Image via Radamiz/Instagram
Staley Sharples says that writing is telling yourself you’re worthless and a God at the same time.
Less than a week after Radamiz and I had a poignant conversation about spirituality and his full-length album El Duende!, I stepped off of a plane and went straight into an emergency room. Our discussion on mortality and artistry suddenly became interlaced with my highly personal health scare. To revisit that moment was to stand face-to-face with life’s fragility.
It took me nearly a year to fully confront my traumatic experience and embrace the resulting emotions in all of their darkness and discomfort. Finally revisiting my dialogue with the Brooklyn-raised rapper and poet, I found myself even more drawn to the conceptual fire behind his project. As introduced by Spanish poet and playwright Federico García Lorca, the Duende “is the dark matter that makes great art incredible. It absolves itself from form and is solely attainable when mortality and sacrifice has properly been addressed and executed, respectively.”
Radamiz discovered the Duende concept following a panel at Harvard University, when future album narrator Rafael Moure-Eraso introduced him to Lorca’s century-old idea: “I was enamored by the idea of bringing awareness to a pivotal detail of all great arts. Duende is just as illicit as it is dependent on the show, the public’s witnessing. To me, Duende can only be earned through the work done invisible to the public: the work that hones the inability to distinguish art from artist from inhumane influence.”
El Duende! deconstructs the power, pain, and glory that inform a life dedicated to creative pursuits. Receiving a co-sign from Eminem, the album marked Rad’s first foray into textile design, as well as longform film projects with the concurrent release of Not The Angel, Not The Muse, a 31-minute documentary directed by Kento Komatsu and Radamiz. The doc captured the creative process surrounding El Duende!.
“When you’re creating—whether you’re writing, or whatever it is, when time starts to stop existing, that makes sense, because heaven is timeless,” the now Los Angeles-based artist muses in the opening of the documentary. Much of Radamiz’ art stems from this philosophical approach, as he seeks to tap into a frequency that is both challenging and freeing.
He’s most recently unveiled a music video for “Thin Ice,” produced by and co-starring Oscar-winning actor and musician Mahershala Ali, and unleashed an electrifying freestyle with his solo return to On The Radar.
Radamiz has shared his poetry at the NYC DOE Arts Hub, and launched his On Track events series in collaboration with Big Enough Home & More Justice. He’s leaning into his dream of a more positive, connected, and creative-centered industry. Reflecting on his collaborators’ impact on his work, Radamiz has a simple, profound mission as an artist: “You do your work. I do mine, but we’re doing this together. That feels like the kind of artist I am. I see no limits. But now I realize it. Before I was jaded. Now, [I feel like] I have to do this or nobody else will.”
I’m very curious about the El Duende concept and the breakdown of the angel, the muse, and the Duende. What does that represent to you, and how are you interpreting that through your art?
Radamiz: The concept, [presented] by the poet Federico García Lorca, is essentially pointing to a type of creativity that deals with formlessness, attachment, and the epitome of greatness, to a certain extent. The concept came to me at a perfect time because I think it represents an aspect of a creative pursuit that I always knew existed, and it made it more palpable.
There are no shortcuts. Darkness is always around. There’s going to be ebbs and flows. To be of the greatest, you have to be of the greatest survivors. You have to be of the greatest mind. You have to be of the greatest relationship to life, right? Because you have to tap into this intangible force of nature that is creativity and faith and relentless pursuit. One foot in front of the other, no matter how ugly or bloody it looks. You never stop.
Every now and then you get rewarded through this indistinguishable relationship to greatness through whatever your vocation is. There’s a certain level of hours to your craft, but I think Duende is a representation of faith and hours to the pursuit. In your bedroom, it doesn’t matter how great you are [at your instrument]—if you haven’t gotten your heart broken and if you haven’t gotten ashamed or if you haven’t been let down and if you haven’t had these breakthroughs of confidence and miracles all mixed in, [your instrument] means nothing.
You have to actually be living. My raps are better now because of my daughter. Because it’s attached to something, my raps are better. My music is better now because of my relationship to what I believe is divinity, a higher power, a calling greater than me. This is a gift of the real relationship. I’m being seen and looked over, but I’m working, I’m in the shadows. I do the best that I can, and not just when people are looking. I think all of that is what your art is made of.
If the muse represents inspiration and the lighter side of creativity, this is more of the relationship to the spirituality of being an artist—would you say this is your determination of purpose?
Radamiz: The musicians you’ve listened to and enjoyed, they weren’t there when that song came on and it made your outfit feel better, or when that perfect track played to start that road trip, or when a song at that restaurant came on and made you feel more in love with the person sitting across from you. That’s what music does, and [artists] are not there for those moments.
We’re omnipresent in the creation of it, so it has your whole life. We’re exhaustible. One day you and I will stop breathing. Do you care about that? If you do [care] as an artist, and you’re aware of [the idea that] my creations really form other people’s lives, you have to embrace all of these things. I believe Quincy Jones said it—you can never make art greater than who you are.
Sometimes, and definitely for me at the beginning, you think [the music is] the words and it’s the beat choice and it’s the switch ups and it’s the sounds and it’s like… it’s just great emptiness.
At some point though, you live. You deal with the repossession of your vehicle and late rent texts and breakthroughs and a co-sign from Eminem, and all these things get mixed. Then it’s like, oh, it means something, those next words [I write]. So when I say I kept my head up through it all—now it’s heavy, but to somebody else they might think, that’s a starter line. That’s nothing. But if somebody’s gone through something, when they say that you’re like, man, I feel the weight of that. I think everybody picks up on that.
Intentionality. To your point about music—music is everywhere. It’s the soundtrack to our lives, but you don’t always know the headspace of the creators. You don’t know where it’s coming from for them. How has fatherhood been treating you and how has that changed your creative process? How do you balance being a father with what you’re experiencing as an artist?
Radamiz: I believe fatherhood is the biggest blessing. As an artist, it’s one of the biggest blessings because it’s something that is so demanding of you. It requires that how you spend your time is important. Tending to yourself as you’re changing, and tending to the development of your child.
I have a responsibility to raise the best kind of the best human being I can, for my love of the world, because I love everybody in it in some way, shape or form. If I don’t love you now, I can love you. I treat it like that, right? So now here’s my child. Here’s my relationship to God, and here’s my relationship to the world. I have a responsibility to include the best kind of human I can possible. That requires me to be present in a lot of ways. It means being affirming, it means caring that the first seven years of your child is the subconscious that they will live with moving forward.
So [I ask myself], how much love can I instill in you? How much confidence can I instill in you? Can it be normal that my daughter feels loved by her father? That’s a choice that I make every day, for that to be a normal thing that she processes. In all of that, I’ve got to go to the studio. I gotta go touch a beat. I have to go show up for an interview, I have to get on the phone with the manager.
It needs to be purposeful. It needs to be intentional, you know, and as my bandwidth increases and I can do more things, it only means [I need to be] more and more purposeful and intentional because she needs security. What she will have is a parent who has gone through enough positively, so that she knows when I say you can make it through anything, it will come from experience, not a book.
I’m sure it’s like thinking about yourself, outside of yourself, in a new way. As an artist you already have to do that in terms of understanding, how am I presenting myself to the world? But then it’s like you said—what kind of person am I? Who am I like in all these categories? So many people, they just do things just to do them. They feel like they have time to waste. But as a father, there is no more of that capacity for wasted time. What do you do to recharge? How do you like to keep your cup full?
Radamiz: I make sure to sit and think, and I talk out loud. Sometimes I’m talking to God. Sometimes I’m talking to myself. Sometimes I’m talking and saying whatever’s on my mind, just putting it out there. I make time to process how I’m feeling about things.
I make time to process. I don’t take my feelings as facts about anything. I’m someone who’s responsible for greatness—so how do I love myself, and how do I treat myself like somebody who’s responsible for introducing great things? That person needs to be tended to.
I try to have a third person relationship with them, like an outside relationship with myself. Sometimes, when I don’t know what to do, I think as if I’m watching my life as a movie. What would I want the character to do, and I just make that choice. So you disconnect and then it’s like, when I need to recharge, I look at what the character Radamiz needs to do to recharge. I literally think as if I’m watching it on the screen.
I always try to make myself proud. I’m somebody to be responsible for, and I’m part of the team that has to be responsible for that person, because other people are too. My partner, and the people who love me have the autonomy to call me out. Everyone needs to be checked every now and then, and we need to give people the permission to check us energetically.
How did your documentary come about? Were there any challenges that you ran into or things you learned in the process?
Radamiz: I’ve been learning what my language in film is. I’ve been learning the emotive intentions of my work, and the atmosphere that I’m creating. I’ve done short films before, but I think I’ve caught a better stride with it in our recap videos, and making sure everything feels a bit more sophisticated, and definitely feels intentional. It’s very hard to have things come off as intentional. One of the things I realized is that anything I put out is incredible. That’s how I treat it. Because everything I put out feels like me.
Sometimes I’m organized. Sometimes I’m direct. Sometimes I’m all over the place. Sometimes I’m quiet. Sometimes my life is boring, but I’m enjoying it. So all of my work should feel like it encompasses all of that about me.
Once I release my attachments to form, it’s fun because you get to actually play. With this film, it was great to put the focus on the viewpoint of the certain topics of Duende in this project and where I’m at in my life, on the people around me, and on things that I don’t think are focused on until artists die, or there’s a huge amount of success, and now here’s the roundtable [interview] with the manager. I don’t want that. I don’t need my demise to suddenly show you who’s around me. Nor does that need to happen once you’re like batting a thousand, and your tours are sold out, and now you look behind who the team is. Like, no, I’m doing all that.
I’ve been looked over for so long enough in my life to know that I validate myself. There is nothing I can’t do if I decide to do it. I don’t need anybody else’s name entitled to bring importance to what I’m doing, not to me. If you need to see my name in Forbes to make you go listen to the music, that’s on you. I understand that’s part of the relationship we have with the media and consumerism, but not to me. People should probably hear what Nicky, one of my managers and art directors said—you almost had a car crash and you thought about what work you didn’t get done. My manager, Brandon, for years, what does his mom instill in him? Only do things you love. These are the people that I’m talking for. These are the people whose credit cards are being pushed to the max to push a Spotify campaign. This is who’s spending thousands of dollars in their pocket to push a vinyl in hopes to create more revenue.
