Getting to know Isaiah Shoticaury
Last week FLARE magazine (virtually) got together with London-based hip-hop/rap artist Isaiah Shoticaury to talk about his album, mental health, BLM, influences and much, much more…
Pictured: Isaiah Shoticaury
Tell me a little bit about yourself- what would you like the readers to know about you?
Humbly opening with, “I’m just a young individual trying to make this music thing happen” Isaiah Shoticaury continues to explain his stance as an artist in the UK music scene.
“I wanna make it happen in a way where I can raise awareness, I just wanna create something that’s different in this music business, you know? You have singers and artists who all create this stereotypical view of music where it’s all drugs and money, provocative and misogynistic stuff and I’m trying my best to change that narrative and show people that there’s a different way to that- let’s talk about what’s really going on. The current issues that we’re dealing with right now with social injustice, equality, I just want people to know that I’m here to make a difference. Not just for me, but I know there are other artists that are trying to do that same thing as well- I’m not the first and I’m not the last’. There’ll be a new wave of individuals that are coming to spread that message and I’m kinda in that position.”
That’s something I’ve picked up on in the album, it strays away from this pseudo reality portrayed by a lot of rappers whereas ‘If Your Bumping This… Thank You, Vol. 1’ has a very raw nature to it.
Explaining that he wanted to comfort others by allowing a level of relatability in his lyrics, he explains the emotive nature behind one of the album’s tracks.
“When I made ‘November 2017’ about the tragic loss of my Dad, I didn’t write it, I just freestyled it in 20 minutes, and I was like, should I release it? ‘Cause I already finished the project but I was like, just lemme call my friends and see what they think”
After making his friends cry with the track, they provided him with the confidence to release it.
“They said, ‘you’ve never spoke about your Dad this way’ and I thought, ‘wow this really needs to be addressed’ cause you know, we live with this stigma where men, they can’t really show emotion and its sad because there’s the whole stigma with ego and pride, but I’m not afraid to be the individual who has to say how they feel so everyone else can speak about how they feel- you don’t need to be afraid to say what you wanna say”
The album touches on quite a few personal and emotional topics, did you feel any apprehension about sharing these personal subjects with your fanbase?
“I was scared at first cause I’m an anxious person sometimes. Musicians are always anxious cause the music you release, it’s always making you worry about people’s reactions. Whether it’s positive or negative- it makes you wanna go back and do better.”
Openly talking about how anxiety affects his musical process, Isaiah turns to music as a type of therapy.
I’m only 24 but I’ve been through things you can’t really talk about, like, you’ve just gotta get a pen and write it down and turn it into a rap or a song in a therapeutic way, so you can listen to it and feel comfortable with it”
Going on to explain how artists in the spotlight portray their issues, Isaiah recognised that their music wouldn’t reflect much honesty or reality of the topics they would discuss during interviews.
“Artists don’t really talk about how they feel, it’s more about the most popular topic in the market scheme now. With me, I wanna talk about my life in ways where people can slowly begin to understand me. I’m still building ‘cause I’ve got a lot of stories to talk about and as I’m growing and getting older, they’ll be more stories to discuss and develop through music”
If Your Bumping This… Thank You, Vol. 1
Tell me more about your musical journey-when did you start writing music?
Isiah tells me that he was in year nine at school when he was inspired to write his first bar. After attending an assembly warning the students about the 2011 Tottenham riots, Isiah found himself in a classroom writing his first piece of music.
“The first bar I ever wrote was, ‘guns and violence, a moment of silence, why do the boys think they’re hard when they’re rolling up in the riots’’’
Despite encouragement from his friends, he focused his attention to performing arts instead. After a few years, Isaiah had an epiphany which inspired him to give music a proper shot.
“I thought I could actually do it, just lemme be confident, lemme believe in myself and go”
When you’re writing now, are the any influential artists that come to mind when you begin your writing process?
“I look at Kanye West a lot, Skepta, and a surprising one is actually Fleetwood Mac ‘cause I love ‘Dreams’. ‘Dreams’ is my favourite go to song when I’m trying to find a bar to write and if I'm feeling down like, a bit nervous or scared. I just play ‘Dreams’ and that song helps me focus and relax. Sometimes I panic when I’m trying to find a bar because the subject matter has to be right and perfect, cause when you write, you have to really make sure that what you’re saying is the perfect story.. you have to be articulate, clear and vocal.”
