A COOL CHAT WITH MONTEZ LOVE

Have you ever heard of the saying age is just a number? Well that title should apply to upcoming rapper Montez Love, who despite his young age, has the maturity and soul of an Old Man, which was one of the many things that impressed me while interviewing him over the phone. Born in Patterson New Jersey, the Out Rapper has been involved with music at a young age, and had always wanted to pursue a career in rap, but he didn't however want to portray a false image of being a heterosexual rapper. Once he saw other Out rappers like Kaoz, Prince Sani and Boneintel recording, it gave him the strength and inspiration to be himself without compromise, and he's already getting a buzz with his debut single "Shadows" and his upcoming mixtape, which he plans to release on his birthday next month. I had the honor of speaking Montez about his music, being from New Jersey, the importance of Gays learning to work together instead of throwing shade at each other, being indiviual and the importance of appreciating music pioneers. DA-PROFESSOR: How are things going with you? MONTEZ: Everything is going good. I'm just ready to finish writing every song on the tape and I just wanna record it and get it out before my birthday. Hopefully. DA-PROFESSOR: Are you coming out with a mix-tape or a CD? MONTEZ: Mix-tape. Just something to myself out there. I started officially rapping in 2010. I haven't put out anythings since April 2011. I put out a couple of freestyles and haven't had anytime to do anything. I've been caught up in school and not working. Time is money. Things that happen when you're a struggling artist. DA-PROFESSOR: How did you become involved with music? MONTEZ: I've always been involved with music. Whether it was watching my grandfather playing in a band or I was dancing. I was a dancer, so I could connect to almost any song. I always wanted to rap and I remember my uncle told me I had talent. I took it with me, but I really wasn't ready to explore the rap side of me becasue I didn't want to be pretending I was straight, til I saw a couple of out rappers, so it really inspired me to be myself. DA-PROFESSOR: Which rappers, hetero and out influenced you? MONTEZ: There are a couple who influenced me. I have to say my favorite hetero rapper is Common. He's a rapper, but more of a lyricist. I really don't condone much gun violence in rap. It's something to play with, but it's not something you wanna put out. Common (likes) speaks the truth. He'll talk about his struggles, but he'll put that in poetry; its like poetry in motion. As far as the out hip-hop community, I do have alot of people I look up to. One of them being Kaoz. He's a very influencial rapper. He would give me advice about what to do. I would say Prince Sani, formely known as Medino Green. He's been really helping me. We're organizing this (rap) cypher with other out Hip-Hop rappers. And I reall like Loco Ninja, and Foxx Jazzell, and the reason why I like her is because it's not easy for a transgender woman to come out and say she's transgender and it's nice for the game. DA-PROFESSOR: What other musicians besides hip-hop inspires you? MONTEZ: It's not just Hip-Hop. It's all genres of music. Whether it's Neo-Soul or Rock or Pop. I would have to say one artist that inspires me is Lady Ga-Ga. Ga-Ga teaches people to be themselves and love one another. Everybody loves Beyonce. I like Jay-Z. Jay-Z is a mogul and I look up to people who are business and he's sitting on top of money and that's how I wanna be when or if I blow up. DA-PROFESSOR: Earlier you mentioned that you didn't want to be a fake hetero rapper. When did you learn you was attracted to the same-sex? MONTEZ: When I learned I was gay? DA-PROFESSOR: Yes MONTEZ: It was a fear I had. When I was very younger, it came to me being molested by someone close to me when I was little, but I always carried that fear with me as I got older. In high school, I didn't really try it or experience my own sexuality until my sophmore year of high school. So around 15 or 16 I started dating boys and talking to boys and doing stuff like that. DA-PROFESSOR: You're a young Out rapper. Do you find it hard to be who you are without any prejudice? MONTEZ: I mean, anywhere you go. Being gay straight, black, white. You're gonna have to face hardships. Man, woman. I'm not saying I haven't, but I sue I'm gonna face them. I haven't face them yet because I get support from the straight community. Mainly my brother. I'm not the gay rapper that hasn't rapped about being gay. My first introduction song, I acttually said I like boys, but don't diss me because I'm still human, and it's really difficult, because I want to get into battle rapping. I rather you bash me in a rap battle. Rap battle is fun; you're just throwing words so people take it seriously and I rather you base me in the battle then outside the battle because if we're battling, I rather you go back and fourth there, then take it outside the battle arena because its not that serious to me. Life is too short and I see too many getting killed. DA-PROFESSOR: You brought up an interesting point. There are many Out artists who are being themselves. What do you think about that? MONTEZ: I say be yourself. I was always raised to be myself, and love who I am and love those who love me. If you're gonna be a gay rapper, and you're