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

Marquel, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Has your work ever been misunderstood or mischaracterized?
I wouldn’t necessarily say I’m misunderstood, I’d rather say I am overlooked and undervalued in a lot of ways. So just to be honest with history, electronic music started and was made by black gays, mainly during the 70’s/80’s but started popping off in 1975. People like me started the movement of EDM but 99% of artists forget that or simply just don’t know. It’s kinda crazy that there’s alot of great black electronic artists out here but we don’t get any respect or time of day because you know. I just wish that I receive the same opportunities as everyone else but not get discriminated because of my skin color. The interesting part of this is, I’m not truly bothered by it because it fuels my desire to show AWARENESS of this and show that black artists, DJs, producers can do this EDM thing too. We basically created it. All I can do is focus on the mission because I’m bringing honor, respect and authenticity to the table and moreover to the people.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
Hey there friends and beautiful people.

My name is Marquel Wallace, 32 years young, I go by The Rico Suave, The Champion of SuaveStyle. I have a side hip hop/r&b/lo-fi alias named Trisha Takanawa, I’m from Richmond, Virginia, currently residing in Boulder, Colorado and this is a glimpse of my story.

In 2013 I saw Adventure Club at Fur in Washington DC and fell in love with the music, the vibes, the people the booth. So I exposed myself to more music, then finally I picked up decks and started my DJ journey.

I know what separates me from the rest and that’s simply my SuaveStyle. SuaveStyle is a style of not just music but life, clothes, goals, sounds and sets. My taste of everything goes very far back in time that most don’t like to truly experiment with music enough to truly evolve themselves because they want to bang the hardest and throw down the hardest most gnarly sounds of bass. I play with suave, accuracy and feel the room while playing multiple types of genres all at once because my versatility gets better every year because of that taste of music from generations. I thank my mom for that.

Best thing I’m proud of is my evolution and my release of fear. I love this music, I love my career no matter the pace, over time I have truly evolved not just musically but mentally and emotionally. It taxes your mind sometimes.

I want my next set of followers and supporters to know this. I’m here to be heard and authentic. You TRULY can have it all if you’re passionate and simply DO. THE. WORK. no shortcuts, just do the work. I don’t want the super fame and money or attention it may or may not come with the gig, but I’m here because I’m passionate about MUSIC and I want to be heard everything not just at a festival or stage, but TV, film, music, podcasts, gaming, travel, Pro Wrestling. EVERYTHING.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
I’m a black electronic artist in a predominantly white artist music scene as well as the world. I have been told no simply because I’m black ‘MANY times, I been told no and said you’re not ready when I am, I been screwed out of opportunities left and right, overlooked, undervalued, unappreciated and more importantly ignored by your own race when simply you want to show Black Excellence where it’s needed the most because we started it all.

Never ever be afraid of being told no. EVER. You will eventually get told yes more times than you can keep up with. Why? Because you’re true to the passion and yourself amongst so much phony artists

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?
Best way to support is to simply support them FREELY without thinking it comes at a cost. Retweet thst tweet, share that link, like that post, post on your Instagram story. It’s not a damn chore, it’s showing love. You don’t need to be selfish or get jealous because we can all succeed together. We truly can. Also, you don’t have to follow the same formula as others. Be YOU, don’t be someone else.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://soundcloud.com/suavestyle
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/_thericosuave_
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/suavestyleDJ
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheRicoSuave_
• Other: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/the-rico-suave/1491093748

Image Credits
Me Melisa Maldonado (my partner)