Music that actually describes what me and my friends define as underground hip-hop. We all live by that anthem. It’s a sense of creativity and freedom that an independent artist has. For us, it’s living on a dream and kinda hoping for something more, or maybe that world will one day hear your song and know your name. Underground until I’m popular I suppose? Basement Music was the first song I recorded that made me feel really good about this path I am chasing. I would recommend you listen to that song if you wish to get a better answer.
Production wise, who are your influences? Who does your production? And who would you like to work with?
When you take lyrics out of the equation, and you go strictly instrumental, mixing and atmosphere. Dr.Dre, Kanye West, MF DOOM, and RZA are the four horsemen of production, or at least what inspired me initially. But I’ll be honest, I can’t wait until I get to murder a Premo track, I count the days until that collaboration happens.
My favorite hip-hip producer is actually my best friend and lead producer of Operation 5:AM, Eric Miles. The only way for you to grasp what kind of producer he is, is by sitting yourself down and listening all of his work. His diversity makes it really hard me to describe to you his sound, he is so weird, he is like every hip-hop producer blended into one.
My mentor D.C (Donaldson Cenatus) who trained the warrior you see here, is the one who handles the mixing and mastering of OP5. I was a lost kid with a dream when I first met him at his studio, he became one of my best friends and greatest influences to what I do, and I still don’t think he realizes that just yet. He helped me wake up and guide me on the right path with my art; I owe that man my life.
Any current or future projects you are promoting?
I have several web based shows that are in production as we speak, that will be original creative material for Operation5am.com and Youtube. Film production is a huge part of what I do, and another one of my ways of getting my name out to the public. I would suggest you follow us on YouTube/OP5TV for a blend of our film and music and original content. Hands down the best way to keep the fans coming back, we have a little something on our channel for everybody.
Operation 5:AM which is the name of my team and entertainment group that we go by, will be releasing its first mixtape this summer. We have some old dope ass songs that never saw the light of day that we wanna share, as well as some new material displaying the revival and new sound we are developing.
For my personal work every year I will be releasing an alternative hip-hop EP that will be themed around my nerdy interests. The first one was Attack Of The Rainman, and was dedicated to my favorite genera of movies, horror. The second one called “The Midnight Channel” will be video game themed and released around my birthday. Those projects are just material I’m feeding the internet to get my underground buzz going, before I release my first album called “P.O.A.H” (Philosophies Of A Heartbreaker). It will be our first commercial album we put out to the public. We have a huge innovative marketing campaign planned for it, and we are plotting and strategically planning out the timing for its release. We plan the success of the album to match that of “The Heist” from Macklemore and Ryan Lewis.
Can you give us a brief description of the creative process of “Attack of the Rainman” project? Also/ what was the idea or concept description about your Album Art Cover.
When my birthday came around in September, 2013, I had fully committed myself to this dream I had been chasing. I had been making music for a while, but had not completely devoted myself to it, thus keeping me from where I felt I needed to be at that point in my life. I released my first mixtape the year before, and as the year came to a close, I had to act before all that time went by with no new material had been released from my team. I had to act quickly and made it a goal to release a musical project by the end of the year — something short and sweet, no features, and strictly production by way of Eric Miles and D.C.
The first week of October I went back and watched all my favorite horror movies to help inspire and guide my new project. Attack Of The Rainman took me two weeks to complete. One week of recording and writing, and the next was strictly mixing and mastering. And for anyone who knows me, and how I handle my creative process, this is a monumental achievement that I was able to put out a solid EP with almost no time and money spent.
I knew I wanted to make an album like this around completing Basement Musik. The last song off of the mixtape, “The Devil” is a preview of the concept I had in mind for “Attack Of The Rainman” when I was finishing final productions on my mixtape. I took some of the photos that were taken on the shoot for “The Devil” music video, and used them for the art you see for the EP. Thought it was a cool idea, being that “The Devil” was a song off of a mixtape, previewing an album I had planned to released sometime in the future. I don’t know where I come up with any of this shit to be honest haha. Being that most people questioned the dark nature of my songs on the EP, and didn’t understand I was working off of a concept, it kind of gave me the “friendly neighborhood horrorcore rapper” vibe, which I’ve been trying to stray from with future music projects of mine. Which is why people can expect to hear something radically different, as far as tone and subject matter with my next few projects I have brewing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CyVIWjZ_2I&list=PL8aXTIHoDxkd1erxmi7slH1nQgXVrSy1e
Where can we find your music and info?
The best place to become a robot and find any and all of my work is my website. Operation5AM.com.
Any and all fans of my work must subscribe to my YouTube channel (YouTube.com/OP5TV). My number one focus is the YouTube channel; it’s where all of our traffic and fans have come from. As well as the host for all our original content as far as videos are concerned.
@IKOTHERAINMAN (INSTAGRAM/TWITTER)
ITUNES/BANDCAMP : IKO THE RAINMAN
Any shout outs?
Shouts out to Melody and my sister Melissa for holding it down in O-town for OP5, I see y’all!
Shouts out to Obama, L.S, Abel Kain, Young Deshi, and Julia Roberts for always keeping it so real! SWAG IS CLEARLY OVER 9000 !!!
Shouts out to Jack Tretton, only man I know who looks better in a suit than I do!
Shouts out to my brother Andre, a.k.a Christopher Columbus (no one knows where he’s at?)
Shouts out to Scarlett Johansson for denying my weeding proposal over twitter, you have 3weeks to reconsider.
P.S Free my homie Bookworm, aka Johnny Baca, he ain’t do nothing bruh!
