Child of The Concrete Becomes Cool Crusader of The City: The Coming of Age Story of Radamiz
Written by Greg Harris // Interview + Photos by Ike Abakah
From the trains to the loud nature of the city to the different attitudes and accents that one came across, it’s a lot of characteristics and traits that one can folleric upon in the streets of New York City. The amounts of freedom and ability to explore makes the city a unique spectacle, so much in a way where it doesn’t lead someone in one direction to describe the cultural blueprint of what makes New York. For those who see it in the landscape of the concrete territory they walk on from borough to borough, this variation is represented in the music that’s being brewed in the crooks and crannies of the bubbling city as well.
Seeing that New York City urban music has taken prominence once again in the spotlight with setting record album sales and winning great titles, it’s a new generation of artists under that fold that’s molding their own wave in the process. On the frontline stands some of the toughest lyricists in the “City That Never Sleeps”, one of them being Brooklyn’s own Radamiz.
In the past half-decade New York City has went to through it’s toss and turns of finding their new champions that can carry the city. It has been been some that has grazed the spotlight with the likes of A$AP Rocky including ASAP Mob and French Montana who in recent memory have paved a new path for The Big Apple, but it was still a starvation to get artists to set a standard across the nation to create a new sound that can resonate to all.
As others were looking for ways to modernize their flow in this age, Radamiz stuck the core roots of what not only embody his sound but to what captivates and captures his environment around him in a lyrical cinematic fashion. The Skilled Dominican writer that graduated NYU has been turning heads and turning up ears in New York for quite some time, being featured on Hot 97’s “Who’s Next”, Statik Selektah’s “Showoff Radio”, Mass Appeal, VIBE, and even opening for Nas at the Brooklyn Hip -Hop Festival.
Throughout the lineage of his work, Radamiz has not only set a solid foundation for the emergence of his career, but it has also set a new precedent for how New York artists can succeed in more versatile avenues than the stereotypical route of being the heir of the “Birthplace of Hip-Hop”. After the release of his critically-acclaimed body of work, “Writeous” and with a strenuous run of powerful singles and visuals, Radamiz claimed his lane in the new hierarchy of the “Who’s Who” in today’s NYC music scene. Solidifying his new placement in the city’s infrastructure, he starts a new business venture with the legendary New York flagship label, Payday Records.
Seeing things are moving in transition for the budding Brooklyn artist, Radamiz is also in a new sense of direction and focus when it comes to his artistry. In this perspective piece with Modern Life, Ike Abakah sits down with Radamiz to speak on various topics of the origins of his rap journey, the relationship of race and gentrification in New York City, the perception of his art in today’s climate of hip-hop, and more. The new in-depth conversation opens the gates to what NY Hip-Hop and their artists are moving towards in the future with their sound + image.
Listen to the interview below.