For quite some time now, South Florida has been a breeding ground for talented artists all across the city limits. With hard work, dedication, and strong belief in their material, their grind will eventually be noticed. Understanding the business and the industry are just some of the elements an artist has to be keen with, especially if that artist is pushing everything on his own. The long road ahead for them isn’t an easy task, but with that knowledge, they continue to take that journey with full confidence.

One artist, hailing from Miramar, Florida is doing just that and his purpose is to make it to a level that most artists before him have already traveled. His stage moniker defines the style of his lyrical delivery and it originally derives from his name that comes from his Nigerian ancestry, which he holds utmost respect for. His closest family members call him ‘Uzo,’ but his friends and his beloved fans know him as ‘Uzi.’ His music defines his style and his personality; through his lyrics he expresses life and all its struggles. His latest single ‘Don’t Stop (Get It, Get It)’ has already been blazing in the streets and the clubs for the past couple of months. This is the exclusive interview with Uzi that you will only read here on 24hourhiphop.com.

24: So, what’s going on with the infamous Uzi I’ve been hearing about?

Uzi: Man, I’ve been pushing myself the hardest I can. I’ve been promoting the hell out of my single, “Don’t Stop (Get It Get It),” and I got a couple of follow up singles ready to go. I’m ready for whatever comes up. I got a mixtape coming called ‘Straight Flows Vol. 1: The Blitzkrieg’. And my new website www.IAmFloridasFinest.com has launched, so I’m just…I’m just promoting right now, trying to get this music out to the people.

24:  Before we get into your music let’s get into your humble beginnings. Where did everything start when you realized, “You know what, I can rap!”

Uzi: (Laughs) Aww man that…that goes back all the way to middle school at least, um…just freestyling, freestyling, freestyling, straight off the dome just bar after bar. After that people were like “Hey you’re good” and “You could rap,” so you know that goes to a person’s head and after awhile it went to my mind that  “Okay, I could rap.” Let me see if I could put some stuff out, put some dope verses together. In high school I realized this is what I want to do and I just took my time to perfect my craft. I studied a lot of different styles of Hip-Hop, south to east to west to mid-west, double time flow, shadow boxing, punch lines all of that, like the whole art of rhyming. I tried to hone my craft and then from there I’ve just been writing, writing, writing, writing and then of course, open mics and trying to get in shows, learning the industry and then here I am now. What is it 6 years later? That was 2005, yeah, 6 years later with songs ready to go, freestyles on deck, mixtapes ready to go. I’m ready for whatever, whatever the industry has to offer right now.

24: You had mentioned that you started rapping in middle school and went straight into high school. I mean, what were your influences, who did you listen to as a child growing up?

Uzi: That’s a good question. I remember when I first fell in love with Hip-Hop was when I got introduced to underground Hip-Hop, it was Twista before he blew up. Twista was the first one and obviously you can tell cause I do the fast rap double time flow and searching for more Twista led me to Do or Die. Do or Die led me to Rap A Lot (Records), Rap A Lot led me to Yukmouth , and that led me to….actually no, Do or Die led me to Yukmouth and Yukmouth led me to Rap A Lot and that led me to Texas Hip-Hop. From there, it was just underground, underground, underground. It was the dudes like Z-Ro, Scarface, Geto Boys, Trae (the Truth), all of that and of course more southern heavyweights, and then I got a little bit of the west coast, you know Ice cube, and even some midwest, you know one of my favorite rappers Tech N9ne. You can hear the influence in that. That man is…that man is crazy, his shows, his flows, everything’s crazy. I studied a little bit of Jay-Z, I’m not too big on east coast Hip Hop but you know I studied a little bit of Jay-Z and picked up where I can improve on my style and I just pretty much mashed it all together, and here I am now with my own style, doing my own my thing.

24: Now this is a five star question. I’m actually curious. You say you study Hip Hop and you study the rap game and everything. What would you say about the rap game now as supposed to back then?

Uzi: The rap game now compared to the 90’s, the 90’s were filled with beasts, some out west, east, mid-west, and down south. You have people like Outkast, you have people like Tupac, Biggie, UGK, Wu-tang, Nas the 90’s was crazy. But now we’re getting to beasts like a lot of the new school dudes. They are showing out for new school dudes like J.Cole, Big K.R.I.T., Yelawolf. So things are looking a lot better cause a couple of years ago we were stuck with Soulja Boy…and what was his friends name? Arab, yeah and Dem Franchise Boys. I mean, I’m not knocking their hustle or nothing, they had their songs, they had their hits, they had their fan base but compared to the rappers in the 90’s. They were spitting in the 90’s, they were monsters on the mic and I’m glad to see that’s coming back around. Like I said, Yelawolf, K.R.I.T, J.Cole people like that are bringing the essence of dope spitting mixed with hot music back to the mainstream.

