In hip-hop there is always great discussion around being real. Every rapper wants to prove they’re realer than the next. More times than not, their definition of real means living up to a fabricated persona. That said, there are many who deject the falsified notion and really stay true to themselves. One artist leading the charge is Miami born Sylvan LaCue. Many readers might of first became fans while he was part of Visionary Music Group; sharing the stage and records with Logic under the moniker QuESt. During this same period he released the critically acclaimed Searching Sylvan. A concept album that was so rich in narrative and well put together that it quickly drew comparisons to Kendrick Lamar’s good kid m.A.A.d. city. But after a stellar 2014, Sylvan left Visionary Music Group, got lost in the industry, spent some time soul-searching, and finally rediscovered himself. With a new album set to drop next month, we caught up with Sylvan LaCue for an in-depth interview to discuss it all.
A lot has changed since we last spoke. The most obvious change is reverting back to your real name. Can you elaborate on what prompted the change?
The name change was a product of a lot things but it came about very naturally. I was working on Far From Familiar in Orlando early last year and I was going to this one coffee place called Vespr that I was really fond of. I’d been hearing that my real name was naturally better than my rap name, but that was from people that knew about me, so I kind of took that with a grain of salt. Going into this coffee shop, there’s this barista named Amy who was listening to a lot of the new music that was coming out and not necessarily anything before that. I paid for a cup of coffee and she found out my real name and she was like this fits you and sounds a lot better than QuESt. Something kind of stuck out for me and clicked a little bit. But more than that, from a philosophical standpoint, going back to my real name is more of an effort of being myself as plain as possible. 2015 and 2016 is about me embracing myself and being as consistent as possible and what better way to embrace yourself than to go by your real name.
Since the release of Searching Sylvan you’ve been on a journey personally and geographically. You spent time in LA, Oakland, back in Florida and in New York. What influence did each city have on your journey and your music?
Being in LA was really my first taste of the industry. Really seeing how things work from a standpoint of how my peers are and what goes on behind closed doors. Oakland for me was a safe haven. It was this whole brand-new city and I was in love with the person who is now my fiance. It was this whole new place that I’ve never really been to. A whole new atmosphere. It’s very natural in Oakland. It started affecting the way I was dressing and the way I was doing music as well. Oakland/Bay area is very see what you get, it’s very beautiful, it’s very nature driven. You see mountains, you see oceans, you see rivers, you have hilltops, vast forests. All that affected me to come back to a natural state. Coming back to Miami just reminded me of home. Around the Searching Sylvan time it was all about getting out and coming back to Miami was reminder of who I am. This is a reminder of where I was brought up from, this is where my foundation lies. This is who I am and I shouldn’t want to run away from it. In fact, I should embrace it even more. Going to New York City made my music more calculated. New York allowed me to focus on the hustle of getting things done. Making my music a lot more efficient and focus driven as well. Every place that I’ve been at has had a different affect on me.
I love rap and I love the art form of rap. But there’s so many other facets of creating and artistry that I love as well.
In one of your WiseUp journals you mentioned evolving from a rapper to an artist. Can you speak on the difference and how you saw this change manifest within yourself?
Being a rapper is a lot more single-minded in my opinion. It’s one thing that you do, just rap. For me being just a rapper is still a great thing. I love rap and I love the art form of rap. But there’s so many other facets of creating and artistry that I love as well. I came from an era that promoted being the best rapper. You have to create this persona and this image of who you are and you need fulfill it being the best rapper that you can possibly be. That was the era that I was brought from so I kind of became consumed in it and trapped in it. Me being an artist is breaking free of those chains and saying this is who I am. Whoever you are as long as you are embracing it to your fullest potential that’s what your art form is. For me being just a rapper wasn’t me being an artist, because as a person I am into so much more and I love so much more. It’s kind of like the chicken and the egg. Which comes first: the person or the artist? But in my case embracing what I love as much as possible has helped me to be more of an artist and less of a rapper. Less of this guy who’s trying to fulfill a specific mission and more of exploring myself and saying this is what I like, how can I incorporate into what I am creating?
On the ‘The Watcher 3’ you make some pretty strong statements about the current issues in the rap game. What inspired the track?
