We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Altayzie. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Altayzie below.

Hi Altayzie, thanks for joining us today. Are you happy as a creative professional? Do you sometimes wonder what it would be like to work for someone else?

What a loaded question! First things first, I’ve only had regular jobs, and I think 99% of artists are in the same boat as I am. I sell merch here and there, and have gotten paid for a couple performances over the years, but that’s really it. This whole notion of artists making a living off their music is a total facade. These streaming services are basically just landlords that charge artist to exist in their catalogues. When somebody finds out you make music, the first thing they’ll ask is, “Is it on Spotify? Apple Music?” etc., so artists justify paying that cost for the sake of accessibility, only to be rewarded with fractions of a penny in return. What the f*ck is a fraction of a penny? The entire music industry is essentially just corporations foaming at the mouth. All they want to do is make exponentially more than the artists themselves, and do everything possible to compromise their artistic integrity and ownership rights in the process. Artists feel like they HAVE to play this game with the industry, because capitalism is a motherf*cker. There’s more than enough money and resources in the world for all of us to be living with food, shelter, and healthcare, but due to capitalism and global imperialism in general, everything becomes about domination, winners/losers, and assimilating into these institutions that don’t give a f*ck about the general population. Everything we do in life is centered around making money and honestly it’s disgusting. Our whole identities are based on whatever company/profession is currently exploiting our time and energy, so most of us artists aren’t even valued as artists by society, because we’re too busy working other bullshit jobs to pay our rent. Our passions get reduced to “hobbies”, because capitalistic logic is, “anything that doesn’t pay your bills is a hobby”, right? So no, I’m not happy as an artist, and have a very difficult time understanding how anybody can be happy in general. Is happiness even real? Or is it that some of us are just at peace with how f*cked up the world is? I’m also bipolar, so maybe I’m just extremely biased.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I’m Altayzie, and I’m an underground hip-hop artist from St. Louis, Missouri. I’m 28 years old, and I’ve been writing songs since I was 14. I’ve released several albums over the years, rocked dozens of shows/festivals/house parties, and met some of the most incredible people along the way. I don’t define my success by any financial standards, only by the people who’ve shown me love, the experiences I’ve been able to have, and the knowledge I’ve gained in the process. I don’t f*ck with the music industry at all, and have no desire for corporate recognition of any kind. I’d much rather stay underground with like minded creatives, and operate as far away from the system as possible.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

The most rewarding feeling for me is when somebody reaches out to say how much my music has helped them deal with the struggles of their personal lives. Music has always been therapy to me, so it’s a very full-circle feeling of purpose whenever I get those type of messages from supporters of mine. Additionally, the process of being able to turn my own traumatic events and intrusive thoughts into something positive is incredibly rewarding as well.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

Another loaded question! If you’re the friend of an artist, or there’s a specific artist that you really look up to, do whatever you can to make sure that artist knows how much you appreciate them and everything they’re doing. It sounds really simple, but honestly it’s probably the most important thing you can do to make them feel genuinely valued in society. Besides that, simply paying them for their work and financially contributing anything you can for their future creations would make a huge difference in their quality of life and ability to keep doing what they love. On a much deeper level, we need to start building new infrastructure outside of the current system to stop artists from being exploited by these corporations in general. If we keep relying on the same industry while expecting different results, we’re literally insane. I know that thinking outside of capitalism takes a LOT of unlearning and rightful questioning, but we can’t keep telling ourselves that there’s nothing we can do about it. I personally suggest anyone that’s interested to look up, “Jaded Forum”, and tap into the dialogue that’s being held there. The best part is that they’re actually doing everything they’re talking about. Their whole mission is to organize creative collectives that operate through decommodified spaces. There’d be no landlords or bosses to worry about, and everything would be split as a co-operative to ensure stability for everyone involved. We can either spend our whole lives rattling off reasons why “this would never work”, or we can give it a f*cking shot. We’re all essentially on a sinking ship right now, so we might as well try to build new ones before we die, right?

Contact Info:

• Website: https://altayzie.wixsite.com/website-1
• Instagram: altayzie.stl
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Altayzie/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@altayzie455
• Other: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/6pu2F7yQlfsffJEpzPLjR5