INTERVIEW | WESTSIDE MOE DISCUSSES NEW TRACK ‘THE BURNING BUSH’

‘THE BURN­ING BUSH’ IS OUT NOW 

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In the ever-evolving land­scape of hip-hop, West­side MOE emerges as a beacon of spir­itu­al enlight­en­ment and artist­ic innov­a­tion. With his latest single, “The Burn­ing Bush,” he delves into the pro­found nar­rat­ive of Moses, draw­ing par­al­lels between the bib­lic­al jour­ney and his own quest for pur­pose and inspir­a­tion. In this exclus­ive inter­view, West­side MOE sheds light on the gen­es­is of his latest pro­ject, the del­ic­ate bal­ance between faith and relat­ab­il­ity in his music, and his unwaver­ing com­mit­ment to uplift­ing listen­ers through his soul-stir­ring verses. Join us as we explore the tran­scend­ent themes that define his music and the trans­form­at­ive power of self-dis­cov­ery with­in his artistry.

Can you tell us about the inspir­a­tion behind your latest single, ‘The Burn­ing Bush’ and how it
ties into your over­all mes­sage and themes in your music?

The inspir­a­tion for this pro­ject derives from the story of Moses. Moses was an exper­i­enced man still find­ing his pur­pose in the world when God appeared before him as a burn­ing bush. In essence I feel that my story is syn­onym­ous with Moses. I’ve always under­stood my power but speak­ing to God revealed my pur­pose. That pur­pose is to inspire growth and make obstacles erad­ic­ate.

Your music draws heav­ily from your faith and per­son­al exper­i­ences. How do you nav­ig­ate the bal­ance between being true to your beliefs while also cre­at­ing music that res­on­ates with a diverse audi­ence?

I knew step­ping into this lane one of my pri­or­it­ies would be to make my faith digest­ible for my fans. When I was grow­ing up Chris­ti­an and inspir­a­tion­al rap was always ste­reo­typed as corny. I’m one of the artists who’s break­ing the mold. Someone who doesn’t con­sider them­selves to be reli­gious or spir­itu­al will still enjoy my music.

‘The Burn­ing Bush’ incor­por­ates ele­ments from the bib­lic­al story of Moses. How do you rein­ter­pret these ancient nar­rat­ives to speak to con­tem­por­ary audi­ences?

The story of Moses is some­thing every­one can relate to. I think the biggest thing that I’ve cor­rel­ated from past time to cur­rent time is the idea of self-aware­ness. Moses didn’t know why God chose him to lead his people to free­dom. But once Moses rein­ven­ted him­self he was able to live in align­ment with God’s plan.

Your writ­ing pro­cess is described as “effort­less”. Could you walk us through your cre­at­ive pro­cess when craft­ing a song, par­tic­u­larly one with such deep them­at­ic ele­ments?

The writ­ing pro­cess for this pro­ject was an out of body exper­i­ence hon­estly. Each song that I wrote just came togeth­er organ­ic­ally. I didn’t have to force any­thing and you can hear it in my deliv­ery through­out this pro­ject. It’s almost as if my soul already knew what to write.

What drove you to pur­sue a career in music, and how has your upbring­ing and cul­tur­al back­ground influ­enced your artist­ic style?

I was born a cre­at­ive per­son, as a child I would draw and cus­tom­ize my clothes, but my favor­ite thing to do was to write poetry. my love for poetry quickly trans­lated to music. My fam­ily thought me rap­pin was just a phase, once I became ser­i­ous about my craft my fam­ily star­ted tun­ing in. My Par­ents wanted me to pur­sue more prac­tic­al careers but they both now under­stand I have a big­ger pur­pose and God has blessed me with tal­ents that need to be shared with the world.

San Jose, Cali­for­nia, has a rich hip-hop cul­ture. How has grow­ing up on the West Side shaped your sound and approach to music?

San Jose is a huge city with almost 2 mil­lion people. Being raised on the West­side of town has always put a chip on my shoulder because I don’t like my side of town gets enough cov­er­age . I’ve developed this under­dog men­tal­ity and that keeps me hungry. There’s always more work to do.

As a fam­ily man, how do you bal­ance your per­son­al life with the demands of your music career?

Fam­ily is everything. I do my best to share my agenda and cal­en­dar with my tribe so they aren’t blind­sided by my career. Every­one around me knows what I’m work­ing towards and they respect that.

Your music is often described as spir­itu­ally uplift­ing. How do you hope your listen­ers will be impacted by the mes­sages con­veyed in your songs?

I pray my fans ques­tion their own growth after listen­ing to this pro­ject. Dare to be dif­fer­ent and dis­cov­er you means to leave your mark on this world.

Can you share any mem­or­able moments or chal­lenges you encountered while record­ing ‘The Burn­ing Bush’?

The biggest chal­lenge I faced while com­pos­ing this pro­ject would have to be overthink­ing. Did I want to make more songs, less songs. Until I decided to fol­low my intu­ition and not ques­tion myself. Non coin­cid­ently the pro­ject ended up hav­ing 7 songs which is a very sig­ni­fic­ant num­ber in my life.

What’s next for West­Side MOE? Do you have any upcom­ing pro­jects or col­lab­or­a­tions in the works?

“The Burn­ing Bush” is first install­ment of 3 pro­jects. So stay tuned for the next install­ment. I’m no longer hoard­ing music so expect my cata­log to become massive. My fans won’t have to worry about me hold­ing out. But ulti­mately I will inspire change and growth with­in any­one who listens to my music.

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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.

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