We were lucky to catch up with Ashton Green recently and have shared our conversation below.

Ashton, appreciate you joining us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

Definitely my latest project “The Compilation”. Hands down. It’s the culmination of everything that’s happened to me throughout the pandemic. From the passing of my uncle & grandmother, to my physical and mental health struggles, I basically had to start my life over from scratch to make this project happen. Long time ties were severed, tears were shed, and I went through just about every single emotion a thousand times. Also it’s my first ever full length original project!. I developed great friendships with everyone involved in the creation of this project, from Murat Colak, who I got in touch with after my girlfriend at the time showed me a tweet from Benny Blanco talking about him providing mixing and mastering services for people of color struggling during the pandemic, to my main collaborator currently, Mark Senchuk, aka BluffGawd, who’s been the main provider for my beats after I flipped a couple of his beats and enjoyed my work. The coolest part about it all for me is that we all live in different states, but through the power of the internet we were able to make make a cool project throughout the pandemic and then see it come out on the tail end of it, while never meeting face to face.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’m a recording artist from Houston, currently residing in Stafford. I guess I initially got into this industry all the way back in high school. I started out as a choir boy, so I was more of a singer than a rapper starting out, I loved imitating my favorite rappers, like Ludacris, Eminem, Ace Hood, Childish Gambino, but I really only liked making parody songs. I slowly moved from parodies to making my own versions of popular records, to eventually linking up with my first ever collaborator, Michael Edison aka Ralphunnoticed at the Art Institute of Houston. To put it plain and simple I saw music as an outlet, not only for ways to make people laugh with my parodies in the beginning, but to also make them cry, angry, scared, and most importantly understand me as a complex being. I’m not a perfect person, I am deeply flawed, which we all are, but i’m thankful for music because it’s been the only and best way that i’ve been able to express my complex feelings and emotions. Through my introspective approach to music, I want people to understand that being flawed is perfectly fine, because as long as you’re always trying grow and be a petter person, those flaws grow into things that make you unique.

Have you ever had to pivot?

Absolutely, the pivot came when the pandemic came. before they developed vaccines and there were new variants of the virus, no one really knew how covid effected you. I was directly impacted by covid-19, and during that 2 week quarantine, I went through a very lonely process, not only physically, but mentally. I laid in my bed at one point and wondered if i was going to live, and I made a promise to my creator that if I made it through the my bout with the virus, that I would do everything all over from scratch, and change my approach to everything and everyone. I cleaned everything from my room to my contacts list, and from the moment I went back to my day job to two years later, a short time removed from my first official release, I have learned to be a completely different and better person and rapper than I was.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

The most rewarding aspect of what I do is connecting with people, whether our backgrounds are the same or not. All I want is to be heard, and understood. I don’t like to speak for anybody, but it does feel really good whenever people tell me they can relate to the words in my music.

Contact Info:

• Website: BlackZuko.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/BlackZuko
• Facebook: Facebook.com/BlackZuko
• Twitter: Twitter.com/BlackZuko
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrYYW9K3vj_WEvoEELky8BQ
• Other: BlackZuko on all platforms, Debut project “The Compilation” out now on all platforms and the official video for my track produced by BluffGawd titled “WolvesDen” directed by Freddy Dang is out now on Youtube.

Image Credits
Courtney green Jacquee Kemp Julie Moore Ashton Green Crystal Smiley Natalie Sulak