SIR E.U Interview

6/28/2021 6:36 PM

Who is Sexy Steve and where has he been?

Sexy steve is a member of my faculty that lives within, he’s been discouraged and really forced out and I’ve been embracing him more, trying to welcome him back home where he belongs

Listening to the return, it feels like you are going back to the basics, back to your roots, over the past few years, your music has become more experimental & distorted, with your lyrics sometimes being obscured by the beat. On this project there seems to be much more clarity and an emphasis on the words being spoken, Why is that?

I think primarily because I don’t usually have the resources or the savvy to make the songs Hi-Fidelity enough to the point where sometimes what comes out distorted was meant to be more clear or legible or sometimes I can’t master/mix it in that way. Regardless, my route into experimental artistry started through rap and that’s what I love to do the most. I like the prospect of offering something where I could do my skeletal shit and share that.

Who handled most of the production on this project?

Tooth Choir produced one called end yet, produced one of the pissed joints and he produced boom boom base. The other joints were remixes of stuff I found online which is how I got into music, just remixing stuff, which adds to the return of sexy steve.

You went over songs like ‘The Message’, ‘Nutmeg’, and ‘Know the Ledge’. What significance did those songs have on you growing up?

They definitely made me want to rap, the ‘Know the ledge’ joint, I always see rakim as the goat rap- per or like Moses at least from a biblical standpoint but a lot of those remixes were songs where I super revered the performance by the artist so much and i wanted to do something of similar stature.

You’ve been referred to as an MF DOOM-esque figure in the DC rap scene over the years, how do you feel about your legacy and how you are viewed as an artist?

I wish I was more in touch with it. I’m not super informed as to how I’m seen and I feel like that poses a detriment a lot of times when i might move a way this is counter to how my general surroundings perceive me, but I feel like I hear a lot of people tell me that I motivated them and inspired them or they appreciate something i did and i feel like thats lit so i’m pretty chill about it like i feel like i’m gonna be way bigger when im gone or after im active so i’m not really tripping about much or cognizant of it.

Are you motivated by the recognition or do you just want to create?

I feel like there is stuff within that I really want to share because it’s crazy and it seems like it hasn’t been done before so my main thing is really like kinda getting off from a mutual appreciation for something that sounds cool and progressive. I just love the fellowship that comes with sharing cool sounds.

I feel like a lot of your lyrics and subject matter are not really palatable or familiar to the average listener, are you concerned about being understood?

Yeah I try hard to be understood and its such a revolving door because on some aspects I want to be understood and on other aspects i decide that what i’m gonna assert is whats gonna be understood rather than doing what somebody else wants. I like sharing stuff as a form of scientific journal so that people can see that conflict in real-time. I feel like I really want to be understood so I do my best to have the most palatable and entertaining transcription of who I am but that just happens to be someone who is juxtaposed to society.

You released this project on the back of 001 with toothchoir, tell me a bit about your relationship and how that collaboration came about.

We’d been around each other a lot for the last like four and a half years and we just eventually came together. Now that we spend most of our time together because we share a living space, we’ve been connecting in ways that are super opportuned. We are super blessed to have that compatibility with each other that makes us push each other. A lot of the stuff that we’ve made has been us combining how far/how much progress we’ve made at the same time and it just keeps coming out lit. We really got too much shit so we’re just trying to let enough of it out so we have space to hoard some more of it. We’ve just really been reaping the benefits of our proximity, compatibility and our mutual admiration for the same shit, which is pretty broad.

What was the difference between the creation process of 001 vs Sexy Steve

001 was moreso songs that we made together and Sexy Steve is primarily me recording myself with direction, input, and guidance from tooth choir. I tried to adhere to the parts of me that I really used to love and also that being exfoliated and practiced with my friend tooth choir who also produced three of the tracks. 001 is more methodical while sexy steve is a bit more leisurely as far as the approach. 001 is more experimental while sexy steve is more for comfort.

On ‘Pissed.9’ you say “ I probably would’ve been feathered and tarred in a past life, y’alls vision of the afterlife is tethered to god and I’m at war with the concept of it” what do you mean by that?

I feel like people have grown and now there is more of everything, more openly gay people, more defiantly black people, more indignant racists, more eurocentric thinking hispanics. There’s more of everything because there are more people. As more eyes and witnesses are in the building,
you get less of a chance for people to persecute things as harshly because the human spirit is not gonna appreciate it. Like 15 people might be like “throw that hot ass tar on somebody and feather them after we beat the shit out of them” but 40 people aren’t gonna let that happen, naturally. There are always concentrations that are the minority within the majority. Even when you see lynching photos with hundreds of people, that is still not the entirety of the populous. It’s just that percentage of people, even if they are all centralized in one place, they are still outnumbered by compassion, naturally. I feel like I got the privilege of being alive now where I’m less likely to be taken out of my home for my stance whereas if I had the same stance 400 years ago, so much worse would happen to me than my account being suspended.

Speaking of stances and stands, you are obviously a huge fan of JJBA, what drew you to jojo and why do you connect with it so strongly?

I think I’ve always liked non-gender-conforming entities, I’ve always liked freiza and cell, or buu because they had nails or effeminate characteristics that i liked growing up. Or the effeminate aspects that someone like prince or michael jackson had or just rock in general and even the flamboyant nature of some of the biggest acts like the GAP band or Earth, Wind, and Fire, where it’s not solely based on the male macho hyperphysical, hypermasculine stuff. JoJos is where both of those meet. non-gender-conforming hyper-masculinity. I love the story and I relate deeply to a lot of the characters, I really identify with the way they approach different areas of morality and mortality. I love it, the fashion, the story, the content.

If you had a stand what would it be?

As far as combat, I would be a short-range stand that specializes in strikes and holds. As far as abilities, one might be luck or time slowing down. I’m not sure if I can stop time but I’m sure I’ll be able to slow it a little bit.

Is time something that is important to you as an artist, do you ever feel like you are running out of time?

Yeah I sometimes feel like I won’t have as much time with my body as I would like, but thats about it. Everything else, like my glory, I’m sure I’ll get it. It just might not be next week or in the next 10 minutes, but I’ll see it.

On Pissed.11 you describe yourself as an empath, in what sense, and how do you express that?

I think everybody is empathetic, for me I think it manifests through logic aided by intuition and a bit of connection to the unseeable stuff. You can kinda feel stuff. I just feel like I can relate to people very much and I want the best for everybody. Not that you need to have that trait to be empathetic but for me it manifests in people pleasing, like a sacrificial complex for myself where I want all the fucked up shit in the world to be done for so that everyone can have their life, liberty and pursure happiness with equal opportunity.

You have a few songs on the project titled ‘Pissed’ Is there a specific reasoning behind that?

One time I had to do something on the computer and it was so tedious that I got mad and by the time I got to input the prefix to save it as, I was pissed so I just left it as pissed so whenever I ex- ported the songs they were titled pissed 1 pissed 2, etc. and I’m still pissed.