Words by: Le’Deana Brown
Tell me about your name. That’s an interesting name. Honestly, I was sitting down writing one day, I do these sessions with myself when I’m writing to get better, just like free style write. I’m writing, and this line goes, “Welcome to the jungle this is death by Fluco Mars.” I was like, “Who is Fluco Mars?” And I was like, “Well I am looking for a new name for myself, so that sounds tight.” So, it was either between that or Slash, you know Slash, he’s a rock star already so that would-be kind of fruity to steal another dude’s name. That’s what Rick Ross did. Like that’s terrible.
You think that’s bad? A lot of artist are named after other people they admire! Don’t get me wrong I wanted to do it so bad. It was like I could be the new Slash, but no I have too much respect for this man, I’ll let him keep his name.
So, you brought up Rick Ross, he took the name of somebody that was kind of involved in the trade he wanted to rap about. When you talk about Slash what about him would be something that reminds you of yourself, or how do you embody that name? Well I feel like I’m a rock star myself. When I get up and start making this new music it’s going to sound really rock star-ish. Most people won’t admit that they listen to classic rock or rock music, so a lot of people won’t feel it. But that’s how a lot of the new music is going to sound. It’s going to be a real mixed genre. I just feel like with what I’ve been writing, I always think of Slash. He’s just bad ass.
So, your music is more rock and mixed genre than rap? Yes. I like all kinds of music. I listen to country music in the car every now and then. They’re decent I’m not even going to lie to you. Don’t worry no country music is going to be put out because I know nothing about it. But I like all kinds of music and I like to try to branch out and form music. I have a big passion for it.
How did a 19-year-old even learn about Slash? My mom. She’s a classic rock nut. I grew up listening to a lot of classic rock. I really had no choice in the matter. She listened to artist like Jimi Hendrix. Aerosmith was the first band I ever listened to. So, Steven Tyler will forever be my hero. Yeah, I had no choice, it was rock.
Where can we hear your music? Right now, my biggest platform is Sound Cloud. But I’m waiting to get a big enough fan base to put it on bigger platforms like iTunes and Spotify, the major platforms.
You took some time off to go to the military. Are you still in it? No, they kicked me out. You know one of those jobs that you’re good at, but you just don’t like it anymore, you just kind of start to hate it. I got really depressed and I start having real dark, suicidal thoughts. They put me in this mental institution, and that was probably the worst experience I ever had. The reason I got depressed is because I realized I didn’t want to do it. I was miles away from family and family is real big to me. I left everybody to come do this thing that I’m not really into. They kept me in the institution for so long I was happy to be outside and feel the air across my face and wind hitting me. They found out about my depression and had me go through this super long process...
So, then they let you leave? No, after the hospital I went back to my unit. I thought I was going to leave from there, no, they took me to another unit and started the paper work all over again which was super long. I stayed at this unit called RHU “Return Home Unit”. Which honestly, was like jail. As soon as I got there they were like, “Here’s your own roll of toilet paper. Lock all of your stuff at all times.” I didn’t listen, I was like, “Man no one is going to steal my stuff.” All my stuff was gone the very first day I was there. My toilet paper. My tooth brush. Who is going to use the tooth brush that I’ve already used. They put locks in socks and beat people with it. They had a lot of sexual assault stuff going on that no one wanted to say anything about because if they did the process would be even long because they would have to go through investigation and stuff like that. It was honestly like jail. They kept you in there all day and the only time you got to leave was when you went breakfast, lunch, or dinner.
You went through all of this and you’re only nineteen? Do we hear this in your music? Yes. It’s tragic. I think what it was that I tried to grow up too fast. I never did anything, I wasn’t the type to go to parties. I just wanted to be young and live my life because why not? I got depressed because it wasn’t what I wanted to do. The whole time I was in there I always wrote. So, it’s a lot of heavy stuff in there. Yeah, you’ll most definitely hear it.