24: Alright now let’s back into your music now. The name “Uzi” is actually very interesting, actually it’s a semi-automatic you know what I mean, but then again I know that the fans don’t know that it actually deals with your background, who you are, especially your name, so I think you need to detail that for them.

Uzi: I got the name Uzi actually from my first name. My first name is Uzochidinma and for short my name is “Uzo.” Growing up every time I met somebody, they’d be like “What’s your name?” and I’d be like “Uzo,” and they’d be like “Uzi?” and they’d make this sound like an Uzi, and I’d be like “Yeah, close enough.” After awhile it was so corny, but I was like you know what, I’m going to stick with “Uzi.” Everybody calls me “Uzi” anyway so I’m going to stick with it and then it eventually adapted to my style of rapping. That fit the name so it all worked together. People know me as
Uzi, people know when I’m going to get on the track that I’m a go in with a spitfire flow. I’m just gonna go in on the track, like fast or slow.

24: How would you define your style? You say you have your own style that you picked up and everything is basically a mixture of styles that you study, sort of like Bruce Lee, and his Jeet Kune Do creation.

Uzi: (Laughs) Yeah…first I describe myself as being a lyricist. I would say I’m like a southern mash of like Twista, Tech N9ne, and then throw a couple of punchlines up in there, you know. And another important aspect is that I’m from the south, from the type of beats I pick to the type of slang I use, but when I start flowing, you probably gonna think of mid- west or how they structure their bars in the mid-west. I like patterned rhymes, multi layer rhymes. That shit go hard to me.

24: So let’s get into your music, I know you recorded before, was there a before “Don’t Stop,” a pre “Don’t Stop?”

Uzi: What you mean by that?

24: Did you have more music before “Don’t Stop?”

Uzi: Oh…oh…yeah of course, of course there’s music before “Don’t Stop.” “Don’t Stop (Get It, Get It)” is the single, before “Don’t Stop” I had a couple of songs out I had a song called “Lose control” that’s another club song. I had a song called “Fly Away,” “Beautiful struggle,” I had a couple of songs like that and it was sort of a different style. It was the same concept, same subject matter. I guess you can say the production was a little bit different. I finally found my niche in production and I could work with it now, so before “Don’t Stop” I was experimenting with my sound and I’m actually thankful for that and now I know my limits and bounds what I can do what I can’t do. Now I’ve found a sound that fits me and you can hear it in “Don’t Stop”. Once I released that, it started getting crazy for me. Once I released that, I’ve been going up and down the road just trying to get that song bigger than what it is and since then I’ve been recording more of the same style of music. The feedback is amazing people hitting me up like crazy cause they loving the music so I need to get it to more people, that’s my goal.

24: So, we’re at “Don’t Stop.” Where did the inspiration for that song come from and who headed the production?

Uzi: That’s actually pretty funny. Shout out to Figgie McKnight. Figgie McKnight produced the record, he recorded the record, he mixed the record all of that. So shout out to Figgie McKnight for that. That record spends a lot of time in the club. For awhile I slid back off the music scene. I guess just to get away (Laughs), I guess just to get away from it, because everybody knows the music industry can get really stressful. I slid back for a little and I was in the clubs heavy, just enjoying life and I guess coming off from that “Don’t Stop” popped up and that’s definitely a club song. So that’s pretty much where it came from. I remember riding in the car after I just left Figgie’s studio, he gave me a CD full of beats and that beat came on and I was riding with my homeboy. Shout out to Jon. I was riding with my homeboy and that beat came on, we were like, “yeah that’s the one right there and he was like “Don’t Stop, Get It, Get It” and I was “Hey, I like that,” so we ran with it and here it is today. That’s the single now and it’s doing its thing, it’s kept me up where I want to be. So, uh that’s pretty much it, the inspiration for it was being in the club all the time. We’re in Miami, you can’t help it if you in the club, regular club or strip club.

24: I want to talk about your grind. I know that’s very heavy and major with you, the fact that you’re not under any management, however, you’re still doing everything independently just by yourself on that level. Let’s talk about your grind. I mean is it hard? Do you find it difficult?

Uzi: Man, this is difficult….difficult, back breaking um no management, no label, no nothing. It’s me, the DJ’s and promoters I work with, and my peoples. My family is 311 gang, that’s my team. Shout out to D-n-T, Strillz, Kal-El, Yung Breez, and Jizzle Beatz who makes beats for me. It’s just us, that’s all we got. As far as a label goes, when the right deal comes, then the right deal comes. I’m not signing anything unless it’s sounds right. I refuse to climb aboard anybody’s slave ship, but right now this solo grind is tough, but it’s worth it. That’s why I call it the beautiful struggle, cause you gotta figure things out on your own, you got a learn how to market and promote, you got to get your own budget going, you got to go get to the streets and stuff and meet different DJs, meet different promoters, meet different people. So it’s difficult, but like I said, it’s all worth it at the end of the day.

24: Let’s get into your new mixtape, ‘The Blitzkrieg.’

