Trizzmatic

I2G chilled with Trizzmatic for an exclusive interview. We discuss a multitude of topics in this in depth read, check it out.

Trizzmatic! It is a pleasure to meet you and to have the splendid chance to get to know you a little more!

If we are not just the bodies but the consciousness within a body suit can you tell me what you feed yourself intellectually to fulfill your life?

I feed myself with raw truth, no matter where it comes from-be it books, music, movies, or just studying the natural flow & cycle of life. I’m a student of everything that crosses my path. I try to extract the best part in everything that applies to me, and constantly try to refine myself-mentally, physically, and spiritually .Whatever will keep me evolving into a better person I use that.



You’ve said “I don’t do this to be rich or famous but to make a difference” Music has a way of teaching and encouraging both in negative and positive ways. What do you hope your listeners grab on to?

The main thing I hope my listeners grab on to is that no matter where you come from, no matter your background, or present circumstances-never let anyone or anything define who you are. Too often we allow society to place limitations on what we can be or achieve. I’m a firm believer that we all have a unique purpose for being on this earth and that it is up to us to find our own best qualities and talents and to develop them to our highest potential for the greater good of us all.



Prison can have various affects on a person. How did it affect you?

Prison for me, was a blessing in disguise. Make no mistake, prison is hell on earth and I encourage everyone especially the youth to avoid going there if you can. But for me, it was a place that forced me to slow down my fast living and gave me the opportunity to do some thinking. The fast pace of the world doesn’t afford many the time to do some deep thinking, especially those from the hood.

Prison is the worst place anyone can be, besides the grave but I used those 10 years of confinement to educate myself as much as I could to become a better person and a better father for my son. Unfortunately, not everyone uses their incarceration constructively. Knowing I was coming back to society a single-father I felt I had no other choice. I did what I had to do to ensure that.



Do you remember writing your first bars in prison? what finally brought the pen to the pad?

My pen never stopped writing! I was 20 years old with no knowledge of anything when I went to prison ( in 2003).The honest truth is, in the beginning, I didn’t take being incarcerated seriously. I was so ignorant and arrogant that I truly convinced myself that I wasn’t going to get convicted and sent upstate. So I was always writing, battling other inmates, smoking weed, and bullshitting around. Again, this was in the beginning when I was awaiting trial in the Hampden County House of Corrections. The county jail, in Ludlow, MA.



We learn from the dancing of skeletons in our closets. Can you tell us a little bit about one of the biggest steps you had to make in the right direction and how that moment has helped/pushed you?

Yeah, once I was given a 10-10 and a day sentence, I began to see those closest to me start to drift away. I was left alone and had to learn to be responsible for myself. I had nothing and not many people stuck around so I began to question my belief in God and if I would trust him/her to get me through those 10 years. During all of this, I was hearing from the streets that my son’s mother began to develop a serious drug addiction. On top of that my son was taken by the Department of Social Services and placed in foster care then in the adoption unit. It was too much to deal with, so I promised myself I was going to learn as much as I could and come home a better me and get my son back. I did all of the above. I accredit that to reading ‘The Autobiography of Malcolm X’ after I learned that he made his own transformation in the very same prison I was in- MCI Norfolk, in Norfolk, Massachusetts. I tried as best as I could to follow the steps that he took to clean himself up.



Your range of music seems to be indiscriminative. How have your music favorites affected you..if at all?

Coming from the harsh background that I come from, I always gravitated towards artists that wouldn’t settle for being boxed in or confined to any musical style. Naturally, I was always into the kind of artists that tore down barriers and redefined what music was suppose to sound like. For me, those artists were the late great, Michael Jackson,2Pac,Nas,The Notorious B.I.G., Wu-Tang Clan, Bob Marley, Marvin Gaye, Curtis Mayfield, Billie Holiday, and Nina Simone-really too many of them to name.

I prefer music with some sort of social commentary and message because if you research the history of music all the way back to ancient times you’ll see that music was created for the salvation of the soul. I believe we as musicians and performers have a responsibility that somewhere down the line has been tossed to the side for fame & fortune.

What do you hope to accomplish both with music and otherwise?

