Rah Grizzly
On His Grizzly
By: Adam Bernard
Last updated August 26th , 2010

When you're born in Flatbush, Brooklyn, and raised in both Brooklyn, New York, and Jersey City, New Jersey, it's more than likely that hip-hop is going to be a major part of your life. That was the start of Rah Grizzly's story. Adding to the non-stop hip-hop that surrounded him when he was younger were his old cousins, who were obsessed with the movie Beat Street, and always watched it whenever he was around.

These influences helped to make Rah Grizzly the man, and the artist, he is today. The gravelly voiced emcee just recently released his official debut album, Fresh Out Of Hibernation, and 101D.com caught up with him to find out more about the scenes he's from, the hibernation he was in, and what Alec Baldwin and Anthony Hopkins have to do with his career.

101D.com: Brooklyn and New Jersey are two really big scenes. What are some of the differences you've seen in them?

Rah Grizzly: Street-wise it's not that big of a difference, but the type of music that's been allowed to come out of Jersey in the past has been more gritty, as opposed to the type of music that's come out of Brooklyn, which has been versatile. That's been the difference, but in the streets I think it's been the same.

101D.com: I notice you said, "What's been allowed to come out of Jersey." What have you heard in Jersey that people who aren't from the tri-state area may be unaware of?

Rah Grizzly: Me (laughs). A lot of people outside of the tri-state area, when they think of east coast they just automatically say New York, no matter what Jersey has accomplished. When you go out of town and you say you're from the East they go oh, you're from New York? When it comes to it like that, I don't think Jersey artists get the recognition as being a part of a building block for east coast hip-hop. There have been so many good hip-hop acts like Redman, and Lords of the Underground, and Naughty by Nature, [Queen] Latifah, who have contributed just as much as New York artists have. New York is the mecca of hip-hop, but you still need to recognize Jersey, as well.

101D.com: What part of the building block are you?

Rah Grizzly: I don't want to be really closed in. I want to be recognized throughout the world as an artist first, and then afterwards where I'm from. My team came up with my nickname [for me], they call me "the best of both hoods" because I have Brooklyn and Jersey. I'd like to bring both of those visions together. For that building block, that's probably a block in a building that's not even been built yet. I'm starting to build a new building by doing that.

101D.com: You mentioned one of your nicknames, but how'd you end up with the name Rah Grizzly?

Rah Grizzly: Rah Grizzly comes from a movie I once saw with Alec Bladwin and Anthony Hopkins (The Edge). In the movie they were trying to kill each other while on a trip. During the whole time of them trying to get rid of one another there was a grizzly bear trying to kill both of them. That bear was a dominant force in that whole plot, and I just started having that mentality of everything I wanted to do in life was gonna be like the mentality of a grizzly bear. From having that mentality, people started calling me Grizzly. My name was Rah Rah, so I took on the name Rah Grizzly. My whole team is called Gang Grizzly and Grizzly Bear Entertainment. Plus I have that type of beast mode when I'm in the studio.

101D.com: So it has nothing to do with any ill will towards Alec Baldwin or Anthony Hopkins.

Rah Grizzly: (Laughs) Nah, no ill will towards them. They're both phenomenal actors.

101D: Have you heard of the band iwrestledabearonce?

Rah Grizzly: No, but I've heard of the band Grizzly Bear.

101D.com: Are there going to be bear collaborations at some point in time?

Rah Grizzly: I'm hoping to eventually do some collaborations with a band. If it's Grizzly Bear I wouldn't mind. I've never heard of iwrestledabearonce. I'd like to hear them, too. I'm open minded to all kinds of music.

101D.com: Speaking of music, you just released your official debut album, Fresh Out Of Hibernation. What kind of hibernation did you have?

Rah Grizzly: I went through a personal situation in my life with my family. We were attempting to release music, our label was going the independent route, and on the eve of doing it my mother unfortunately had a brain aneurism and she had two brain surgeries back to back for two days. She survived that, but I had to go out of state and stay with her for months and help her rehab back and help her throughout her daily life, so the music took a back burner. That was my hibernation.

101D.com: Wow, that's intense, and a very good reason to hibernate. Now that you're out of hibernation, tell me about the record. What are people in store for when they put it on?

Rah Grizzly: They can expect to be entertained as well as informed, but with fresh ideas. You'll be brought back to the world of hardcore hip-hop, as well as uptempo hip-hop, as well as catchy hooks. I tried to bring back what was missing, but add freshness to it. I don't see that being done right now. Everybody is following somebody, nobody has their own lane. I'm trying to come into the game and create my own lane. The whole album, when you go through it, you're not gonna say this song sounds like this, or this song sounds like that person. People can expect freshness and hardcore hip-hop music.

101D.com: Do you ever feel ripped off that you're coming up in the game now versus ten years ago, when rappers were going triple platinum for doing next to nothing?

Rah Grizzly: I feel like God has a plan for everybody and if I didn't get into the game then I wasn't ready for it then. I do feel nowadays it's easier for people to get on with one hit wonder songs, and that's it. That's the flip side of the internet. There's the good side of the internet, where you get free promotion to the world to recognize you faster than they did back in the day, but there's also the bad side, where people who are garbage, or I'll say artists that release music that's not top quality, get recognized fast by people who might like the hook, but there's no lyrics to it, or there's not even a good solid beat. That's the one hit wonder syndrome. I'm not mad at it. Like I said, there's a time for everything and God didn't have plans for me to come then. He probably planned for me to be there now.

To check out or purchase Fresh Out Of Hibernation, click here.

[Tags] Rap, Hip Hop

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