Warrior Spirit: Interview With Independent Rapper Pharoh D

Pharoh D was born in Jamaica and raised in Miami. Pharoh D speaks truth and seeks freedom for us all. Humbly working, Pharoh D deserves the attention of all hip hop heads.

His biggest hip-hop influence Nas can be seen when Pharoh D delivers his flows. His style of rap, reggae, and jazz fuses together, to bring to you raw, uncut, moving music. His first studio project Black 2 Reality hits you in a resonating, rebellious, loving way.

Pharoh D paints pictures and creates stories. Lyrically, his light shines in darkness. In the current state of Hip- Hop his controlled mic skills can not be ignored.

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Talk to me about the making of your latest project – Black 2 Reality. What was the inspiration behind it?

Black 2 Reality started 3 years ago at my homie Big Skinny (person who did most my production) crib. At first there was no real direction or resources for that matter, just passion mixed with the determination to make this shit happen.

And that’s what we did, a mic, a dope ass producer; a emcee and a vision. The crazy thing is, we actually completed about 80% of the project, before the computer crashed and all was almost lost.

We ended up having to re-record most the tracks over in a bigger studio, which ended up being a blessing in terms of sound quality and all that.

A lot of the inspiration for the project came from what I felt was a necessity, in hip-hop, music in general, and that’s music that spoke about reality and what’s really going on.

Especially now when innocent people are out here getting shot. I was just tired of hearing rappers talk about the same materialistic bullshit, or glorifying a violent lifestyle that they themselves ain’t even living.

All at the detriment to the young listeners trying to find a sense a self who then get a warped up misconception of reality. Like I said at first, I really had no direction; the album sort of just became and took on identity of its own.

One that was inspired by what I felt world needed, and one that took a a lot of time determination and patience to make.

With the music industry tanking and record sales falling, how do you currently make money as an independent hip-hop artist?

You got to give people an experience, something that’s gone impact them on a personal level. The more music becomes watered down and” bullshitified”, the more people are going to be hungry for something authentic, something real.

So that’s what I do, I feed that hunger. Because the truth is people are out here starving both physically and spiritually. So I guess you can say I make money by following my purpose, the more I do that the more I see opportunities open up.

I just take the approach before there was a multi-billion dollar “music industry” there was music and musicians and they found a way, so I feel there is money out here to be made just got to use a little more your imagination and find new ways to get it, cause like you said the old ways are tanking

From a business point of view, which artists in the game do you think are really pushing the boundaries and changing it up?

From a business point a view I would say Jay-Z, just for the fact that with his purchase of TIDAL he entered the part of this multi-billion dollar music industry that been kept exclusive and kept away from the African people of America for decades, distribution.

Once Jay entered the world of music streaming especially when it comes to digital music. The big boys like iTunes, Spotify, etc. did not like that, Jay-z sort of became the little fish again, and seeing his team manoeuvre to compete is pretty dope.

Beyonce videos, Kanye exclusive release, Right to stream the Prince catalog all those are strategic moves. It’s just a reminder to me that on the business aspect of music to be competitive you got to be a strategist, you got to utilise your resources wisely.

What business lessons have you learnt from the music industry so far?

I’ve learnt that it’s a business, and like every other business you have to pay to play; you got to invest in yourself, and give people a quality product so you can have a return on your investments.

Now a days everybody and there momma rap so it’s a lot competition out there, so you got to find ways to differentiate yourself, find what makes your artistry unique, how can you give people something they can’t get nowhere else.

What do you love about hip-hop music?

The spirit behind it: the art of storytelling, teaching, being the voice of the unheard, or shoot, helping people forget their troubles by turning the fuck up over drums rhythms ain’t new, we been doing that for centuries before there was ever a word called hip-hop.

So to me Doing hip-hop is like carrying on that tradition, carrying that spirit. Honestly in my opinion some of the dopes literary works over the past 40 years has being composed on hip-hop records.

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What still surprises you about hip-hop?

The fact that I still get that feeling when I hear a dope ass lyricist drop some thought provoking bars on the perfect instrumental.

If you had the power to change one thing about the hip-hop industry to help independent artists – what would it be?

If I could change anything, it would be the monopoly on the radio, the fact they play the same 8 songs every damn hour, when there so much music out here is crazy to me.

So much versatility so much new upcoming artist yet they play the same ass sound by the same artist.

Who do you think are top 3 rappers doing it at the moment?

if you consider Nas still doing it he is def one, that’s my favorite rapper right there so he’s honorary even if it’s been like 3 years since his last album. What I really admire about Nas is his discography; each album is like book to me.

Second I would say Jay elect, even though he drops stuff sporadically, when he does he be dropping Gems, he got that spirit a hip-hop Im talking about. That raw energy plus he got the bars to back it up. And for the last one I guess I’ll name some one that more relevant I guess you can say, J.Cole.

His grind man, I love it, he was what the top grossing hip-hop artist last year with no number one single, that says a lot, he is sort of giving foundation for artist out there who trying be successful without conforming all the way the commercial bs.

So what are your plans for the future?

Long term, to continue being a conduit through music, open up new avenues so true artist with real talent actual substance can have platform to be successful.

Short term, continue to push Black 2 Reality till all who needs to hear it does, and to keep inspiring where inspiration is needed.

WRITTEN BY HAO NGUYEN