These are the people who are bleeding with me and sacrificing with me, and ideating with me, and being architects with me. That was very important to do because I think it makes the project and what you hear be placed in the actual world, not just in an ethos of ideas, you know.
I really respect that you recognize your team, and that you are doing this all together. You are the architect—
Radamiz: And they are too. That’s why [textile artist] Gabrielle Borrajo is now representing the concept of Duende. That’s why one of the best parts of the film, is her reading the notes that we took. Because the thing is, I hadn’t seen the textile until the day before. I had no relationship to it. Initially, we got on the phone. I know what my idea is. I know what I’m inspired by. I think this is valuable for the world. I think creatives need to go read this essay. Here’s my notes. Now it’s the day before [the unveiling], and I forgot I gave her notes. So when she’s reading it, I’m like, man, look at, look at what trusting your intention, but also giving people complete autonomy [can do]. Their fingerprints are actually on it. I’m not micromanaging her process. She’s an artist, just like I am an artist. The best kind of person you can be is the one that inspires others to show the best version of themselves to you. That says a lot.
Were you always trying to do different artistic or creative things when you were growing up?
Radamiz: The beautiful part is that the first thing I remember wanting to be was an artist. I remember thinking that [being an artist] meant drawing, and thinking that it meant I could draw George Washington’s face better than you can. And then I couldn’t, so then I thought I wasn’t an artist. I’m not good at replicating.
After that, I tried storytelling. I won a storytelling competition where I literally memorized books and then performed them. I won that in my school, and then I competed a little bit after. I didn’t make it much further after that, but I remember my teacher getting me a McDonald’s after [a competition].
I think I’ve always had, from my youth, [an attitude] that I didn’t care if you didn’t like what I like. Those are some tangible things for responsibility and creativity. But I know I’ve always had that, and I didn’t know how much I need that. Thank God I have it, that’s one of the best things about me. I have a certain level of like, if you don’t get it, that’s, then you’re not for me—and also, how can I get better at making sure it’s gettable, if that makes any sense.
And once again, your art can’t be bigger than who you are. When you get bold and love everything that you’re going through as it’s happening, because you love it all, because you realize you are an alchemist that can create anything into gold, it doesn’t matter what you give me. I can make beauty out of anything.
Have you always been a very spiritual person, or has been a journey? I think we’re about the same age, and I felt like a shift around my late 20s, and now into my 30s, where I’m like, damn, I’m going to die one day. You know what I mean? I gotta figure my shit out and get more comfortable with myself. Did you go through those growing pains, or did you always have the perspective that you currently hold?
Radamiz: Well, they say you have two lives, and the second one starts when you know you only have one.
I’ve always been chosen. God is the word I use, because it’s the most tangible for other people. God’s voice is present in my life. I’ve had things happen throughout my years, period. I’ve had a relationship with otherness, [more] than just associating life as like, a physical thing. It’s definitely been a journey because what you learn is that your relationship to creation, and to your life, can’t be inherited from someone else. They can’t. You have to be living, and going, and processing things.
Naturally, I think as you grow, you pay attention to different things, and what you pay attention to usually expands. Hopefully, as you mature, you gain awareness, and then spiritually as you mature, you start realizing, and you have the realization that you are a creator of all the reality, of any reality, meaning how you contextualize anything will be the reality. So then you start upgrading what your contextualization is. Because you realize, what I say goes.
There’s an excerpt from Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda that I love, which goes—the yogis go out of their way to never tell a lie. Essentially, if you only tell the truth, everything you say becomes true. because now you’ve put yourself in alignment with that which is true.That’s where my maturation in my spirituality is at now. Like, nothing I do in the shadows is actually in the shadows. It’s all in the light. Everything I do is the truth. Even a lie will create confusion.
Before I think [my spirituality] was a lot more religious, and a lot more angel based, and now it’s like the responsibility of being someone who only tells the truth, how hard it is, but how in alignment it is, with me actually creating the life that I want because anything I say goes, if you are a thorough enough system,I’m not sure how well I answered you, but that’s where I’m at in it now.
Do you meditate?
Radamiz: I try to always be in meditation at all moments.
That awareness is key. I feel like I spent so much of my 20s always thinking about what life could be, but if I can’t be my authentic self everywhere I go, then I’m not going to accomplish anything.
Radamiz: That’s the thing. The hard worker never has to explain himself. Their life will show. That’s sometimes difficult for people to swallow, because people think what that means is, but think of this person, they just made their first song and they blew up. Is that sustainable? You will know if they’re hardworking. It will always show itself, not necessarily immediately. Over time it all will settle, and sort itself out because life can’t not be based in reality. That’s why it’s hard for people to swallow that this idea of this world is what we’ve all collectively decided that it is.
I want people to open their minds to like how you roll out projects. The more you look at it, the more you realize [the rollout is] an adhesive to a project. It’s this concept, and here’s this artist. Here’s his team, here are these collaborators and here’s the intent. We’re going back into the world. I personally believe that industry and the investment of the industry dollars always go hand in hand, [that’s] always going to be very heavy to the discovery and the sustainability of an artist’s success and career. But it doesn’t mean that people aren’t paying more attention now to the architects of their careers. The architects of a system of how they want their artistry to exist. A lot of other things are popping up too, in conjunction with sound, in conjunction with content. These other avenues are popping up because now more than ever, we have so much choice that you really can realize the power of your choice of investing in somebody.
As an artist, you have so many more choices that are up to you to create what the world is. I am the mood board for resilience, no matter what. I’m the mood board for high taste. I’m the mood board for, can’t hide anything. I’m the mood board for, love everybody and really love what you do, because it is your child that will one day raise you. Everything I do, I am. I consistently inherit the choices I’ve made. Every choice I’ve made has become a child that raises me. It feels good to start to inherit better choices.
There are no shortcuts. Darkness is always around. There’s going to be ebbs and flows. To be of the greatest, you have to be of the greatest survivors. You have to be of the greatest mind. You have to be of the greatest relationship to life, right? Because you have to tap into this intangible force of nature that is creativity and faith and relentless pursuit. One foot in front of the other, no matter how ugly or bloody it looks. You never stop.
Every now and then you get rewarded through this indistinguishable relationship to greatness through whatever your vocation is. There’s a certain level of hours to your craft, but I think Duende is a representation of faith and hours to the pursuit. In your bedroom, it doesn’t matter how great you are [at your instrument]—if you haven’t gotten your heart broken and if you haven’t gotten ashamed or if you haven’t been let down and if you haven’t had these breakthroughs of confidence and miracles all mixed in, [your instrument] means nothing.
You have to actually be living. My raps are better now because of my daughter. Because it’s attached to something, my raps are better. My music is better now because of my relationship to what I believe is divinity, a higher power, a calling greater than me. This is a gift of the real relationship. I’m being seen and looked over, but I’m working, I’m in the shadows. I do the best that I can, and not just when people are looking. I think all of that is what your art is made of.
If the muse represents inspiration and the lighter side of creativity, this is more of the relationship to the spirituality of being an artist—would you say this is your determination of purpose?
Radamiz: The musicians you’ve listened to and enjoyed, they weren’t there when that song came on and it made your outfit feel better, or when that perfect track played to start that road trip, or when a song at that restaurant came on and made you feel more in love with the person sitting across from you. That’s what music does, and [artists] are not there for those moments.
We’re omnipresent in the creation of it, so it has your whole life. We’re exhaustible. One day you and I will stop breathing. Do you care about that? If you do [care] as an artist, and you’re aware of [the idea that] my creations really form other people’s lives, you have to embrace all of these things. I believe Quincy Jones said it—you can never make art greater than who you are.
Sometimes, and definitely for me at the beginning, you think [the music is] the words and it’s the beat choice and it’s the switch ups and it’s the sounds and it’s like… it’s just great emptiness.
At some point though, you live. You deal with the repossession of your vehicle and late rent texts and breakthroughs and a co-sign from Eminem, and all these things get mixed. Then it’s like, oh, it means something, those next words [I write]. So when I say I kept my head up through it all—now it’s heavy, but to somebody else they might think, that’s a starter line. That’s nothing. But if somebody’s gone through something, when they say that you’re like, man, I feel the weight of that. I think everybody picks up on that.
Intentionality. To your point about music—music is everywhere. It’s the soundtrack to our lives, but you don’t always know the headspace of the creators. You don’t know where it’s coming from for them. How has fatherhood been treating you and how has that changed your creative process? How do you balance being a father with what you’re experiencing as an artist?
Radamiz: I believe fatherhood is the biggest blessing. As an artist, it’s one of the biggest blessings because it’s something that is so demanding of you. It requires that how you spend your time is important. Tending to yourself as you’re changing, and tending to the development of your child.
I have a responsibility to raise the best kind of the best human being I can, for my love of the world, because I love everybody in it in some way, shape or form. If I don’t love you now, I can love you. I treat it like that, right? So now here’s my child. Here’s my relationship to God, and here’s my relationship to the world. I have a responsibility to include the best kind of human I can possible. That requires me to be present in a lot of ways. It means being affirming, it means caring that the first seven years of your child is the subconscious that they will live with moving forward.
So [I ask myself], how much love can I instill in you? How much confidence can I instill in you? Can it be normal that my daughter feels loved by her father? That’s a choice that I make every day, for that to be a normal thing that she processes. In all of that, I’ve got to go to the studio. I gotta go touch a beat. I have to go show up for an interview, I have to get on the phone with the manager.
It needs to be purposeful. It needs to be intentional, you know, and as my bandwidth increases and I can do more things, it only means [I need to be] more and more purposeful and intentional because she needs security. What she will have is a parent who has gone through enough positively, so that she knows when I say you can make it through anything, it will come from experience, not a book.
I’m sure it’s like thinking about yourself, outside of yourself, in a new way. As an artist you already have to do that in terms of understanding, how am I presenting myself to the world? But then it’s like you said—what kind of person am I? Who am I like in all these categories? So many people, they just do things just to do them. They feel like they have time to waste. But as a father, there is no more of that capacity for wasted time. What do you do to recharge? How do you like to keep your cup full?
