Artist Profile: Emotionz
Emotionz is noticeably one of the greatest talents in Vancouver's hip-hop scene: he records, he battles, he beatboxes and he engages the community by hosting events, workshops and club nights. He does it all, and is a 2-decade veteran of the game. Electric Love's Nikki and Adrian caught up with Emotionz to talk about his long history and his bright future.
Electric Love: How long have you been making music for?
Emotionz: I’ve been making rap music for about 20 years. I started out with freestyling and beatboxing when I was 13 or 14 years old, and it kind of moved more into recording in the studio, battles and stuff like that when I was young and now it’s turned into more touring and stuff like that.
Electric Love: What are some previous shows, festival or tour stories you could tell us?
Emotionz: You know every weekend is kind of like a new adventure for us. Some of the highlights as far as festivals and stuff that I’ve done: I’ve done Shambala for 15 years, Ultra Festival in Miami which was a really good one, I’ve done the World Ski & Snowboard Fest in Whistler a bunch of times which is always really special. Bass Coast is another amazing festival, which I’ve played there 3 times and that place has an awesome energy.
Electric Love: Aside from every artist playing at Electric Love, what do you personally bring to the table musically to get everyone hyped up for your show?
Emotionz: I think that I have pretty good music for these kinds of festivals because my music is kind of in-between Hip-Hop and EDM so it’s like rapping over it and the conscious lyrics. It’s a lot of Hip-Hop but over EDM, which is fun, or Hip-Hop music made with more Electronic sounds. With my beatboxing and rapping, I try to come up with more original pieces and bring a unique energy to the party that no one else brings. And I also feel like the crowd is only gonna have as much fun as you, so you gotta set an example of how much fun you want people to have and how much energy you want people to have.
Electric Love: What are some past accomplishments you have achieved in your field?
Emotionz: I’ve toured 18 countries, which I am very proud of, so that’s kept me busy for a long time. I’ve released 2 full solo studio albums, a bunch of mix tapes and stuff like that, but 2 full albums with music videos. I’m very proud of those albums. I was a battle champion in Western Canada for a very long time, and when I was in the battle stuff, I excelled in that very well and had a great record, kind of a lot of hype going for that. I’ve moved on to more as performer and studio recorder but looking back on my accomplishments, I am stoked with everything that I did because it was really fun in the moment. I’m very proud that the EDM & Hip-Hop scene, well the entire music scene, has opened up to me. All the musicians that live around me have always shown love and appreciation for everything I’ve done and the EDM Festivals and music scene has welcomed me with open arms, and the Hip-Hop scene has always been my forte.
Electric Love: What are you most excited for about Electric Love?
Emotionz: I like the idea that it’s a one-day party and everyone comes to have a great time. You give it your all to make sure that everyone has an awesome time. For me personally, I’m stoked on how many local Hip-Hop acts are booked to perform at it. Like 100 groups or something like that, so programming it will be hard (laughs). I’m excited to see that much local music and you know a lot of music festivals have to import the talent and its kind of weird when there is so much talent around you. So it’s cool to see, and the EDM line up is awesome! Like Mat The Alien is gonna crush it, but yeah, the amount of Hip-Hop acts is awesome, kind of like giving the tilt of the hat to the culture.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Emotionz
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/emotionz
Twitter: @EmotionzMusic