Exclusive: Fisticuffs Interview Life, Music,
ally was leaning more towards a normal office job, probably
“right now I think I do want
to go on tour to give the fans that
have supported me what
they have been asking for”
- Fisticuffs
1 2
far from reality so that wasn’t where my head was at I actu-
The Future And Beyond
We meet Brandon the 26-year-old hip-hop super-star at his
home studio in the east side of Brooklyn, as I sit beside him
as he puts some finishing touches on a new unspecified track
the room consists of me, Brandon, Bruce his sound mixing
engineer and his Producer Bobby the atmosphere in the
room is quite lively as they talk amongst themselves looking
around the room I can see a small TV on a shelf which con-
tains everything from books of all shapes and sizes, albums
from a multitude of genres and games that date back to the
late 80s. Brandon is in a good and energetic mood and up to
this point in the day he has been working on his new music. I
am interviewing him to gain insight on his first studio album
‘From Insult to Injury’ which has been taking the world
by storm with every single he has released thus far hitting
number one on the billboard 100 charts and what he thinks
of music.
Would you say this album is strictly about your life and
experiences?
To that I would say yes and no because, yes it is about my
life and what I have dealt with while I was younger to my life
now but also a lot of what I talk about in the album is about
things that I think go on in all of our lives and things we can
all relate to, that could be about the little things that everyone
can relate or wider issues that affect us in different ways.
How do you feel about both the public and critical percep-
tion of your album?
I’m very happy with the way people have responded to the
album and it’s very humbling to see that my work means
something for other people in terms of the critics for the al-
bum I am happy that they liked it also don’t get me wrong but
for me their word is not do or die even if they didn’t like me
that wouldn’t stop me from doing what I want to do in this
field and progressing in the direction I am going, to me what
matters truly are the average people who pay for my album
and genuinely like it without having any preconceived or bias
opinions.
Is there any specific reason that you have chosen not to
show your face on promotional photos and album covers?
The reason I have chosen to conceal my identity the way I
have is because as you may know I’m very big about my pri-
vacy and usually, privacy is something that I won’t have with
the level I’m getting to so I have done this so I can at least for
now have some privacy on top of that I think it helps to create
some mystery around my music and around myself which I
hope would interest people with my music.
Did you always plan to have a career in music?
No not really I think that sort of thing at least for me only
became clear when I was around 17 or 18 years old because
as you know rappers and that whole life seems so unreal and
just so
working with computers or something, but I eventually got
into music because of some demo’s that I had lying
around that I gave to a friend and then he gave it to his friend who
is a producer and that’s how I met Bobby and got into Rap.
Do you have any other genres of music that you may want to try?
As of now I think I’m very comfortable with where am at and the
type of music, I’m doing but I don’t know if I’m going to what to try
some other types of music 10, 15 or maybe even 2 years from now.
So to answer your question as of now I don’t what to try any other
genres but maybe later that’s if I’m still doing music (chuckles).
A lot of fans have been asking if you’re going to tour. Do you
plan on going on tour?
I am considering all options at the moment and right now I think I
do want to go on tour to give the fans that have supported me what
they have been asking for but I feel that if I am going to tour I have
to give them a great experience so before I do any of that I just want
to polish up my ideas for what that experience should be.
What are some of your favourite albums?
That’s tough but I mean in terms of my favourite rap albums I can
name Biggie’s Ready to Die, All Eyez on Me 2Pac, Dr Dre 2001 and
The Chronic also Illmatic, Enter the Wu Tang, Straight outta Comp-
ton and there’s so many more that I haven’t named in terms of rap.
Are there any albums outside of Rap that you are a fan of?
Of course I’m a big Prince and Michael Jackson fan so of course
I have to name 1999, Purple Rain, Dangerous, Thriller and Bad
all that good stuff. There just too many answers to this question
and not enough time I haven’t even named Earth, Wind, Fire, Bill
Withers, Marvin Gaye, Bon Jovi but maybe we could talk about that
in another interview.
Yeah hopefully soon
Yeah.
What do you want your career to look like in the future?
Well I think I would like to be able to say that I have fully pushed
myself beyond my boundaries and to have my music stand the test
of time and other than that I just hope that people still enjoy my
music and that I will work with people that I haven’t gotten the
chance to work with yet
Are there any names you could give?
No not now but some of these things may very well be happening
soon but other than that there’s nothing really I just hope I’ll be in
good health by that point in time and yeah that’s pretty much it.
It was great talking to you man I hope we can do this again some
time
Yeah likewise
This interview was part of Fisticuffs promotion of his latest
album ‘From Insult to Injury’ which you can buy on Amazon,
Google Play and ITunes, you can also listen to it on YouTube
right now.