ARN: Why did you first start making music?
Strategos: To stay breathing. In all honesty, I truly believe it was the only escape for self expression I had growing up. I definitely wasn’t the most popular kid in school by a long shot. Throughout my adolescence, I battled with a lot of inner undiagnosed turmoil that led to anxiety, depression, anger issues, and drug abuse. Writing music was the unprescribed prescription that temporarily eased my pain. Seeing that It helped, matched with an addict personality, it wasn’t long before I became obsessed with spelling my pain onto the pages.
ARN: Talk me through your creative process?
Strategos: It always comes in waves. I don’t even feel like I’m writing what comes out. Best way I can explain it is metaphorically. Imagine having a remote control car that needs batteries. Without the batteries, the car doesn’t move. It may look awesome, and have all the potential in the world to go fast, drift corners, and provide hours worth of play, but without the batteries it doesn’t have the same potential. When the wave of inspiration comes it’s like someone putting batteries into me, if that makes sense. If I just choose to wake up and start making music everyday, it would be damn near impossible, or far from the level I would consider noteworthy. But, when I feel the wave come in there’s no limit to what I can create during that time. So when the wave comes in, I go into complete isolation, be it the studio or in a car, and just let it flow out of me.
ARN: Sounds like your music has some deep spiritual undertones, would you personally consider yourself religious?
Strategos: I’m unapologetically a follower of Christ at the very least. With that being said, I am no fan of man’s religion. So, to try and make it simple, you could label me as a Christian, preferably a “Follower of the way.” I could probably write a book on this topic, and I might just do that in the future, but for now let’s just leave it at that.
ARN: What is some advice that you would give to up and coming artists?
Strategos: Figure out what the music means to you, because if it’s worth doing, it’s worth evaluating. If it is an outlet for self expression, good. If it’s a hobby, good. If you can’t think of anything else you would rather do, and everything else looks like hell, go all in. From my experience, I learned I couldn’t just be an artist. I had to learn photography, photo editing, videography, video editing, directing, marketing, merchandising, finance, communication etc. Music wasn’t just music for me, it was branding, and at the highest level. Now, some people may have a lot more resources and leverage, but I have to continuously educate myself daily to produce consistency. If I had to sum it up in 5: 1. Have a budget. 2. Build a team 3.Stay Consistent and relentless 4. Create Quality 5. Evaluate (Rinse and repeat).
ARN: Do you have a mantra?
Strategos: Fear gets you nowhere, money gets you paid, risk gets reward, fortune favors the brave. You cannot have a spirit of fear and faith at the same time, so if you choose faith, you have to believe you will receive what you are pursuing, go after it as if you already have it, and then you will. What you risk greatly determines the result of what you end up with. When you have calculated risk, and the odds are in your favor, you see the fortune always accompanies those who are willing to risk it all. Since I’ve applied this to my life, I’ve reaped the rewards of its application, also seeing what life looks like without it. It’s safe to say, I will never choose the ladder again.
ARN: What’s your best advice for handling criticism?
Strategos: Acceptance of man was never a burden you were designed to carry. With their validation comes their requirements. I spend 80% of my time creating, and 20% consuming. In my consumption I never feast on compliments or criticism. I’m thankful when people support my endeavors, but it’s not mandatory for me to create. I also am thankful for the critics, because they add fuel to the fire! If you have creative strategy and the understanding that criticism is vital, you’ll always allow critics to buy your stock, and you will consistently make sure to give them something to talk about. You want a lot of critics so you can use them as a tool of leverage for your advantage. The best part is when your critics don’t know your strategy and intentionality. That’s where the fun begins.
ARN: What would you have done differently if you knew then what you know now?
Strategos: I would have got out to give back, and bet on myself every-time. I spent far too much time being bound by fruitless relationships, that lead to distractions, and destruction. I’m sure if we are all open to being transparent, at some point in our lives we all have succumbed to the opinions of our peers. I noticed for me the more time I spent trying to please others, the less happy I would become. Ultimately, I realized no one can please people, not even God himself, so it was best that I focused on my calling, and finding passion in the progress. The rest is history.
ARN: How do you currently feel about the state of Hiphop in general?
Strategos: I’m inspired by it. I do feel when it comes to the genre, accolades, awards, and titles, there could be many different classifications added to the broad label of hip hop/rap. For example, If you look at EDM it has several different classifications such as, Dubstep, Techno, Trance, DNB, etc. I really think that the term hip hop and rap is extremely broad, and it would be neat to see the culture benefit from multi genres being displayed
ARN: Who influenced you most throughout your career?
Jay Z, he helped raise me, and didn’t even know it! Honestly, if I look back over the years there are a handful of artists that helped inspire, shape, and mold who I am to day such as Kanye West, Young Jeezy, Dmx, 50 cent, to name a few. But hands down without a shadow of a doubt Jay Z set the pace for me to keep going more ways than one. Without even thinking twice, that man could ask me for just about anything, and I would gladly oblige.
ARN: What do you want your legacy to be? How do you want to be remembered?
Strategos: I want to be known as a representative of love through action and in truth. I want to add as much value as possible, to as many people as possible, for as long as possible. The motto is, “Send me down the roads nobody goes, to help save the lost souls nobody knows. As cliche as it may sound, “Real recognizes real,”and love is the only real thing that matters to me, that’s what I want to be known for.