Q&A With Rising Underground Hip Hop Artist Too Real

Hey TooReal ! We appreciate and love your new cutting edge smooth Hip Hop sound. Please tell us how many years have you been making music? What area code do you rep! Clearly your emcee nanme speaks for itself!! How did you come up with TooReal!?

Thank you I appreciate it a lot and am grateful for the opportunity to answer that question, musically I’ve always been engaged and when I was young I use to play on the piano all the time, I never had any training or anything like that I just was really in tune with keys and melodies. I started writing music when I was about 15 and haven’t stopped ever since, after putting together my first actual verse I realized the beautiful and creative feeling I’d get and kept going at it . Even In school I made sure that I had a notepad and some headphones ready because I was so addicted to learning new words and correlating wordplay, at times it took away from my school work and communication with other but dedicating myself really aided me too expressing my love for the art.

When it comes to area codes I always rep where I’m originally from and grew up and that’s ONSET, MA. That’s where my birthplace resides and my people are out there , when I’m on I’m going to put them on and especially my team.

My name at first was actually Torrell sphinx and I have gone through those phases that most artist go through by switching up my rap name every 6 months like it was a routine haha . The name TOOREAL Conspired from one day bein at the studio after I recorded one of my first songs LIKE DAT, when I hopped out of the booth after recording the first verse my dad (who is a prolific producer in our group) came out of no where and said that’s TOOREAL right there and somehow it just synchronistically stuck ever since .

A lot of Hip Hop greats like J Dilla, Commonn, The Roots etc have that raw conscious sound, and clearly you fall right into that bracket of Hip Hop! How are you being 100% original and different? What is separating you from other emcee’s in this lane of sound?!

All the names that you just listed are names I am grateful to be compared to! And I feel like what really separates myself from them is my struggle and how it reflects upon my essence today making me who I am! Growing up I’ve seen a lot of trials and tribulations and so many different walks of life , I was forced to make MAN decisions at a very young age and let the pain that came with it drive me to be everything I’ve ever wanted to be. Another thing that really separates me from the other artist is my spirituality uniqueness , spiritually I’ve been growing at a terrific rate and I have been expanding beyond the perception of limitation not only artistically but in every aspect of life as well. When I make music like the “power of the pen” or “oxygen”, two songs from “The Real Story” mixtape, it’s clear to see that not many artist touch the subjects that I am willing to touch I think the fact that I am so embracing of expressing the truth really differentiates me from most artist not only in conscious hip hop but all hip hop. And being my true self no matter how many views or clout I get while doing so. I think when people really listen to my craft they get a understanding of who I am as an entity.

Tell us about your Hip Hop and/or music influences?

My musical influences are artist like Mos Def, jay Electronica and Bob Marley. An artist that I really respect and idolize as well is guru from GANGSTARR who is originally from MA as well, so seeing someone like him who has succeeded on the many platforms that he has, inspires me to get out there more and get my music heard.

Please breakdown the creative process of your new mixtape “The Real Story Mixtape”.

“The Real Story” mixtape was something I actually had all mostly written down way previous to actually recording it . The mixtape was a reflection of what I was going through in life at the moment and an Artistic expression of my environment as well. One thing that this tape was embodied by was keeping me sane and alive, the creative process kept me out of trouble and doing things that wouldn’t benefit me. All of the struggle and pain that I endured while going through writing this kept my drive and pushed me through finishing it.

Rappers nowadays think by throwing up a few videos up on social media and pushing quick projects, they can blow up overnight! Give us your view on how over saturated the market is right now with so many MC’s/Producers but not to many quality music.

Nowadays I see how the art of hip hop is portrayed and no matter what I am always studying other artist moves and learning what moves to make and what moves not to make . One thing Ive learned in doing so ,is too really take my time on each project and make sure that on each project I am giving everything I have and putting every piece of me that exists within it. Another thing that I’ve learned as well is that nowadays most artist want the fame and the clout but aren’t willing to inflict the genuine impression of themselves into this craft to go forth and be what they seek to Be. You must be instead of become. I think the root of over saturation in today’s music is solely from the fact that artist aren’t willing to put in the work and that some aren’t willing to be unique and show how they separate themselves from the pack. The trait of following is what really is diluting the art of hip hop in this day in age and following the trends blindly. Everyone is trying to do the same thing and sound like everyone else ! Be you and be unique there is only one you and that is just enough to touch peoples hearts.

If it came down to 1 ALBUM only, what underground Hip Hop album would you consider THE BEST OF ALL TIME!!!???……One 1 album you can choose.

If it came down to one UNDERGROUND album I would have to go with MOS DEF “BLACK ON BOTH SIDES” as the greatest UndergroundHipHop album of all time !! And you can quote me on that one too haha!

Here it is! Our most popular question! What is your definition of “underground hip hop”?

My definition of underground hip hop is the beautiful craft that didn’t hit the mainstream because many people can’t handle the Realness that comes with the art, underground hip hop is the root of ALL HIP HOP and it is what it is for a reason, music that you can feel and music that hits your heart isn’t what the radio plays anymore and that’s why REAL HIP HOP artist need underground hip hop to keep the culture alive and still beating. It’s underground because you gotta dig for it and work to find it, and that’s what makes you appreciate it that much more.

Where can people find you on the web? Drop all the vital links.

If anyone wants to follow me on INSTAGRAM you can click this link: https://www.instagram.com/tooreal_47/

TO GET A DIRECT LISTEN TO MY NEWEST MIXTAPE “The Real Story” click this link
https://soundcloud.com/torrell_sphinx/sets/the-real-story-mixtape

Any Shout outs?

And last but not least shout out mainly goes to UNDERGROUNDHIPHOPBLOG for the opportunity to promote my art and give you some real shit to vibe with !!! The collaboration was a unique experience