Renz Young credits his love of rap to his mom. She was his introduction to the music, and it was from listening to her CDs as a kid that he realized he could rap as well—perhaps not only as a hobby but as a livelihood. She appreciates her son’s music but isn’t sold on that last part. “My mom is still real big on ‘Go to school, to college,’” Renz says. “She still has that, ‘I want my son to be a doctor or a lawyer’ thing, which are great things for a parent to want their son to be. But I have to nudge her sometimes, like, ‘This isn’t a hobby; I’m actually really tight.’”
This month Renz Young will release his latest EP, 2975, a polished set of contemplative, provocative, chip-on-the-shoulder hip-hop in the Kanye West/J. Cole mold. It proves that, from the talent side of things, he’s got the assets to make it in rap, including a uniquely gruff voice, an impassioned delivery and a strong ear for melody. But of course having what it takes to make it in rap isn’t nearly the same as actually making it. Thousands of rappers have the talent, but only a relative handful break through. Renz understands this.
“You know how when you’re young people tell you things and you always assume they’re just saying them because they’re old?” Renz says. “Then you get older and you actually start to listen to what they tell you. One of the things I always heard is that talent is only 10% of it. The rest of it is understanding the music business, and the actual business of getting on. People tell you that when you’re young, but you don’t listen.
“As far as me getting myself out there, I always was a big supporter of just letting the music speak for itself,” he continues. “Then I realized that’s not enough. I guarantee you there’s the coldest rapper we’ve never heard who went to work for FedEx or UPS, because he never had the initiative to let other people know how good he was. So I’m trying to use all the platforms that are available to me right now to put myself out there.”
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As part of that push, he’s filmed a video for “Mannequin,” a single from the EP that earned him some recognition from hip-hop blogs this summer, and he’s planning to film videos for most if not all of the other songs from the 2975 EP as well. He’s also found strength in numbers as a member of the new Milwaukee hip-hop collective Cultured SECT, which features artists like Pizzle, Vonny Del Fresco, Job Jetson, Jae Ace and D. Bridge. There’s a lot of talent in that circle, and collective organizer Dominque Portis figured they’d have a better chance of getting recognized if they were working together.
“Domo wanted to put together a brand that everybody could attach to while still having their own things going on individually,” Young says. “It’s natural because all of us are friends for real; all of us like to hang out at each other’s houses. So he wanted to put together a brand that we could attach to that wasn’t focused on rap. It’s also art, fashion and dance, and it’s working. It’s a platform for all of us.
“Having a brand is always a positive,” Young continues. “If the dude who made Coca-Cola just put his name on the can, nobody would drink it. There has to be a brand that people can attach to.”
Steam Renz Young's 2975 EP below.
