We recently connected with Riaga and have shared our conversation below.
Riaga, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Are you happier as a creative? Do you sometimes think about what it would be like to just have a regular job? Can you talk to us about how you think through these emotions?
My dreams make me happy, but chasing them makes me depressed.
The term “happy” is a loaded question in a lot of ways, yet so accurate at the same time.
At the core, I’m in so much joy that I couldn’t imagine doing anything else in my life. When I’m creating music by myself, I create such a great space for me emotionally. All my worries go away and I can live through life in blissful fashion. I get more of my work done, I can carry a conversation fruitfully, I look forward to seeing & talking to others throughout the week, and I live in such great positivity that nothing can ruin my day. This is only amplified when I’m around good people, I flourish in ways I can’t give myself sometimes and I’m able to give myself a good amount of peace while working since it’s something I love to do. There’s nothing like the thrill of being around others that share the passions and get just as excited about your interests just as much as you do. When you’ve found your tribe, the real “you” that you’ve always wanted to live in emerges. No one can take that away from you. There’s no way you can tell “me” that I’m not “me”.
Nonetheless, the trials and tribulations that come with turning your talents/vision into a career will cause more harm to your mental health than good. Truth be told, for the past 5-7 months I have been battling a very particular type of anxiety; even borderline depression to some degree. Most recently, every night I’ve been going through Insomnia or just off sleeping hours. The thoughts that failure and my current situations with finances, investments, lifelong friendships, and living situation. Specifically thoughts such as “Am I going to make it?”, “Did I play it too safe?”, “Did I wait too long to take risks?”, “Am I not going hard enough?”, “Why is it taking forever to succeed?”, “Am I doing the right thing?”, “I don’t know how much longer can I take this”, “I thought I was good enough”, “I shouldn’t have been too picky”. All of these things are so hard to deal with in the mirror and even more difficult to lay your head down with as you try to go out and get it the next day. Even the small things exaggerate it when very small intangibles don’t go your way. Needless to say, it’s not a good time. You’re far from Happy.
All I can do with it is talk to fellow Artists, Creatives, Entrepreneurs, Small Business Owners, etc. and share our experiences all while seeing if we can help each other through it all by a small conversation. It’s helped a lot, especially since one of my best friends runs a successful clothing line himself. And even after all of this, I always have to remind myself how I started rapping in the first place was to feel better after a rough day at school.
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 a Riaga from Aurora, Co and I’m a Recording Artist; Rapper and Singer.
I got into singing primarily but ended up rapping because at the time, in the Black & Brown community singing wasn’t “strong” or “masculine” enough. Thus, taking on rapping made me stand out from everyone else. What made me rap in particular is in 5th Grade after a long day of getting bullied at School, I ran home and cried in my room for about an hour straight. After I gathered myself together, I turn on the TV and saw 106 & Park on BET. I saw all of the music that I liked playing on screen with their music videos and I thought that if I tried rapping, I would feel better. Ever since then, that has been my sole purpose in why I rap; so I can feel better.
I am also a professionally licensed Audio Engineer with a Bachelors Degree in Audio Production from The Art Institute of Colorado (which is no longer running). I have Recorded, Mixed & Mastered hundreds of records out of 3 professional studios in Colorado for the past 5-6 years. Additionally, I am a Producer who makes his own beats from start to finish alongside the few Artists that I have produced for. Within the last 3 years, I’ve went from working in studios and helping other artists to solely focusing on my own music. I wasn’t happy working for artists who are mostly Hobbyists because they weren’t as serious about the craft of music and the music business as much I am. Essentially, I was tired of getting paid to make crappy, meaningless music that wasn’t seeing the light of day in exposure. So now, I dedicate all of my time to myself and put my songs out there with the proper marketing and team behind me.
Lastly, I am currently in the midst of working on my own exclusively released brand called “OLITG Apparel”, which stands for my personal trademark & patented phrase “Oh Look! It’s The Gang!”. I came up with OLITG backstage at Summit Music Hall in 2017, where me and few artists were socializing over drinks before we hit the stage. Me being slightly impaired and being my goofy self while intoxicated (Lol), I randomly thought about what Fat Albert would say in an episode. First thing that came to my mind was “Oh Look! It’s The Gang!”. After I said it, it stuck with me throughout the night. I started saying it consistently as the night winded down and by the time we were all leaving, we were all saying and it laughing. For the next week or so, we started saying it at Lincoln Station (RIP) every night there was a show. It started catching on REALLY fast, so I decided to make a Vocal tag of it. From there, everyone who has heard a Riaga song would hear that phrase and know it was me. After a couple years, I went through some discrepancies with DJ’s trying to use the tag for themselves and artists wanting the tag on their records while I do a feature or make a beat for them. Once I seen the uproar in it all, I knew I had to trademark, patent and copyright it ASAP. From there, turn it into a legit brand and elevate the movement we were able to create initially. Now, we have created our first design of shirts and are exclusively selling them at each show we book. We will have an official launch of the brand with an official announcement when we’ve reached our goal with designs and proper distribution.
