Page 161 - Demo

www.MOSTmag.com || FASHIO N MAG A ZINE || 161ecording artist G Sepp credits his musical roots to a house full of women listening to classic R&B. On any given day, his sisters would fill the modest Brooklyn home he grew up in with the sounds of Mary J. Blige, SWV, Boys to Men, R Kelly and Keith Sweat. The hip-hop and rap influences came later and from the male side of his family when his older brother introduced him to a Tupac CD, and then his uncle to Shyne, DMX and The Notorious B.I.G %u2013 another Brooklynborn rapper. But even though music was always prevalent in G Sepp%u2019s life, it would not become a serious career choice until much later.G Sepp%u2019s parents, who hail from the Caribbean Islands, both moved to America at a young age. His Trinidadian mother met his Jamaican father stateside. They eventually settled to raise a family in Canarsie, NY, a residential suburb of southeastern Brooklyn nestled along %u2013 ironically %u2013 Long Island%u2019s Jamaica Bay. This New York borough is where G Sepp would spend the bulk of his early life. Considered temperamental by those he meets, G Sepp is actually quite the opposite. %u201cI think I%u2019m misunderstood mostly. I%u2019m easy to talk to %u2013 that is, unless I don%u2019t like you. I mean, you definitely don%u2019t want to get on my bad side. But I%u2019m actually very easygoing. Considering my upbringing, I came out pretty %u2018clean.%u2019 When people meet me they never guess what I%u2019ve been through in my life. My father died when I was 12. I left home at 15 and had to find ways to survive in a very tough neighborhood. But I always tried to carry myself in a clean and positive way and never let people know what I%u2019m thinking. Even if I only had 25 cents in my pocket, no one would ever know by looking at me.%u201dG Sepp%u2019s love of the craft was further inspired by music from late-night, New York recording sessions. %u201cWhen I was younger, my older brothers and cousins would book studio time at night. They%u2019d bring the music home and I would sit and try to write to it. I%u2019d hum along, jot down lyrics. Stuff like that. But that was about the extent of it. Later, in junior high school I began playing around a little more. I%u2019d beat on the lunchroom tables and rap along. In high school I joined the basketball team and tried that for a while, but it didn%u2019t work out how I planned it. I was distracted by the streets and got caught up in what was happening %u2018out there.%u2019 Then one day in a friend%u2019s back yard, his older brother hooked up his Xbox to a big speaker. It had a bunch of instrumentals on it. I sat back and listened. Then I heard this beat and rhymes started coming to my head. So I just started rapping. It felt so natural. And I saw the reactions of my friends. It was an empowering feeling.%u201dIt was at age 21 when G Sepp really started taking the music seriously. He began experimenting, and took the music to another level by harmonizing over the beats rather than merely rapping. He could feel the more melodic side from his R&B background, which had sat dormant >>>By: Rick Krusky