AN INTERVIEW WITH BIG UP MENACE X
Big Up Menace X is an experimental film maker, composer, producer, pianist, vocalist, and skateboarder from Detroit, Michigan. According to the artist, his sound captures the image of a majestic deteriorating purgatory nonchalantly while incorporating rare sample sources to create an auditory and visual world. Big Up Menace X talks to Teresa and Sam about his newest release, Artificial Emotions and Coping with Cybernetic Love TELEPATHIC GOTHIKA ISSUE #4, navigating through different genres, and finding sonic and spiritual balance between light and darkness.
Sam: We just wanted to jump right into the album. For those who don't know, it's called Artificial Emotions and Coping with Cybernetic Love TELEPATHIC GOTHIKA ISSUE #4. And personally, this album just found what felt like a journey through time and space, and it felt like it came at me from all directions. And I was wondering, could you tell us about the process of making it? Did it flow naturally or did you have a path already mapped out for the project before you started?
Big Up Menace X: It was a whole script that I came up with in middle school in 2013. I wanted to make films but I didn't have the budget, so then I just wrote all the scripts—auditory scripts and storylines—of everything that I kind of wanted to get my point across with. Each series, I kind of base it off of Goosebumps. Each storyline is different, you know what I mean? Like, the theme. That was the whole telepathic gothika. That's pretty much a representation…
Each chapter is like a different face of my pain in the past, you know. And yeah, that’s just the part of the storyline where it goes straight up like hyperspace. It’s hard to even articulate in words because that one is like, what it sounds like to y'all is like what it is to me. Like, like… It's hard to even explain it, but I just want to put it into the right words, so I don't get it misconstrued on a message.
But I do think it’s a good representation of the madness, and that was like more so like spiritually. It was like, I was more so lost, and I just was kind of in this physical realm thinking, but I'm not in the physical realm in the album. If you listen to each album, it makes more sense in the storyline, because I go into the future in that one, and that was actually the first album that I worked on out of all my albums. So I had that done. I’ve been sitting on that for three years. But it wouldn't make sense to release that first in a storyline, you know? Like, I went in the future in the past so it’s present to y’all but old to me. It’s like this whole time warp.
And I just was afraid of how—I wasn't necessarily afraid—but I just knew that it was gonna come across very… you grit your teeth, most definitely. It's just funny to see the responses to the album. I didn't know what was going to be thought about it. And I just don't want to get the message of what my purpose is or what I'm even trying to get across, you know, sonically?
It's just me being honest, like you know, I'm just very honest about the realities of energies, and things that are out here cosmically, and stuff that I have tapped into in the past. It was just very upfront and personal, you know, to the madness. That's why I'm very excited for this next album. It’s probably coming out like some days, Giant from the X, where I finally make it to the upper world. I'm going to heaven in this one so as much more clarity and it's like real life, you know. Artificial was me escaping reality, you know it's not really speaking on a real life things that are going on.
Teresa: Yeah, no that's insane. In what moments do you kind of tap into that cosmic world, because I know that you've like talked about this album as being somewhat of an autobiography. And for me, personally, I'm not always tapping into a cosmic world. So like, yeah, how do you connect with that, I guess throughout your life and through making this album?
Big Up Menace X: Well, the pain it sends you… I've been in pain. Lotta life experiences that have pushed me to such an extent that I know normally, like, generally people wouldn't be able to like, stay sane. Like, to be able to stay aware through certain situations in life. And it just forced me to embrace such a catastrophic state of being that I kind of owned it and I absorbed it. I've been attacked so much that I end up just absorbing it and like, letting it become a part of me that it actually made me stronger instead of like breaking me. So that's where—it’s just a representation of an image, and then it’s a whole much deeper.
There’s a lot written in between the lines that I can only say so much. There’s just a lot in general. But now you can go back to what my messages is. I'm just very honest on what’s out here. You know what I mean? As far as energies and all of those things, you know, cause it goes so deep. And I'm just trying to guide people through it so you can know what it is, but I'm not trying to influence people in the wrong way. And I'm not trying to attack people either, you know? That's why each album is just a representation of what's out here in such an honest way, because a lot of artists aren't going to necessarily tell you that. They'll put on a mask and make you think that it’s one thing, but they can be with the other and don't have the best of interest.
