sightRIZE Questions Co$$

sightRIZE: First could you tell us a bit about yourself for other listeners to get a bit on your bio?
Co$$: Im 24, from Leimert Park, Los Angeles...Been rhyming for 10 years, rhyming seriously for about 5.....Im affliated with Blu and Taraach, Sene out of Brooklyn, and DJ exile...I'm a loyal westcoast repres enative, north and south coast cali..my music is what I call "socially street"...Im not a concious emcee, but Im not a backpacker either...somewhere inbetween gangster and revolutionary..I'm very reclusive, I don't do big crowds unless I'M doing shows...I just want to bring back that raw westcoast hiphop that I feel the game is missing.....
sightRIZE: Whats the best part about rappin?
Co$$:Being able to express myself through a rt....It's like stress relief everytime I write or spit a rhyme....
sightRIZE: How do you feel about the state of HipHop today?
Co$$: Not very good....I feel hopeful, but right now I'm not very inspired or impressed by most of the new shit dropping, to much style biting, not enough innovation...no offense to any new or established emcee doing their thing.....
sightRIZE: Growing up what were your hobbies?
Co$$: Rhyming, haha...I been rhyming since 14....Hanging out with thugs was also another hobby, haha...I played sports, mainly basketball, or should I say only basketball, haha....I used to collect N ightwing comic books as well...I was a only child so I had to entertain myself....
sightRIZE: What is a song of yours that you are most proud of?
Co$$:These are the days has to be my favorite song...I captured the way I was feeling at the time perfectly and put it into rhymes, I usually struggle to convey my emotion through rhyme.....
sightRIZE: I see that you are friends with Sene and Blu, are there any projects we should look for between you guys?
Co$$:actually, Look out for a collaboration project with Shawn Jackson and I after my solo release....I do not want t o say too much but it's going to be a major move for westside lyricism.....Blu will be involved as well....
sightRIZE: What is the biggest influence on your music?
Co$$:Life experience...What I've been through and will go through will always shape what I rhyme about....It's all about perspective in my opinion.....
sightRIZE: Do you have any favorite artists and why?
Co$$:My favorite artist is Blu....Just because I have witnessed h is growth first hand, musically and career wise....He inspires me to be my own emcee, because he is his....I'm also a fan of J-electronica, Plex rock, elzhi, Taraach, Shawn Jack, and every emcee with his own style, haha...
sightRIZE: Well through your music, I feel that you are a wise dude, would you like to drop some knowledge for our blog through a quote?
Co$$:uhhh, let's see,
"this is a lesson that I learned from mistakes, LEARN FROM MISTAKES"
"YOU get a chance when you earn you a place".....
sightRIZE: Anything you'd like to end with?
Co$$:thanks for reaching out, and please support the music, I have a mixtape dropping late december entitled "THE Coss edition" and my lp "before I awoke" will be dropping in may on tres records, so fuck wit ya boi, cop the records!!!!

On Days I Have Nothing To Do.

Way Back Then

Just takin back good memories and as I was highliting a string of BTG'S exsistence I remembered a blog that influenced us the most, The Hundreds. sightRIZE has been on the blog once before and it is above!
The Hundreds IS HUGE.

ArtOfficial Interview By sightRIZE

Okay this is the ArtOfficial hiphop group. They do hiphop with a jazzy beat and it has never sounded so good. Check out Big City Bright Lights, their music video off their album Fist Fights And Foot Races that is on iTUNES and AMAZON both. Cop it. Really deserving dudes.

sightRIZE: So you have a saxophone player in your crew which is really original, how did that come together?
ArtOfficial:It came together by coincidence actually. At the time that it happened we weren't technically a band. Just a bunch of musicians who made music with different people and came together for some paying gigs. We didn't have a name and nobody knew of us. The keyboardist wanted a lead instrumentalist for the gigs we were getting. The first gig we did was a pool hall called Felt in Miami Beach and so the keys player, Danny, called up Keith (Sax) who happened to live on the beach. Keith didn't know any of the songs, he just improvised the whole set and just ripped it up. Everything clicked that night and we figured we could make a serious band and put some serious effort into this. The next day Keith left to India for a month. Meanwhile we're in Miami hoping that he's down to work with us when he gets back and he's in India hoping we don't kill each other in that month he was gone.
sightRIZE: So try to choose one Jazz or Hip-Hop and why? Aha this is a tough question.
ArtOfficial:I don't think anybody in the group can pick one. We walk a very thin line between genres of music. For the most part music was separated into genres to make it easier to sell. And the same can be said for the visual arts. To us theirs good music and bad music so the choice is pretty easy when you break it down like that.
sightRIZE: What's the greatest part about Florida?
ArtOfficial:I don't know about Florida, but I can speak on the small southeastern country of Miami. There are a lot of great things going on here in the good ol' 305, but my favorite right now is the emerging music and art scene.
4. Who is your favorite hip-hop artist(s)?
ArtOfficial:The Blackstar album is a personal favorite of mine. Mos Def is an incredible artist. As you can imagine we have a lot of favorites so I'll speak for the entire band and mention Pharaoh Monch (who we got to open for), Aesop Rock, Outkast, Dilla, and The Roots.
sightRIZE: What is the lyric/song you guys are most proud of?
ArtOfficial:It depends on the day of the week really. My favorite anything changes from week to week. Eyes of a Stranger is one I know the band is proud of. I'm gonna say, personally, the lyrics on Gone are my favorite right now.
sightRIZE: The concept of the big city bright lights video was really unique, how did that happen?
ArtOfficial:We worked with the director of the video to come up with the finished product you saw. It was really a balancing act between working with-in our means and making something visually interesting.
sightRIZE: Outside of hip-hop what are your guy's interests?
ArtOfficial:Drinking heavily, and picking up women at sex addiction meetings...lol. For real though, Keith is a surfer at heart. Newsense collects tattoos. Manny likes things that travel fast over water. Ralf is a sandwich connoisseur. Danny is a connoisseur of a different sort. And I like to read about the end of the world. Ha.
sightRIZE: So we are young in our crew 14-16, and were wondering what your ideal day would be like if you were are age?
ArtOfficial:A typical high school day for me included driving to school, showing up late to my first class with a cup of coffee, sleeping through the first 3 periods, doing my battle rapper thing in lunch, skipping into the second lunch to annihilate all the second lunch shit-talking rappers, hitting up my photo class, then impressing my racist English teach who didn't think brown people could write anything of merit. Some time after that I would sleep some more, listen to loud rap music, and make loud rap music. I can't speak for the other guys, although I know their days involved things I probably shouldn't be suggesting to impressionable minds...lol.
sightRIZE: Any upcoming projects/events we should be on the lookout for?
ArtOfficial:Definitely. We're working on our US release, which has no name or release date as of now. As you may or may not know, we have an album out, but it is exclusive to Japan. We're taking the very best material from that album and mixing it with the new hot shit for the US release. We're also looking for a company to put that out here in the good ol' U.S. of A. I think you'll see that album out some time in early 09 and a live album some time in the middle of the year.
sightRIZE: Anything you'd like to end with?
ArtOfficial:Yeah. A special thanks to you guys for giving us an outlet to the people and also to the supporters far and near.
sightRIZE: Okay thanks ArtOfficial crew!