Q&A With South Florida Hip Hop Artist R. Eddie
Yo R. Eddie!! We really appreciate your support with UGHHBLOG! You’re definitely a true stand out artist out of South Florida for 2021. Please tell us how many years you’ve been making music? For those unfamiliar, please shed some light on your background in the Hip Hop game. Please detail.
Yo! I definitely appreciate being supported back by such a dope blog. I’ve been making music since I was 14 or 15 in high school and it was all those years honing my craft before I made my official debut that helped me get to where I am now. There was even a time when I was focusing completely on the producing.
I dropped my first album as R. Eddie in 2018 and since then I’ve just been trying to get ears on my stuff. I have the quality, no I just need some listeners.
Please shine some light on South Florida, how is the underground Hip Hop scene out there?
South Florida as a scene is so diverse and full of talent that it’s kind of daunting sometimes. People like Denzel Curry and XXXtentacion really put the spot on the map, and nowadays if you look there’s talent bubbling up all the time.
People like Mikey Moore, and Xali are really spitting on some Hip-Hop shit, but you also have all the hood music coming out from Pompano and Lauderhill, the Latin influenced stuff from closer to miami. It’s all really a melting pot.
Do you find most of your fanbase familiar with you from your old projects, or do you feel that you’ve been discovered in recent years more so on the merit of your music. Please detail.
In my time as an artist I’ve found that with all the other people competing for people ears and attention just getting people to listen in the first place is the hardest uphill climb.
Thankfully I started decent, and I’m improving with every release. I used to let the fact that I didn’t have a lot of money stop me from really pursuing this rapping. But life is short so my 9-5 money has been going to music videos and promotions and it’s made a world of difference. I’ve gone from a fanbase of just friends and family to one with international listeners and postings on blogs. Investing in yourself is important.
When compared to other artists, what is it about R. Eddie that stands out and makes you unique from the pack. Please detail.
From the time I was a young kid I’ve been absorbing my influences as a producer, rapper, and musician in general and it’s developed into my own style over time. That’s trap, old school, experimental, pop, east coast, west coast, funk influences and more all mixed together to create something spacy with a bounce to it with bars to match.
Besides that, I make every single thing you hear on every song myself. I produce all the beats, write everything myself and rap everything myself. On this second album I even got into mixing and mastering, and video editing and shooting.
Everything down to the drum hits is authentically R. Eddie.
Wow, your latest album “The Dungeon” is a true BANGER in our books, your delivery & style is truly out of this world! Tell us the story behind your recent project, And a little about the album cover concept!
The Dungeon is me really trying to show the world what I can do. For the longest time I was discouraged and considered quitting music. It was disheartening to see my music ignored over the years because of lack of connections and funds.
My first album was a concept album and while it was good, there were parts of it that were lacking and I’ve definitely come a long way since then so I wanted to show the world my range of styles, my production ability, and just my potential as a songwriter and rapper.
I wanted to show the world that you can become successful and you can do it from your own Dungeon. The cover is me in my “dungeon”, aka my bedroom with everything I need. My laptop, a keyboard and a mic.
What’s your favorite track off your latest album, and why? And please reference your favorite bar from this song that highlights your elite level lyricism.
That’s a hard choice, but I probably have to go with my song Building Blocks off the project just because it sums up the energy of the whole album so well.
Every choice and move you make it a stepping stone, and if you build them up like building blocks you can climb up to wherever you want to go.
“Skinny niggy rapping like an emcee, what you call that?
I’m 6’2″, dark skin in the USA, it was either rapping or baskets, gave the ball back.”
For this new year 2021, what do we have to look forward to when it comes to new music? Please reference your forthcoming projects that you’re at liberty to speak of.
I can’t say too many details on the new stuff I’m working on, but I will say that I turn 26 on March 13th and this year and it’s going to be a happy birthday for more than just me in 2021.
Due to the pandemic, how are you pivoting with making music around this whole Covid 19 situation.
Covid has actually made the proccess of making music easier than ever. I do it from my bedroom so having more time inside gave me a lot more time and reason to sit down and focus on my craft. The live show situation is the hardest part about covid, but while I wait for things go reopen I’ve been making up for my lack of local support by reaching out to people online all over the world to help get my music to as many people as possible. We have the internet now so we might as well use it to it’s best abilities.
We have to ask, with all this social discourse and revolt, protesting and rioting, exposed police brutality toward blacks and BLM, how do you guys feel about this? We would love your perspective on the climate we are living in right now?
I have a song about this situation called Chernobyl on the album, but just like everybody else I’m fed up with it all. In the past year it’s been clearer than ever who the government cares about taking care of, and in 2021 the evidence gets more and more compelling when you look at things like the stock market and the situation in texas.
We live in a propaganda driven country propped up by lies and manipulation and it’s incredibly important for all of us to use our voices as much as possible to speak out against the things that are wrong in the world around us.
Remember if they cut out our tongues, we ain’t the only ones.
Our most popular question!! What is your definition of “underground Hip Hop”?
I feel like the underground of hip-hop is where artists that are making music for the art of it reside. I never associated it with a specific sound, but more with a mindset.
A true underground artist has a reason for the music they’re making first and foremost. Making it along the way is just the icing on the cake.
Where can people find you on the web? Drop all the vital links.
You can find me at @reddiemusic on every single platform out there and the Dungeon is out everywhere you can stream music!
https://twitter.com/reddiemusic
https://instagram.com/reddiemusic
https://facebook.com/reddiemusic
https://soundcloud.com/reddiemusic
https://youtube.com/reddiemusic
Thanks so much for the interview and the love y’all.
