Exposed Vocals: How did you hear about Exposed Vocals? What made you decide to sign up?
Giz O: I got a msg on Twitter from Exposed Vocals and thought it couldn’t hurt to answer a few questions to get myself out there.
Exposed Vocals: So tell us your story. Where did you grow up? What made you decide to become an artist?
Giz O: I was born in Ethiopia but my family fled to The Netherlands when I was 3. I grew up in The Hague in a low to middle class neighbourhood where Hip Hop was a big influence on the youth. In that era Deathrow had a stronghold on the rap game and I was a big fan of Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, 2pac, Warren G and Nate Dogg. When I was 13 a friend of mine showed me how to beatbox and asked me to freestyle over the beat he made. From there I always messed around with the homies freestyling in the streets and smoking weed untill my friends told me I should try and do it more seriously. In the end of 2013 me and 3 friends formed the CRE4M T3AM and released a mixtape on Soundcloud, early 2015. My first solo mixtape was released November 5th 2015.
Exposed Vocals: How did you come up with that name? What was your inspiration behind it?
Giz O: My given name is Gizea, which means Time in my native language. Friends and acquaintences have always called me Giz for short. (Not Jizz hahaha) At one point people started calling me Gizo or Gizzy. I decided Giz O suited me better, plus when Snoop Dogg says “Go” in the shizzle language he says Gizo and I’m always on the Go.
Exposed Vocals: What do you think about online music sharing? Do you ever give your music away for free? Why?
Giz O: I think in this digital world we live in it’s impossible to stop people from sharing music or anything else online. I understand that the artists are not getting the amount of money they used to get when CD sales were dominating but at least now everyone has access to their music. Up untill now I have always given my music away for free because the beats I rap on aren’t all mine. On top of that, I’m in no position to be demanding money for my music because I am completely unknown to the scene and want free exposure to see what people think of my music.
Exposed Vocals: Since everyone was a start-up once, can you give any smaller or local bands or artists looking to get gigs and airplay some tips?
Giz O: To be honest I’m still starting up myself so I wouldn’t know what kind of tips to give people except that if you enjoy making music and it happens to be good, don’t stop creating and promoting your product because you never know who is listening. I’m basically seeking any platform that will play/showcase/talk about my music to get myself out there.
Exposed Vocals: Do you ever make mistakes during performances? How do you handle that?
Giz O: It has definitely happened and the way I deal with it is as if nothing happened!! I’m lucky not to have had such a serious slip up that it was impossible to hide (YET!). I just continue with the performance and hope not too many people noticed my mistake.
Exposed Vocals: Do you tour? Anything interesting happen on tour that you think our readers would enjoy hearing about?
Giz O: I wish!! I don’t have enough fans/followers to start touring anytime soon. I would love the opportunity to tour and open up for a more well known artist but that is going to take some serious networking and a little bit of luck.
Exposed Vocals: Where do you usually gather songwriting inspiration? What is your usual songwriting process?
Giz O: I usually smoke a bunch of weed and then start listening to some beats online. When I find one that sparks my interest, I start freestyling so I can find the natural flow and topic of the song and begin writing my lyrics. I usually do my writing at home and always at night. I can start writing at 11pm and not stop untill 5 or 6am (depending on my weed supply!).
Exposed Vocals: Do you have a band website? What online platforms do you use to share your music?
Giz O: I don’t have a website atm but I am active on social media. Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Youtube are the platforms where I promote myself to the world. Once I get myself to a point where I can make a living from music, then I will get my own website where I can also do some merchandising.
Exposed Vocals: What are some really embarrassing songs that we might find on your mp3 player?
Giz O: Here we go… Wham – Club Tropicana , Europe – Final Countdown, Madonna – Holiday. 3 songs people wouldn’t expect me to listen to let alone enjoy. They all were songs that came on MTV when I was growing up and I still love to hear them even though people look at me funny when I tell them I bump them from time to time.
Exposed Vocals: If you were given half a million dollars and a year off, what would you do? How would you spend it?
