While in America, Hip Hop artist Heyse stayed low key and found it difficult to overcome the lack of a solid support system in his home of DC. However, upon moving to China as a teacher, he quickly realized there was a lot more to Hip Hop than the U.S. has to offer.

Inspired by the thriving Shanghai Hip Hop scene, Heyse began flexing his muscles at open mics which led to him building a buzz and garnering enough support that he entered the studio to record his first official EP.

The Present touches upon themes of millennial love, following passions versus achieving the status quo, race relations domestically as well as globally, observations about the world around him, and the current state of Hip Hop from his distinct perspective.

The Present is packed with an intro and four tracks of well produced, dope Hip Hop. From beginning to end, this is a record you can put on and vibe. Heyse’s confident delivery, intelligent lyrical substance, and early ’90s, East Coast influenced instrumental production is the ill recipe for every Hip Hop heads’ golden era fix.

[Tweet “”They said they wanted trap so I gave ’em this…” via @heyseDC”]

In the below interview, I speak with Heyse about The Present, his motivations, challenges and more.

Full Q&A along with links and music below.

Where are you from and what style of music do you create? (In your own words, not necessarily in marketing terms or by popular genre classifications.)

I’m from the Washington DC area. I’m a hip hop artist that blends traditional hip-hop lyricism over old school and trap beats. I strive to be the bridge between old school and new school by combining the elements.

What led you down this path of music and what motivates you to keep going?

As a young kid, I grew up listening to all genres of music (jazz, soul, r&b, hip-hop, neo-soul, funk, go-go [local DC genre], etc.). So I always had a love for music. You’ll notice some of those influences in my music instrumentation. I was a very quiet child and at the age of 9, I wrote my very first poem. I realized that writing poetry was a great way for me to non-verbally express myself. So I continued to write poetry occasionally. I didn’t realize until recent years that I had naturally developed free verse and sonnet styles of poetry, that incorporated freedom of range in term of rhyming schemes.

It wasn’t until I turned 14 that I decided to put some of my poetry over instrumentals. It was at that point that I fell in love with rapping. It made expressing myself more entertaining and I started to develop different flows. To this day, most of my songs are poems before being put on beats.

There are two things that led me to start being more public with my music and motivate me to keep going:

1. For years, I’ve had fears of pursuing music because of discouragement from different people throughout life saying nothing much would come out of pursuing music. People had often said that my rap skills were good. However, I never took it serious because of the lack of real support. Now that I’ve finally completed a project and showcased my skills publicly, people have expressed how proud of me they are for facing my fears and how much of an inspiration I am for them. It’s because of this that I feel I need to continue.

2. The current state of hip hop is (in my opinion) too saturated with the trap sound and same mundane topics that associate with it (drugs, materialism, violence, and sex). We do have some people out now (Kendrick, Cole, Logic, KRIT, Joey Badass, to name a few) that still have some sort of substance but there aren’t many. I wanted to come into the game as a bridge between the two, by catering to the trap audience with the same instrumentation while appealing to the old school hip hop heads by showcasing lyricism and story telling elements used in traditional hip hop. What keeps me motivated is knowing that I’m contributing good music and providing balance to the hip hop game.

How is this new release different than previous ones? Were you trying to accomplish anything specific?

My EP “The Present” is my first project to be released. I strive not to revert hip hop back to where it was because I understand every genre evolves overtime. But I did hope to bring more lyricism and consciousness to an era of trap hip hop, mumble rap, and turning up. I talk about my life, love, domestic American issues, and global issues over traditional and hip hop beats.

Name one or two challenges you face as an indie musician in this over-saturated, digital music age? How has technology helped you (since we know it does help)?

A challenge that I face as an indie musician is just knowing how to put my music in front of the right people for them to take a listen. I understand that there are MANY other musicians of other genres trying to get their music heard. So it’s not easy, but guidance in this area is always appreciated.

Also, musicians do not make as much money as before in the music industry because of streaming sites like: Spotify, Apple Music, etc. So, most musicians these days will make more profit from their reputation. The bigger the reputation, the more show invitations, the more plays from streaming sites, and the more companies are willing to invest in you financially.

Where is the best place to connect with you online and discover more music?

You can best reach me on the following below:

Instagram: dante_brandon
Twitter: @heyseDC
E-Mail: heysedc@gmail.com

To hear my music, you can go to my SoundCloud by clicking here.

(I’ve created a YouTube but it’s currently under construction)

Anything else before we sign off?

My EP “The Present” is a short sequel to my full album called “2016”, that I’m releasing this summer. (I used a Star Wars approach to these projects, I’m a huge Star Wars fan!). I’m expecting for the album to be released between July and August of 2018. Stay tuned for that project.