Q&A With Underground Hip Hop Lyricist FNX
We are extremely excited to have featured your mixtape “Barz On Dek” featuring T. Sawyer, Sleep Hollow & Izreal Jakob, being a Hip Hop artist we never heard of, we are extremely honored to have promoted your music through UGHHBLOG! Please tell us who is FNX? Where are you from? Give us some background on your artist name?
I’m from Norwalk, CT and I love the craft of being an emcee. From storytelling to punchlines, my main focus is to uphold the culture and execute. Some people say that’s outdated thinking, but I believe mastering your craft to go from student to teacher, is the best way to prove you understood the lesson. That’s my energy. That’s also the energy of Sawyer, Iz and Sleep. We all were inspired and uplifted by hip hop at our low points and the best way we know how to pay it back is to be conducive to that energy.
I’ve also dropped several projects. As Symon Feenixxx back in 2013, we released “The Blue Moon”, which was my first professionally recorded mixtape (shout out to the Factory Underground and Kenny Cash too!) That record was extremely conscious and still has replay value to this day. After that Kenny Cash and I made the “Who Am I” EP, which was where I perfected being a recording artist. It was also when I shortened my name to FNX. Creating records from scratch, and building sounds with my engineer was an amazing process. Then we released FNXMusic Vol 1 and 2 and I collaborated with artist like Chino XL, Canibus, Chris Rivers, Arsonal Da Rebel and did few classic hip hop beats just to pay homage. That leads us to the recent Barz On Dek project with Izreal Jakob, T. Sawyer and Sleep Hollow. This one is bar heavy and explosive. And my whole team gets busy. Shout out to Underground HipHop Blog for rating it 9/10!
How did you initially get into writing and recording music?
I’ve been writing since I was 10 years old and started recording my own music when I was 14. To be honest -during high school, my mother sister and I got evicted, and had to stay In a shelter. A bunch of craziness was happening during that time and the Only way I knew how to vent was to write. I wrote a lot of poetry, with most of it only meant to be read. But then I fell in love with Hip-hop and wanted to be a master of the craft. Chino Xl, Big Pun, Nas, Redman, OutKast, Heltah Skeltah Mos Def Canibus etc I could go on and on about who I studied attempting to teach myself how be an emcee.
Who’re some artists that inspire you?
Chino Xl, Big Pun, Nas, Redman, OutKast, Heltah Skeltah Mos Def Eminem Canibus etc I could go on and on about who I studied attempting to teach myself how be an emcee. I’ll know I’ve made it when I get them to be fans of FNX lol
When people listen to the songs, what do you want them to take away from it?
Well I make different songs for Different purposes. The music on Barz On Dek is high energy and explosive. A lot of unnecessarily crazy punchlines lol but it’s so dope. And if you like that kind of music, your going to keep it rotation for awhile. Thats the product of Sleep Iz and I forming like Voltron and going in. On my solo project is where I will get into consciousness and story telling. Songs like Monsters, Whats Evil, Young Black Males and Dopefiend are what you can expect, and my solo project will raise the bar. It’s heavy replay value.
You recently dropped “Barz On Dek” with T. Sawyer, Sleep Hollow & Izreal Jakob across all streaming platforms! Please give us some background on that project!? Could you tell me the inspiration behind the project and artwork?
As I said before , The Barz On Dek project was just about a few dope emcees coming together to make something unique. Sleep, Iz, Sawyer and myself all have a different style, but when we blend them together we created something fresh. We also are huge students of the culture so there’s a heavy Wu influence.
What else can we expect from you in 2020?
More music, more videos, and more content. I’m also going to destroy a few freestyle platforms.
Our most important question, what is your definition of “Underground Hip Hop”?
Hip hop that doesn’t have the major label influence or resources, yet still finds a way to connect to core fans. It’s the artist’s pure vision.
Where can fans find you? Drop all your links!
www.fnxmusic.com
@theofficialfnx
Lastly, is there any advice you have for anyone trying to set their foot in as recording artists?
Yes, strategize and execute. Just get your process down, keep working and don’t get distracted. Perfect your process and never look back.
– FNX