Explaining he looks to Kanye’s creativity as opposed to his personality, his controversial lyrics and experimental styles are what appeals to Isaiah.
“I say Kanye as an artist, not as a person. Musically, he’s very creative. He knows how to take different genres and out them into one. He’s not afraid to test out his sounds and speak out on topics that sometimes aren’t talked about”
After an uncanny ‘Fix Up Look Sharp’ impression, Isaiah delves deeper and reveals that Dizzee Rascal had an early part to play in shaping his music taste.
“‘Boy In The Corner’ was like, the album of our time and that was around ‘02/’03 so every time I hear Dizzee Rascal my first impression was like, ‘Yo, who’s voice is this? Cause it sounds terrible, but it sounds so good!”
Were you inspired to write ‘If Your Bumping This… Thank You, Vol. 1’ as an album or was it a collection of projects that turned into an album?
Laughing, Isaiah explains that when he revisited his debut EP (‘Do I Have Your Attention Now’) he thought ‘it was terrible’.
“I'm my own worst critic. Every time you make something you think that it’s sick but when you hear it back, you think it’s the worst thing ever”
After more encouragement from his supportive friends, Isaiah found the confidence to start working on new projects. After dealing with grief as well as watching friends and family suffer with their own issues, he decided he was ready to talk about his experiences.
“Ever since the Breonna Taylor and the George Floyd situation, the Boris Johnson speeches, everything that’s been going on in the past five to eight months, and especially with COVID, I just thought that this is the time to make an album that talks about various things. I wanted to make sure I wasn’t making a project that was just me talking about stereotypical ‘rap stuff’ you know? There’s stuff that has to be addressed. I’m not the only one dealing with issues, I wanna make sure the other people who are dealing with these issues can see that ‘oh that guy got through it, so can I.”
“I could lie and say I was working on this project for 8 months but it took me a good 2 years. I had made about 40 songs, but I kept going back and deleting them and making new ones. You really need to structure it and make the right beats, find the right context, mix it and master it and then you have to make sure that the sequencing is perfect amongst everything else, and I did that all by myself. It was originally gonna be 8 tracks, then 10, then it still didn’t feel like enough, so I decided to have 12’”
After two years of perfecting his music, ‘If Your Bumping This… Thank You, Vol. 1’ was finally ready. Isaiah explains that he was taking in the scenery of Chester one night with his friends and snapped a picture of them in the moment, which is now the face of his album.
Vigil in Kentucky for Breonna Taylor. (Getty Images)
Backtracking to the Black Lives Matter movement, in your track ‘Black Is Forever’, you mention Boris Johnson and racism within the UK, and instead of projecting anger towards this, you instead celebrate black culture which is beautiful- has the BLM movement affected your relationship with song writing?
“Well ‘Black Is Forever’ was another freestyle. When you listen back you can hear it ‘cause I just go for it. We’re in a different era now where justice and awareness is key and not just with Black Lives Matter, human rights, women’s rights the LGBTQ community, we all need to put our hats on and stick together. Every time I see my mum, and I see my family and my cousins, most of them are black females and it makes me realise that this is a scary time, and with fear, you don’t know how to counter it. I want people to know you’re beautiful the way you are. It doesn’t matter if you’re white, black, mixed, everything is beautiful. Especially because black people don’t get highlighted enough, especially women. The song is more directly aimed at the women. Every great man comes from a woman and I feel like as a person of colour, this is forever you know? I’m not gonna be political and give you the facts, the statistics to ratios, I’m just here to give you a quick message by saying black or white, black and gold, black is beautiful, black is forever and just to know that.”
Isaiah tells me that he attended a Black Lives Matter protest and was asked to speak. He then reveals a traumatic encounter he had himself with the police.