Well I’d been gone for some time before I dropped that record. I think I dropped Searching Sylvan, released one record, put out three videos and I essentially went ghost. For me I felt like whenever I was going to come back it needed to be a statement. That’s essentially what I was doing. Besides creating music I was also watching what was happening. Hence the reason why I called it ‘The Watcher’. I called it ‘The Watcher 3’ because Jay-Z’s previous ‘The Watcher 2’ and before him Dr. Dre’s ‘The Watcher’. I felt like there was lot of things that were on my heart and a lot things that I had seen repetitively that year. Which was this cycle of the artistry coming and going. You start here, you get this, you get that, you come up here and then you start falling a little bit and then before you know it, it’s like – do you remember that one guy that had that one song or did that one thing? And then it’s on to the next one. It’s sad, it’s really sad because we are treating our urban artists like they are extremely disposable. So I felt like I needed to say something about it and also needed to shed light and a sense of hope about it. The first part of the song is very pensive, it’s focus driven but the outro is this hope, “Come and go, I’ve seen them come and go, lord knows I ain’t one of those”. I’m not here to be here one day and to go and be part of this cycle that I just mentioned. There’s so much more that I want to attain and prove. Also from the standpoint that I am still here, I really have seen them come and go and I’ve still maintained myself to be here. It was just something that I felt needed to be said and that no one was addressing it either. Being an important facet in culture and in hip-hop, from an MC and artist standpoint, your job is to make statements; to note things that are happening. So I felt like that was my job. I needed to say something about this.
Can you speak on what happened between you and Visionary Music Group? What’s the relationship like with former Visionary members?
I actually left late 2014. I had a conversation with my management and I had a conversation with Logic as well and I just made a decision. I said, this isn’t for me anymore. This isn’t something that I feel is best for my career and I want to move on. My decision for leaving was because I felt that I needed to focus on myself and my brand and what was best for me outside of the bigger picture of someone else’s vision and dream. I think it was about conflicting visions (laughs). I wouldn’t say from a freedom standpoint. It was just how I personally wanted to do things no longer involved Visionary. That was the quintessential reason. I haven’t really spoken to them since but I wish them the best.
I’m interested in things that don’t die. I’m not interested in anything that is founded from something that is tangible.
Can you tell us a little bit about the WiseUp movement?
WiseUp has a lot of potential to expand to different places but as of right now I’m concentrated on promoting the idea of WiseUp. WiseUp more than anything to me is an idea and the reason I want to promote the idea is because the idea never dies. I’m interested in things that don’t die. I’m not interested in anything that is founded from something that is tangible. If I said WiseUp is the label, or WiseUp is the collective or WiseUp is this, as soon as that label or collectives dies, then the idea dies with it. For me the idea is more important than anything it can be attached to. WiseUp is an idea and it’s pretty self explanatory. With my fans the relationship is that I share wisdom with them and they share wisdom with me. WiseUp promotes the idea of sharing wisdom and the idea of using the things you have around you to get to the places you want be by making smart decisions. In the future I would love for it to be a label, possibly a collective. A foundation to spread into different areas. But right now I’m way more focused on the idea. It’s kind of like Wu-Tang. Wu-Tang will always be around because they promoted it as an idea first. They said Wu-Tang forever and they meant it. That’s why you still have Wu-Tang merch that sells out every year. Roc-a-fella records is dead. It’s only as good as it’s lifespan and once it’s over, it’s over. WiseUp is an idea and I want to promote it to my fans and in the future I’ll branch off and it’ll become different facets and areas.
When people listen to these records, I want them to listen to it as they are right there with me going through what I am going through.
Can you tell us a little bit about Far From Familiar. Do you have a release date in mind and how is it different from your previous work?
I’m looking at early April. Far From Familiar is built from scratch. A lot of Searching Sylvan was built beat-by-beat-by-beat and had me attacking all these different records. All these records were built from literally nothing; records that came directly from scratch. It’s also produced entirely by my production team The Marvels (Wishlade & Linzi Jai). The writing has shifted from me telling the story as I did on Searching Sylvan, where I was telling you what was happening from a literal standpoint. It goes from me being the narrator to me actually living in the experience. So Far From Familiar is more experience driven. When people listen to these records, I want them to listen to it as they are right there with me going through what I am going through. It’s way more about being in the moment. It’s about detailing the moment and capturing the moment as vividly as possible. It’s also a lot more concise. It’s a lot more song driven and not so much rap driven. It takes place immediately after leaving Miami to go to the West Coast and details everything that has happened since then. From the beginning of the album which details after Searching Sylvan and splitting from Visionary Music Group, all the way to the end which is the culmination of all my experiences. It’s a direct sequel to Searching Sylvan and it’s also the end of another chapter as well. Far From Familiar is a lot different from my previous bodies of work but it’s also my most self I’ve ever been and it’s my most freeing from an artistic standpoint.
When you’re building from the ground up or building from scratch it’s kind of like the Matrix, where you become Neo.
You mention the production being built from the ground up. How did this influence your creative and writing process?
