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

Sam, appreciate you joining us today. Do you wish you had waited to pursue your creative career or do you wish you had started sooner?

I wish I had started it sooner. Not out of regret, but simply out of a burning passion for hip-hop and the culture. There were numerous roadblocks that prevented me from finally working on music. I now never want to stop.

Sam, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

For me, rap is one of the few things that made sense on both the surface level and in a deeper, ethereal sense.

When I was 7-years-old, my mother took me on one of many trips to a Pathmark near our house. There was a shelf with some rap CDs near checkout. I hadn’t gotten into hip-hop yet, but there was something so enticing about it. My eye was drawn to the explicit version of Capital Punishment by Big Pun, but my mom of course wasn’t going to buy that for me. Instead, I picked out the only clean record I could find. It had about 8 tracks on it, but the first song happened to be Rapper’s Delight by The Sugarhill Gang. Many found their introduction into hip-hop and the culture through this record, and I was no different. Something clicked inside of me. It almost felt like I had been missing out on something so great for so long. From that moment on, I was obsessed with listening to as much as possible, and then eventually wanting to make music myself.

Because I was young, discovering new music was a bit harder than I had anticipated. So I had to rely on clean versions of gangster rap classics or find tracks through file sharing apps. I tried to get my hands on whatever I could, even if that meant some of the “Now That’s What I Call Music!” library. Because song lyrics weren’t as accessible to me at the time, I would replay a track dozens of times and try to write out all the lyrics. Everything from Jadakiss to Cassidy to Petey Pablo. It was like an exercise to me.

It was around this time I finally decided I wanted to make my own music, not realizing the work that actually goes into it. Although I didn’t have any idea which direction I wanted to go in, I would just start imitating some of my favorite artists. Whether it was Biggie, Eminem, Cassidy, Big Pun, Busta Rhymes, Jadakiss, or any of the dozens of other artists I listened to, I would blast their sounds in my headphones and just get lost in the rhythm. This quickly turned into me trying to freestyle and copy lyrical styles I was already acquainted with. So I’d take my dad’s tape recorder he used for guitar practice, break out my Yamaha keyboard (I played piano at the time), put on some stock beats, and just spit for hours. I’d even imitate censored sound effects.

For the next decade, I would have this dream. Unfortunately, I lacked the resources. I also dealt with a great deal of anxiety, OCD, and several other issues that would prevent me from focusing on my vision. In the meantime, I would end up getting into battle rap and going up against various people in the local scene. I was able to hone my craft further and experiment with the direction I wanted to go in. I attempted to work on a mixtape almost a decade ago under the moniker ‘Remorsedcynic’, which was a character that tapped into the part of me that dealt with various intrusive thoughts. This project fell through after a handful of sessions to which I am grateful for. My persona and lyrical style greatly changed and developed after this, turning into Samuel Vincent and my present work.

In early April of 2022, I caught COVID. Although I was not very ill and my recovery time was quicker than most, it made me take a step back and think about my life. I thought “Wow, what if something bad actually happened and I didn’t do the one thing I’ve always wanted to do with my life?”, which was put together a mixtape/album/some form of music project. I quickly took action. I contacted my good friend Peter who pointed me in the direction of a great, local studio he was using. DIMM Studios, ran by Mike Chiarappa, spoke with me briefly, invited me in for a quick tour of the studio, and in less than 30 seconds I knew this was the perfect environment for me. We were able to complete my debut album, ‘Audiovile’, in about 3-4 sessions. It was the greatest feeling to finally put together my passion project.

Since then, I have been working with longtime friend and producer, Nic Saavedra (Sir Nicolas) on numerous projects, including my ‘Rivalry’ EP, a horror-themed single ‘JACKKNIFE’, and now currently ‘Aurora Mortis’, which is an upcoming Medieval/Dark Fantasy hip-hop project that includes a rich backstory and explores a variety of twisted themes.

My style is akin to a more refined boom-bap flow mixed with a manifestation of some of my greatest influences thrown into a melting pot.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

I think that a lot of people, whether intentionally or not, tend to lean towards supporting a bigger, more established name rather than their local scene. If given the opportunity, support should be shown to the smaller creators that are trying to bring their passion to light. Whether that means supporting a friend’s small homerun bakery business or buying a small sticker from a dope digital art. We’re all in this life thing together and knowing that others dig your vision is an incredible feeling.

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

The most rewarding aspect of being an artist would be the feedback I receive on a track or a project. The ability to connect to even just one single person makes the journey worth it. I have made some great friends that I would have not come to know if not for my music, and that’s amazing.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.auroramortis.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/officiallysamuelvincent/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/offsamvincent
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@officiallysamuelvincent
• Other: https://linktr.ee/officiallysamuelvincent

Image Credits
Joseph Pezzano