ICY IKE
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW
WITH ICY IKE1. Where are you from? and introduce your self.
Icy Ike. I was born and raised in Spokane, Washington. It’s an interesting place with a lot of soul, very unique, not many places like it. Seattle people act like this shit is Southside Chicago but it’s cool really. It’s the home of the underdog, the isolated creative, it’s tough to make it out, just as tough to leave when you do. That kinda place. No one at all to emulate in the rap world so I’ve been tryna get on my Bing Crosby shit, we went to the same HS so it adds up honestly.
2. Is it difficult to be a rapper?
It’s a nuanced answer. It’s not hard doing something you love at all ever in all honestly... but, and I guess this is something really only artists who like really want that shit fr would understand, but like when you put you name behind something, your time, your energy, your actual effort etc, you basically brain wash yourself into thinking you’re the absolute shit and you could’ve literally just made the worst song of your life. So I guess what I’m saying is no matter who you are in this music shit you probably have some idea in your head that you were born for this shit, that you’re gonna blow up or be the greatest or whatever, all the basic shit everyone thinks whenever they do something like sports or running a business or becoming a chef or being an artist of really any kind, and the reality is that literally 0.0000000001% of these kids are actually right. That’s the real difficulty is the insecurity of the moment I guess, being at the stage of unlimited ceiling and a seemingly bottomless floor. I love shit like that that though where all the odds are against you. At the end of the day I feel like I know my destiny, so that kind of gives me a different mentality. That mamba fr fr. So no not difficult at all.
3. who are you inspired by?
My family honestly. I fw my parents extremely heavily. My dad was this swaggy ass Italian kid from Spokane poor as hell 10 kids in the family, eventually at like 18 he moves to NYC meets my mom , who grew up even poorer coming from PuertoRico raised by her Mom alone with 6 other siblings. Both tough lives. They had their origin story and eventually ended up living in some Brooklyn project where they had my real biggest influence on just my general swag, my older brother. They say we were inseparable from the start, but since this is music influence, to this day, I’ll never forget hopping in his murdered out full tint Isuzu Trooper with 2 12s in the back and hearing Gucci Mane for the first time. That shit rocked my world. After that you couldn’t play me some bullshit, I was on limewire and YouTube to mp3 something furious. I used to get my little mp3 I had at the time audited by my parents and that shit felt like the feds did a sweep. Ya a lot of backstory to what influences me I wish I could really get into it all. Whether it was hearing my mom reminisce about the only white boy on the block giving vicious buckets to anyone and everyone and it turns out to be my dad (he’s really like that they called him Larry bird strictly) or my moms stories of growing up in the exact time and place that birthed the greatest genre of all time. Or growing up with a kind of larger than life figure like my brother. The influence my family has on me is everything. They inspire me to be the best me I can be.
4. what music are you pushing right now? where can readers find you and your music.
I have a single out right now called FreezerMan which was my final drop of 2020. It’s a personal favorite of mine, I came up with the chorus during a decent stint in solitary confinement and it kind was something that I could repeat to myself to keep myself going. If you listen to the song in that light it becomes a little more than what it is on the surface and at the end of the day regardless that shit goes a little spastic. You can find it on any music platform if you just search my name, Icy Ike. You can also peep the video on my YouTube channel which is also Icy Ike.
5. what makes you different from a lot of artist?
I’m me. I guess everyone thinks they’re different and for the most part they’re right, so at the end of the day all I can do is be me unapologetically, and I guess if you do that then we’re the same. I don’t think you’d be able to listen to a song of mine and find a clear artist that influenced it outside of maybe whatever sub genre the beat may be and I kind of take pride in that. I don’t worry about that though, a lot of these kids try so hard to be different they end up just looking weird and ugly and sounding the same. Couldn’t be me though.
6. Tell us about your upcoming project.
I can’t speak on it too much, I’ve been making a lot of what I would consider my best work recently and it just seems like the more time I have, and the more people I have to work musically, the better I get. I can say I’ll obviously be working heavily with my brothers in WSC, and I specifically have been enjoying my shit with my boy Ryder.
7. What is your biggest accomplishment as a rapper?
I don’t necessarily think I have accomplishments, at least I haven’t accomplished anything I’ve set out to do as far as the mark I want to leave. I’m right at that point though, my sights aren’t really set on 10 thousand SoundCloud plays although it’s great when little underground hits like that happen, and I love everyone who listens to me and supports me to death, my eyes are like set on being great. Like I need a platinum record ASAP no Rocky, with a side of Grammy. So really until stuff like that happens I won’t be satisfied or feel like I’ve accomplished anything.
8. Any message to your fans?
Please copy and paste your music and social media links here.I love everyone who listens to my music and it makes me happy to think maybe someone got some money to my songs or laughed or made a good memory. Thank you! It’s gonna be a crazy ride you were here early when no one else was and I love you for that.
Instagram.com/icyike509
SoundCloud.com/icyike509
