Interview: Scattered Thoughts Of @BuggsThaRocka

Cini­cin­nati kid Buggs tha Rocka may be an unfa­mil­i­ar name to many, but his new album “Scattered Thoughts of an Amer­ic­an Poet” rein­forces his repu­ta­tion as one of the most gif­ted hip hop lyr­i­cists to emerge from Ohio in the past few years. We catch up with him to know more about the “Scattered Thoughts of an Amer­ic­an Poet”!

Q. How did you first get into hip-hop and what does it mean to you?

My mom gave me a har­mon­ica at age 6. I was writ­ing poetry after that and kinda just bump­ing my brother­’s tapes which were hip hop of course. I fell in love with it and been rock­ing ever since!

Q. Who are some of your major influ­ences?

This ques­tion is always hard for me cause I for­get people, and I’m inspired by so many artists and genres. But in terms of hip hop, guys like Phar­rell Wil­li­ams, Nas, Q‑Tip, Kanye West, Jay‑Z, Out­kast, Talib Kweli, Com­mon, Ma$e and MOOD

Q. In your opin­ion as a lyr­i­cist, what is it that makes hip-hop lyr­ics “good”?

Any­thing that comes from the heart and soul where you can not only hear, but feel the pas­sion.

Q. How do you feel your music has evolved since you began?

I think it’s more infused with oth­er genres. It’s always been a melt­ing pot as is tra­di­tion­al in Cin­cin­nati, but I think now even more the lines are blurred in hip hop. The digit­al side of things in terms of the tech­no­logy has improved when we’re speak­ing “son­ic qual­ity” com­pared to before, there’s been some huge leaps there.

Q. You’ve had the oppor­tun­ity to work, col­lab­or­ate and per­form with some huge names in hip-hop. What are some of your per­son­al high­lights and how have they helped you fur­ther your­self as an artist?

There’s a few, but I’ll say two that come to mind off top.  I went to watch Kanye West and Jay‑z, and I think the Watch The Throne con­cert and Yeezus showed me that it was big­ger than hip hop.  Those live shows were epic for any genre, worth ever dol­lar.  It was almost like a stage play or movie.  The music was just the back­drop that com­ple­men­ted things visu­ally, amd inspired me to try and take things to anoth­er level.

Shar­ing the stage with Talib Kweli at A3C and tour­ing with him was like my dreams start­ing to ful­fill, and help­ing me reach anoth­er level in my career. That dude is amaz­ing, so rock­ing out with one of my idols is still sur­real. It made me feel like I can do any­thing, everything is pos­sible.

Q. How does it com­pare per­form­ing at fest­ivals such as SXSW and A3C to your reg­u­lar shows in front of your home crowd? 

Home is home and always a great feel­ing, but the fest­ivals are a lot of fun too.

The one thing I don’t like in this era is that every­body has their phones out, and feel they just wanna cap­ture everything rather than exper­i­ence the show in the way it should be exper­i­enced. That’s just this gen­er­a­tion. I guess I’m say­ing that as if I’m a old man but I feel like that when I see things like that.

I’m not feel­in that, like really, the whole show you wanna have your phone out?? That does­n’t feel nat­ur­al to me, but it is what it is.

Q. Talk us through some of the major themes on your upcom­ing album ‘Scattered Thoughts of an Amer­ic­an Poet’?

Hon­estly, the pro­ject is rep­res­en­ted in the title, a lot of my scattered thoughts and feel­ings about a whole range of things. I’m also bring­ing my fans up to speed on what’s been up since my last pro­ject and of course reach­ing out to a new audi­ence. All life is in there, some­thing for every­one to con­nect with

Q. The album seems to show a lot of ver­sat­il­ity, how would you describe your own style and approach to music?

My approach is just to come from the heart and do what feels right. I try to keep things very organ­ic. I am inspired by a lot of dif­fer­ent genres so I try to rep­res­ent that in my music. This spe­cif­ic album was designed to show­case these music­al influ­ences in one shot as I gear up for sep­ar­ate pro­jects next year

Q. What does the future hold for Buggs tha Rocka?

Hope­fully its a suc­cess­ful one! I dont place lim­its on what I would like to achieve and how far I’d like to take it, but retain­ing full cre­at­ive con­trol is import­ant to me. But I’m optim­ist­ic about the future. I have new releases lined up for 2015, more visu­als and tour dates planned, so look out for those soon!

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojWS64T7sNI[/youtube]

 

By Grant Sum­mers

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Rishma Dhaliwal

Rishma Dhaliwal

Edit­or / PR Con­sult­ant at No Bounds
Rishma Dhali­w­al has extens­ive exper­i­ence study­ing and work­ing in the music and media industry. Hav­ing writ­ten a thes­is on how Hip Hop acts as a social move­ment, she has spent years research­ing and con­nect­ing with artists who use the art form as a tool for bring­ing a voice to the voice­less. Cur­rently work­ing in TV, Rishma brings her PR and media know­ledge to I am Hip Hop and oth­er pro­jects by No Bounds.

About Rishma Dhaliwal

Rishma Dhaliwal
Rishma Dhaliwal has extensive experience studying and working in the music and media industry. Having written a thesis on how Hip Hop acts as a social movement, she has spent years researching and connecting with artists who use the art form as a tool for bringing a voice to the voiceless. Currently working in TV, Rishma brings her PR and media knowledge to I am Hip Hop and other projects by No Bounds.

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