Meezy Musik is not your average hip hop artists; he doesn’t deliver boastful bars about cars, jewellery and money, nor does he hit his fans with outrageous music videos exhibiting expensive luxury cars or parading half naked women through the video. Browsing through his Website you will find dope but sublime music and videos by Meezy and the whole ATC team. Meezy Musik is an artists that has utilized his musical talents to positively influence his listeners through the power of Christ. With an extremely busy schedule approaching, with the release of his album “Rvse of the Fxllen” and his upcoming Tour, CanadianDope.com had a chance to catch up with Meezy Musik to get an exclusive interview keeping the CanadianDope community and his fans up to date with his movement and giving us all a deeper look into his personal and professional life. Check it out below.
Tell us a little about yourself. What inspired you to pursue a career in music?
Well, I just turned 23 this past May, I’m the extremely proud father of two beautiful little girls, Nevaeh (17 months old) and Trinity (4 months old) and proud of husband to my Queen Kamoy. Toronto raised me, specifically the west end of Toronto, I grew up on the south of Jane street, I lived in the Trethewey community housing projects for 15 years before moving and attending Centennial College for 2 years and then evidently getting married.
Man, music has always been a significant part of my life, I was also mentored by Andrew James. At a young age I think I understood or at least began to somewhat understand the level of influence music had and its power to literally shape lives, I mean think about it who really does not listen to music? It became more and more evident to me though as I got myself into alot of trouble; I found that I always had or I always was listening to some type of music that helped dictate my actions. Also growing up in the hood, seeing and listening to the preference in music just made me feel like I could make music that people coming from the same circumstances or similar situations could enjoy and literally apply to their everyday lives, without it condoning violence, drugs ,abuse and so on. I guess that’s really been the push behind my music career.
Break down your group ATC. What does the group stand for, who’s in it, where do you see the group in the near future?
ATC is actually a organization that I founded late 2009 early 2010. Our goal is to really make art that reflects a Christ consciousness, whether it be in music, fashion, theatre, the end goal is always the same. Like later in the year my wife will launch ATC Clothing which is a sub-division of the ATC brand which will aim to promote Christ consciousness in your daily attire. As for ATC it stands for ALL THINGS CHRIST, the music division which is ATCMG stands for All Things Christ Musik Group. Musik is spelled with a K instead of a C because it is also an acronym for Ministering Until Souls Inherit the Kingdom thus creating M.U.S.I.K. The ATC team consists of myself, my DJ Malcolm Edwards, my wife Kamoy Muamba, my good friend and mentor Michael Diggz, my long time friend Victoria Idowu, Janay Douglas and Chris Blackman. In the near future I see ATC being like the nationwide urban church for today’s generation you know?
How do you feel about the current state of Hip Hop and how do you separate yourself from other artists?
Man, the current state of Hip Hop is interesting to say the least, especially for me because I kind of fall in between a funny place being a professing Christian rapper but then making music that isn’t the traditional I guess Gospel/Christian music most people are accustomed to hearing from today’s professing Christian artists. Like for example, Christian music blogs are never sure whether or not they should post my music but then secular blogs love my music and deem me as a “conscious” rapper of some sort. All in all it leaves me to really just study both sides of Hip Hop, Christian Hip Hop and Secular Hip Hop and right now just seems like everyone is still caught up in the Drake Zone. Hip Hop is really like in an “Out of sight, out of mind” kind of phase right now, so if you aren’t doing anything that stands out, something that can catch the extremely short attention span of this current generation then you aren’t going to make the impact you hope to make. And Drake has been the IT guy right now for like the last couple of years so what ever he puts out kind of sets the tone and everyone is trying to mimic him or his sound to either stay relevant or be known.
That’s why for me it’s important to not sound like every one else. I try very hard to remain genuinely transparent in all of my music, I like to blend French in my music since it is my first language, I try to bring different sounds too you know? I don’t like redundant sounding records with all the same type of instrumentals, and I like taking risks and trying new stuff too like the reggae record I did. I’ve been trying to do a bit vocals too which you’ll hear slightly through this album. I strongly believe if you want to differentiate yourself from other artists or the hottest artist or artists in the game you have to sound and be completely different.
What has been the most difficult thing that you’ve had to endure so far in the music industry?
The most difficult thing I think was first finding my own sound, being comfortable hearing my voice and not or stop trying to sound like every other rapper. I guess after that was figuring out what kind of music I want to produce and who would benefit from it, that’s been really tough, took me about 5 years, I still haven’t got it completely down packed yet but I’m getting there slowly but surely.
What do you feel your greatest successes have been when it comes to music? Do you feel that your personal life and your rap career go hand in hand or conflict with each other?
To be honest, my greatest successes have been the people who have told me one of my songs or just a line in my song has changed their whole lives or had them reconsider their preconceived notions of who they thought God to be. And most definitely, my personal life is what created my rap career and continuously fuels it, without it I really don’t have a career to pursue. They go hand in hand man.
What was your motivation behind your album, Rvse of the Fxllen? What sort of message do you want listeners to take away from the project?
Rvse of The Fxllen has been a record I’ve been piecing together for the last 2 and half to 3 years maybe. The title plays on one of the Transformer movies but focuses on the idea that saints weren’t born saints, God had to mold them into saints, they had to go through a fire, a trial, a journey you know? This record takes you through my personal trials, my journey and my hurts but it also brings you to that point where God gave me the grace and strength to triumphantly rise. Hence the title Rvse of The Fxllen.
Tell us a little more about your upcoming Tour.
I’m extremely excited about this tour, it’s really my first major tour as the headlining artist so that’s pretty exciting. I wanted this tour to be special and I wanted people to get to know me and the unique Toronto Urban Christian music sound so I made sure every show was free both in Canada and the US. I have two of the best DJs in the city in my opinion, great hosts, great video team, I mean I’m just super excited!
Anything else you want to let the people know? Any shout outs?
I actually changed the release date to the album for Friday, June 12, 2015 rather than the 3rd just because the first show is in Toronto on the 12th so I thought it was appropriate. Lol ugh shout outs uh? People always get mad because you forget names and all but ah well I don’t really care. If He needed one the first shout out would go to God for shaping and still guiding my life and footsteps, my wife Kamoy for being my support and backbone and believing in me when I didn’t believe in myself, my daughters for being daily inspiration, my grandmother for always supporting the kid, my moms, I don’t even have to go into detail about that one, my producer El Shadi for being with me since highschool, my pastor Andrew Asare, my mentors Die-Rek, Promise, Nifty & Relic, my brothers Swiss, Piff & DJ, my sisters Cece, Lolo, Tia & Julia, shoot the whole family, my two favorite teachers of all time Kim Janzen ^ Cherilyn Scobie, my team, Trethewey Drive there isn’t a more supportive hood in Canada I swear aha and Canadian Dope for being a huge support and always posting my music and all the other blogs and Djs and all that good stuff. Man this is sounding like a speech you make after winning a Juno or a Grammy. Alright that’s it no more shout outs aha.
