Q&A With Rising Puerto Rican Underground Hip Hop Aritst A1
Yo A1!! Were blessed to get exposed to your great fresh underground Hip Hop music!! One of our main contributors BOOM really loved your EP and reviewed it, giving it 8/10!! WOW Much respect on pushing that EP! Please tell us a bit about yourself? What area code you rep? And how long have you been making Hip Hop! You being from Los Angeles, please tell us how LA has influenced your music career!? As we both know, LA is the place to be when it comes to really pushing your brand, artists from all over end up moving out here for some reason…LOL
Well I was born-n raised in Puerto Rico, I’ve been living in LA for the past 2 years. But I’ve been a fan of West Coast Hip Hop all my life, especially the ones from LA. So I guess you could say I’m one of those artists who ended up here (haha). The music from Pac, Dre and Snoop is some of my favorite all time, especially Pac he was my favorite until I discovered NAS. But that G Funk sound is epic. Kendrick and The Game have been big in my sound as well as Cypress Hill.
Let’s face it, social media since 2015 has grown tremendously, especially IG!!! Tell us how is your IG grind looking, and how have you been able to keep up with the high demand on social media?
Yeah, social media is the future, and it’s been big for a minute. I try to post as frequently as possible and keep my fans up to date with everything that’s going on. I’m not as personal as other artists, (I don’t do a lot of selfies, inspirational quotes and all that ‘Snapchat BS’), but I do try to pay close attention to the traffic in terms of days of the week where I get more likes, time of day and where are they ‘tuning’ in from. I try to do photo shoots here and there (specially doing relevant stuff) so I can have content to upload and keep people interested in my brand.
Please breakdown the creative process of your new EP “The Sauz”? How long did it take for you to complete EP?
“The Sauz” came together after I finished a studio session. Aaron P has been my main producer since we met in Syracuse (NY) while we were attending school there about 3 years ago. I’ve always been adamant on having fresh and clever wordplay, not too smart so I don’t lose the audience but I like to let my vocabulary loose. “The Sauz” came about a way to break more into my latino/Caribbean audience but while still rapping and not becoming a frustrated autotune singer (even though there’s a little singing in the EP, but oh well). We felt like “The Sauz” represents what I feel that Hip Hop/Rap has been missing, which is innovation and flavour. I feel like there’s a lot of music out there with no real substance. I mean, I like to believe you can make bangers and still stay true. So I sat down with all these half written tracks I had, which where more than the ones that came out, cause I also wanted to keep a continuity with the sound (instrumentals). I’ve been known to make a lot of Boom Bap oriented music and I kind of wanted to move away from that a little bit with this project. I wanted to bring both aggressive and sentimental deliveries together (The Race II & Gone) with catchy hooks that keep you in the vibe (87 & Coral) The EP took about 8 months to put together, I started writing it as soon as I put out my prior project, “A1 Brews: The Full Batch”.
How often do you perform live?? Any Los Angeles, CA shows in the works?
The Past year I performed about once or twice every month until around November when I was hospitalized with a bacteria infection, but we’re good now I’m performing live on Sat, July 21st at The Spot in North Hollywood at The Black Billionaire HipHop Festival (info in my IG)
How do you feel about the whole XAN & LEAN trend these kids nowadays are on!!!..LOL??? Be honest, do you use some of that stuff??..LOL
I think it’s just young people being young people, and it was inevitable considering every generation is just trying to rebel in their own right, it’s been like that since Rock’n Roll and even before. But it doesn’t make it right or even ok, it’s just human nature. I personally don’t do it, weed, alcohol and women are enough for me.
What you got cooking next? Anything special for Summer 2018!!??
I’ll be dropping another project, might be my first LP. I just dropped the Official Video for “Como Si Na” this past month on my Youtube channel. It was shot and directed here in LA by fellow Puerto Rican, Val Vega. The Official Video for “Coral” will premiere before the summer is over. And hopefully I’ll be traveling back to Puerto Rico to perform.
Our most popular question, what is your definition of “Underground Hip Hop”?
I think Underground Hip Hop is that spark that makes change and keeps innovation going while still paying homage to the pioneers. Underground Hip Hop is the essence, without it, Hip Hop would just be Pop Music.
Where can fans find your music? Drop all links!!
Official Website: http://thesauz.com/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXIhv5-SHeyncuIfHB9y_Wg
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/64CbaJftGJZJyG2gEKzyp5
iTunes & Apple Music: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/the-sauz/1368909785?app=itunes&ign-mpt=uo%3D4
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/a1nwg
iHeart Radio: https://www.iheart.com/artist/id-32079302/albums/id-55412091/
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07C9WRQ42
Any Shout Outs??
I wanna send a SO to Aaron P for holding it down for me, from artworks to production, mixing & mastering. Ac Metta who is the only guest in the album (Reckless), Travis Taylor, producer of “Dime” and Mr Sebs who tracked the EP.