In closing, What I want everyone to take away from myself, my brand, my movement and my message is that determination creates domination and to always live in your value. In this world, you’re both in and out of control of everything in life. You can only control the controllables and everything else is an independent variable. Everything that pertains to you and your life is going to be in front of you so you’re going to have to take initiative and focus to do what’s right for you in each dynamic presented. You won’t always make the right decisions, mistakes are inevitable, but for as long as you have a desire to grow, you’ll always end up on the right side of every scenario you’re in; especially when it comes to your dreams and passions. But this only works through effort and the consciousness to become a better version of you.
It’s not enough to just be talented and to have a great mind. You must also be effective.
This only works if you participate.
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.
The main thing I want non-creatives to understand is just because pursuing a dream wasn’t possible for you or you didn’t grow up with a chance to excel in your talents doesn’t mean that we have to share the same fate as you. Stop projecting your insecurities and complexes on to those who actually are making great strides in their passions.
As far as some of the “regular” things most people aim towards and/or only know of? Contrary to popular belief, creatives all want the same thing as Doctors, Lawyers and Corporate America does. We want families, we want stability, we want opportunities, friends, houses, cars, bills paid off, student loans paid off, all the things that regular adults want. Actually, most of my friends who are rappers take marriage, monogamy and their duty of being a parent VERY seriously. They don’t miss a beat because their values & morals mean that much to them.
Our sacrifice of things like money, sleep, family time, and more comes with the territory of pursuing a dream. Unfortunately, in reality you can’t JUST have a 9-to-5, then pursue your dreams within just 2 hours out of the entire day. No accomplished human alive in any field has gotten to where they are by pursuing their dream 2 hours a day. That’s not how success works and that’s not what comes with being ambitious. Taking a chance on yourself is warranted if you want to make a career in being Creative. Not everyone is meant to be an Employee the same way not everyone is meant to be an Entrepreneur/Business owner. Everyone’s value fits differently and that’s okay. There’s no wrong way to achieve success. Everyone has their story. But belittling others because they take risks on something you love & are passionate about is not a common understanding to you is just lame. You’re not superior because you have a job and I take a chance with my value. I’d rather die knowing I gave everything my all & fail than being content at being a cashier & not seeing my future all the way through.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
In 2017, I had a show lined up to open for Troy Ave. This was going to be my first time opening for a national act in Denver. I was 25 and super excited that I got a chance to do something big for once as a then-local, up & coming artist out. This was also the first time bringing together my management team and seeing what we can all do together as a collective.
Show day comes, and I’m super happy because this is about to be one of my biggest moments as an artist yet. As the night continues on, it becomes my turn to perform right before Troy Ave. It’s a packed crowd and I was super motivated to get on stage to give it my all. Right before I’m about to go on, one of my team members, Shaun Asakura, came over to me and told me that I wasn’t able to go on next because Troy Ave decided to go on earlier than expected. I was then given the choice to either not perform at all, or just perform after him. Being a very young 25 and not knowing my worth at the time with a “no quitter in me” spirit, I decided to perform after him. When I did so, the entire crowd left to see Troy Ave at the meet & greet and I was basically just practicing in front of people. I was going super hard out frustration, cringe, anger and sadness. But no one was here to see me thrive. That was hands down one of the most humiliating things that I’ve ever gone through to this day. Nothing in School, Work or even family photos could make me feel how I felt that night. I’ll never forget that experience. After the show, I did network with some people and the other side of my management collective, Kendrick Washington, sat in my car with me and just kicked it out of support after what just happened. I’ll always love him for that.
The next day, needless to say, I was not okay. I was SUPER depressed. Because of said depression, I literally drank Zzzquil all day and tried my best to sleep everything away. I didn’t answer my phone, I ain’t try to speak to anyone and I didn’t talk to anyone, including my mother. I barely ate anything either. I was down bad. I don’t wish that type of space on anyone. The owner of the studio I was working at at the time tried calling me all day out of legit concern. It’s almost as if he knew something was wrong with me. He left a couple texts and voicemails until I finally found it in me to at least text back and say to him that I wasn’t okay and that I wasn’t able to do any work for the entire day or so. He understood me and just told me to talk to him Tomorrow. Then, of course, I took another sip of Zzzquil and went to sleep for the 4th time.
Since that moment, within the next 6-7 months, I literally just put in TONS of hours and work into going to Open Mics, Recording Songs, Recording other peoples sessions, Networking, attending events, shooting music videos and working at other studios. Within those 6-7 months, I was able to bring 60 people to first EP Release Party for “I Love Rap”, got booked to be on DJ KTone’s Denver Got Next with my song getting played on the Radio by him on FLO 107.1, then I got booked on Kush Groove Sundays which was HUGE in the Denver Hip Hop Scene at the time. From there, I had a local show almost every week or every other week of the year in 2018. Finally, a year since the Troy Ave show happened, I did a second EP Release Party for my most popular EP “Denver Lanes” and have over 100 people on my own accord. It was one of the most satisfying moments to have ever happened to me in my career. I never gave up and I won so many people over by my resilience. That, as well, is a moment in my life that I’ll never forget. It taught me how to bring myself out of my lowest and to show that I am worthy of everything I’ve worked hard for.
Thus, my personal creed, Determination Creates Domination.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yosoyriaga/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/YoSoyRiaga/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/YoSoyRiaga
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/BoneDeep720
- Other: OLITG Apparel Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/olitgapparel/
Image Credits
Shaun Asakura Kevin Hernandez Drew Dettke James Rucker Kyri Carter