South Jersey’s 15-Year Old Artist Gigi Marie Breaks Down Music, Adolescence, Family, & More |@NicoTheBeast |@mrszarrella

By MJ Savino • On Interviews , , , ,

MJ here with I Am Hip Hop Lon­don!  Tonight I need to share the story of an aston­ish­ing and heart-stop­ping tal­en­ted young lady! I came across a video of a high school tal­ent show and imme­di­ately every ele­ment of my being and soul became elev­ated. Gigi Mar­ie is a 15-year old high school stu­dent and lyr­i­cist from south Jer­sey with the cul­min­at­ing abil­ity to deliv­er raw yet heart­felt and pro­found lyr­ics through her ten­a­cious voice!

MJ:  Gigi, let me start this inter­view first and fore­most by say­ing thank you!  At age 15 thank you for invest­ing in your fam­ily, invest­ing in your edu­ca­tion, and invest­ing in pos­it­ive out­lets that can only mani­fest change in what feels like a dis­or­i­ented world. Even our youth can be role mod­els for adults!  Please take us on that stage with you the night of the tal­ent show.  What impelled you to raise the bar, and to bring to light such sens­it­ive, swept under the rug top­ics as sui­cide, addic­tion, and lives lost?

Gigi: First I want to start off by say­ing thank you for tak­ing your time to inter­view me. I know you are a very busy woman but the fact that you took the time to inter­view me means so much! I lost many people to those top­ics, so it’s very import­ant to me. So many people have dealt and deal with these top­ics every day, but most don’t know how to talk about it. They don’t com­pletely under­stand how to cope with it or talk about their thoughts while deal­ing with it.

MJ:  Unfor­tu­nately, you have exper­i­enced the loss of loved ones from addic­tion and sui­cide.  Can you tell us the impact that had on you at such a young age?

Gigi: My cous­in Dean com­mit­ted sui­cide in 2013. He was one of my best friends and was more like a broth­er then cous­in. Also my grand­moth­er Net and uncle Mike (dad’s mom and broth­er) died months apart from each oth­er. We lost them to addic­tion. It was extremely hard for me. I felt like I had to stay strong, and music was a release to escape the hard­est times.

MJ:  There is a tre­mend­ous amount of pres­sure put on teen­agers in terms of con­form­ity, exper­i­ment­a­tion, defi­ance, etc.  What or who do you cred­it to stay­ing groun­ded and focused?

Gigi: I cred­it my par­ents for keep­ing me groun­ded. My mom and dad always told me to stay true to myself. They told me nev­er to change for any­one, and if someone wanted me to change, they weren’t healthy to be around.

MJ:  Let’s talk music!  Now we know it’s in the genes, but that doesn’t equate to you craft­ing your tal­ent, that part is a choice.  When did you fall in love with music? Tell us about the moment you declared to pur­sue music?

Gigi: I have been in love with music since before I can remem­ber. When I was about 3 years old my uncle decided to help me play the piano. Since then it’s been a huge part of my life. My fath­er has also rapped since he was 16, so that also provided music­al exper­i­ence into the Hip Hop cul­ture. I saw how people acted and how people had this image that was shown towards the pub­lic. I declared to pur­sue music when my uncle passed. My uncle always said he saw big things for me. He wanted me to be suc­cess­ful and he helped me get through things that I didn’t think I could get through. I was determ­ined to prove that and make him proud.

MJ:  Why Hip Hop?  Is it a fas­cin­a­tion with the cul­ture?  Is it the trans­form­a­tion of words to a cadence and rhythmic flow of lyr­ics? Is it being mes­mer­ized by your father’s career?  I could go on and on, but I’m eager for your response.

Gigi: Hon­estly Hip Hop is so diverse and incred­ible. It’s all dif­fer­ent and not one song has the same mes­sage. Not every­one has the same flow, and not every­one has the same word choice. My fath­er has always made sure that I got things right. He made sure that I per­fec­ted my breath con­trol, and my flow. He made me feel like if it really meant some­thing to me, to stick by it and keep going, and keep per­fect­ing it.