Giz O: I would first take my closest friends on a small vacation somewhere warm. When I get back from that trip, I’d take my family on vacation and pay off all our bills! Once I’m done travelling I would love to build a proffesional studio and pay for a video to be put on Worldstar Hip Hop for a week. I would definitely try to meet or contact some of my favorite artists to see if a feature would be possible.I would still have some of that money left at the end of the year if it was up to me.
Exposed Vocals: Any planned studio upgrades? What are you working with now?
Giz O: There are no planned upgrades for our studio atm. The studio is located at a friend’s place and is the most basic set up imaginable. PC with Cubase program, a decent microphone and a lot of good energy is what we work with. There is a lil soundproofing behind the microphone and thats literally it.
Exposed Vocals: How do you find ways to promote your music? What works best for you?
Giz O: I find it very difficult to promote my music in this ocean of musicians which keeps on growing everyday. I try to keep a presence on social media and use facebook to get my friends aware of what I am doing. They are the ones who spread the word about what I’m doing and trying to achieve. The platforms that have the most followers all cost money to get your music/videos posted on them so that is always a bit of a barrier but I still try to get my stuff posted on there as much as I can afford.
Exposed Vocals: If you could perform anywhere and with any artists (Dead or Alive) where and who would it be with? Why?
Giz O: My dream performance would be in The House Of Blues performing together with Snoop Dogg, 2pac, Nate Dogg and Pimp C. These are the people that I feel shaped my music and my life with their influence and it would be an honor to share the stage with them and get that recognition back from those legends. Unfortunately 3 of the 4 are dead so I can only hope that one day I will get the chance to perform with/for Snoop Dogg and partially furfill my wildest dream.
Exposed Vocals: So, what’s next? Any new upcoming projects that you want to talk about?
Giz O: I’m finishing up my second solo mixtape which will be released on my 30th birthday, Feb 15th 2016. I’m calling it “T.D.W: The Darkness Within”, I feel that it represents me in this moment of my life and the path from which I came. It’s gonna be twice as long as T.I.M.E and will feature the homies from my rap crew plus others. It’s a good mix of new wave trap music, 90’s hip hop and spaced out RnB showing the musical influences in my life.
Exposed Vocals: If you weren’t making music, what would you be doing?
Giz O: To be honest I don’t know what I would be doing because I was getting myself into a lot of trouble with the law in the past years. I was tired of my situation and decided I had to at least make one good attempt at my music. Its been my determination to do something with my music that has motivated me to focus my free time and energy on something productive.
Exposed Vocals: Do you remember buying your first album? Who was it? What was going through your head?
Giz O: I do remember buying my first album, it was Michael Jackson’s “Dangerous”. I remember seeing the CD cover in the store and I had to to have it once I read that “Remember The Time” was on it. I played it over and over staring at the artwork in the booklet listening to all the tracks while reading the lyrics as he sang them. I just remember thinking how amazing the whole experience was from beginning to end.
Exposed Vocals: How do you juggle the rest of your responsibilities while trying to stay ahead in your music life?
Giz O: I currently work at a Coffeeshop ( Yes I sell weed legally!) in my neighbourhood and in my free time I work on my music and try to get as many people as possible to listen to it. Its only been a year since me and the CRE4M T3AM started putting our music out and this is my first solo project so I’m definitely feeling positive that we are moving in the right direction. My music hasn’t gotten busy enough for me to quit my job but I’m working hard to make music my full-time job.
Exposed Vocals: What should fans look forward to in 2016?
Giz O: There’s quite a lot we cooking up over the winter for people to look out for..My second solo mixtape “The Darkness Within” is dropping Feb 15th and its packed with bangers if I may say so myself. The homie Phlex is busy recording his first solo project, co-written by me, which is also expected to drop early 2016. My cuzzns Lowk-E & OC Warning are expected to release their first solo projects later in the year. We are also working on a new CRE4M T3AM project which will be produced completely by the homie Sammie Sosza which will be released near the end of 2016. So lots of music coming out of our corner in The Hague this upcoming year!!
I’d like to thank you for the opportunity to do this interview and keep your eye out for Giz O & The CRE4M T3AM, we out chea!
