PHZ-Sicks – Talks Revolution, Donald Trump & His Dream Collaboration

Woodbridge, VA rap artist PHZ-Sicks (pronounced ‘physics’) presents “Riot In My Memory”, the new single from his forthcoming album Good Day, Greater Tomorrow. Produced by Epik The Dawn and PHZ-Sicks, “Riot” features drums by Spencer Vliet as well as additional Vocals by Seanny Greggs, Gabrielle Nutter, & Whitney Thompson, and comes on the heels of previous album single “Hurts.” PHZ-Sicks will release a new single from the album on the 23rd of each month leading up to the album’s summer drop. His album The Moment landed on 2 Dope Boyz “Best Mixtapes of 2013.”

PHZ says “Riot” comes from a place of “frustration and anger leading to catharsis. The fact that people turn a blind eye to the issue of police brutality is mind-boggling. You can’t be a caring person that says ‘I see no race’ but won’t stand next to your fellow human being if there is scientific fact that we are being treated differently and inhumanely.

I wanted to vent while also fighting against the asinine follow-up questions whenever a person of color brings up this topic. I don’t want my words, my body or my music to be treaded upon. Music can heal a nation and also build a nation… and sometimes you have to tear shit up.”

 

Describe a day in the life of PHZ-Sicks.

At this moment, a day in the life of me is pretty boring. To do the music I want to do, I work at 9 to 5 from Monday to Friday. I don’t really have a passion with the job, but it pays enough to fund the studio time, the videos, the production and the PR. When I get home from work, that’s where the creativity happens. I’ve never been a person that rushes my art. It’s obvious when you look at the gap between The Moment and Good Day, Greater Tomorrow. I either sit down and write or I take inspiration from reading articles, watching movies and TV or just living life.

I feel that as an artist, you could hit a setback if all you do is breathe and eat the studio. We all need that hunger. We all need to get out there and hustle but that does affect your viewpoint which then affects your art. If all you’re doing is traveling city to city, doing your music, you’re cut off with what’s going on in the world, your music is going to be about touring. I try to look at life as a movie and then I try to pain it on the canvas with music. With any art, everybody wants to see it the painting the same way, but as long as it touches someone, that’s all that matters.

Your new song talks about revolution. Do you think it’s even possible in America today? What might that look like?

I think when we hit the period of the bourgeois vs the proletariat, the empire of America will be falling. If we are going to take any step to changing America, the first step is take away the power that companies have in America. They run our political system which affects our living wages. We block them out and only elect people that are actually for the people and not profit, we’ll be getting somewhere but I don’t see that happening anytime soon.

Name three artists you’d collaborate with on your dream album and why.

I guess they would have to be living because if not, Prince would be my number 1 pick. As far as living, for me, it would be Jay-Z, Kendrick Lamar, and The Neptunes. I just know that on an artistic level and even more so a spiritual level, we would connect in the studio. I know that whatever we made would be great and that we would push each other to make great art.

That’s what I strive and that’s what I love about music. The ability to make music that could build a nation, heal a nation, or bring one down. Words have power and so does music and we as artist should recognize and be humble with this type of power and influence because you never know, the person listening to you could change the world.

What have you sacrificed for your career?

The thing about being an artist is that the ego is a mother. A lot of artists don’t talk about it but sometimes the sacrifices we make to get where we want to go is not worth it.

I’ve lost a lot of good relationships because I was so focused on music or in my head. The balance is real. It’s hard not to teeter to the more comfortable selfish side, but you have to stay in the middle and cross that tightrope for the betterment of you in the future.

 

What are your thoughts on Trump, one year in?

What is there to say. He is what we thought he was. He’s a liar. He’s incompetent. He wants to get rid of everything that Obama has done. There is nothing surprising about him. Those who paid attention saw this coming. The interesting thing about all this isn’t even him.

It’s how the GOP and his supporters bend over backwards to justify everything he’s doing when if it was Obama, they would have impeached him a long time ago. Hell, they looked for things to impeach Obama about.  The richer are going to get richer and some in the middle class and the poor are going wonder what happened. The swamp never got drained but filled to the brim and now this infestation is going to last for years.

Related: PHZ-Sicks – Run It