Radamiz: I make sure to sit and think, and I talk out loud. Sometimes I’m talking to God. Sometimes I’m talking to myself. Sometimes I’m talking and saying whatever’s on my mind, just putting it out there. I make time to process how I’m feeling about things.
I make time to process. I don’t take my feelings as facts about anything. I’m someone who’s responsible for greatness—so how do I love myself, and how do I treat myself like somebody who’s responsible for introducing great things? That person needs to be tended to.
I try to have a third person relationship with them, like an outside relationship with myself. Sometimes, when I don’t know what to do, I think as if I’m watching my life as a movie. What would I want the character to do, and I just make that choice. So you disconnect and then it’s like, when I need to recharge, I look at what the character Radamiz needs to do to recharge. I literally think as if I’m watching it on the screen.
I always try to make myself proud. I’m somebody to be responsible for, and I’m part of the team that has to be responsible for that person, because other people are too. My partner, and the people who love me have the autonomy to call me out. Everyone needs to be checked every now and then, and we need to give people the permission to check us energetically.
How did your documentary come about? Were there any challenges that you ran into or things you learned in the process?
Radamiz: I’ve been learning what my language in film is. I’ve been learning the emotive intentions of my work, and the atmosphere that I’m creating. I’ve done short films before, but I think I’ve caught a better stride with it in our recap videos, and making sure everything feels a bit more sophisticated, and definitely feels intentional. It’s very hard to have things come off as intentional. One of the things I realized is that anything I put out is incredible. That’s how I treat it. Because everything I put out feels like me.
Sometimes I’m organized. Sometimes I’m direct. Sometimes I’m all over the place. Sometimes I’m quiet. Sometimes my life is boring, but I’m enjoying it. So all of my work should feel like it encompasses all of that about me.
Once I release my attachments to form, it’s fun because you get to actually play. With this film, it was great to put the focus on the viewpoint of the certain topics of Duende in this project and where I’m at in my life, on the people around me, and on things that I don’t think are focused on until artists die, or there’s a huge amount of success, and now here’s the roundtable [interview] with the manager. I don’t want that. I don’t need my demise to suddenly show you who’s around me. Nor does that need to happen once you’re like batting a thousand, and your tours are sold out, and now you look behind who the team is. Like, no, I’m doing all that.
I’ve been looked over for so long enough in my life to know that I validate myself. There is nothing I can’t do if I decide to do it. I don’t need anybody else’s name entitled to bring importance to what I’m doing, not to me. If you need to see my name in Forbes to make you go listen to the music, that’s on you. I understand that’s part of the relationship we have with the media and consumerism, but not to me. People should probably hear what Nicky, one of my managers and art directors said—you almost had a car crash and you thought about what work you didn’t get done. My manager, Brandon, for years, what does his mom instill in him? Only do things you love. These are the people that I’m talking for. These are the people whose credit cards are being pushed to the max to push a Spotify campaign. This is who’s spending thousands of dollars in their pocket to push a vinyl in hopes to create more revenue.
These are the people who are bleeding with me and sacrificing with me, and ideating with me, and being architects with me. That was very important to do because I think it makes the project and what you hear be placed in the actual world, not just in an ethos of ideas, you know.
I really respect that you recognize your team, and that you are doing this all together. You are the architect—
Radamiz: And they are too. That’s why [textile artist] Gabrielle Borrajo is now representing the concept of Duende. That’s why one of the best parts of the film, is her reading the notes that we took. Because the thing is, I hadn’t seen the textile until the day before. I had no relationship to it. Initially, we got on the phone. I know what my idea is. I know what I’m inspired by. I think this is valuable for the world. I think creatives need to go read this essay. Here’s my notes. Now it’s the day before [the unveiling], and I forgot I gave her notes. So when she’s reading it, I’m like, man, look at, look at what trusting your intention, but also giving people complete autonomy [can do]. Their fingerprints are actually on it. I’m not micromanaging her process. She’s an artist, just like I am an artist. The best kind of person you can be is the one that inspires others to show the best version of themselves to you. That says a lot.
Were you always trying to do different artistic or creative things when you were growing up?
Radamiz: The beautiful part is that the first thing I remember wanting to be was an artist. I remember thinking that [being an artist] meant drawing, and thinking that it meant I could draw George Washington’s face better than you can. And then I couldn’t, so then I thought I wasn’t an artist. I’m not good at replicating.
After that, I tried storytelling. I won a storytelling competition where I literally memorized books and then performed them. I won that in my school, and then I competed a little bit after. I didn’t make it much further after that, but I remember my teacher getting me a McDonald’s after [a competition].
I think I’ve always had, from my youth, [an attitude] that I didn’t care if you didn’t like what I like. Those are some tangible things for responsibility and creativity. But I know I’ve always had that, and I didn’t know how much I need that. Thank God I have it, that’s one of the best things about me. I have a certain level of like, if you don’t get it, that’s, then you’re not for me—and also, how can I get better at making sure it’s gettable, if that makes any sense.
And once again, your art can’t be bigger than who you are. When you get bold and love everything that you’re going through as it’s happening, because you love it all, because you realize you are an alchemist that can create anything into gold, it doesn’t matter what you give me. I can make beauty out of anything.
Have you always been a very spiritual person, or has been a journey? I think we’re about the same age, and I felt like a shift around my late 20s, and now into my 30s, where I’m like, damn, I’m going to die one day. You know what I mean? I gotta figure my shit out and get more comfortable with myself. Did you go through those growing pains, or did you always have the perspective that you currently hold?
Radamiz: Well, they say you have two lives, and the second one starts when you know you only have one.
I’ve always been chosen. God is the word I use, because it’s the most tangible for other people. God’s voice is present in my life. I’ve had things happen throughout my years, period. I’ve had a relationship with otherness, [more] than just associating life as like, a physical thing. It’s definitely been a journey because what you learn is that your relationship to creation, and to your life, can’t be inherited from someone else. They can’t. You have to be living, and going, and processing things.
Naturally, I think as you grow, you pay attention to different things, and what you pay attention to usually expands. Hopefully, as you mature, you gain awareness, and then spiritually as you mature, you start realizing, and you have the realization that you are a creator of all the reality, of any reality, meaning how you contextualize anything will be the reality. So then you start upgrading what your contextualization is. Because you realize, what I say goes.
There’s an excerpt from Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda that I love, which goes—the yogis go out of their way to never tell a lie. Essentially, if you only tell the truth, everything you say becomes true. because now you’ve put yourself in alignment with that which is true.That’s where my maturation in my spirituality is at now. Like, nothing I do in the shadows is actually in the shadows. It’s all in the light. Everything I do is the truth. Even a lie will create confusion.
Before I think [my spirituality] was a lot more religious, and a lot more angel based, and now it’s like the responsibility of being someone who only tells the truth, how hard it is, but how in alignment it is, with me actually creating the life that I want because anything I say goes, if you are a thorough enough system,I’m not sure how well I answered you, but that’s where I’m at in it now.
Do you meditate?
Radamiz: I try to always be in meditation at all moments.
That awareness is key. I feel like I spent so much of my 20s always thinking about what life could be, but if I can’t be my authentic self everywhere I go, then I’m not going to accomplish anything.
Radamiz: That’s the thing. The hard worker never has to explain himself. Their life will show. That’s sometimes difficult for people to swallow, because people think what that means is, but think of this person, they just made their first song and they blew up. Is that sustainable? You will know if they’re hardworking. It will always show itself, not necessarily immediately. Over time it all will settle, and sort itself out because life can’t not be based in reality. That’s why it’s hard for people to swallow that this idea of this world is what we’ve all collectively decided that it is.
I want people to open their minds to like how you roll out projects. The more you look at it, the more you realize [the rollout is] an adhesive to a project. It’s this concept, and here’s this artist. Here’s his team, here are these collaborators and here’s the intent. We’re going back into the world. I personally believe that industry and the investment of the industry dollars always go hand in hand, [that’s] always going to be very heavy to the discovery and the sustainability of an artist’s success and career. But it doesn’t mean that people aren’t paying more attention now to the architects of their careers. The architects of a system of how they want their artistry to exist. A lot of other things are popping up too, in conjunction with sound, in conjunction with content. These other avenues are popping up because now more than ever, we have so much choice that you really can realize the power of your choice of investing in somebody.
As an artist, you have so many more choices that are up to you to create what the world is. I am the mood board for resilience, no matter what. I’m the mood board for high taste. I’m the mood board for, can’t hide anything. I’m the mood board for, love everybody and really love what you do, because it is your child that will one day raise you. Everything I do, I am. I consistently inherit the choices I’ve made. Every choice I’ve made has become a child that raises me. It feels good to start to inherit better choices.
We’re omnipresent in the creation of it, so it has your whole life. We’re exhaustible. One day you and I will stop breathing. Do you care about that? If you do [care] as an artist, and you’re aware of [the idea that] my creations really form other people’s lives, you have to embrace all of these things. I believe Quincy Jones said it—you can never make art greater than who you are.
Sometimes, and definitely for me at the beginning, you think [the music is] the words and it’s the beat choice and it’s the switch ups and it’s the sounds and it’s like… it’s just great emptiness.
At some point though, you live. You deal with the repossession of your vehicle and late rent texts and breakthroughs and a co-sign from Eminem, and all these things get mixed. Then it’s like, oh, it means something, those next words [I write]. So when I say I kept my head up through it all—now it’s heavy, but to somebody else they might think, that’s a starter line. That’s nothing. But if somebody’s gone through something, when they say that you’re like, man, I feel the weight of that. I think everybody picks up on that.
Intentionality. To your point about music—music is everywhere. It’s the soundtrack to our lives, but you don’t always know the headspace of the creators. You don’t know where it’s coming from for them. How has fatherhood been treating you and how has that changed your creative process? How do you balance being a father with what you’re experiencing as an artist?
Radamiz: I believe fatherhood is the biggest blessing. As an artist, it’s one of the biggest blessings because it’s something that is so demanding of you. It requires that how you spend your time is important. Tending to yourself as you’re changing, and tending to the development of your child.
