Explain who you are for those who don’t know.
-What’s good my name’s Zae. I’m a hip hop artist coming out of New York.
How did you come up with your name?
-I actually didn’t come up with the name myself. Technically its a nickname my friends gave to me. I wanted frto be authentic as possible with my music so I decided to go with a name I could run with on a personal level.
Where are you from?
-I’m “Upstate” New York called New Paltz about 15/20 minutes from Newburgh & about 1hr 30min from NYC.
Whats it like growing up where your from?
New Paltz is a suburban college town which in a lot of ways is your “run of the mill” suburban town. Because there’s a State University right off the thruway, for whatever reason my hometown has a crazy influx of drugs so you got a lot of that. A lot of rich kid house parties getting drunk as shit. A lot of going out enjoying the nightlife on Main Street. A lot of weed. I try to shed light thru my eyes of my towns current state and how it was growing up in as much of my music as I can.
How did you get into music?
-I started out a big hip hop head when I was little but growing up around Middle School up, me and my friends would just kick it, smoke blunts and freestyle all day as a hobby. Over time I started getting more into writing my lyrics down as a way to express some tough times I was experiencing but yeah the rest is history.
What makes you different than other artists?
-What makes me different than other artists is that I have no gimmick. Everything I make and talk about in my songs is 100% authentic. I don’t try and fabricate nothing. I’m able to give an alternate experience of hip hop culture in suburbia that hasn’t been represented.
What are you currently working on?
-Right now I’m just dropping singles/videos for the summer but I’ll be dropping an EP early this fall.
Anything you would like to say?
Twitter- @rip_zae
Instagram- @rip_zae
Soundcloud- ZAE
Apple Music: On My Phone-Zae
https://itun.es/us/NRxykb?i=1247902588
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/ripzae/zae-on-my-phone