We recently connected with 3Fifs and have shared our conversation below.

3Fifs, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

“You gotta take chances to make advances.”

This quote is one of my mantras in life, so when my buddy, who was a full-time, charting songwriter at the time, told me that I should be making music full-time, I hesitated briefly before jumping in ten toes deep.

I went to college at Florida A&M University and studied Political Science/Pre-Law with intentions to be an entertainment attorney and artist manager. I had already done a tour of the University of Miami School of Law and taken the LSAT. Living in St. Louis with my parents post-graduation, I was just biding my time until I shipped off to law school. One day, my boy from high school that I hadn’t seen in years hit me up and invited me to kick it with him at a wedding for one of his friends. Since I hadn’t seen my boy in so long, it was a no-brainer.

At the wedding, of course, we got drunk as Hell. As I always do when I’m drinking, I started freestyling. At the end of session, my boy said, “Damn, bro! I knew you could rap, but I didn’t know you were that good! You should be doing this full-time…” At first, I was like, “Nah, Dawg, I gotta do something more stable.” Then, he reminds me that he has a record deal and wrote the number 1 song on the dance charts at the time. He, then, offered to manage me and show me the ropes. I had always wanted to record an album and go on tour, so having this offer on the table was too much for me to say “no” to a second time.

Within a few weeks, we booked studio time, and on my 2nd studio session ever, I recorded my street tape “Raspberry Rum.” The project gained a lot of notoriety in the St. Louis underground community and got me booked for several local shows, including SLUMFEST, the biggest hip-hop music festival in the Midwest at the time. Seeing my quick success, I told my parents that I wouldn’t be attending law school, and that I planned to be a rapper.

Of course, my parents thought I was crazy, and before giving me their blessing, they wanted to hear my music. They listened to “Raspberry Rum” and they were convinced that I had the skills to make a name for myself. Shortly thereafter, I recorded three music videos for “The Runaway EP” visual EP and recorded my first full-length release “Birth of a Nation,” which would go on to sell 20,000 copies on the street at $5 a piece. I haven’t thought about law school since.

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?

My dad was a DJ who starred in a music video himself, so I was introduced a wide variety of music early on. My dad’s favorite artist at the time was Ice Cube, so I fell in love with West Coast rap as a kid, and that sound heavily influences my own music. I wrote my 1st rap in 1st grade, and from there, performed mostly poetry/spoken word. After winning a poetry contest online, I had the courage to perform with the incredible artists of Black on Black Rhyme Poetry Troupe in Tallahassee, FL while I was in school.

Back then, I was a big fan of The Game, and he had his own label called “Black Wallstreet.” One day when I was trying to find some of his music, I stumbled across the history of the real Black Wall Street in Tulsa, OK. After spending hours reading about it and many of the other major racist riots following World War 1, I became completely fixated on learning about all the moments of American history, specifically Black American history, that were omitted during school. This obsession is how I came up with the name 3Fifs; an ode to the three-fifths compromise that ruled that Black people were considered three-fifths of a human being.

From this inspiration, it affected the things I wrote about: before, I rapped a lot of the usual bravado raps. Now, inspired and empowered by the history from which I descended, my music became historically influenced and much more meaningful. While I still carry a lot of that bravado that makes me who I am, I tie it in with people and events from the past that allow me to be here doing what I love doing. I’ve never heard of any other rap artist so conceptually influenced to this extent, and I believe that’s what separates me. We all make music, but I make history.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

My boy that convinced me to rap in the 1st place is, unfortunately, no longer my boy. I haven’t spoken to/heard from him in about 8 or 9 years.

I recorded “Raspberry Rum” in the summer of 2011 and recorded the original “Runaway EP” just a month later. After releasing the visual EP in January 2012, my boy told me to get back to work on writing my next project because the EP just “wasn’t good enough.” Not even a month after releasing that project, I began writing “Birth of a Nation,” and by August, it was fully recorded and ready for release. Instead of promoting it, my boy, again, tells me to get back to work because “this isn’t good enough.” At that point, I had had enough of not being good enough and not promoting my music that I was proud of, so he and I clashed and went our separate ways. His justification was that he had presented my music to some of the people at his record label, and they weren’t fans, so it was time to move on. Having been in various other businesses for years, I know that going straight to a label with no proof of concept was foolish, so I decided to promote my music on my own. Three months later, I had recorded the videos that would accompany “Birth of a Nation,” and released them in consecutive months with the 3rd video, “Danny Bonaduce,” being released on the day of the LP.

When me and my boy fell out, I could’ve called it quits and went back to my law school plans, but I decided I could never let one man stop the show, so I dedicated myself to learning as much about the music business as possible. After releasing and promoting “Birth of a Nation” without help from anyone established in the industry, I was able to secure shows, amass over 100,000 views on YouTube, and sell 20,000 copies of my project on the streets. I was also picked up by over 60 internet radio stations internationally and my video for “Danny Bonaduce” was featured on MTV’s RapFix. Ultimately, the success of the project got me nominated for “Freshman of the Year” at the 2013 SLUMFEST awards and got me booked at the Hard Rock Cafe in Toronto, CA as part of the Canadian Music Week 2014.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

I got married in 2016, and as a result, I shifted my focus from music to being a dependable husband and provider with a stable career. From that time until 2021, I didn’t release any music, though I was still writing and recording. Much like everybody else in the world, my life changed in 2020.

I was running a very successful car dealership for one of the biggest companies in the world at the time COVID hit. Because of the impact on travel, this company went bankrupt, and at the end of 2020, my $3M dealership was shut down. After losing that job, I realized that the only guarantee is owning your future, and to do that, I would have to go into business for myself. I also got immediate inspiration to start writing music again as a way to release my stress. A few months later, my world changed again when my cousin, O So Amazin’, who wrote the hook for “Danny Bonaduce” and featured in all of my videos, was killed.

Ari “O So Amazin'” was much more like a brother to me than a cousin. We grew up together in the same household for a while as kids, we got lost together during a family holiday, we picked up women at the mall together, and we shared a passion for music with each other. When Ari died, I was devastated, but I believe that his death and the other events that had transpired were signs from God to never be complacent and to keep chasing my dreams. While I had decided years ago that I couldn’t be a rapper anymore because I was married, God had other plans and just had to wait for the right time to reintroduce this vision back into my life.

I release music in order to honor God and honor the life and passion of my cousin. I also understand that I can control my future with my music and proper planning. My music is here to uplift those who share similar experiences to mine and that need music with substance. I am not a gospel rapper by any means, but my music honors God, for without Him, there would be no me. I thank Him for waking me up from my six year slumber and lighting a fire under me to make music my life again.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.3fifs.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/3fifs
• Facebook: facebook.com/3fifs
• Twitter: twitter.com/3fifs
• Youtube: youtube.com/threefifsent
• Other: 3fifs.bandcamp.com

Image Credits
Year60 Photography and Next Trend Media