I have a responsibility to raise the best kind of the best human being I can, for my love of the world, because I love everybody in it in some way, shape or form. If I don’t love you now, I can love you. I treat it like that, right? So now here’s my child. Here’s my relationship to God, and here’s my relationship to the world. I have a responsibility to include the best kind of human I can possible. That requires me to be present in a lot of ways. It means being affirming, it means caring that the first seven years of your child is the subconscious that they will live with moving forward.
So [I ask myself], how much love can I instill in you? How much confidence can I instill in you? Can it be normal that my daughter feels loved by her father? That’s a choice that I make every day, for that to be a normal thing that she processes. In all of that, I’ve got to go to the studio. I gotta go touch a beat. I have to go show up for an interview, I have to get on the phone with the manager.
It needs to be purposeful. It needs to be intentional, you know, and as my bandwidth increases and I can do more things, it only means [I need to be] more and more purposeful and intentional because she needs security. What she will have is a parent who has gone through enough positively, so that she knows when I say you can make it through anything, it will come from experience, not a book.
I’m sure it’s like thinking about yourself, outside of yourself, in a new way. As an artist you already have to do that in terms of understanding, how am I presenting myself to the world? But then it’s like you said—what kind of person am I? Who am I like in all these categories? So many people, they just do things just to do them. They feel like they have time to waste. But as a father, there is no more of that capacity for wasted time. What do you do to recharge? How do you like to keep your cup full?
Radamiz: I make sure to sit and think, and I talk out loud. Sometimes I’m talking to God. Sometimes I’m talking to myself. Sometimes I’m talking and saying whatever’s on my mind, just putting it out there. I make time to process how I’m feeling about things.
I make time to process. I don’t take my feelings as facts about anything. I’m someone who’s responsible for greatness—so how do I love myself, and how do I treat myself like somebody who’s responsible for introducing great things? That person needs to be tended to.
I try to have a third person relationship with them, like an outside relationship with myself. Sometimes, when I don’t know what to do, I think as if I’m watching my life as a movie. What would I want the character to do, and I just make that choice. So you disconnect and then it’s like, when I need to recharge, I look at what the character Radamiz needs to do to recharge. I literally think as if I’m watching it on the screen.
I always try to make myself proud. I’m somebody to be responsible for, and I’m part of the team that has to be responsible for that person, because other people are too. My partner, and the people who love me have the autonomy to call me out. Everyone needs to be checked every now and then, and we need to give people the permission to check us energetically.
How did your documentary come about? Were there any challenges that you ran into or things you learned in the process?
Radamiz: I’ve been learning what my language in film is. I’ve been learning the emotive intentions of my work, and the atmosphere that I’m creating. I’ve done short films before, but I think I’ve caught a better stride with it in our recap videos, and making sure everything feels a bit more sophisticated, and definitely feels intentional. It’s very hard to have things come off as intentional. One of the things I realized is that anything I put out is incredible. That’s how I treat it. Because everything I put out feels like me.
Sometimes I’m organized. Sometimes I’m direct. Sometimes I’m all over the place. Sometimes I’m quiet. Sometimes my life is boring, but I’m enjoying it. So all of my work should feel like it encompasses all of that about me.
Once I release my attachments to form, it’s fun because you get to actually play. With this film, it was great to put the focus on the viewpoint of the certain topics of Duende in this project and where I’m at in my life, on the people around me, and on things that I don’t think are focused on until artists die, or there’s a huge amount of success, and now here’s the roundtable [interview] with the manager. I don’t want that. I don’t need my demise to suddenly show you who’s around me. Nor does that need to happen once you’re like batting a thousand, and your tours are sold out, and now you look behind who the team is. Like, no, I’m doing all that.
I’ve been looked over for so long enough in my life to know that I validate myself. There is nothing I can’t do if I decide to do it. I don’t need anybody else’s name entitled to bring importance to what I’m doing, not to me. If you need to see my name in Forbes to make you go listen to the music, that’s on you. I understand that’s part of the relationship we have with the media and consumerism, but not to me. People should probably hear what Nicky, one of my managers and art directors said—you almost had a car crash and you thought about what work you didn’t get done. My manager, Brandon, for years, what does his mom instill in him? Only do things you love. These are the people that I’m talking for. These are the people whose credit cards are being pushed to the max to push a Spotify campaign. This is who’s spending thousands of dollars in their pocket to push a vinyl in hopes to create more revenue.
These are the people who are bleeding with me and sacrificing with me, and ideating with me, and being architects with me. That was very important to do because I think it makes the project and what you hear be placed in the actual world, not just in an ethos of ideas, you know.
I really respect that you recognize your team, and that you are doing this all together. You are the architect—
Radamiz: And they are too. That’s why [textile artist] Gabrielle Borrajo is now representing the concept of Duende. That’s why one of the best parts of the film, is her reading the notes that we took. Because the thing is, I hadn’t seen the textile until the day before. I had no relationship to it. Initially, we got on the phone. I know what my idea is. I know what I’m inspired by. I think this is valuable for the world. I think creatives need to go read this essay. Here’s my notes. Now it’s the day before [the unveiling], and I forgot I gave her notes. So when she’s reading it, I’m like, man, look at, look at what trusting your intention, but also giving people complete autonomy [can do]. Their fingerprints are actually on it. I’m not micromanaging her process. She’s an artist, just like I am an artist. The best kind of person you can be is the one that inspires others to show the best version of themselves to you. That says a lot.
Were you always trying to do different artistic or creative things when you were growing up?
Radamiz: The beautiful part is that the first thing I remember wanting to be was an artist. I remember thinking that [being an artist] meant drawing, and thinking that it meant I could draw George Washington’s face better than you can. And then I couldn’t, so then I thought I wasn’t an artist. I’m not good at replicating.
After that, I tried storytelling. I won a storytelling competition where I literally memorized books and then performed them. I won that in my school, and then I competed a little bit after. I didn’t make it much further after that, but I remember my teacher getting me a McDonald’s after [a competition].
I think I’ve always had, from my youth, [an attitude] that I didn’t care if you didn’t like what I like. Those are some tangible things for responsibility and creativity. But I know I’ve always had that, and I didn’t know how much I need that. Thank God I have it, that’s one of the best things about me. I have a certain level of like, if you don’t get it, that’s, then you’re not for me—and also, how can I get better at making sure it’s gettable, if that makes any sense.
And once again, your art can’t be bigger than who you are. When you get bold and love everything that you’re going through as it’s happening, because you love it all, because you realize you are an alchemist that can create anything into gold, it doesn’t matter what you give me. I can make beauty out of anything.
Have you always been a very spiritual person, or has been a journey? I think we’re about the same age, and I felt like a shift around my late 20s, and now into my 30s, where I’m like, damn, I’m going to die one day. You know what I mean? I gotta figure my shit out and get more comfortable with myself. Did you go through those growing pains, or did you always have the perspective that you currently hold?
Radamiz: Well, they say you have two lives, and the second one starts when you know you only have one.
I’ve always been chosen. God is the word I use, because it’s the most tangible for other people. God’s voice is present in my life. I’ve had things happen throughout my years, period. I’ve had a relationship with otherness, [more] than just associating life as like, a physical thing. It’s definitely been a journey because what you learn is that your relationship to creation, and to your life, can’t be inherited from someone else. They can’t. You have to be living, and going, and processing things.
Naturally, I think as you grow, you pay attention to different things, and what you pay attention to usually expands. Hopefully, as you mature, you gain awareness, and then spiritually as you mature, you start realizing, and you have the realization that you are a creator of all the reality, of any reality, meaning how you contextualize anything will be the reality. So then you start upgrading what your contextualization is. Because you realize, what I say goes.
There’s an excerpt from Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda that I love, which goes—the yogis go out of their way to never tell a lie. Essentially, if you only tell the truth, everything you say becomes true. because now you’ve put yourself in alignment with that which is true.That’s where my maturation in my spirituality is at now. Like, nothing I do in the shadows is actually in the shadows. It’s all in the light. Everything I do is the truth. Even a lie will create confusion.
Before I think [my spirituality] was a lot more religious, and a lot more angel based, and now it’s like the responsibility of being someone who only tells the truth, how hard it is, but how in alignment it is, with me actually creating the life that I want because anything I say goes, if you are a thorough enough system,I’m not sure how well I answered you, but that’s where I’m at in it now.
Do you meditate?
Radamiz: I try to always be in meditation at all moments.
That awareness is key. I feel like I spent so much of my 20s always thinking about what life could be, but if I can’t be my authentic self everywhere I go, then I’m not going to accomplish anything.
Radamiz: That’s the thing. The hard worker never has to explain himself. Their life will show. That’s sometimes difficult for people to swallow, because people think what that means is, but think of this person, they just made their first song and they blew up. Is that sustainable? You will know if they’re hardworking. It will always show itself, not necessarily immediately. Over time it all will settle, and sort itself out because life can’t not be based in reality. That’s why it’s hard for people to swallow that this idea of this world is what we’ve all collectively decided that it is.
I want people to open their minds to like how you roll out projects. The more you look at it, the more you realize [the rollout is] an adhesive to a project. It’s this concept, and here’s this artist. Here’s his team, here are these collaborators and here’s the intent. We’re going back into the world. I personally believe that industry and the investment of the industry dollars always go hand in hand, [that’s] always going to be very heavy to the discovery and the sustainability of an artist’s success and career. But it doesn’t mean that people aren’t paying more attention now to the architects of their careers. The architects of a system of how they want their artistry to exist. A lot of other things are popping up too, in conjunction with sound, in conjunction with content. These other avenues are popping up because now more than ever, we have so much choice that you really can realize the power of your choice of investing in somebody.
As an artist, you have so many more choices that are up to you to create what the world is. I am the mood board for resilience, no matter what. I’m the mood board for high taste. I’m the mood board for, can’t hide anything. I’m the mood board for, love everybody and really love what you do, because it is your child that will one day raise you. Everything I do, I am. I consistently inherit the choices I’ve made. Every choice I’ve made has become a child that raises me. It feels good to start to inherit better choices.