coming out, all I can say is just prepare yourself for the hardship. That goes for me too. God willing, if I blow up (tomorrow) and be the next superstar, you're gonna have to face that hardship that comes with it. And that's with life in general. Even Obama. Obama is not even gay and he supporting gay marriage, and he's getting bashed for it, and he's heterosexual. Jay-Z supports gay marriage and he's getting bashed for it and he's married to Beyonce, so all I can say is expect the unexpected. There are so many out gay singers. Adam Lambert. Meshell Ndegeocello. She's bisexual. I feel like just be yourself. It's so weird. Women are so supportive when they talk about homosexuality, but when a man talks about it, it's the bias and the whole prejudice. DA-PROFESSOR: I had the opportunity to check out your You Tube page and I applaud you for posting a video letting the gay kids know that throwing shade at each other is not cute. How important is for gays to realize that throwing shade at each other is not the way to go? MONTEZ: I feel like it's very important life is too short, and there are so many important important things. Why are we bashing each other? This is honestly why, I don't have too many gay friends. I really don't. Just because of the simple fact I'm not calling them shady. Alot of them like to bicker, and I'm not the type to bicker. I wanna live my life for me. We're bashing each other and we end up getting bashed by the opponent. I fheel like why are we bashing each other. It doesn't make any sense to me, but I guess that's what happenens, but I really want to express that. It would make sense to help each other. There are so many kids killing themselves because they are being bullied and they're bashed. It's sad. DA-PROFESSOR: You brought up an interesting point. I like for you to be as honest as you can. I'm so tired of hearing 'where are the gay singers and the gay rappers, but when you show them the outlets, the shady ones don't check them and their music out. How do you feel about gays contradicting themselves? MONTEZ: I just feel that you get what you given. If you wanna portray 'I'm a gay singer and a gay rapper,' that's what you wanna do, but when the shit hits the fan, all of a sudden, you don't wanna be down with the program. I've always said 'I'm an rapper who happens to be gay. If you say you're a gay rapper, then you want people to know who you are and recognizing you're gay. I take pride in myself. I'm proud of who I am. If I wasn't I wouldn't be who I am, but I'm not a gay rapper. I'm a rapper who happens to be gay. I don't want that to be the first thing you find about me, then say but I don't like his music. And that shit bothers me. DA-PROFESSOR: You did worked with the legendary Swanny River. How did that come about? MONTEZ: I reached out to him two years ago on facebook and he was talking to me. I sent him some music and a couple of videos on facebook. He liked what he heard and we just connected; he's like my industry father. DA-PROFESSOR: You also did an collabulation with Boneintel. What was it like working with him? MONTEZ: It was really good. Boneintel is a good coach. He helps you out. If he don't like it, he'll let you know (and) he'll be like you need to go back in the booth and try that again because that's not what I want to hear and if he likes something than he'll be like thats what I'm talking about. It was really good working with Bone and I'm looking forward to working with him again. DA-PROFESSOR: You're in school right now. What are you majoring in? MONTEZ: Communications. Public relations. DA-PROFESSOR What can fans expect from your mix-tape? MONTEZ: It's not gonna stick to one type of music. It's gonna feature 5 or 6 original songs, and the rest is gonna feature me freestyling over originals and covers. You're gonna hear some instrumentals by "I'm Ill by Red Cafe or one of those DMX joints. You're gonna hear Bone on a track and Verbal Science. He's another rapper from Cali. Prince Sani. I told you he's gonna be there. DA-PROFESSOR: If you have the chance to work with any mainstream artitst, who would it be? MONTEZ: Oh my God! I can't believe you asked me that. There's so many people I like to work with. DA-PROFESSOR: I'll make it easier for you. Name 5 Hip-Hop super stars and 5 male and 5 female singers. MONTEZ: I wanna work with Kanye. Common. Jay-Z. Nas and I think I wanna work with Drake. Female artists, you know I wanna work with Nicki.Foxy if Foxy comes back out and Missy. I wanna work with Missy Elliot. Female singers. Yes definetly Beyonce. Ga-Ga. I wanna work with her. I love Kate Perry. I wanna work with her. Madonna, of course. I lve Madonna. Rhianna. Male singers. Chris Brown. I like to work with Chris Brown. Trey Songz. Is there anybodyelse I wanna work with, I think I would wanna work with Joe. DA-PROFESSOR: In addition to music, would you like to pursue a career in acting? MONTEZ: Yes. I would. I see alot of rappers doing their independent films, and I like to do my independent film. I'm gonna try to work on that and hopefully that would be done before 2016 at least. DA-PROFESSOR: What type of films would you write and direct? MONTEZ: I love romantic comedies. I definetly want to direct that. Love stories. I'm a hopeless romantic. DA-PROFESSOR: Me too. (Both laugh). Where do you see yourself in the next 5 to 10 years? MONTEZ: Defintely out of college. I wanna get my degree. 