Hip-Hop Lives Here
Hip-Hop Lives Here
The music, lyrics and beats of Tsych?’s hip-hop don’t live on urban streets. They live in the underground of his head, and that’s an interesting place to be.
“Illicit,” one of the most recent of the many tracks he has released since 2017, is the one he has chosen to highlight in his move to take his hip-hop topside.
“I was coming out of a place of, I guess, psychedelic exploration whenever I made the song,” he said. “But it was the first song where I felt like, in the making of it, I was expressing my own essence. I just let the energy that was naturally within me exude onto the track. To me, it means, ‘Here I am.’ You know?”
Steamrollers and vapes, bonobos and apes
Silverback Silver haze, blaze with them for 50 days
If that’s what it takes to prove to the world
I’m stoned ape
Well, I’m stoned ape
The music begins acoustic, mystic and dreamy, the rap slow and precise before the beat kicks in and the rap flows fast and hard.
It’s a ride, for sure, intellectually and musically. His sound, he says in his bio, “blends the grittiness of Southern rap with the raw emotion and introspection of underground hip-hop.”
The movement in his lyrics does not come from violence. It is more psychedelic and philosophic. If not the only, he is surely one of the few hip-hop artists who has written an artistic manifesto (Ominous-Luminous). It is unpublished, but the fact that he wrote it sets him apart in the world of hip-hop and rap.
“‘Illicit’ is me stepping into my own in my perspective. It’s unapologetic. I’m claiming, ‘I take this stand, in this place, in this lane, as an individual, ultimate self.’”
His music is as he describes it — a “blend of dark, brooding beats and thought-provoking lyrics.”
Tsych? experiments and explores in his lyrics and his music. The bass beat in “Illicit” doesn’t come in until almost the halfway point.
“I was working with layering, trying to slowly open up a certain feeling,” he said, “and so I guess I kind of got carried away with that. But when the beat does hit at that point, I feel like the suspense is worth it, the way it enhances the original message.”
As the beat hits, Tsych?’s rap is:
Catch my drift, it’s 3 a.m. and I’m lit on that ethereal tip, spark a spliff
It comes at a point where the speed of his delivery suddenly ratchets down.
“I may or may not shift gears, depending on the point at which I do the vocals, because sometimes I’ll lay down two or three layers of the beat, then I’ll do vocals, and then I’ll continue adding to the beat.”
He doesn’t do all of his own production work, but he does most of it and the beats in “Illicit” are all his.
“With making beats, man, you just have to surrender to the feeling you have in your chest and your solar plexus. Then I just take layer for layer and paint the feeling out until it feels right.”
He was born and raised in San Antonio, in the hill country of Texas. He still lives in the same area — Stephenville-San Marcos-San Antonio — but claims San Marcos as his own.
His music began as a kind of catharsis, he said, “trying to cope with my reality, either by escapism or by lyric expression.”
“It became an outlet for me, and also an escape.”
At some point he had so many finished songs that he had to ask himself, “What are you going to do with all that music?”
“So, I just put them out.”
He thought for a few years that he could just put tracks out and they would somehow make their own way into the marketplace.
“I’ve been thinking I could do it one way and failing at it for a little while, and now my perspective has shifted a lot. Now, I’m trying something different — I’m trying to do it the right way.”
Which means putting music out and promoting it. In other words, making a career of it.
“That would be great,” he said, “to crystallize something in my practical reality and not just keep it kind of hoarded away. Somebody might relate to it. It may resonate somewhere.”
He has other work lined up, including a feature with the producer Taysty, who has produced work for Caskey.
But he also has, he says, “a hard drive full of beats and projects,” and while he is promoting “Illicit” and introducing people to the substantial body of work he already has out, he is going to go through the unpublished work, consolidating it and finding the ones he wants to produce and release.
“I’m going to focus on that, and when I feel the time is right, then I’m going to jump back in the recording booth.”
Go spelunking with Tsych? in the lyrical philosophy and profound beats of underground hip-hop and connect to him on all platforms for new music, videos, and social posts.
