Doing something right with Fuze the MC
With the music industry being harder than ever to break into for a hip hop artist, there is nothing like having the legendary Big Boi co-sign you to make you feel like you’ve done something right. Fuze the MC is straight out from Atlanta, and has dropped three album releases, ‘Tell Me Something Good,’ ‘Legend of a King’ and ‘One Black Man,’ with another one on the way. In his early days, Fuze recalls a chance meeting with XXL freshman rapper Blu, which resulted in Blu co-signing the MC, and later providing him with a beat that ended up on the project Tell Me Something Good. Now you can see Fuze opening for the likes of Kendrick Lamar, Wale, J.Cole and Dom Kennedy.
Stimulate your soul chats to Fuze about the idea of selling his new album online as opposed to keeping it free, why it’s so important for him to reach out to his fans, and how he felt when Big Boi co-signed him. Margaret Tra writes.
You've had some pretty sweet words passed down to you from the legendary Big Boi, as well as being co-signed by him, as an MC how did that make you feel?
It made me feel great. Coming from Atlanta, there's only a handful of artist who can match the impact that a co-sign like that means for me. It was one of those moments in my career where I thought, "Alright I'm doing something right, now it's time to work even harder."
It looks as though you have gone through some amazing hoops, meetings with a lot of music industry people, and working with very influential people, did that drive you to pursue your music career?
Not particularly. I mean my drive to pursue a music career is more so what made me want to jump through those hoops. I'm also just a really big fan of music. A lot of artists especially in hip-hop, loose the ability to appreciate other people's crafts because of egos or competition, I've always tried to maintain my ability to enjoy other work and other artists. They're the only reason I fell in love with it in the first place.
Tell us about Noble Black Society that you founded?
It's a family oriented entertainment collective with the purpose of redefining black standing on the mantra of "passion over money."
What can we expect from the new album? Any collaborations?
I really won't know the collaborations until the entire project is finished, but you can expect a little darker sound. A lot of the beats that have been speaking to me lately are darker, with a lot of minor chords. So at the moment that's how the sound is shaping out.
What's next for you?
Just making more dope music and trying to connect to my fans at an even higher degree. I really want to make friends the best I can, with each one of my fans. I feel like because of the personal nature of my music, everyone who connects with my music can connect with me in some way or another. It let’s me know that something I went through is a shared experience with them, and I'm excited to peruse that relationship.
You are thinking of selling your new album; tell us your thought process about this? And what is holding you back?
It's been something I've been thinking about for a while now. Before I didn't want to sell my music until I had work that I was really proud of to put out for free. Now I feel like I have three solid projects out right now, (Tell Me Something Good, Legend of a King, One Black Man) that my fans can access for free. So it might be time to see who's willing to support monetarily. I mainly want to do this so I can see which of my fans really support the hardest, so I can reward those individuals.
As an artist you seamlessly mix soul, hip hop and a taste of something
dope and new. How do you do this?
It mostly comes from my main producer ‘Just Plain Jones’ and the rest of my Noble Black Society family. I've started making beats more recently but in general most of the balanced sound you hear is produced by them, and I just talk about my life over it.
What Stimulates Your Soul?
Love, passion, and my fans.
For more on Fuze the MC, jump onto his website.