Thought-Provoking Rap: An Interview with SӦN
Image courtesy of Andrew O’Connell // @andrewoconnell
When SӦN sits down to create, he makes magic. Witty lyricism, creative beats and meaningful messages make listening to his songs a true experience. This local Boston artist expertly weaves stories of friends, family and foes, but it’s been almost three years since his last project.
HOME, released on October 19th of this year, is a revival of sorts. Under a new name and sporting a new vibe, SӦN presents a five-track mixtape of the conscious hip-hop variety. It is masterful, immersive and thought-provoking. Sitting down with SӦN and diving into his process for writing and producing HOME as well as exploring the trajectory of his career was an absolute pleasure of mine.
Daphne Bryant: For starters, how did you get into creating and producing your own music?
SӦN: Just before I was two I picked up guitar. I yelled at my mom to go take me to lessons because I had no idea what I was doing and then that grew into me playing in a band from ages 11-13. Then eighth grade hit and some Facebook drama happened and I was out of the band. So I started making music on my laptop and started with the beats and that grew into like, writing to those beats. And then, you know, the rapping stuff came along and now I’m here. Just working on everything.
Image courtesy of Marika Rose Gold // @marikarosegold
DB: Would you say there’s any specific person or entity that inspires you to create?
S: Oh there’s so many, so many cause my music doesn’t really have a genre on it. My focus changes a lot, I like to listen to a lot of different stuff. Honestly, I take a lot of inspiration from Kurt Cobain as a writer, singer and guitar-player. System of a Down is my favorite nü-metal metal band. On the side of, like, rap Big L is definitely my first: “Damn I really love rap”, because of Big L and DMX. DMX I used to listen to everyday on the ride to school because I was just so angsty, and he would give me the barks to get through the day.
DB: How did you know music is something you want to pursue in a professional sense?
S: I started playing shows in basements in Allston and like, different venues across the city. There was this place called the Inner Sanctum in Roxbury that I used to play at, it was in Dudley Square in an old abandoned warehouse. When I started playing the shows, people would come up to me after and say “Don’t stop,” and just reassure the fact that I’m talented as an individual. The professionality came alongside my growth as a person, you know what I’m saying? I learned professionalism alongside me getting older. Just by seeing a lot of my other artist friends and the way that they move and understanding the industry and how to maneuver. I’m trying my best to be professional about the shit because I have great messages and I know they hold.
Image courtesy of @maydoney on Instagram
DB: What is the significance of your new name: SӦN?
S: I started with the name Young Seuss. That was kind of a less mature standpoint in my music life at least, like the way I was making music. I didn’t take it as seriously as I do now, and with the new name change I’m trying to portray that as well. SӦN is short for my middle name, which is Madison. It was a name that I was poked at about my whole life because it’s a “girl’s name” and I’ve always been, like cool with femininity as a man. I paint my nails and I like to dress however I want. Oh and also, the two dots over the O come from my love of nü-metal which is spelled with an nu with the two dots. That’s kinda like the meaning behind the two dots. And also I looked it up, and that word with the two dots means prosperity in some places. Thought it was cool.
DB: How would you, in your own words, describe your mixtape HOME?
S: It’s really just a reflection of myself, and my home. Heaven On My Earth was collected through experience and growth in my youth. I use this music to heal and chose to piece together some of my favorites to kick everything off. I had a bunch of songs from two or three years ago that were great lyrical pieces but the sound over the past couple years has changed a lot. I remade the drums, made them sound a little more modern. So I think it’s just a modernized piece of conscious hip hop.
At the Height Of My Experience
I choose Heart Over My Ego
To Reveal Heaven On My Earth
S: They’re all acronyms of HOME. Three times. Three is for the Bean.
D: To kind of dive a little more into that creative process for you, how would you say you curated your sound for HOME?
S: Trial and error. I dropped my last project in December of 2018 and that was 13 songs and a lot of people slept on it. And I kinda pulled back and was like: let me make sure everything’s good next time.
D: What do you want listeners to get out of these five tracks?
S: A big part of why I wanted to drop these five is because these are songs I feel like the world needs to hear. They’re pieces to get people thinking outside of the box. Some of the stuff I talk about has been talked about for years in rap music, especially in conscious hip hop. You know, I feel like I grew up in that era of backpack rap that also had that great conscious aspect to it.
D: What track would you most recommend?
S: In the song “Distance” I talk about people needing to hear the message about not worrying about fear. Like we get mad distracted by our habitual activities even down to the juuls and the weed, whatever our vices are. That makes us susceptible to the fear of the world. I don’t wanna give myself the option to fail. I say:
“I ain’t tryna lose myself or get caught up in all this greed / Or end up like Cobain or be a Bobby to a Whitney / Shit my g we just some lost kids caught up in the city / We done found ourselves in Boston / Cold as fuck I know you feel me.”
It’s cold as fuck out here. Nah, everybody needs to hear “Distance”. If you don’t like any of the other songs go listen to “Distance,” that’s the one. I wrote that song on the day that one of the first inspirations out of this city to be different passed. My friend’s name was Flea, RIP Flea. He was the fashion icon of the city. He was the best. He really put on for the city before anybody with the modeling stuff, he was involved in the fashion world and the visual arts world too. I wrote “Distance” the day he passed, I got that call and I was walking to the train after I got off the phone. It felt mad surreal, it was a moment encapsulated in my own sadness but also the message that everything was gonna be alright came out of that song.
“It’s really about our journey as Bostonians. I mean, it’s a harsh city when it comes to music. It’s a tough city to make it in but it’s also a really solid place to begin.”
D: Okay, fun question: what would your dream collab be, dead or alive?
S: Damn that’s tough. Okay, modern day would want to work with Don Toliver, like all day he’s so sick. I didn’t like him at first, which is hilarious. He really got me when I went to LA, listening like while I was cruising through Malibu with my boy. He was like bro, Don Toliver hits different like this just watch. And lo and behold, it really does. And dead, I would want to work with...well, there’s so many greats that have passed it’s not fair. Maybe like Layne Staley, lead singer of Alice in Chains. Maybe Kurt Cobain. Maybe Jim Morrison. Speaker Knockers, I would love to work with Speaker Knockers...but he’s dead.
D: Fa sho. So what’s next?
S: So many things. I’m probably going to drop singles with music videos to go along until I’m ready for another project. Project energy is just project energy: when it’s time to drop a project it’s time to drop a project, when it’s not it’s not. That’s how I feel, right now at least. And I want more people to just kinda hear my diversity as an artist, cause I have a lot of different sounds. This tape was really lyrical, really hard-hitting rap music. You know, I sing and play guitar and do “auto-tuney” music too. I like making all kinds of stuff. What is next? Everything is next. I’m bout to go crazy, just let everybody know, I’m bout to go crazy.