I have a responsibility to raise the best kind of the best human being I can, for my love of the world, because I love everybody in it in some way, shape or form. If I don’t love you now, I can love you. I treat it like that, right? So now here’s my child. Here’s my relationship to God, and here’s my relationship to the world. I have a responsibility to include the best kind of human I can possible. That requires me to be present in a lot of ways. It means being affirming, it means caring that the first seven years of your child is the subconscious that they will live with moving forward.
So [I ask myself], how much love can I instill in you? How much confidence can I instill in you? Can it be normal that my daughter feels loved by her father? That’s a choice that I make every day, for that to be a normal thing that she processes. In all of that, I’ve got to go to the studio. I gotta go touch a beat. I have to go show up for an interview, I have to get on the phone with the manager.
It needs to be purposeful. It needs to be intentional, you know, and as my bandwidth increases and I can do more things, it only means [I need to be] more and more purposeful and intentional because she needs security. What she will have is a parent who has gone through enough positively, so that she knows when I say you can make it through anything, it will come from experience, not a book.
I’m sure it’s like thinking about yourself, outside of yourself, in a new way. As an artist you already have to do that in terms of understanding, how am I presenting myself to the world? But then it’s like you said—what kind of person am I? Who am I like in all these categories? So many people, they just do things just to do them. They feel like they have time to waste. But as a father, there is no more of that capacity for wasted time. What do you do to recharge? How do you like to keep your cup full?
Radamiz: I make sure to sit and think, and I talk out loud. Sometimes I’m talking to God. Sometimes I’m talking to myself. Sometimes I’m talking and saying whatever’s on my mind, just putting it out there. I make time to process how I’m feeling about things.
I make time to process. I don’t take my feelings as facts about anything. I’m someone who’s responsible for greatness—so how do I love myself, and how do I treat myself like somebody who’s responsible for introducing great things? That person needs to be tended to.
I try to have a third person relationship with them, like an outside relationship with myself. Sometimes, when I don’t know what to do, I think as if I’m watching my life as a movie. What would I want the character to do, and I just make that choice. So you disconnect and then it’s like, when I need to recharge, I look at what the character Radamiz needs to do to recharge. I literally think as if I’m watching it on the screen.
I always try to make myself proud. I’m somebody to be responsible for, and I’m part of the team that has to be responsible for that person, because other people are too. My partner, and the people who love me have the autonomy to call me out. Everyone needs to be checked every now and then, and we need to give people the permission to check us energetically.
How did your documentary come about? Were there any challenges that you ran into or things you learned in the process?
Radamiz: I’ve been learning what my language in film is. I’ve been learning the emotive intentions of my work, and the atmosphere that I’m creating. I’ve done short films before, but I think I’ve caught a better stride with it in our recap videos, and making sure everything feels a bit more sophisticated, and definitely feels intentional. It’s very hard to have things come off as intentional. One of the things I realized is that anything I put out is incredible. That’s how I treat it. Because everything I put out feels like me.
Sometimes I’m organized. Sometimes I’m direct. Sometimes I’m all over the place. Sometimes I’m quiet. Sometimes my life is boring, but I’m enjoying it. So all of my work should feel like it encompasses all of that about me.
Once I release my attachments to form, it’s fun because you get to actually play. With this film, it was great to put the focus on the viewpoint of the certain topics of Duende in this project and where I’m at in my life, on the people around me, and on things that I don’t think are focused on until artists die, or there’s a huge amount of success, and now here’s the roundtable [interview] with the manager. I don’t want that. I don’t need my demise to suddenly show you who’s around me. Nor does that need to happen once you’re like batting a thousand, and your tours are sold out, and now you look behind who the team is. Like, no, I’m doing all that.
I’ve been looked over for so long enough in my life to know that I validate myself. There is nothing I can’t do if I decide to do it. I don’t need anybody else’s name entitled to bring importance to what I’m doing, not to me. If you need to see my name in Forbes to make you go listen to the music, that’s on you. I understand that’s part of the relationship we have with the media and consumerism, but not to me. People should probably hear what Nicky, one of my managers and art directors said—you almost had a car crash and you thought about what work you didn’t get done. My manager, Brandon, for years, what does his mom instill in him? Only do things you love. These are the people that I’m talking for. These are the people whose credit cards are being pushed to the max to push a Spotify campaign. This is who’s spending thousands of dollars in their pocket to push a vinyl in hopes to create more revenue.
These are the people who are bleeding with me and sacrificing with me, and ideating with me, and being architects with me. That was very important to do because I think it makes the project and what you hear be placed in the actual world, not just in an ethos of ideas, you know.
I really respect that you recognize your team, and that you are doing this all together. You are the architect—
Radamiz: And they are too. That’s why [textile artist] Gabrielle Borrajo is now representing the concept of Duende. That’s why one of the best parts of the film, is her reading the notes that we took. Because the thing is, I hadn’t seen the textile until the day before. I had no relationship to it. Initially, we got on the phone. I know what my idea is. I know what I’m inspired by. I think this is valuable for the world. I think creatives need to go read this essay. Here’s my notes. Now it’s the day before [the unveiling], and I forgot I gave her notes. So when she’s reading it, I’m like, man, look at, look at what trusting your intention, but also giving people complete autonomy [can do]. Their fingerprints are actually on it. I’m not micromanaging her process. She’s an artist, just like I am an artist. The best kind of person you can be is the one that inspires others to show the best version of themselves to you. That says a lot.
Were you always trying to do different artistic or creative things when you were growing up?
Radamiz: The beautiful part is that the first thing I remember wanting to be was an artist. I remember thinking that [being an artist] meant drawing, and thinking that it meant I could draw George Washington’s face better than you can. And then I couldn’t, so then I thought I wasn’t an artist. I’m not good at replicating.
After that, I tried storytelling. I won a storytelling competition where I literally memorized books and then performed them. I won that in my school, and then I competed a little bit after. I didn’t make it much further after that, but I remember my teacher getting me a McDonald’s after [a competition].
I think I’ve always had, from my youth, [an attitude] that I didn’t care if you didn’t like what I like. Those are some tangible things for responsibility and creativity. But I know I’ve always had that, and I didn’t know how much I need that. Thank God I have it, that’s one of the best things about me. I have a certain level of like, if you don’t get it, that’s, then you’re not for me—and also, how can I get better at making sure it’s gettable, if that makes any sense.
And once again, your art can’t be bigger than who you are. When you get bold and love everything that you’re going through as it’s happening, because you love it all, because you realize you are an alchemist that can create anything into gold, it doesn’t matter what you give me. I can make beauty out of anything.
Have you always been a very spiritual person, or has been a journey? I think we’re about the same age, and I felt like a shift around my late 20s, and now into my 30s, where I’m like, damn, I’m going to die one day. You know what I mean? I gotta figure my shit out and get more comfortable with myself. Did you go through those growing pains, or did you always have the perspective that you currently hold?
Radamiz: Well, they say you have two lives, and the second one starts when you know you only have one.
I’ve always been chosen. God is the word I use, because it’s the most tangible for other people. God’s voice is present in my life. I’ve had things happen throughout my years, period. I’ve had a relationship with otherness, [more] than just associating life as like, a physical thing. It’s definitely been a journey because what you learn is that your relationship to creation, and to your life, can’t be inherited from someone else. They can’t. You have to be living, and going, and processing things.
Naturally, I think as you grow, you pay attention to different things, and what you pay attention to usually expands. Hopefully, as you mature, you gain awareness, and then spiritually as you mature, you start realizing, and you have the realization that you are a creator of all the reality, of any reality, meaning how you contextualize anything will be the reality. So then you start upgrading what your contextualization is. Because you realize, what I say goes.
There’s an excerpt from Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda that I love, which goes—the yogis go out of their way to never tell a lie. Essentially, if you only tell the truth, everything you say becomes true. because now you’ve put yourself in alignment with that which is true.That’s where my maturation in my spirituality is at now. Like, nothing I do in the shadows is actually in the shadows. It’s all in the light. Everything I do is the truth. Even a lie will create confusion.
Before I think [my spirituality] was a lot more religious, and a lot more angel based, and now it’s like the responsibility of being someone who only tells the truth, how hard it is, but how in alignment it is, with me actually creating the life that I want because anything I say goes, if you are a thorough enough system,I’m not sure how well I answered you, but that’s where I’m at in it now.
Do you meditate?
Radamiz: I try to always be in meditation at all moments.
That awareness is key. I feel like I spent so much of my 20s always thinking about what life could be, but if I can’t be my authentic self everywhere I go, then I’m not going to accomplish anything.
Radamiz: That’s the thing. The hard worker never has to explain himself. Their life will show. That’s sometimes difficult for people to swallow, because people think what that means is, but think of this person, they just made their first song and they blew up. Is that sustainable? You will know if they’re hardworking. It will always show itself, not necessarily immediately. Over time it all will settle, and sort itself out because life can’t not be based in reality. That’s why it’s hard for people to swallow that this idea of this world is what we’ve all collectively decided that it is.
I want people to open their minds to like how you roll out projects. The more you look at it, the more you realize [the rollout is] an adhesive to a project. It’s this concept, and here’s this artist. Here’s his team, here are these collaborators and here’s the intent. We’re going back into the world. I personally believe that industry and the investment of the industry dollars always go hand in hand, [that’s] always going to be very heavy to the discovery and the sustainability of an artist’s success and career. But it doesn’t mean that people aren’t paying more attention now to the architects of their careers. The architects of a system of how they want their artistry to exist. A lot of other things are popping up too, in conjunction with sound, in conjunction with content. These other avenues are popping up because now more than ever, we have so much choice that you really can realize the power of your choice of investing in somebody.
As an artist, you have so many more choices that are up to you to create what the world is. I am the mood board for resilience, no matter what. I’m the mood board for high taste. I’m the mood board for, can’t hide anything. I’m the mood board for, love everybody and really love what you do, because it is your child that will one day raise you. Everything I do, I am. I consistently inherit the choices I’ve made. Every choice I’ve made has become a child that raises me. It feels good to start to inherit better choices.