Sam: Yeah. No, I didn't, at least personally, feel like it was like a novelty at all. Like, I definitely felt that real emotion behind each of the tracks, which is what really drew me into the album. But on that note, it seemed like you had a lot of points on the album that were like, very heavy. Like, a lot of things going on. I noticed especially on the second track and towards the middle of the third track, after those heavy points, it would come out with this kind of angelic sound. How did you balance out those harsh moments with the relaxing angelic [moments]?
Big Up Menace X: It's a duality. Like it’s a duality in its most finest form. I’m not trying to boast but I mean like, in its most specific form. It's just funny, I'm just grateful. I was very curious about how people will take that, in general. It's funny that like, that’s the one that people are interested in. That's the one that makes people grit their teeth the most, but I really just wanted to balance it out to show the realities of how deep they can go, you know? To get to such a heaven state in the project of balancing it out and not getting, like, too deep into the darkness of it. And then that it’s not too bright, not too dark. I really, really had to tread lightly on what I was doing.
That album took four years to make specifically to get that balance. Really heavy, very emotionally draining. That album was very draining to work on. I just look so inwards that I don’t even know anymore, but I do know to write so that others see that in themselves and they can balance it out.
Teresa: Talking about that balance that you were talking about, how do you measure if, I guess, you're going too far in the dark or the light, one way or another? And do you feel when it's balanced? Do you feel that more, like, sonically or do you feel that more emotionally?
Big Up Menace X: In general, all the albums eventually will be one big thing. It is all like one movie in general but I have to break it off in parts so people can, you know, digest it more easily. But each phase is—so Sonically Artificial is very sonically dark. Like, it is most definitely dark cosmic energy in there, and it's light cosmic energy in there. But you're not even allowed to get to the light.
The majority of who get saved are sinners. You know, if you're clear, free of debt… Majority of people who are the most enlightened have the most karma. You got to go through that phase before you are even allowed to get to the light. Like, you can't just instantly stay and— especially if it's from the heart—you can’t get to heaven. You gotta go to hell first before you get to heaven, simple and plain. I guess just that's just how it works.
Especially if you're trying to guide people in the right direction, you got to literally go through the dark. You can't guide people until you see what people don't want to see. Instead of fighting it, you nurture these things. You nurture these things, you don't necessarily make friends with them, but you nurture these things and you let them go about their way, but you still have to interact so you can fully get an understanding of what is and what isn't. And I think that's why that was such a heavy piece. That was a whole phase that I'm grateful to get out of that mess. That was a whole different person. It wasn't even me. It wasn't me.
Sam: I'm happy to hear you’re out of that. On a note of the more sonically, I was going to ask a question about how you incorporate all these different genres. But when I started like counting the genres on this album, I was like, ‘I can't.’ So, what is your kind of relationship with genre? What inspires you, and how have you learned to be so proficient in making all these different types of music?
Big Up Menace X: Yeah, I think it’s just like an agenda of never doubting yourself and like, breaking the walls to such an extent that it’s like creating a whole new thing. I feel like I would never fully get to what I'm trying to get to, you know? That's why this next album—it’s funny cause it’s such a whole different thing. Yeah, I'm in heaven and this next one is much more orchestra based. I’ve been getting my hands on like, much more resources.
But I think we have so many spirits and so many messages that need to get across, you know. So many points that need to be made. It’s like, never ending. You know each person on this planet, they're born with, whatever they fully are. It's like a concoction of things like honestly there's one big final form that isn't even a thing that you can name or like specifically pinpoint. So, I think I'm just trying to like get this whole final form for it.
Sam: And you've talked a couple times about growing up and how early you started making music, and I was wondering, how did you go from free-styling to making the kind of music that you do now? Because it seems kind of like completely different worlds.