Uzi: ‘Straight Flows Vol.1 The Blitzkrieg’ mixed by DJ Miami and DJ Killa K, heavy shout out to Street Connect DJs. I feel like the singles that I have running right now didn’t show my lyrical side enough. Like of course, I’m doing my thing, but they show my commercial side, they show that I can write songs, they show I can crank out hits. But like I said I’m a lyricist first, then I write a song, I wanted to do a mixtape where I’m just going in. No hooks, just freestyle after freestyle killing each track and that’s where ‘The Blitzkrieg’ came from. That’s the goal, I want to put out this mixtape and have people understand that this guy is not just an average Miami rapper, this guy is Uzi…yeah this guy is Uzi to the rap game. That’s my goal with the mixtape, so once that drops we’re gonna see how that plays out. We gonna see if the competition finally folds up in my favor.


Download Link: Straight Flows Vol.1: The Blitzkrieg

24: What is your take on the movement in Miami? The music movement and everything between DJ Khaled, even unsigned artists that you know, that we all know of, as a matter of fact, trying to get into that circle.

Uzi: Miami, Miami, Miami, we got a lot of hot records out in Miami and in my opinion they’re not getting enough play. And I know you know that already because every quality artist down here is saying the same thing. In my opinion, if you go to cities like Houston, Atlanta, you go to cities like Oakland you know, you go to these other cities they’re showing their local artists love, they’re playing their records, and they have their own sounds. There’s no reason why jooking music ain’t playing on 99 Jamz, in my opinion that’s the sound, that’s the Miami sound that’s playing on Miami underground stations and clubs. You know what I’m saying, I just feel like as a whole we have a lot of hot records down here. I feel like on mainstream level our city needs to show us more love and that goes to the big dogs like 99 Jamz, Power 96, and so on, it goes to the big record breakers like them. I just feel like as a whole we need more shine. Like in Houston, the reason why Houston blew up the way it did is because they supported screwed and chopped music. They listen to that swanging banging music and they supported it. The artists make it and their stations play it. In Atlanta the reason why snap music blew up is because the DJs supported it and the radio stations supported it. We have jooking music, it’s the Miami sound that we have because Miami has a sound believe it or not. If our DJs back it up and our radio stations back it up then there’s no reason why we shouldn’t have people like Diddy copy our style the way he copied snap music on that Danity Kane record, you know what I’m saying? I feel like we have our own sound let’s take it to the forefront, but that plays on unity and we all know that’s a difficult task to accomplish.

24: Let’s get into your website, I know that there’s other ways of contacting you, but let’s talk about
www.IAmFloridasFinest.com, damn you’re the only artist who actually, I mean, I don’t know how you got that address knowing it’s a very broad statement.

Uzi: I was trying to get FloridasFinest.com, but it was already taken. I think it’s like agriculture or something. I was like let me be IAmFloridasFinest.com. That website is my baby (Laughs). I’m trying to get so much traffic to that website. On the website, you can find news you can find my bio, pictures, downloads, ‘The Blitzkrieg’ download link will be on the website. Just everything I’m doing to be able to show that I want to keep in touch with the people, my fans. I want to be able to keep in touch and keep my fans happy. I’m a very people person so I want to make sure I stay in the face of the people to keep up with what they want. So that website is how I want to do it and you know the internet is a beautiful thing. I could make a record right now and somebody could listen to it from Australia. I’ve never stepped foot in Australia a day in my life and that’s the beauty of it. You have people that can listen to it around the world through the internet, and that’s the goal that I’m trying to accomplish just getting it as far as I can, stretching the arms of my brand.

24: What are other ways to contact you? I know there’s a facebook, a twitter, etc.
 
Uzi: Yes, of course, of course. I’m live on Twitter.com/Uzi311, Facebook.com/UziOffcial, MySpace.com/UziTheFam, YouTube.com/UziTheFam, so that’s pretty much it if you hit me up on Twitter and Facebook I will do my best to hit you back cause like I said, I love the people and I love the fans. I love every one of my fans, I try to keep in touch with what they want and give them an experience. More than just getting the music, I want them to get Uzi.

24: How many followers you have on your Twitter right now?

Uzi: On my Twitter, I have like 1,000 followers and on my Facebook I have like 2000 and something friends and 600 friends on my music page, and everything’s just growing.

24: Thank you for vibing with 24hourhiphop.com and providing us with this exclusive interview, do you have any last words for your present and soon to be future fans?

Uzi:  Real soon, I have great things coming. A lot of people have been sleeping, but it’s time to wake them up, I promise it’s time to wake up, cause I’m coming and I’m coming strong. Keep in tune to the website www.IAmFloridasFinest.com.

Keep posted to 24hourhiphop.com for the review on his new mixtape ‘Straight Flows Vol.1: The Blitzkrieg’

Here is the Audio to his smash club single: Don’t Stop (Get It, Get It):