I make time to process. I don’t take my feelings as facts about anything. I’m someone who’s responsible for greatness—so how do I love myself, and how do I treat myself like somebody who’s responsible for introducing great things? That person needs to be tended to.
I try to have a third person relationship with them, like an outside relationship with myself. Sometimes, when I don’t know what to do, I think as if I’m watching my life as a movie. What would I want the character to do, and I just make that choice. So you disconnect and then it’s like, when I need to recharge, I look at what the character Radamiz needs to do to recharge. I literally think as if I’m watching it on the screen.
I always try to make myself proud. I’m somebody to be responsible for, and I’m part of the team that has to be responsible for that person, because other people are too. My partner, and the people who love me have the autonomy to call me out. Everyone needs to be checked every now and then, and we need to give people the permission to check us energetically.
How did your documentary come about? Were there any challenges that you ran into or things you learned in the process?
Radamiz: I’ve been learning what my language in film is. I’ve been learning the emotive intentions of my work, and the atmosphere that I’m creating. I’ve done short films before, but I think I’ve caught a better stride with it in our recap videos, and making sure everything feels a bit more sophisticated, and definitely feels intentional. It’s very hard to have things come off as intentional. One of the things I realized is that anything I put out is incredible. That’s how I treat it. Because everything I put out feels like me.
Sometimes I’m organized. Sometimes I’m direct. Sometimes I’m all over the place. Sometimes I’m quiet. Sometimes my life is boring, but I’m enjoying it. So all of my work should feel like it encompasses all of that about me.
Once I release my attachments to form, it’s fun because you get to actually play. With this film, it was great to put the focus on the viewpoint of the certain topics of Duende in this project and where I’m at in my life, on the people around me, and on things that I don’t think are focused on until artists die, or there’s a huge amount of success, and now here’s the roundtable [interview] with the manager. I don’t want that. I don’t need my demise to suddenly show you who’s around me. Nor does that need to happen once you’re like batting a thousand, and your tours are sold out, and now you look behind who the team is. Like, no, I’m doing all that.
I’ve been looked over for so long enough in my life to know that I validate myself. There is nothing I can’t do if I decide to do it. I don’t need anybody else’s name entitled to bring importance to what I’m doing, not to me. If you need to see my name in Forbes to make you go listen to the music, that’s on you. I understand that’s part of the relationship we have with the media and consumerism, but not to me. People should probably hear what Nicky, one of my managers and art directors said—you almost had a car crash and you thought about what work you didn’t get done. My manager, Brandon, for years, what does his mom instill in him? Only do things you love. These are the people that I’m talking for. These are the people whose credit cards are being pushed to the max to push a Spotify campaign. This is who’s spending thousands of dollars in their pocket to push a vinyl in hopes to create more revenue.
These are the people who are bleeding with me and sacrificing with me, and ideating with me, and being architects with me. That was very important to do because I think it makes the project and what you hear be placed in the actual world, not just in an ethos of ideas, you know.
I really respect that you recognize your team, and that you are doing this all together. You are the architect—
Radamiz: And they are too. That’s why [textile artist] Gabrielle Borrajo is now representing the concept of Duende. That’s why one of the best parts of the film, is her reading the notes that we took. Because the thing is, I hadn’t seen the textile until the day before. I had no relationship to it. Initially, we got on the phone. I know what my idea is. I know what I’m inspired by. I think this is valuable for the world. I think creatives need to go read this essay. Here’s my notes. Now it’s the day before [the unveiling], and I forgot I gave her notes. So when she’s reading it, I’m like, man, look at, look at what trusting your intention, but also giving people complete autonomy [can do]. Their fingerprints are actually on it. I’m not micromanaging her process. She’s an artist, just like I am an artist. The best kind of person you can be is the one that inspires others to show the best version of themselves to you. That says a lot.
Were you always trying to do different artistic or creative things when you were growing up?
Radamiz: The beautiful part is that the first thing I remember wanting to be was an artist. I remember thinking that [being an artist] meant drawing, and thinking that it meant I could draw George Washington’s face better than you can. And then I couldn’t, so then I thought I wasn’t an artist. I’m not good at replicating.
After that, I tried storytelling. I won a storytelling competition where I literally memorized books and then performed them. I won that in my school, and then I competed a little bit after. I didn’t make it much further after that, but I remember my teacher getting me a McDonald’s after [a competition].
I think I’ve always had, from my youth, [an attitude] that I didn’t care if you didn’t like what I like. Those are some tangible things for responsibility and creativity. But I know I’ve always had that, and I didn’t know how much I need that. Thank God I have it, that’s one of the best things about me. I have a certain level of like, if you don’t get it, that’s, then you’re not for me—and also, how can I get better at making sure it’s gettable, if that makes any sense.
And once again, your art can’t be bigger than who you are. When you get bold and love everything that you’re going through as it’s happening, because you love it all, because you realize you are an alchemist that can create anything into gold, it doesn’t matter what you give me. I can make beauty out of anything.
Have you always been a very spiritual person, or has been a journey? I think we’re about the same age, and I felt like a shift around my late 20s, and now into my 30s, where I’m like, damn, I’m going to die one day. You know what I mean? I gotta figure my shit out and get more comfortable with myself. Did you go through those growing pains, or did you always have the perspective that you currently hold?
Radamiz: Well, they say you have two lives, and the second one starts when you know you only have one.
I’ve always been chosen. God is the word I use, because it’s the most tangible for other people. God’s voice is present in my life. I’ve had things happen throughout my years, period. I’ve had a relationship with otherness, [more] than just associating life as like, a physical thing. It’s definitely been a journey because what you learn is that your relationship to creation, and to your life, can’t be inherited from someone else. They can’t. You have to be living, and going, and processing things.
Naturally, I think as you grow, you pay attention to different things, and what you pay attention to usually expands. Hopefully, as you mature, you gain awareness, and then spiritually as you mature, you start realizing, and you have the realization that you are a creator of all the reality, of any reality, meaning how you contextualize anything will be the reality. So then you start upgrading what your contextualization is. Because you realize, what I say goes.
There’s an excerpt from Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda that I love, which goes—the yogis go out of their way to never tell a lie. Essentially, if you only tell the truth, everything you say becomes true. because now you’ve put yourself in alignment with that which is true.That’s where my maturation in my spirituality is at now. Like, nothing I do in the shadows is actually in the shadows. It’s all in the light. Everything I do is the truth. Even a lie will create confusion.
Before I think [my spirituality] was a lot more religious, and a lot more angel based, and now it’s like the responsibility of being someone who only tells the truth, how hard it is, but how in alignment it is, with me actually creating the life that I want because anything I say goes, if you are a thorough enough system,I’m not sure how well I answered you, but that’s where I’m at in it now.
Do you meditate?
Radamiz: I try to always be in meditation at all moments.
That awareness is key. I feel like I spent so much of my 20s always thinking about what life could be, but if I can’t be my authentic self everywhere I go, then I’m not going to accomplish anything.
Radamiz: That’s the thing. The hard worker never has to explain himself. Their life will show. That’s sometimes difficult for people to swallow, because people think what that means is, but think of this person, they just made their first song and they blew up. Is that sustainable? You will know if they’re hardworking. It will always show itself, not necessarily immediately. Over time it all will settle, and sort itself out because life can’t not be based in reality. That’s why it’s hard for people to swallow that this idea of this world is what we’ve all collectively decided that it is.
I want people to open their minds to like how you roll out projects. The more you look at it, the more you realize [the rollout is] an adhesive to a project. It’s this concept, and here’s this artist. Here’s his team, here are these collaborators and here’s the intent. We’re going back into the world. I personally believe that industry and the investment of the industry dollars always go hand in hand, [that’s] always going to be very heavy to the discovery and the sustainability of an artist’s success and career. But it doesn’t mean that people aren’t paying more attention now to the architects of their careers. The architects of a system of how they want their artistry to exist. A lot of other things are popping up too, in conjunction with sound, in conjunction with content. These other avenues are popping up because now more than ever, we have so much choice that you really can realize the power of your choice of investing in somebody.
As an artist, you have so many more choices that are up to you to create what the world is. I am the mood board for resilience, no matter what. I’m the mood board for high taste. I’m the mood board for, can’t hide anything. I’m the mood board for, love everybody and really love what you do, because it is your child that will one day raise you. Everything I do, I am. I consistently inherit the choices I’ve made. Every choice I’ve made has become a child that raises me. It feels good to start to inherit better choices.
Sometimes I’m organized. Sometimes I’m direct. Sometimes I’m all over the place. Sometimes I’m quiet. Sometimes my life is boring, but I’m enjoying it. So all of my work should feel like it encompasses all of that about me.
Once I release my attachments to form, it’s fun because you get to actually play. With this film, it was great to put the focus on the viewpoint of the certain topics of Duende in this project and where I’m at in my life, on the people around me, and on things that I don’t think are focused on until artists die, or there’s a huge amount of success, and now here’s the roundtable [interview] with the manager. I don’t want that. I don’t need my demise to suddenly show you who’s around me. Nor does that need to happen once you’re like batting a thousand, and your tours are sold out, and now you look behind who the team is. Like, no, I’m doing all that.
I’ve been looked over for so long enough in my life to know that I validate myself. There is nothing I can’t do if I decide to do it. I don’t need anybody else’s name entitled to bring importance to what I’m doing, not to me. If you need to see my name in Forbes to make you go listen to the music, that’s on you. I understand that’s part of the relationship we have with the media and consumerism, but not to me. People should probably hear what Nicky, one of my managers and art directors said—you almost had a car crash and you thought about what work you didn’t get done. My manager, Brandon, for years, what does his mom instill in him? Only do things you love. These are the people that I’m talking for. These are the people whose credit cards are being pushed to the max to push a Spotify campaign. This is who’s spending thousands of dollars in their pocket to push a vinyl in hopes to create more revenue.
These are the people who are bleeding with me and sacrificing with me, and ideating with me, and being architects with me. That was very important to do because I think it makes the project and what you hear be placed in the actual world, not just in an ethos of ideas, you know.
