This weeks spotlight artist, Five Steez, from Jamaica, has made his way to the #RAP50 countdown with his track “My Life, My Craft.” He is an inspiration to people who have had the road block of being an international artist and making a name for themselves in the Hip Hop game. Staying true to himself, he has a crew that he works with, The Council, and together they have a project in the making. Five Steez is in the process of mastering how to reach out to his audience and is not an artist to sleep on.
RAPstation (Kianna Woods): How long have you been putting out music?
Five Steez: Well I’ve been putting out music for I would say about 6 years now, since about 2010. I first put out a mixtape called Momentum Vol1. with DJ Ready Cee that was in December 2010. Before that I’ve been just, you know, putting music online and kind of performing for the locals here in JA.
How long have you had a love for music?
Oh definitely, as far back as 9, 6, I mean from just being a child I’ve always loved music and I always tell the story in terms of especially hip hop, I had older brothers, you know? 7and 9 years older than me and they were into the music so just being around them I was exposed to a lot. So, you know, A Tribe Called Quest when I was like 5, and stuff like that really stuck with me and over the years I listened to everything as a youth, just, R&B, Reggae, Dance Hall. As I got older, a lot more closer to my teens, I started listening to a lot more hip hop and I think it really happened when I listed to Rakim the "18th Letter" album , and Wu-Tang the “Forever” album, and then later on it was like Reflections, Eternal and Common and stuff, that I was really listening to a lot, so I really got into Hip Hop a lot more in my teens, and I’ve always loved music, you know?
How difficult has it been as an artist from Jamaica?
That’s a funny question because that’s like a major dilemma that Hip Hop faces in Jamaica. We have such a major contribution to it yet I would say our industry is really focused on Reggae and Dance Hall so there are not really many opportunities or avenues for anything outside of Reggae and Dance Hall. So what we’ve had to do is basically create our own avenues, you know, put on our own shows and really use the internet and grassroots promotions and just dealing with people on a real level.
How did you get your “break” into Hip Hop as a rapper?
I would say I got opportunities from other people who are in the community, in the scene, who were able to basically provide studio time, provide beats, ect. There’s a studio out here called Gambling House that's pretty much is like a mecca for local Hip Hop and has been that for a little over a decade now and just while a transition has taken place me and my partners have ended up running our own studio right there. I’ve gained a lot from the community but as I said, it’s not really something that’s supported by labels out here or even radio, so shows that we’ve done, it’s really just knocking on doors and just getting opportunity, building links, getting our venue, renting it out, doing something, so it’s kind of been self made in a way just with me and my closest collaborators and peers.
Tell me about what life was like for you growing up.
Life was good. I come from a pretty stable background. I used to play a lot of sports when I was younger. I played football at the elementary school level. Played basketball during high school and I always loved music and even during high school as rapping boys over time, just, music became the main passion and I could barley play any sports again, I could hardly watch it, you know? Music just because something that was my outlet and I found that anything that I want expressed, I could do it through music and it was something that could always easy my mind and just be a great pastime. Just to get through life and just enjoy yourself. A lot of my life pretty much ended up revolving around music.
Do you play any instruments?
Not at the moment! But I want to learn the guitar. I have a guitar in the studio and every now and again I just start messing around. It’s something that may be 3-5 years, I’d love to say "alright I can play the keys" or "I can play the guitar a bit."
Can you describe a time in your life where you wanted to quit or give up on music and what made you change your mind?
*Laughing* That’s funny because I mean as an independent artist you always face that struggle. That’s the realest thing I can tell you. But it’s something that you can’t stop because you love it so much, it’s such an integral part of you. As I say to my expression, even outside of pursuing it as a business, I’m just going to do this because I’ve been doing this for most of my life. It’s just a part of me, I can’t ever kill that. It has defined me right now. That’s why I can never stop it, that’s like suicide. It’s just impossible. It just can’t happen. It’s the realest part of me.
What role would you say your heritage has played in influencing your music?
I would say a lot. I feel like in Jamaica, we’re a highly religious country and they have Rastafari, so it’s like you have that influence and it’s heavy in the music so even in listening to Hip Hop. Maybe that’s why I gravitated towards conscious Hip Hop at a certain point so I think it has influenced my perspective on my world view and even the way I interpret Hip Hop and flip it myself. Weather it’s a type of beat that we might draw off of with words that we flow in a different perspective that I put into the music...
Would you say that you are more popular in Jamaica or America?
I would say that most of my strongest support comes from over seas in terms of the people playing my music, purchasing it, showing love online, spreading it. Locally the support has grown, and I think it has grown over maybe the past 3 years or so, especially with the event "Pay Attention” that me and my friends have been doing because we did that for about 3 years straight. We kind of took a break from it last year to focus more on music now but just doing shows like every month, every 6 weeks and doing the type of promo we did I think we got to spread our names out there a bit and let people see us because we did things that you wouldn’t normally see with local Hip Hop where we are in the press a lot more. We had a partnership with a local cable station, so they were running our adds, they were showing highlights from our show and it was something that people never really saw before, or really heard of, or they heard something before but maybe they never heard something that was of quality or they never heard enough, you know?...
Who is part of your crew that you work with?
There is definitely s crew that I’m working with and it’s called the council and it’s the 4 of us who are currently part of the Pay Attention team. As I was saying we were doing the show for a while and decided to take a break from doing our show so regularly so it’s like “let’s just do our project.” ...
Who is the producer?
For The Council, Inztinkz is the producer. He is the eldest of us all and has been making beats for about 2 decades and he’s handling all the production on the project…
What is your opinion on music with a message, or music with a political agenda?
Well I think I definitely make music with a message and a political agenda. I think right now though I’m kind of leaning a bit away from that, kind of, because of what I want to express in the music. But, I found in my experience that in doing music like that, I connect more with the Reggae audience. There are people in the Reggae audience that are Hip Hop heads to a certain degree, some of them not so much but I think a lot because of the message, they are more willing to listen and they connect with it and they support it. That’s something that I even try to encourage in the local scene and show guys like “yo, make music with meaning because it will really stand out and you’re more likely to move people!”…
What legacy do you hope to leave behind?
I would say stay true to yourself. That’s kind of the message, you know, knowledge yourself, and just try to make a positive contribution in whatever you do whatever you love, that’s what I believe in. I would like to, when I leave this game, this planet, I’d like people to say, yo, I always kept it real with them, weather you like me or you don’t, but I always kept it real with them.
Five Steez, made it clear that he appreciated RAPstation but it’s artist like him that make it easy for RAPstation to support and get behind their work. If you don’t know, now you know! Definitely check out his other work and be on the look out for upcoming projects!
