We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Wych Hazle. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Wych below.
Hi Wych, thanks for joining us today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?
There is not just one project that I have done as a Hip Hop Artist I can put high at the top of others.
I have went through many different phases as an MC/Lyricist. With very different influences at different stages of evolution in my development
I have been writing, memorizing, and freestyling since I was 12 years old. Projects I have done probably have a different type of significance to me than most Artists I know, in the culture of Hip Hop.
I make full length projects that are thematic, and when I release singles they are usually very conceptual . I do have three projects that I hold dear as a creator. Each of them were recorded during junctures in my history where major shifts were happening mentally, emotionally, psychologically, or financially.
The Long Shadow Mixtape, which I was commissioned to do by Director Frances Causey for her poignant, revealing documentary on how blacks are kept out of the financial part of The American Dream. I feel it is a very important work, lyrically, politically, and educationally. It’s edutainment. Still it is uncompromisingly Hip Hop while being academic. It can be found on SoundCloud and Coast2Coast Mixtapes.
DRAMAFICATION 2: SINCERELY YOURS
I wrote and recorded during a break up, losing my father to cancer, and dealing with trying to get my daughter out of a bad situation. Recording it, I had to stay centered in the middle of being a father with a lot on his plate, but with no father to talk to about it anymore.
My father and grandfather, both Prince Hall Freemasons, gave me advice appearing in my dreams. Through the exploration of the things I speak on, I found the elder statesmen within. I changed as a man, for the better.
MICROPHONOLOGY, a fun, lyrically cerebral Boom Bap project I did with Watkinz Da General out of N.C., is a favorite of mine currently, because it was refreshing to record from where I am now as an MC.
I took it back to raw skills. Skills I developed in the 80s and 90s that I hadn’t tapped into for a while.
There is a mixtape and an actual EP that will be a trilogy. A lot of styling,word play, tricks, obtuse metaphors and such. These are the reasons why I started loving Hip Hop in the first place. Content and substance came later after hearing ” The Message” by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious 5
All my solo albums can be found on Bandcamp for purchase. Some of my compositions are on Spotify, but I don’t appreciate how they underpay Artists. I appreciate all who listen.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I go by WYCH HAZLE. I am a Hip Hop Energy Healer. That title encompasses a few different skills, disciplines, and practices.
Firstly, my first love and most honed skill is that of an Artist. I have been writing rhymes, sketching, composing short stories, scripts, and episodic fiction since 1983. I have went by other MC names: Equinox, Plan Be, Pucali ( Str8 Game Records, Nkiru Books) Naughty 2Lips ( Big Lip Productions).
I started two avante garde Hip Hop crews on the campus of WIU in the early 90s: Vortex Crew and Slangbangboogie.
Secondly, I have degrees and certifications in a few Ancient Healing Modalities: Oriental Medicine, Enneagram, Tarot, Numerology, Alchemy, and Qigong. These are not just skills from education, but altitudes I have always possessed in some form, or fashion.
I utilize Hermeticism and an Ancient Asiatic system called Wu Xing to see, hear, analyze, and treat various types of issues clients present. I also stay present for those doing and dealing with internal shadow work.
Thirdly, BLKWIZFLIX, my brand, under which my music, visual art, music videos, shorts, animated movies, episodic fiction, and other thematic products are promoted and sold.
BLKWIZFLIX specializes in unique, Afro- Esoteric, and Urban Surrealist creations that are as poignant as they are paradigm shifting aesthetically.
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
Technology is amazing.
We are part lucky and part unlucky to live in this day where so much can be done digitally to get one’s art to the world: internet, AI, Apps, etc.
I am steadily building my social media presence without getting caught up in the illusion of it all at the same time….the matrix of distraction. It has taken me 3 years to build the audience I have now on my social media platforms, but it definitely helps that I have history in Hip Hop from before all the sites.
I came up in the cassette and vinyl era of what I do where we had to work harder to get known and had to do so at a grassroots level. I still take that approach. Talk less about what you do and show more art that speaks for itself.
People don’t like reading long descriptions of art to describe it when it is right there in front of their face. With that being said, I stopped talking about my art and just focused more on the presentation and where people are that like it.
Once I could see who liked me and where they were with stat tools on each platform, it gave me more information about how to move within that space as an individual and as a brand.
What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?
I have had so many jobs in my life. I started working at a very young age. It was always my goal to only do certain jobs until I could do what I really want to do.
I have studied Ancient Modalities since I was about 14. I was introduced to a lot of esoteric concepts through reading books, or becoming fascinated with the paranormal watching shows like The Outer Limits, Twilight Zone, Scanners, Poltergeist, etc.
Playing spades in high school and college with friends I begin to see patterns in the numbers and symbols they would pull. I would impress them by sometimes predicting how situations they brought to the table would turn out. I never considered getting paid for such a skill, nor did I know what I know now about them and how they are acquired and/or refined.
After moving to Arizona , I went The Desert Mystery School to study Qaabala under Amy Wall ( Order Of The Golden Dawn) and found out that people were making money doing what I had done free for decades. So I decided to level up.
Levelling up led me to more Modalities that I discovered I was just as adept in, after knowing the basics.
The healing I did within and how it translated to my clients motivated me to become the specialist I am and also reinvigorated my love for lyricism and performing.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://tubespace.io/wychhazle1
- Instagram: @wychhazle
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lenard.pugh
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/golden-eye-9a361168
- Twitter: https://x.com/SlangBangBoogie
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@wychhazle
- Soundcloud: https://m.soundcloud.com/slangbanbangboogie
- Other: SEEING EYE SOLUTIONS:
https://www.instagram.com/seeing_eye1
BLKWIZFLIX:
https://www.instagram.com/blkwizflix
Image Credits
All Photos And Art:
Lenard Morgan Pugh
( AKA WYCH HAZLE)