I really respect that you recognize your team, and that you are doing this all together. You are the architect—
Radamiz: And they are too. That’s why [textile artist] Gabrielle Borrajo is now representing the concept of Duende. That’s why one of the best parts of the film, is her reading the notes that we took. Because the thing is, I hadn’t seen the textile until the day before. I had no relationship to it. Initially, we got on the phone. I know what my idea is. I know what I’m inspired by. I think this is valuable for the world. I think creatives need to go read this essay. Here’s my notes. Now it’s the day before [the unveiling], and I forgot I gave her notes. So when she’s reading it, I’m like, man, look at, look at what trusting your intention, but also giving people complete autonomy [can do]. Their fingerprints are actually on it. I’m not micromanaging her process. She’s an artist, just like I am an artist. The best kind of person you can be is the one that inspires others to show the best version of themselves to you. That says a lot.
Were you always trying to do different artistic or creative things when you were growing up?
Radamiz: The beautiful part is that the first thing I remember wanting to be was an artist. I remember thinking that [being an artist] meant drawing, and thinking that it meant I could draw George Washington’s face better than you can. And then I couldn’t, so then I thought I wasn’t an artist. I’m not good at replicating.
After that, I tried storytelling. I won a storytelling competition where I literally memorized books and then performed them. I won that in my school, and then I competed a little bit after. I didn’t make it much further after that, but I remember my teacher getting me a McDonald’s after [a competition].
I think I’ve always had, from my youth, [an attitude] that I didn’t care if you didn’t like what I like. Those are some tangible things for responsibility and creativity. But I know I’ve always had that, and I didn’t know how much I need that. Thank God I have it, that’s one of the best things about me. I have a certain level of like, if you don’t get it, that’s, then you’re not for me—and also, how can I get better at making sure it’s gettable, if that makes any sense.
And once again, your art can’t be bigger than who you are. When you get bold and love everything that you’re going through as it’s happening, because you love it all, because you realize you are an alchemist that can create anything into gold, it doesn’t matter what you give me. I can make beauty out of anything.
Have you always been a very spiritual person, or has been a journey? I think we’re about the same age, and I felt like a shift around my late 20s, and now into my 30s, where I’m like, damn, I’m going to die one day. You know what I mean? I gotta figure my shit out and get more comfortable with myself. Did you go through those growing pains, or did you always have the perspective that you currently hold?
Radamiz: Well, they say you have two lives, and the second one starts when you know you only have one.
I’ve always been chosen. God is the word I use, because it’s the most tangible for other people. God’s voice is present in my life. I’ve had things happen throughout my years, period. I’ve had a relationship with otherness, [more] than just associating life as like, a physical thing. It’s definitely been a journey because what you learn is that your relationship to creation, and to your life, can’t be inherited from someone else. They can’t. You have to be living, and going, and processing things.
Naturally, I think as you grow, you pay attention to different things, and what you pay attention to usually expands. Hopefully, as you mature, you gain awareness, and then spiritually as you mature, you start realizing, and you have the realization that you are a creator of all the reality, of any reality, meaning how you contextualize anything will be the reality. So then you start upgrading what your contextualization is. Because you realize, what I say goes.
There’s an excerpt from Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda that I love, which goes—the yogis go out of their way to never tell a lie. Essentially, if you only tell the truth, everything you say becomes true. because now you’ve put yourself in alignment with that which is true.That’s where my maturation in my spirituality is at now. Like, nothing I do in the shadows is actually in the shadows. It’s all in the light. Everything I do is the truth. Even a lie will create confusion.
Before I think [my spirituality] was a lot more religious, and a lot more angel based, and now it’s like the responsibility of being someone who only tells the truth, how hard it is, but how in alignment it is, with me actually creating the life that I want because anything I say goes, if you are a thorough enough system,I’m not sure how well I answered you, but that’s where I’m at in it now.
Do you meditate?
Radamiz: I try to always be in meditation at all moments.
That awareness is key. I feel like I spent so much of my 20s always thinking about what life could be, but if I can’t be my authentic self everywhere I go, then I’m not going to accomplish anything.
Radamiz: That’s the thing. The hard worker never has to explain himself. Their life will show. That’s sometimes difficult for people to swallow, because people think what that means is, but think of this person, they just made their first song and they blew up. Is that sustainable? You will know if they’re hardworking. It will always show itself, not necessarily immediately. Over time it all will settle, and sort itself out because life can’t not be based in reality. That’s why it’s hard for people to swallow that this idea of this world is what we’ve all collectively decided that it is.
I want people to open their minds to like how you roll out projects. The more you look at it, the more you realize [the rollout is] an adhesive to a project. It’s this concept, and here’s this artist. Here’s his team, here are these collaborators and here’s the intent. We’re going back into the world. I personally believe that industry and the investment of the industry dollars always go hand in hand, [that’s] always going to be very heavy to the discovery and the sustainability of an artist’s success and career. But it doesn’t mean that people aren’t paying more attention now to the architects of their careers. The architects of a system of how they want their artistry to exist. A lot of other things are popping up too, in conjunction with sound, in conjunction with content. These other avenues are popping up because now more than ever, we have so much choice that you really can realize the power of your choice of investing in somebody.
As an artist, you have so many more choices that are up to you to create what the world is. I am the mood board for resilience, no matter what. I’m the mood board for high taste. I’m the mood board for, can’t hide anything. I’m the mood board for, love everybody and really love what you do, because it is your child that will one day raise you. Everything I do, I am. I consistently inherit the choices I’ve made. Every choice I’ve made has become a child that raises me. It feels good to start to inherit better choices.
Were you always trying to do different artistic or creative things when you were growing up?
Radamiz: The beautiful part is that the first thing I remember wanting to be was an artist. I remember thinking that [being an artist] meant drawing, and thinking that it meant I could draw George Washington’s face better than you can. And then I couldn’t, so then I thought I wasn’t an artist. I’m not good at replicating.
After that, I tried storytelling. I won a storytelling competition where I literally memorized books and then performed them. I won that in my school, and then I competed a little bit after. I didn’t make it much further after that, but I remember my teacher getting me a McDonald’s after [a competition].
I think I’ve always had, from my youth, [an attitude] that I didn’t care if you didn’t like what I like. Those are some tangible things for responsibility and creativity. But I know I’ve always had that, and I didn’t know how much I need that. Thank God I have it, that’s one of the best things about me. I have a certain level of like, if you don’t get it, that’s, then you’re not for me—and also, how can I get better at making sure it’s gettable, if that makes any sense.
And once again, your art can’t be bigger than who you are. When you get bold and love everything that you’re going through as it’s happening, because you love it all, because you realize you are an alchemist that can create anything into gold, it doesn’t matter what you give me. I can make beauty out of anything.
Have you always been a very spiritual person, or has been a journey? I think we’re about the same age, and I felt like a shift around my late 20s, and now into my 30s, where I’m like, damn, I’m going to die one day. You know what I mean? I gotta figure my shit out and get more comfortable with myself. Did you go through those growing pains, or did you always have the perspective that you currently hold?
Radamiz: Well, they say you have two lives, and the second one starts when you know you only have one.
I’ve always been chosen. God is the word I use, because it’s the most tangible for other people. God’s voice is present in my life. I’ve had things happen throughout my years, period. I’ve had a relationship with otherness, [more] than just associating life as like, a physical thing. It’s definitely been a journey because what you learn is that your relationship to creation, and to your life, can’t be inherited from someone else. They can’t. You have to be living, and going, and processing things.
Naturally, I think as you grow, you pay attention to different things, and what you pay attention to usually expands. Hopefully, as you mature, you gain awareness, and then spiritually as you mature, you start realizing, and you have the realization that you are a creator of all the reality, of any reality, meaning how you contextualize anything will be the reality. So then you start upgrading what your contextualization is. Because you realize, what I say goes.
There’s an excerpt from Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda that I love, which goes—the yogis go out of their way to never tell a lie. Essentially, if you only tell the truth, everything you say becomes true. because now you’ve put yourself in alignment with that which is true.That’s where my maturation in my spirituality is at now. Like, nothing I do in the shadows is actually in the shadows. It’s all in the light. Everything I do is the truth. Even a lie will create confusion.
Before I think [my spirituality] was a lot more religious, and a lot more angel based, and now it’s like the responsibility of being someone who only tells the truth, how hard it is, but how in alignment it is, with me actually creating the life that I want because anything I say goes, if you are a thorough enough system,I’m not sure how well I answered you, but that’s where I’m at in it now.
Do you meditate?
Radamiz: I try to always be in meditation at all moments.
That awareness is key. I feel like I spent so much of my 20s always thinking about what life could be, but if I can’t be my authentic self everywhere I go, then I’m not going to accomplish anything.
Radamiz: That’s the thing. The hard worker never has to explain himself. Their life will show. That’s sometimes difficult for people to swallow, because people think what that means is, but think of this person, they just made their first song and they blew up. Is that sustainable? You will know if they’re hardworking. It will always show itself, not necessarily immediately. Over time it all will settle, and sort itself out because life can’t not be based in reality. That’s why it’s hard for people to swallow that this idea of this world is what we’ve all collectively decided that it is.
I want people to open their minds to like how you roll out projects. The more you look at it, the more you realize [the rollout is] an adhesive to a project. It’s this concept, and here’s this artist. Here’s his team, here are these collaborators and here’s the intent. We’re going back into the world. I personally believe that industry and the investment of the industry dollars always go hand in hand, [that’s] always going to be very heavy to the discovery and the sustainability of an artist’s success and career. But it doesn’t mean that people aren’t paying more attention now to the architects of their careers. The architects of a system of how they want their artistry to exist. A lot of other things are popping up too, in conjunction with sound, in conjunction with content. These other avenues are popping up because now more than ever, we have so much choice that you really can realize the power of your choice of investing in somebody.
As an artist, you have so many more choices that are up to you to create what the world is. I am the mood board for resilience, no matter what. I’m the mood board for high taste. I’m the mood board for, can’t hide anything. I’m the mood board for, love everybody and really love what you do, because it is your child that will one day raise you. Everything I do, I am. I consistently inherit the choices I’ve made. Every choice I’ve made has become a child that raises me. It feels good to start to inherit better choices.
