Praying they will do better than they did during rehearsals, seniors Antonio Ruiz and Joshua Okea wait backstage for their turn to perform. Yesterday, the music was too quiet, the microphones were not working right and Okea said it went just horribly. As their music cued Ruiz on stage, Okea fought his nerves. To Ruiz, his rapping comes naturally to him. As he sees the crowd liking Ruiz, Okea’s nervousness turns into excitement as he takes the stage to the crowd’s cheers.
After performing at last year’s talent show, the rapping duo began to take rapping more seriously, releasing songs, planning a mix tape album, filming a music video and considering a future in the music industry. Ruiz and Okea will also perform at this year’s talent show.
“I used to just [rap] just for fun,” Ruiz said. “And then people kept telling me to do talent show, and I told Josh because I knew that he kind of rapped. And then we did it, and I had a blast. It really opened up a lot of ideas for me.”
In middle school, Ruiz and Okea did not have interest in rapping. In fact, they actually disliked it.
“I was what, seventh grade? I used to think rap was stupid,” Ruiz said. “And I had two friends and they used to rap to me all the time and then I was just like, ‘why not?’ and I turned the radio on, and it was “BedRock” by Young Money [Entertainment] which is a horrible, horrible thing to listen to. But it’s the first song, and I liked it. And that’s just kind of where it started.”
Okea did not start liking rap until eighth grade when he discovered artists like Eminem. He began rapping when he met Ruiz in ninth grade.
“I was just sitting in biology and he passed me a note and it was a rap insult, like a diss rap insulting me,” Okea said. “And I was wondering why. I didn’t know him. So I just kind of wrote one back and just started doing that back and forth for like a month or two and we kind of just started like freestyling stuff.”
YouTube channel and talent group, Madhouse Entertainment, consists of Ruiz and Okea and their friends who share a passion to pursue music and become famous. Ruiz says their rapping ‘studio’ moves around and is currently located at his house. One of the projects they are working on is a music video for their song, “Be You”, which was released about a month ago.
“I love performing,” Ruiz said. “It’s really stressful now because we have the music video we’re working on to put in for Fire Reel. And we have this album we really want to put out, but it’s really tough because of school. And then we have talent show music we have to get ready for. But I mean, it’s worth it in the end, I think.”
There has been positive feedback to songs they have released. While Ruiz enjoys the small fame he has received from friends, Okea is more pessimistic and sometimes worries that people only react in a way to make him feel better. He believes an artist is not famous until they have many fans who he or she does not even know.
“But the thing is, a lot more recently, people we don’t know come up to us and say that they like our music,” Okea said. “They’ll say it and I’ll say, ‘oh okay thanks,’ and they’ll walk away and I’ll be like, ‘Yes!’ It makes me more motivated and confident to keep doing it.”
While Okea is trying to stay humble, Ruiz said he likes how people spread the word about their music around without being asked. He said that he wrote “Be You” for the purpose of making the music video and did not think it would be good.
“People will [say], ‘remember me when you’re famous’ and stuff like that.” Ruiz said. “Someone offered to buy the song. Even my ex was like, hey, that’s a good song. Because usually, she hates everything I make.”
Okea hopes they finish the album before their senior year ends. The album plans are not set in stone, and they are less than halfway done with the songs.
“We want to make something that anybody who hears it, they’ll kind of get an idea of who we are as people, also as artists,” Okea said.
When coming up with music, Ruiz draws inspiration from experiences and other songs. He said that because he talks a lot, rapping comes naturally to him. To him, rapping is sort of like a therapy.
“I tend to listen to songs and the story comes to me,” Ruiz said. “I think that’s the easiest way is just to talk about your life. It’s honest and people like it.”
Okea sees rapping as a way to convey hidden meaning and get people to think through rhyme.
“In my opinion, someone who’s smart is somebody who thinks,” Okea said. “It’s like a message, but hidden. And I like the challenge of putting that together. So to me, it’s helped me think. That’s what I like about rapping. It’s like the gift of giving someone the chance to use their mind. Because a lot of people need to do that more. People don’t really think when they do things. So listening to music, you can vibe out to it. And then you listen to what the person’s saying and deciphering it and that can help you out.”
While Josh is planning to go to college and pursue a nonmusical career, he still dreams of getting to rap professionally.
“If I had a career in rapping, I’d enjoy that probably more than any normal career,” Okea said. “So I plan to continue [rapping].”
Ruiz is more serious about a future in music.
“Parents aren’t happy,” Ruiz said. “They don’t like that career idea. I thought about it, like, ‘Really? An artist?’ It didn’t seem like a possibility for someone of my place. Lately, I’ve been thinking about [becoming a] mixing engineer, which are the ones that work on the song. [Rapping has] given me direction. Before, I didn’t know what to do at all.”
Ruiz acknowledges that becoming a successful performer is not easy and that only people who are really dedicated to the art should pursue a future as one.
“Don’t do it because it’s cool,” Ruiz said. “Do it because you love it. Don’t do it because you get high fives even though it’s nice. It’s because it’s popular right now. If you have a passion and a drive, like ‘oh man, I can be better than that guy,’ not, ‘I want more gold or money’ or ‘I want the chains’ and stuff like that. It’s really dumb. Because once you have it, you lose all inspiration, and it’s all downhill from there. If you want to be an artist, you have to practice hard, you have to work really hard, and you have to do it because you love it.”
Check out “Be You” here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_fw9SHW7xY
Read about another student interested in a career in music here: https://www.raiderecho.com/features/2013/12/16/student-dj/