By Jonathan Bolarinwa
Reks: The Peoples Champ
When you’re a kid coming up dreams and aspirations are all you have. For Reks, coming up in Lawrence, Mass. music has been pumping, through his veins. It started from doing backspins on cardboard with his older cousins listening to Hip-Hop, while listening to the beats and shuffling his feet, Reks realizes his love for the music and began penning his own rhymes.
The pen game became lethal as he tore down ciphers around his area, he became a big fish in a small pond, wrecking [no pun intended] the competition. Later on upon moving to the city of Boston, Reks became immersed in the burgeoning underground scene. He got involved in talent shows, and built his brand in the Northeast to the acclaim of releasing an album via LandSpeed Records in 2001 titled, Along Came The Chosen. It received high acclaim and had him touring and doing plenty of shows with a few notables in the game. But spotlight the spotlight dimmed; with his back against the wall, Reks, got out again and hit the streets again to put out mixtapes, jumped on mixtape features with other artists and collaborated with one of the top DJ’s in the New England area, Statik Selektah, to put out last year’s underground smash Grey Hairs, and the recent More Grey Hairs which ran a gamut of various topics on the state of music, life, and other things affecting people.
If experience is life’s teacher, then Reks is an honor student, his foray in the game is a long journey one but brighter then before. With a renewed focus and patience, Reks is fighting to get his voice heard by the masses by any means necessary. With strong songs like “Say Goodbye” Produced by DJ Premier and “All In One (5 Mics)” featuring Lil Fame of M.O.P., Reks is sticking to what he knows, its deeper than rap…its what you feel in your soul that moves people.
AllHipHop.com: What was it like growing up in Lawrence?
Reks: Well, Lawrence, for people who aren’t familiar with Lawrence, is a very poor community; I come from the heart of the struggle. I didn’t grow up with a father, just my mother, grew up on welfare and food stamps. I come from the bottom and that’s what Lawrence represents, truthfully, coming from that, it forces you to work that much harder to get what you want and to succeed. Growing up like I did I was in foster care for a period of time and seeing and having to adapt to those kinds of life changes and struggles, I feel like it’s a necessity to help people out like me. So, because of what I come from I want to better myself to help better the next man.
AllHipHop.com: How’d you get into break dancing as a youth?
Reks: The break dancing all my older cousins were into it; and I just wanted to be like my older cousins. They were cool, and I thought if I got into it I’d be cool too. Hip-Hop was the new thing, we had nothing else to do, we were trying to stay out the streets, so with that said, and it helped us keep focused, pass the time and enjoy ourselves. We were a community; nobody had anything where we were from, but, we had each other, we would break out the cardboard and get to the poppin’ and lockin.’
AllHipHop.com: How’d you get into the rhyming aspect, and who did you look up to in terms of Hip-Hop?
Reks: Even when I was breakdancing with my crew [The Funktown Connection], I was looking at cats like Kool Moe Dee, Slick Rick, Rakim, and all the legends, and emulate them and just gravitate towards them because of their innate ability to convey a message through their words. I was into it as a youngster, I used to watch Beat Street hardcore, like, I didn’t get put on to Wild Style until a lil’ bit later. Through Beat Street, I used to recite the Christmas rap over and over and perform that in front of the cats in my school. Over a period of time, I started penning my own little rhymes, when Run- DMC had the “My Adidas” record, I came out with a lil’ joint for Pumas
AllHipHop.com: You were doing Hip-Hop as a youngster to pass the time, when did you decide that this was what you really wanted to do?
Reks: In my late teens, I went away for a year to college, it didn’t work out, but I was getting into ciphers, talent shows, competition, and hitting the local radio stations. It was the late 90’s when Hip-Hop was in its golden era—in its essence. I was looking at it like this is something that I could seriously see myself doing, so I packed up my bags and headed for Boston. I’m a cat from a smaller city, I was like, ‘Yo, I’m a go hard at it.’ So anywhere that I could (shows, and ciphers) I made sure that my voice heard.
AllHipHop.com: So it’s through you relocating to Boston that your first LP Along Came The Chosen dropped on Landspeed?
Reks: It was the beginning stages of something that could potentially be big. The thing is though, I’d like to keep it real for a lot of up an coming artists trying to get their name(s) known, when I had dropped Along Came The Chosen I was still wet behind the ears and I was on my beast mode. I was trying to prove that I was the best I’m better than whoever it is that I step into the arena with. I allowed myself to get too caught up in the hype and became a little too egotistical. What I learned from being caught up was that I burned a lot of bridges, I lost contact with individuals that respected what it was that I was doing, they liked my talent and ambition, but they couldn’t deal with me being caught up in the arrogance and the hype… Before I even earned anything.
