We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Matt Stewart a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Matt, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

it started very young for me . As a kid i would remix songs on the fly , kind of like weird all style. Then i had a teacher in grade 3 and 4 who was really into different styles of poetry, so this was my first glimpse at creating! it easily became fun for me and i enjoyed helping with the poems we would write as a class. I was aslo into rap at a very early age, around the same time the poetry stuff was happening.
I took a few creative writing classes in highschool but i never applied myself enough to do anything meaningful. Also around grade 9 i started freestyling with my friends, like all the time. So much so , that we started a crew and put out albums. Freestyling is a key ingredient when creating songs. looking back, If i took it more serious, we probably could have taken it further then just doing shows in our home town.

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?

My name is Lionize PRIME, i am a Bboy at heart , emcee, beat maker and scratch dj from London , Ontario Canada. Been rapping and performing live since 2000, while still in high school I was in a 6 member group called Sound Minds. But my love for music started early, mostly as a means of escape , but i fell in love. Once i discovered rap music i knew deep in my heart that i wanted to create. Now in 2025 i have a fully functioning home studio where i make my beats , write and record my raps and my djing. I’ve produced two albums for my rap duo Soul Vibe Syndicate and the majority of an album called Brain Damage by Wayward plus several other singles for artists in south western Ontario.
I provide mixing and mastering services along with individual artist coaching and development. My time in the music industry has allowed me to posses the knowledge to know what it takes to make a name for yourself.
Some of my proudest moments came from my first group i was in , we got to open up for so many talented hiphop artists ( phife dawg of tribe called quest , brother ali , zion i , scratch from the roots, aceyalone , classified , moka only , the art of fresh skratch bastid and many more ).
I stand in my square and pride myself on being original , not conforming to what you would expect from a hiphop artist. fusing together elements from different genres to create my sound.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

i got invited to go to a cypher with 20 or so other rappers down in philly. Mostly all the other artist were from somewhere in the US, i was the only one from Canada. So i invited my other friend who rapped and a friend to tag along and document the journey. It was a life changing experience. On the way home we stopped for gas in upstate NY and my car would not go back into gear after re fueling, we freaked out. luckily a concerned citizen saw us and offered to lend a hand. His friend owner a car repair shop so we got it looked at. The part had to be ordered , so ended up sleeping in my car in a Macdonalds parking lot over night till the part arrived. It took a lot of courage to not want to give up .

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

personally it was getting to meet and open up for artists i looked up to and was inspired by

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lionizeprime/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LionizePRIME
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@Lionizeprime
• Other: https://lionizeprime1.bandcamp.com/music
  Soul Vibe Syndicate on ALL streaming platforms

Image Credits

Rick sims credited for 2 photos