When you’re attacking beats you’re basically saying okay this is what the canvas is, this the size of the canvas and you have to paint within these walls. Your beat is the canvas and you’re supposed to paint inside of what that canvas is because it’s laid out for you. When you’re building from the ground up or building from scratch it’s kind of like the Matrix, where you become Neo. You are no longer fighting within the bounds of this world and having to set certain limitations and certain rules. We can go anywhere. We can go super far and come way back. It also allows us to have records that feel like only you could do this record. We wanted to create a body of work that only we could do. Only we could make these type of records because they are from scratch, they’re hand crafted, they’re tailor made. It’s like Khaled would say it’s special cloth. There’s no way you could replicate that. It makes better for originality and it makes better for authenticity as well.
Throughout our conversation you’ve discussed this concept of brevity, where nothing seems to last in music anymore. As an artist how do you combat this and create music that will stand the test of time?
By telling a story, because what people love more than anything is a great story. Stories don’t die. They stay and they move forward. When a story impacts you, you become attached to it. It’s the reason why girls still talk about The Notebook, it’s the reason why guys love Entourage. It’s because the story is way more important than the actual show. Let’s think about 2 albums: Kanye West’s College Dropout and Jay-Z’s The Blueprint 2. The reason why College Dropout means more is because there was a story that was told that people latched onto. It’s been over 10 years and people will not let go of that College Dropout story. The Blueprint 2 had no story. It was dope, there was some great music, people liked the records but there was no story to claim onto. In today’s realm, at least for me, I feel like the only way to achieve longevity is if I focus on telling my story first, because music will come and go. It doesn’t matter how good your music is, it’s going to come and go in this age because there is so much of it. Even popular music stays popular for maybe a week or a week and a half and then it goes. Everybody is making music, it’s not special to make music anymore and people don’t want to admit that, but it’s really not special to make music anymore. But it is special to tell stories. It’s always special to tell stories and it’s special to tell stories that will change people’s lives. That’s not something that everyone can do, that’s another talent in itself. So I feel like that’s the only way I’m going to be able to achieve some time of longevity, period.
Yeah I rap and make music and what I’ve done has changed your life, but let me show you that you’re just as great and that what you say can change my life too.
You have an incredible relationship with your fans. From replying to them on Twitter, to inviting them out for coffee and to preview your album. Why is fan interaction so important to you?
They’re the juice man. They’re the only ones that are still here. Everything else for me, if it’s not my family or my loved ones, everything else just comes and goes. This industry will come and go. It’ll be a time that I’ll make it to a certain plateau and I’m the hottest in the game and that maybe will last for ten or fifteen years and then the industry moves on. The industry has no love for me. The only people who have love for me are the people who support my music. I have a responsibility to a lot of the people that listen to me. People have come to me from my last project and told me your music has saved my life, or my friends life. I had a guy come up to me and tell me he was addicted to Adderall and it wasn’t till he heard Searching Sylvan that it allowed him to break out of that. I don’t take that lightly. The least I can do is interact with people. If my music can do that for you the least I can do I say, “hey what’s up?” Taking it a step further, I’ve been doing those meet-ups. I’ve been doing them because number one – what better way to interact with a fan than to see them face to face and have an actual conversation with them? Number 2 – I love coffee so it’s a great way of bringing fans into my world. And number three – it’s not just about me sharing my story, it’s about them sharing their story and me sharing it with the rest of the world. That’s why I call them Wise Ones. I feel as artists we don’t empower our fans enough. Let me hear your story, let me be impacted by what you do. Just something to show that we’re on even ground. Yeah I rap and make music and what I’ve done has changed your life, but let me show you that you’re just as great and that what you say can change my life too. We need to really start investing in giving the people who listen to us validation by encouraging them instead of saying buy this, take this, take this. Fan interaction is everything to me and they’re my life juice. They’re the ones who put money in my pocket, they’re the ones who will be here when everyone else dips. I have a responsibility to them and I don’t take that lightly. So I try to do as much as I can to engage with them as much as I possibly can.
What can fans expect from you for the rest of year?
Consistency. Just me being myself as much as humanly possibly and being as consistent as humanly possible. I’m working on a lot of logistic things. We’re working on tours. We’re working on getting shows on the road. We’re working on more videos. More songs. Possibly a new project at the end of the year or top of next year. More than that I’m just aiming to be as consistent as possible. If I can be myself, tell my story and be consistent with releasing content, I don’t think I can ask for too much more. Life is all about making things simple, so as long as I can make things simple with what I need, everything else will kind of fall into place.
Any final words for the fans?
Thank you to the Wise Ones. Thank you for always supporting me and sticking with me even through everything that’s been going on. I’m forever eternally grateful.