Big Up Menace X: You know, I grew up in a studio, you know, Detroit. Just the whole gritty cold winters, you know. Freestyling in the shelter. Freestyling at the Salvation Army shelter in 2007, 2008. Cold winters and embracing life, and just poverty. Like, that whole lifestyle of just being poor and hungry. That was already a stamped thing, like hood living. But nobody's necessarily like pinpointing the energy that's causing that, you know what I mean? I think that's why I just delve deeper of what is causing this distraction. What is necessarily like the reasoning for why things are…
Because I started off doing breakdancing in talent shows and like, fourth grade I started breakdancing in the corner, and everybody would be like, ‘What the fuck are you doing?’ Literally at recess, everybody used to laugh at me because I used to break dance in the corner. And I used to go by Rasta J. because my godfather, before he had passed, he was in a wheelchair. He had got shot with an AK in 1992, and then he was a motivational speaker and my own father. And anyway, it goes he came back into my life. 2008 before he passed. And then he would take me around schools and we would motivationally speak at these high schools, and he just showed me…
You know I was like right in his midst. I was like, I was saved, but then it was like, an attack on the family. So yeah, I'd be so vulnerable, where I just was like, I got attacked. A lot of people will get attacked and won't even know what the fuck is going on, and they'll think that it's just a bad phase of family life, you know, and to be so aware of it. It was draining to where I needed to like figure out how I felt for real, in such a way that it pushed me against the grain. I say like, I always rap. I rapped my whole life, like my mom rapped, everybody raps… But I just wanted to do something different, because I already saw that before, I already heard that before.
I generally don’t even care about the music industry or the business. True success is a state of mind, you know what I'm saying? It’s beyond the physical work. It's not even about any of what we see. And I think that's just a message of what I'm trying to get across.
Teresa: It definitely makes sense, and I feel like you've, you know, achieved a state of clarity that most people will either take a very long time to achieve or not even at all. Because you spoke about rapping and breakdancing, and also, I know that you're also interested in film. How do you see the way that film intersects with what you're doing right now, and do you see them as interconnected or as separate forms of art?
Big Up Menace X: Of course, they're all interconnected because it's the frequency, you know? It's all saw the same thing, just a different way of going about it. At heart, I really just want to make films. These are all just auditory autobiographies of the movie of life. There's no difference. Maybe how people perceive them, you know, I know they can be perceived differently because it's just such a different way of going about it but…
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Sam: You were saying that the next album that's about to come out is basically finishing this storyline right? Could you talk about what's coming out in the future and what you see as the future of the Big Up Menace X project?
Big Up Menace X: This is huge. This is my last telepathic gothika. It’s like the bow to it all. Because I think the point of what I'm trying to make is most definitely understood now. This one is a whole ‘nother shift. I got my hands on a lot of resources, like next level thinking. It all was written, you know. I already had this all written down for years and years, but it just took so long, and I had to discipline myself. I know I got to make this one first because it's the story. Because it won’t make sense if I just put out the light. But Thank God Giant from the X is like the most vulnerable of all because this is literally like the real nitty gritty way. It’s no filter.
Yeah, I can't explain it but you get what I'm saying. It's really complicated. But Thank God! Giant from the X. I can say that is my first official, professional studio album. I'm just proud to get this off my back because this is all I've been working on the hardest, for real.
Sam: Yeah. We're so excited to hear it.
Big Up Menace X: Big Up Menace X got his point across. But for future things, it won’t be under Big Up Menace X. It's like a whole ‘nother avenue. I think I'm gonna be in the mountains, like for real. Whatever my next thing is, I don't even think it has nothing to do with creating. I kind of got my point across. I just have a point to prove, and then, now I don’t give a fuck about the money or the fame, because I know all that comes with it. I'm just not with that. So I kinda just want to fall back, and, you know, be the best person I can be for others and inspire them from the dark to the light.
I know a lot of people know that I would smoke a lot or I just tap into certain things, but I would never recommend that. I don't want people to do what I'm doing. I want you to like, look at what I'm doing and just learn. So you can say, all right, well I don't need to even go there because he just showed me the way.