2-5 years, then I'm moving to Atlanta. DA-PROFESSOR: It seems like many notherners flock to Atlanta. Tell me from your prespective, why do many notherners flock and move to the ATL? MONTEZ: Well I don't know about many people, but for me personally, I've been to Atlanta several times, and it's so much freer out there. It's the atsmophere. I love the atmosphere. I love southern food. It's so much to do in the city of Atlanta. I can even use my communications degree and be a publicist. Alot of celebrities live in Atlanta and moving there would work for me. DA-PROFESSOR: I applaud you for pursuing your education. There are some you gays who think that life is about partying, having a tight body, big dick and tight ass, yet they don't realize the importance of having an education to fall back on. How important is it for the kids to have an education to fall back on? MONTEZ: Me personally, I don't like materialistic things. When it comes to picking guys, I really don't look for them for having a nice body or fat butt or big dick. I like people who could make me smile. If you make me smile or keep my attention, then you got me. You don't have to be the cutest person in the world. That's just how I feel. DA-PROFESSOR: That's a great quote. What part of Jersey you're from? MONTEZ: Patterson. DA-PROFESSOR: Jersey has produced many talented performers including Whitney Houston, Dionne Warwick, Faith Evans, Naughty By Nature and Queen Latifah. How do you feel you're gonna add to the legacy they left? MONTEZ: I feel that I would add on because they are not alot of known musicians from Patterson. Whitney. Faith. Joe Buddens too. There are alot of talented people in the state of New Jersey, but because they haven't met the right people, they won't get recognized. You hear too much about our city; it's too dangerous. Our city doesn't produce nothing, but I'm not a product of my enviorment. I was never selling drugs. Never doing drugs. Never held a gun in my hand. Got arrested once (and) that was for fighting. Never killed anybody. Never stabbed anybody. Never did any shit like that. So I'm not a product of my enviorment. DA-PROFESSOR: We lost Whitney earlier this year. How did her death affect you? MONTEZ: Even though I didn't know her, It trigers me when people get upset over celebrities. I feel the reason why it affected me because she had her own struggles. Whitney had struggles and many were praying for her downfall. Upon finding this out, I was destroyed, and emotional because she was getting her life together. Her voice was coming back. She was the voice. She had a movie coming out. She was so beautiful. She had a daughter to look out after. Anytime anybody's mother passes away, it affects me. Just because of the fact I can't stand to lose my mother. I would let my mother bury me before I bury her. It seems like everything I do, I do form mom because she did so much for me and I grew attached to her. DA-PROFESSOR: That's great you have a close relationship with your mom. Recently we lost BOTH: Donna Summer. DA-PROFESSOR: Beyonce sampled Love To Love You Baby for her hit Naughty Girl. What did you think of it? MONTEZ: What was the song? DA-PROFESSOR: Beyonce's song Naughty Girl. MONTEZ: Oh yeah! She sampled (both sing) awww love to love you baby. I feel like you should pay homage. Donna Summer was an icon. I didn't know much about her music, but I have grandparents, and I was like who is this? My grandmother then like whois this? If it wasn't for all this you wouldn't have all that booty shaking music! (I laugh). I love old school music and you can never can't catch me not listening to something old school. 90's. 80's. 70's. Marvin Gaye. Al Green. Cook out music. Patti La Belle. I love Patti. I have an old heart. Old school. I was raisied like that. Everytime I was at my grandmother's house, either Kiss FM or WBLS. People don't understand and people be like why do you listen to that? Because that song the young butch queens was born to? DA-PROFESSOR: Another great point. I also like for you to be honest with this question. There are many gays young and old who don't wanna acknowledge, feature and respect the old school artists. who paved the way. How important is it for gays who are both of our age bracketts to acknowledge and honor the old school artists who paved the way? MONTEZ: It's very important. It's very important. My newphew is 4 years old and I get him to listen to old school music. Some old school Michele, Lisa Fischer. So I try to get him to listen to that so he can realize this is it. This is where this came from. My uncle loves Michael Jackson. DA-PROFESSOR: I'm a huge MJ fan! MONTEZ: I'm a huge MJ fan. Everybody loves Michael. Everybody loves Michael. DA-PROFESSOR: What advice would you give a young gay kid who wants to puruse a career in music as an out musician? MONTEZ: Well basically, I would say go for it. Once again, rememering what comes along with it. Some of us are taking risks and some of us are not giving a damn about their risks. Just becareful and always mess with the right people and stay away rrom the wrong people and just make sure it's beneficary. It all depends on what you want to do in life. If you want to be a drag queen, be a drag queen. It's your life. Take charge of your life. Don't let anyone tell you you can't.