Radamiz (Radhames Rodriguez) is a rapper born and raised in Bed Stuy, Brooklyn. He has been releasing music since 2012 but I got hip to music in 2016 through his debut album Writeous. That same year he opened up for Nas at the Brooklyn Hip Hop Festival and a year later opened up for Black Star in the same festival. His last EP Synonyms of Strength really drew my attention and ultimately sparked this installment of the Artist Series.
Radamiz and I linked up at a coffee shop downtown and quickly hopped into a conversation about our upbringings, inspiration, ideals, and spirituality. I mentioned how I admired his insightful lyrics and specific New York references within his work. He responded by delving into his formative experiences growing up in New York a young Dominican man from the Brooklyn P’s.
Radamiz graduated from NYU studying social and cultural analysis with a minor in creative writing. We discussed how it affected his outlook on his experiences and how that adds to his music. Radamiz said he takes a spiritual stand about looking towards the future while accepting and letting go of the past. He recounted a story about his friend Chops who was incarcerated whom he talked to every few weeks for over a year. While Chops was locked up his mom was featured in a Radamiz music video and it is Chops’s voice that speaks on Rad’s song Bendiciones. Radamiz included him in the ways that he could to continue moving forward positively. That process for Radamiz is him questioning, what does freedom look like?
My favorite note that we touched upon was his outlook on gangsterism in relation to spiritualism. One of his songs starts with, “I mix the gangsterism with the spiritualism.” These two ideas are typically categorized as mutually exclusive. Radamiz says that they actually exist together more in gangsterism and street culture than other demographics. Radamiz said, the most street people he knows are the most spiritual people he knows. Preaching gangsterism with spiritualism is combatting a stereotype and one of Radamiz of many lyrics that speaks to his insightful ideals and niche views into his world.
Radamiz and I finished up our conversation and made our way to the studio he has been making music at for the last seven years. The moment we stepped in the door Radamiz was in work mode, notebook and pencil out, harddrive with the engineer, beats and songs queued up to finish. He ran through six tracks in under three hours, each track was unique and deeply impressive. We took a few minutes to shoot once the session was wrapped. Radamiz sat there listening to the work he had just made, bumping his head up and down. It was a pleasure to watch you work, thank you Rad.