“When I spoke, I felt scared because I thought of the times where I’ve been stopped and searched by the police. I’m walking home after dropping off my girlfriend at the time home and a police car drove past me. I’m thinking it’s just a normal day then soon as I hear the car turn around and see it driving towards me I automatically think ‘What did I do?’ Then the next thing I know they’re shouting ‘Stand there! Stand there!’ and they’re searching me viciously and I was scared. It was a dark time and I didn’t speak on it ‘cause I didn’t know how to tell my mum or my girlfriend. As men, especially black men, in this society, you can’t really speak about your issues, and that’s wrong cause it creates more mental health problems. It gives people PTSD to the point where they can’t cope with it. Even though the Breonna Taylor and the George Floyd cases happened over in America, it happens here too, it’s just not publicised enough. It’s just a 5 second headline then it’s onto the next story. That’s the narrative for us and it scares me ‘cause it makes me feel like, does anyone really give a shit? ‘Cause we’re so quick to give a shit on social media. With the Black Out Tuesday, I thought, ‘Wow, this is really sick’ and then the next day, everything was back to normal.”
We then discuss the way that social media and the educational system take ill-informed approaches to the BLM movement and black history.
“We’re not taught about black history enough. We’re only taught about people who have been killed or slavery and that’s not the best depiction of black people, we’ve done better things than that. In education there’s always been a negative depiction of black people in schools. They’re not teaching us about black entrepreneurs or investors. It’s sad because you’re just making young black kids at school feel depressed cause they don’t wanna read this. They wanna see who’s making the best situation out of their life now.”
Pictured: George Floyd (BBC News)
As a growing artist in the UK music industry, have you faced any challenges in gigging and growth?
After joking about the obvious COVID-19 affect on the UK music industry, Isaiah reveals that he has faced challenges in collaborating with other creatives.
“Sometimes collaborating with artists isn’t the best cause you’re relying on that person. You’ve got a timeframe and sometimes it doesn’t work. I already knew going into music that you’re going to deal with people that say they’ll collaborate, but you’ll just be waiting and waiting wondering where their effort is you know? I get it, I’m the new kid on the block so I’m not gonna be the number one go to guy but if they don’t want to collaborate it gives me more time to develop my craft and work on my art. I like to take my time with the music and making the beats, figuring out the right melodies, the subjects. I’ll say it now and I’ll say it again, musicians are the most insecure people ‘cause you just want approval from everyone, I'm not afraid to say it.”
If you could give your younger self advice, about either music or life, what would you say?
“Start saving money so you could have some better studio equipment! Believe in yourself, you’re here for a reason. You’re not a puppet and you have a voice, you’re talented. Keep growing and keep developing. Don’t worry about the overnight success, cause that’s dead. I’d rather have a long build. Music is timeless, people rush and just make whatever is gonna make the best radio play and the best outcome, and a lot of the time, it actually isn’t the best outcome. Just take your time”
Do you have goals for the future? Music or otherwise.
After taking a second, Isaiah reveals an ambitious and touching list of goals he has set in line for his future.
“Of course, I want this music thing to take off and make sure that my music helps people. I wanna do things for the community. Not just the black community, but for the community where I’m from. I wanna build a community centre. Whenever I’m in my hometown I see kids that need an outlet, they need something. I wanna let these kids know you don’t need to be a rapper to ‘make it’. You could be a graphic designer, an entrepreneur, an investor and be successful. I wanna build a community centre to help young black kids get an outlook and a career path. Let’s say they don’t have the right qualifications, I want to build a community centre that can help them get there, give them a second chance. I also wanna write plays and scripts. I started writing one a while ago, but I still need to figure out how to work the frames and the texts, but I wanna keep working on what I'm making. My head is all over the place cause I'm very creative. But I want to keep personally progressively growing.”
Getting to know Isaiah Shoticaury was a wonderful experience. Delving into his creative processes and life outlooks was an opportunity I’m certainly grateful for having experienced. I hope this interview has reminded you of the social injustices that are still taking place in our society and has inspired you to be a little more proactive in the fight. Please explore the links below to help bring justice to George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, as well as checking out Isaiah Shoticaury’s ‘If Your Bumping This… Thank You, Vol. 1’.
‘If Your Bumping This… Thank You, Vol. 1’: https://open.spotify.com/album/1n61p3gOMmmZ5oWZxp394p?si=RVb1VkH8T7e1gqOV0q3Rfg
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theemissing_link/
Breonna Taylor: https://justiceforbreonna.org/
George Floyd: https://www.justiceforbigfloyd.com/
Further BLM Petitions: https://www.change.org/t/black-lives-matter-en-us