AllHipHop.com: Off that album you getting a lot of accolades via publications, awards, and you were also touring with a few notables what was that like for you?
Reks: It was insane! My first single was on Billboard. I’m getting press in XXL, Urb, the Source, and all these opportunities coming my way for me to open for these cats. It’s an amazing opportunity and experience, if I had a better guidance and focused on what was important. Probably, at that stage I could’ve improved on that and taken it to crazy heights. But, due to my inability to recognize the importance of staying humble, paying dues, and not being the loudest cat in the room.
AllHipHop.com: How’d you link up with Statik Selektah?
Reks: The way it all popped off, Statik was doing a show in New Hampshire, he was trying to get someone else to perform, I don’t remember who it was, but, what occurred was he actually ended up doing a favor for my homey to make me perform. I was still fresh and brand new. So, Statik didn’t really know who I was he allowed me to rock, and I did my thing. From that point, we started building and we became homey’s. Statik is like my brother, I consider him family. We’ve known each other for years. So, it’s real bigger than music.
AllHipHop.com: Since being featured on both of Statik’s albums, and linking with him on his Showoff Records imprint to record and release the albums Grey Hairs and the just recently released More Grey Hairs. Knowing what you know now, do you feel as if this is a new beginning for you?
Reks: I considerate as a new beginning, you know. The whole concept behind Grey Hairs was like hip- hop is getting through this phase where it’s aging; it’s no longer in its infancy. It’s not raw, not brand new, been through its trials and tribulations. Now it’s at its definitive stages of what it’s gonna become next. That’s what Grey Hairs was trying to represent as well as who it was I was trying to represent as a person. I was doing what hip- hop is and what I am hand in hand. It’s like you age, and through that aging process you have to come to a final conclusion on what your next move is. Its like are you going to chase the paper, focus on uplifting the community, are you gonna speak on politics, and other things that affects the people. Or are we going to be quiet and dance around the issues that directly affect us. Where’s the song’s that speak to the people like, 2pac’s “Brenda’s Got A Baby,” or ED O.G.’s “Be a Father To Your Child,” these are songs that I look back upon in my life that helped shape my mind frame. I didn’t grow up with a father as a youngin’ but later on in life my stepfather came in, but not having a father I could say Hip-Hop basically raised me.
AllHipHop.com: You never seem to stop working; you’re already shaping up your next album called R.E.K.S. - Rhythmatic Eternal King Supreme. Who do you have slated on the roster to handle the production on this one?
Reks: Right now we’re looking at DJ Premier is in, Alchemist signed on, Statik Selektah, obviously, and we’re reaching out to cats as we speak. We don’t have everybody signed on, but I’m looking to do some work hopefully with Lil’ Fame- again, the homie Termanology. We got some surprises for people; I can’t throw everything out there.
AllHipHop.com: What makes this upcoming album different from the previous projects?
Reks: In Grey Hairs, I was speaking in parallels it was Hip-Hop and myself and my tribulations and Hip-Hop’s trials and tribulations. In this new project, I’m basically giving individuals the introduction into who I am as a person. It’s gonna be a lot more personal, eclectic, and we’re gonna bang them out.
AllHipHop.com: You have a definite presence on the microphone with your words and delivery for the listener it comes off as if your trying to reach out to them. Some what on a personal level.
Reks: I’m the peoples’ people, man. I represent all of the individuals out there that are dying to hear more and expect more from their spokesperson. Now I’m not gonna compare myself to Marcus Garvey, or Langston Hughes, obviously these are timeless individuals, but, what I will say is if I’m gonna step into the arena and try to represent something that was brought to us, that what was given as a gift. Then I need to make sure my voice represents something that speaks to the people and for the people. And I’m not gonna allow myself to degrade Hip-Hop, or degrade what I love for the sake of a quick buck.
AllHipHop.com: Anything else in the works that we should look out for?
Reks: Well we’re throwing our focus on this next project. I’m obviously going to jump on the next Statik album slated for later this year. I’m willing to work with anybody and everybody I can. I just did something on the new Skyzoo mixtape “Power of Words” and Talib Kweli. But for the most part I’m gonna continue doing me and expect a lot of good music to come out this year.
Visit Reks MySpace page at www.myspace.com/reksmdiesel