If my music doesn’t do anything else, I at least hope I can save a few young men and/or women from making some of the mistakes that I made. Too many artists, mainly rappers glorify shit that they never been through. It’s a shame to know there are young brothers-17,18,19 years old doing ‘Life’ in prison. When you ask them do they know where they went wrong, a good percentage of them say they were caught up trying to live out what some rapper(s) were talking about. I know this because I was one of them. It sounds good coming through the speakers, but to have to sit in court and face the family of someone that you’ve murdered…I don’t care how gangster you think you are, taking a life is real and it affects more than just you. So my mission is to tell these young kids that just because I escaped a 40 years to Life sentence, doesn’t mean that they will! I was given a second chance in life and I wanna use it for good. I wanna help rebuild the community that I helped destroy.

Being in the community and being able to experience/hear/feel what people go through on a daily basis has given you the fluid to most of your work if not all ..what do you want to give back?

I want to give back everything that I owe. I owe an explanation for my past actions, whether it was lying, cheating, stealing, robbing, selling drugs- or whatever I was doing. God gave me a mouth, some talent, and a brain so it’s my duty to use it for the greater good.

I know the impact that I made on the inmate community while doing them prison shows and now that I have a wider audience here in society I have only two choices- to influence the masses with negativity or something positive, I rather choose the ladder, because as individuals when we’re at the end of our lives, it’s only you that has to be accountable for what you did on this earth. As the saying goes, “Born alone, die alone”. When it’s time for me to go, I don’t want to leave a legacy of all of the bad deeds. I’m trying to pay back my karmic debt that I owe the Most High.

If you can pick a song that is closest to capturing your passion and what you have been through, what would it be?

The easy answer would be ‘More to Me’, one of my own songs because it explains my essence. But the real answer to that would be the song that turned on the light inside of my head. That song is Nas’s, ‘You’re the Man’, because I was going through the shit he was talking about in that song ,in my own way, in my own hood .I was trying to find a way out of the street life when that came out but I couldn’t and found myself going upstate for a decade.

The whole ‘Stillmatic’ album changed my life, in the sense that it turned on my conscious and made me think deeply about my own life and my own place in this world. That’s why the word ‘Matic’ is on the end of my stage name.I never wanted to forget what initially got me to start having real thoughts about myself and my need for change.

Does your child watch you in the studio/writing/or performing? How is that experience?

My son Davion, has seen footage of me performing but I’ve yet to bring him into the studio. Maybe one day because he writes his own songs here and there. Sometimes we write together or we share ideas. He’s only 10 years old so I don’t force anything on him but I love having him around when I’m writing because he’s honest to a fault. He’ll let me know what sounds good and what doesn’t. I love that.



Introduce us to the definition of “Trizzmatic” –

Trizzmatic is the embodiment of inspiration with an edge. I’m always striving for new ways to think, grow, and evolve. Coming out of Springfield, Massachusetts-a place yet to be recognized by the hip-hop community, I’m always gonna make and follow my own path. When everybody’s going left I’ma go right, when they go right I’ma go left. I live by the phrase, “Never Conform, Never Blend In”. I’m comfortable with that. I know who I am and what I want to do and I’ma always go with that.

I’m not here to be the best rapper in the world but the most important. To quote Andre 3000,”I tell it like it is, then tell it how it could be”. That’s the best way I can define my style and who I am.

Any shout outs or last comments?

If I can leave the people with anything, it would be to learn to respect and cherish time. None of us are promised tomorrow or another second on this earth so do and say all that you can now while you still have life. Never put it off until tomorrow because tomorrow may never come. - Illuminati2G

This is my second week with Recording Connection and my mentor, Doug Wallace. I have had a lot of fun learning the basics so far, connectivity, types of mics, basic sound and hearing and I have enjoyed learning all of it! For my second week at, Studio 128, with Doug, he had a hip/hop artist known as, Trizzmatic come in and discuss his album and see how mixing is going. Trizzmatic is a very talented young hip/hop artist from Springfield, MA. and you dont see songs like his anymore. they really draw you in and tell a story. Which is what rap is about. It was extremely exciting to see his face when he was listening to Doug's mix, and to see how the engineer and client work together. I can’t wait to see what else comes next! - Recording Connection / David Osip