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

Michael, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

I am actually approaching the last stretch on finishing my debut album, Affirmations. This album will tell the story of me being in the deepest pits of my depression, where I truly wanted to end myself, up to today,after I actually want to be alive, where I actuality found beauty in my life. The album has songs such as, Rescue Me, in which I am rapping as if I am at the end of my rope and am letting out one last cry for help before I “kick the chair”. Other songs on the album would be, Legacy, where I talk about building a better life for my son so he doesn’t have to go through what I went through; Looking back where I reminisce on my life and am feeling gratitude for my journey, and the song, Pressing Forward, in which I pretty much say I am not ashamed of my past because it brought me here today. But I’m also done letting my past affect my mind in the present as well as the future.

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 name is Michael Perez, a hip hop artist who speaks primarily on mental health. I go by the name of C13, pronounced See One Three, but people tend to call me C-13 (thirteen) which is also pretty cool, but I want to discuss what brought me to make hip hop music from my mental health. In 2003, I was eleven years old and my mother passed away at the age of 32 from kidney cancer. After my mom passed away,my dad had dove off the deep end in terms of his own mental health and he became an alcoholic and very abusive to me and my brother. On my 13th birthday, I ended up in the orphanage and from there I was moved to a Foster home where I stayed until I was 18 years old,
At this moment I decided I wanted to do music, but I still had things that were bothering me inside of my own mind so I didn’t want to make the music that everybody else makes talking about money, all the cars, girls and jewelry. I, instead wanted to make music about the things that were really bothering me. After a few years of making these songs I found out that other people were feeling the same as I do, so I continue to make music this way and branch out and further reach people.
Now with as many people as I have reached today, I believe it is time for me to put out my very 1st full length album for people to hear my journey in its entirely from being lost to being grateful for what I have been through and that I am still here today.
If anybody feels like they need to talk to somebody, I’m always right there for people to talk to. I don’t want my music to be simply just music. I wanted to be another branch on a tree that is meant for helping people. I want my tree to be used for helping people and music is just one of those branches.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect for me as an artist is every time I perform live at a venue and I get off of the stage, I usually have somebody coming up to me, sometime throughout the show, telling me how much they love my music, how much my music helped them, and sometimes if I’m lucky, they are comfortable enough with me to be open and share their story with me and I love when they do that because to me, it’s an energy trade meaning when they tell me their story they’re giving me what they were dealing with, the pain that they were feeling and in turn my music is giving them the energy that could potentially help them or how how they perceive it helps them. So I love when that happens and to me, that’s the most rewarding aspect.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

There are people who are not artists or creative who live everyday normal lives, with a 9-5 like shop owners, teachers, doctors, just people who don’t make music or are around anyone who makes music. That’s those people, and I’m still there as well with a normal everyday job, but I also make music on the side. But those people, when they hear my music, they may think, “Oh, it’s just another rapper; all I hear is rap rap rap,” but it’s not just rap. This is my expression. When I’m feeling self destructive or manic, it depressed, it’s really hard for me to tell you what’s wrong or how I’m feeling. So I write a song because that’s the only way I know how to tell you what’s killing me inside. Please don’t think I’m just rapping, please just sit down with your coffee or your tea, whatever you may drink while you are relaxing, and don’t hear the music, hear my words. Hear my voice. Hopefully that helps everybody to understand what I’m doing, because in return, I want to connect and understand them as well. We all need to love and hear and understand each other. That’s the only way, we as humans can evolve.     

Contact Info:

• Instagram: www.instagram.com/chapter13hh
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/13one1
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@C13HipHop
• Other: New Merch Shop Coming Soon: www.C13Merch.com

Image Credits
Photos were done by Patricia Gebhardt www.patricialynnphotography.com