Miami, Florida emcee Bizzy Crook is currently accompanying Kid Ink and King Los on the "My Own Lane Tour," and our very own Damon Campbell recently caught up with him for an exclusive interview at The Intersection in Grand Rapids, Michigan, during which they discussed his origins, Eminem's influence, his battle with depression and more. Read excerpts from their conversation and watch the whole thing below, as well as Crook's recent video for "No Limit," which has been co-signed by Master P himself.
Bizzy's preparing to drop a new project titled No Hard Feelings later this year, so stay tuned for the roll-out, and keep up with him via Twitter, Instagram, Facebook or Tumblr in the meantime. Also, make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel for more exclusive content: youtube.com/user/HotNewHipHop.
On Attending Operas With His Father As A Youth:
"My father used to make me go to operas with him. I used to hate going. It'd just be me alone ... I'd be with my friends and he'd be like "alright, it's time to go to the opera," and I'd have to get dressed up and go. And I'd sit there for two hours, and sometimes fall alseep, but as I grew older I just learned to appreciate it. I think that's why ... I can be so versatile, because I just grew up on so many different kinds of music."
On His Relationship With The Sneaker Culture As A Youth:
"Sneakers was like gold ... it was kind of like, when I'd buy the sneaker, I knew that if I needed the money that bad, I could flip 'em, especially around where I grew up. We was just all into sneakers ... Man, I used to get everything, everything that used to come out, until I needed to sell it ... My biggest regret is probably ... my [Air Jordan] Bordeaux 7s, [which] I let go for like $110, and I wore them, like, twice."
On Eminem's Influence:
"With Eminem, it was just the stuff this guy was saying. Me being a kid and this guy just saying all this ignorant stuff that I [didn't] even understand at the time ... you know, it had me asking my cousin certain things, like "yo, what does this mean? What's this? What's this?" I remember asking her ... what half of the verses meant, and she's looking at me, giving me the answers, and I'm just like "wow ... this is my favorite rapper, I wanna be just like him, I wanna do what he does."
On Overcoming Depression:
"I learn something new about myself every day ... I've realized that there's really no limit to what you want to do. The whole suicide thing ... a lot of people don't know that was a year ago. To be able to just put that into my music, and tell my story with it, and put out two projects and be on a tour this big, it's just a blessing. You know, it can really happen when you have that positive mindstate ... I just feel like this is something I'm here to do. Coming in as a hip-hop kid, I've got a lot of big goals and a lot of big shit I'mma do ... since I was eight years old, it was my only dream ... once I discovered rap, it's all I ever wanted to do, and it's become my everything ... it's been times when I've just been at the bottom, and at the lowest point of my life, and it's been my reason to keep going ... I can vent, meditate, tell my story and open up through the music."
(Watch Damon's previous interview with YMCMB's Caskey here.)