After that, I tried storytelling. I won a storytelling competition where I literally memorized books and then performed them. I won that in my school, and then I competed a little bit after. I didn’t make it much further after that, but I remember my teacher getting me a McDonald’s after [a competition].
I think I’ve always had, from my youth, [an attitude] that I didn’t care if you didn’t like what I like. Those are some tangible things for responsibility and creativity. But I know I’ve always had that, and I didn’t know how much I need that. Thank God I have it, that’s one of the best things about me. I have a certain level of like, if you don’t get it, that’s, then you’re not for me—and also, how can I get better at making sure it’s gettable, if that makes any sense.
And once again, your art can’t be bigger than who you are. When you get bold and love everything that you’re going through as it’s happening, because you love it all, because you realize you are an alchemist that can create anything into gold, it doesn’t matter what you give me. I can make beauty out of anything.
Have you always been a very spiritual person, or has been a journey? I think we’re about the same age, and I felt like a shift around my late 20s, and now into my 30s, where I’m like, damn, I’m going to die one day. You know what I mean? I gotta figure my shit out and get more comfortable with myself. Did you go through those growing pains, or did you always have the perspective that you currently hold?
Radamiz: Well, they say you have two lives, and the second one starts when you know you only have one.
I’ve always been chosen. God is the word I use, because it’s the most tangible for other people. God’s voice is present in my life. I’ve had things happen throughout my years, period. I’ve had a relationship with otherness, [more] than just associating life as like, a physical thing. It’s definitely been a journey because what you learn is that your relationship to creation, and to your life, can’t be inherited from someone else. They can’t. You have to be living, and going, and processing things.
Naturally, I think as you grow, you pay attention to different things, and what you pay attention to usually expands. Hopefully, as you mature, you gain awareness, and then spiritually as you mature, you start realizing, and you have the realization that you are a creator of all the reality, of any reality, meaning how you contextualize anything will be the reality. So then you start upgrading what your contextualization is. Because you realize, what I say goes.
There’s an excerpt from Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda that I love, which goes—the yogis go out of their way to never tell a lie. Essentially, if you only tell the truth, everything you say becomes true. because now you’ve put yourself in alignment with that which is true.That’s where my maturation in my spirituality is at now. Like, nothing I do in the shadows is actually in the shadows. It’s all in the light. Everything I do is the truth. Even a lie will create confusion.
Before I think [my spirituality] was a lot more religious, and a lot more angel based, and now it’s like the responsibility of being someone who only tells the truth, how hard it is, but how in alignment it is, with me actually creating the life that I want because anything I say goes, if you are a thorough enough system,I’m not sure how well I answered you, but that’s where I’m at in it now.
Do you meditate?
Radamiz: I try to always be in meditation at all moments.
That awareness is key. I feel like I spent so much of my 20s always thinking about what life could be, but if I can’t be my authentic self everywhere I go, then I’m not going to accomplish anything.
Radamiz: That’s the thing. The hard worker never has to explain himself. Their life will show. That’s sometimes difficult for people to swallow, because people think what that means is, but think of this person, they just made their first song and they blew up. Is that sustainable? You will know if they’re hardworking. It will always show itself, not necessarily immediately. Over time it all will settle, and sort itself out because life can’t not be based in reality. That’s why it’s hard for people to swallow that this idea of this world is what we’ve all collectively decided that it is.
I want people to open their minds to like how you roll out projects. The more you look at it, the more you realize [the rollout is] an adhesive to a project. It’s this concept, and here’s this artist. Here’s his team, here are these collaborators and here’s the intent. We’re going back into the world. I personally believe that industry and the investment of the industry dollars always go hand in hand, [that’s] always going to be very heavy to the discovery and the sustainability of an artist’s success and career. But it doesn’t mean that people aren’t paying more attention now to the architects of their careers. The architects of a system of how they want their artistry to exist. A lot of other things are popping up too, in conjunction with sound, in conjunction with content. These other avenues are popping up because now more than ever, we have so much choice that you really can realize the power of your choice of investing in somebody.
As an artist, you have so many more choices that are up to you to create what the world is. I am the mood board for resilience, no matter what. I’m the mood board for high taste. I’m the mood board for, can’t hide anything. I’m the mood board for, love everybody and really love what you do, because it is your child that will one day raise you. Everything I do, I am. I consistently inherit the choices I’ve made. Every choice I’ve made has become a child that raises me. It feels good to start to inherit better choices.
I’ve always been chosen. God is the word I use, because it’s the most tangible for other people. God’s voice is present in my life. I’ve had things happen throughout my years, period. I’ve had a relationship with otherness, [more] than just associating life as like, a physical thing. It’s definitely been a journey because what you learn is that your relationship to creation, and to your life, can’t be inherited from someone else. They can’t. You have to be living, and going, and processing things.
Naturally, I think as you grow, you pay attention to different things, and what you pay attention to usually expands. Hopefully, as you mature, you gain awareness, and then spiritually as you mature, you start realizing, and you have the realization that you are a creator of all the reality, of any reality, meaning how you contextualize anything will be the reality. So then you start upgrading what your contextualization is. Because you realize, what I say goes.
There’s an excerpt from Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda that I love, which goes—the yogis go out of their way to never tell a lie. Essentially, if you only tell the truth, everything you say becomes true. because now you’ve put yourself in alignment with that which is true.That’s where my maturation in my spirituality is at now. Like, nothing I do in the shadows is actually in the shadows. It’s all in the light. Everything I do is the truth. Even a lie will create confusion.
Before I think [my spirituality] was a lot more religious, and a lot more angel based, and now it’s like the responsibility of being someone who only tells the truth, how hard it is, but how in alignment it is, with me actually creating the life that I want because anything I say goes, if you are a thorough enough system,I’m not sure how well I answered you, but that’s where I’m at in it now.
Do you meditate?
Radamiz: I try to always be in meditation at all moments.
That awareness is key. I feel like I spent so much of my 20s always thinking about what life could be, but if I can’t be my authentic self everywhere I go, then I’m not going to accomplish anything.
Radamiz: That’s the thing. The hard worker never has to explain himself. Their life will show. That’s sometimes difficult for people to swallow, because people think what that means is, but think of this person, they just made their first song and they blew up. Is that sustainable? You will know if they’re hardworking. It will always show itself, not necessarily immediately. Over time it all will settle, and sort itself out because life can’t not be based in reality. That’s why it’s hard for people to swallow that this idea of this world is what we’ve all collectively decided that it is.
I want people to open their minds to like how you roll out projects. The more you look at it, the more you realize [the rollout is] an adhesive to a project. It’s this concept, and here’s this artist. Here’s his team, here are these collaborators and here’s the intent. We’re going back into the world. I personally believe that industry and the investment of the industry dollars always go hand in hand, [that’s] always going to be very heavy to the discovery and the sustainability of an artist’s success and career. But it doesn’t mean that people aren’t paying more attention now to the architects of their careers. The architects of a system of how they want their artistry to exist. A lot of other things are popping up too, in conjunction with sound, in conjunction with content. These other avenues are popping up because now more than ever, we have so much choice that you really can realize the power of your choice of investing in somebody.
As an artist, you have so many more choices that are up to you to create what the world is. I am the mood board for resilience, no matter what. I’m the mood board for high taste. I’m the mood board for, can’t hide anything. I’m the mood board for, love everybody and really love what you do, because it is your child that will one day raise you. Everything I do, I am. I consistently inherit the choices I’ve made. Every choice I’ve made has become a child that raises me. It feels good to start to inherit better choices.
That awareness is key. I feel like I spent so much of my 20s always thinking about what life could be, but if I can’t be my authentic self everywhere I go, then I’m not going to accomplish anything.
Radamiz: That’s the thing. The hard worker never has to explain himself. Their life will show. That’s sometimes difficult for people to swallow, because people think what that means is, but think of this person, they just made their first song and they blew up. Is that sustainable? You will know if they’re hardworking. It will always show itself, not necessarily immediately. Over time it all will settle, and sort itself out because life can’t not be based in reality. That’s why it’s hard for people to swallow that this idea of this world is what we’ve all collectively decided that it is.
I want people to open their minds to like how you roll out projects. The more you look at it, the more you realize [the rollout is] an adhesive to a project. It’s this concept, and here’s this artist. Here’s his team, here are these collaborators and here’s the intent. We’re going back into the world. I personally believe that industry and the investment of the industry dollars always go hand in hand, [that’s] always going to be very heavy to the discovery and the sustainability of an artist’s success and career. But it doesn’t mean that people aren’t paying more attention now to the architects of their careers. The architects of a system of how they want their artistry to exist. A lot of other things are popping up too, in conjunction with sound, in conjunction with content. These other avenues are popping up because now more than ever, we have so much choice that you really can realize the power of your choice of investing in somebody.
As an artist, you have so many more choices that are up to you to create what the world is. I am the mood board for resilience, no matter what. I’m the mood board for high taste. I’m the mood board for, can’t hide anything. I’m the mood board for, love everybody and really love what you do, because it is your child that will one day raise you. Everything I do, I am. I consistently inherit the choices I’ve made. Every choice I’ve made has become a child that raises me. It feels good to start to inherit better choices.
I want people to open their minds to like how you roll out projects. The more you look at it, the more you realize [the rollout is] an adhesive to a project. It’s this concept, and here’s this artist. Here’s his team, here are these collaborators and here’s the intent. We’re going back into the world. I personally believe that industry and the investment of the industry dollars always go hand in hand, [that’s] always going to be very heavy to the discovery and the sustainability of an artist’s success and career. But it doesn’t mean that people aren’t paying more attention now to the architects of their careers. The architects of a system of how they want their artistry to exist. A lot of other things are popping up too, in conjunction with sound, in conjunction with content. These other avenues are popping up because now more than ever, we have so much choice that you really can realize the power of your choice of investing in somebody.
As an artist, you have so many more choices that are up to you to create what the world is. I am the mood board for resilience, no matter what. I’m the mood board for high taste. I’m the mood board for, can’t hide anything. I’m the mood board for, love everybody and really love what you do, because it is your child that will one day raise you. Everything I do, I am. I consistently inherit the choices I’ve made. Every choice I’ve made has become a child that raises me. It feels good to start to inherit better choices.