MJ:  How old were you when you laid down your very first track? Tell us the array of emo­tions that flooded you when you heard the mastered product!  Has it been an adren­aline rush since then?

Gigi: I can’t remem­ber how old I was but it was so excit­ing. I’m pretty sure I was about 13. It was dif­fi­cult, I won’t lie. I had to make sure I had to per­fect the 4 count. I had to make sure I could con­trol my breath. I fin­ished and listened, and it was such a rush. Hear­ing my voice over a beat was so cool to me, and it made me feel like I’m finally doing some­thing I love.

MJ:  Talk about your rela­tion­ship with your par­ents and fam­ily.  I know they are encour­aging and very sup­port­ive of your choice to pur­sue music.  How involved are they? Tell us some chal­lenges of hav­ing busi­ness and fam­ily under the same roof. What are some of the perks?

Gigi: They are involved in pretty much everything. They want to make sure that I have stuff sor­ted out. They want to make sure I can talk to them if some­thing ever goes wrong. The perks are simple, we all relate to one anoth­er and if we need to talk, we have each oth­er. We hold each oth­er down, and call each oth­er out on things.

MJ:  Who would you con­sider to be role mod­els in your life, both per­son­ally and musically?

Gigi: My role mod­els are my mom, my dad, my grand mom, and of course, Eminem. My mom and dad have always been there for me, even though I don’t always under­stand somethings. They help me under­stand. My grand mom has always been there for me. She’s always there for me when I need her. All I have to do is call her or text her and she answers almost right away. Eminem’s music was just extremely help­ful and his words meant a lot to me. His music has got­ten me through the rough times.

MJ:  Talk about your future goals. When I come back to inter­view you in a few years, what will we be catch­ing up on?

Gigi: I will be going to col­lege and I want to be suc­cess­ful! I want to make all my years of hard work mean some­thing. People are going to hear my name and know who I am. They will know what I stand for.

MJ:  What genres of music do you listen to?  Who is in your cur­rent playl­ist?  Who are some artists that you would like to share the stu­dio or stage with?

Gigi: Besides my dad and The League I listen to Rock, Altern­at­ive, Pop, and of course Hip Hop!  I have all sorts of people in my playl­ist but I would love to rock with Eminem. I’ve always looked up to him. It seemed like I could relate to him, even though I don’t know him personally.

MJ:  Before we wrap up, I’m curi­ous to get your stand­point on a few things.  What is your opin­ion on what is cat­egor­ized today as music by the media and radio?  What type of effect on young people do you think it has?

Gigi: It kind of all sounds the same. the mes­sages aren’t the same, but the beats are. It brain­washes young­er gen­er­a­tions into think­ing that’s music. But I want people to hear old music and pay atten­tion to the words and mean­ing, not just the catchy beat.

MJ:  Is there any­thing else you would like the world to know about Gigi Marie?

Gigi: Every­one needs to know that I am always here if any­one needs help or to talk about some­thing. I will always try and help you get through some­thing, even if I don’t know u or haven’t been through it myself.

MJ:  I want to thank you again for exer­cising your voice and tal­ent in a man­ner to exert hope and change. Salute!

Gigi: Thank you for the oppor­tun­ity MJ, it means so much to me and my family!

For more info on Gigi Mar­ie email christyzarrella30@gmail.com

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MJ Savino

MJ is Hip Hop Blog­ger, Pub­li­cist, Book­ing Agent, Act­iv­ist, but fan first and fore­most. “Hip Hop saved my life, it is only right I give back to the culture”!

About MJ Savino

MJ is Hip Hop Blogger, Publicist, Booking Agent, Activist, but fan first and foremost. "Hip Hop saved my life, it is only right I give back to the culture"!