Rapper AZ Returns To Brooklyn For New BET Web Series
“NEW YORK, NY – MARCH 08: Jomo Davis, Senior Director, Digital Video Creation at BET, recording artist AZ and Ken Gibbs Jr., director of On TV Operations at BET attend the #BLX season 2 screening event at The Monarch Rooftop Lounge on March 8, 2016 in New York City. (Photo by Bennett Raglin/BET/Getty Images for BET Networks)”
AZ is back on the block.
The Brooklyn rapper returned to his roots for an episode of the BET web series, #BLX, which follows artists as they go back to the neighborhoods they grew up in.
AZ’s installment shows him returning to the East New York housing project where he was raised, visiting his old apartment and his shock at how much the neighborhood had gentrified since he lived there.
BOSSIP spoke to AZ at the #BLX season two episode screening, where he spoke about the show, his Brooklyn youth and his new projects:
Q: Why did you decide to participate in the #BLX documentary?
A: “The reason I wanted to get involved was memory lane. Because you know as time goes on, we tend to push forward, that’s how humans evolve. Sometimes before you take steps forward, you want to take steps backwards. Once I saw a few episodes- because there were a few episodes before I got involved – they went back to where it all started. I thought, ‘Wow, I got a story to tell.’ It was just good that they allowed me to do that.”
“NEW YORK, NY – MARCH 08:Recording artist AZ and radio personality Angela Yee attend the #BLX season 2 screening event at The Monarch Rooftop Lounge on March 8, 2016 in New York City. (Photo by Bennett Raglin/BET/Getty Images for BET Networks)”
Q: What was it like growing up in East New York, Brooklyn, during the so-called “Bad Old Days”?
A: “I was trying to figure out life. Welfare was pervasive and crime was pervasive and drugs, it was just knowing the dos and don’ts. I had a good household with my mother and sister, and she always taught me how to think on my own and how to be a leader. So just navigating, you have to make certain mistakes, but all my mistakes were lessons, and I learned and it helped me be the person that I am now.”
“NEW YORK, NY – MARCH 08: Recording artist AZ attends the #BLX season 2 screening event at The Monarch Rooftop Lounge on March 8, 2016 in New York City. (Photo by Bennett Raglin/BET/Getty Images for BET Networks)”
Q: What’s the craziest thing you ever witnessed growing up?
A: “Everything! I saw bodies on the floor, best friends fighting, families fighting. Things you really couldn’t understand, like why are sisters fighting? Why are best friends shooting at each other? Certain questions I’d always ask myself, but that’s life.”
Q: You were part of what many see as hip-hop’s golden era. What do you think about today’s hip-hop?
A: “It is what it is. It’s the vibration of the streets. When we were coming up, it was just venting on what we’d see and where we lived, and that’s the same thing that’s going on now. What I’m hearing is a lot of – I wouldn’t say séance music – but a lot of chanting and a lot of partying, and that’s what’s going on. They’re in a zone where they’re partying, and just carefree to an extent. It’s an escape. That’s what music has always been for me, was an escape and a way to vent. And I guess right now, the youth that’s rapping, that’s a way to vent.”
“NEW YORK, NY – MARCH 08: A general view of atmosphere at the #BLX season 2 screening event at The Monarch Rooftop Lounge on March 8, 2016 in New York City. (Photo by Bennett Raglin/BET/Getty Images for BET Networks)”
Q: We heard you’re afraid of getting trapped in elevators.
A: “I got stuck in an elevator for like four hours in East New York, in one of the projects. I was young, about 14, so it really had a psychological effect on me to an extent, although I got over it. A few years ago I wound up getting stuck again for an hour and a half. It threw me for a loop, so I have to monitor the elevators I get in. And I love speaking about it, because it’s not a hidden secret. It’s okay.”
“NEW YORK, NY – MARCH 08: Recording artist AZ attends the #BLX season 2 screening event at The Monarch Rooftop Lounge on March 8, 2016 in New York City. (Photo by Bennett Raglin/BET/Getty Images for BET Networks)”
Q: What are you up to these days?
A: “I put a book out, “Jewels, Gems and Treasures,” just recapping my experience loving music, and my musical career. You can get the book at www.quietmoneydirect.com. I’m also trying to release part two of my album “Do Or Die,” so I’m working on that as well.”
This interview was edited for clarity and space.