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Spanish pop musician Caterina Ross has had international success, putting out music on two different continents. Now she is releasing her fourth studio album, Yes, I am Cat, featuring the single “Strong,” where she sings about inner strength.
“I think that is more important than what you show on the outside,” Ross said. “It is important to be strong inside and show that you can face everything, and can do anything.”
The song is complete with a music video that she filmed with horses, which she notes are strong animals, but at the same time they are very sensitive. This is a major theme in the song “Strong,” and something she was able to bring to visual life in the video and relates to humanity, as well.
“You don’t have to be afraid of showing your feelings or weaknesses, because it is a beautiful part of being a human being,” Ross said. “
Ross was born and raised on the island of Majorca, Spain, and has been singing since she was a teenager. She eventually turned to theater acting in classical plays, and went on to television and and musicals. Ross sang in several several pop rock cover bands, but then in 2013 she released her first single titled Don’t Miss the Time.” The next year she released her first album titled Pieces of Me through her production company Blau.
In 2015 she released her second album titled Remixed that included the award winning song “Sólo Me Queda Soñar, which was a big hit in her home country. This song was originally composed for a film in international festivals, and thanks to this track, she was able to come to the U.S. to sing. She was invited to various festivals to perform after the song became a huge success. One of Ross’s songs, “Let the sun just shine” received plenty of fanfare, as well.
In 2018, Ross was the recipient of 15 international awards, and in 2020 she was “Best International Artist” through the Hispanic Music Awards in Acapulco, Mexico.
Ross’s first two albums were in English, but her fans in Spain wanted her to speak in their native language. In 2021 she released Nunca Se Pierde, which she received several awards for in Mexico and Spain.
“During the pandemic I had a lot of time to compose that album, and the one I am going to release now,” she said.
Yes, I am Cat’s title is a play on Ross’s identity, as people call her Cat for short, but it is also her favorite kind of pet. The album is composed of 10 songs in English, with sounds of pop and a little bit of soul.
“In this album, I talk about the things around me,” Ross said. “I talk about friendship and things that I find important in my life. I am more mature than in the other albums so I reflect on things that have happened to me, or around me.”
Ross touches upon aspects like nature in her new album, as well. There is a song called “If I talk to the Earth,” speaking about being thankful and also apologetic to the Earth about all that has been done to it. There is another track about stray cats called “My Sheltered Cat,” as she operates and helps at shelters.
The record was created by Ross composing the songs and recorded with the help of her producer Daniel Ambrojo. Ambrojo has worked with established musicians across Spain, and is an excellent pianist and guitar player that Ross has high respect for. Ross said they put the bass line to the songs, and add other electronic instruments to help bring her ideas to life on record.
Ross explained that she doesn’t just sit down and compose songs. Normally she is in the car driving, and a song will come to her and she’ll start singing. The melody will come and then suddenly the lyrics will be there, and voila: she has a new song.
“I think I am quite content with the ideas in this album, with the melodies,” Ross said. “I expressed so many things I have inside. It’s expressing myself through music, and that is wonderful. It makes me feel very good.”
Being her fourth album, Ross was able to put out material that she loves and is proud of. She admits that she is not a fan of her first three records, saying she can’t even listen to them because this one is so much better.
“There is an evolution,” Ross said. “Growing up and learning. I have a vocal coach and I am still learning and developing my music. I am learning from other artists, especially the artists of the ‘80s like Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Madonna and Queen. I learn everyday. I want to do it better and grow up musically speaking.”
As Ross said, there is a constantly evolution in her music. She wants to improve the lyrics she has in English as it is not her native language. Ross will be taking courses in April to be able to grow as a songwriter.
Musicians like Michael Jackson have helped her develop the sound she currently has. Ross has always wanted to be like him musically, and said that his work taught her to believe in herself and put her all into her work.While she is inspired by the musicians she reveres, Ross also said it is important to not be too influenced by others and “just be you.”
“It is important to be authentic,” she said.
Check out Ross’s brand new album Yes, I am Cat, and the single and video for “Strong,” available on all platforms on March 22.
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