Sozay is a rising Los Angeles rapper who aspires to step away from today’s overdone rap lyrics that cater to egos and empty messages. Striving to provide fans with meaningful rhymes packed with emotion and heart, Sozay prides himself on his ability to comfortably expose his insecurities and give people a true insight into who he really is. Considered a lyrical mastermind, Sozay isn’t afraid to push boundaries and challenge today’s hip-hop standards. He looks to rappers of the past as sources of inspiration and constantly pulls elements of these iconic performers into his music today.

With a persistent work ethic and exploding fan base, Sozay is making his mark on the rap scene. He recently released a teaser EP titled, “Who is Sozay” and his track “High Hopes” is rotating through West Coast stations. Sozay is currently putting the finishing touches on his upcoming debut “Black September” and is about to hit the road in March to share the stage with hip-hop legends, House of Pain.

On February 10th, LA guests were treated to a pre-Grammy party, featuring a special performance by Sozay. Before the guests arrived and rushed the open bars, the rapper, who is soon to be on everyone’s radar, gave ChinaShop a behind-the-scenes look at his booming career.

From what I’ve read about you, it seems like you had kind of a rough childhood, got into drugs, and all that… How has that impacted your career as a musician?
It makes for interesting stories when you’re writing. I like to write songs that people can identify with on an emotional level. A lot of what’s written right now is about money and things. It seems to be working for these people but it doesn’t really work for me so I can’t really identify. I think if you really get something that touches your heart that it really makes for good lyrics. It wasn’t the worst childhood by any means but there were some definite low points, which were brought on by myself. It’s not like my mom had anything to do with it. She did the best that she could.

How long have you been rapping?
13 years.

And you’ve had over 1.6 million plays on social networking sites?
Yeah. Right now we’re actually right under 2.1 million.

Do you have a whole army full of people helping to promote?
Well basically what I do is I built a team of family that helps me promote online and do stuff like that. I personally don’t think you can do anything on your own. My plate is very full with what I have going on. I put a team of people around me that I trust and they’re very good at what they do — from my manager to my publicist to online promotions to other people that I reach out to for music. I make one call and it gets done. It’s very tedious work. I work nonstop. I usually wake up at noon and I work till about 5 or 6 in the morning. It’s rehearsing and writing and performing and promoting and it’s nonstop. The online promotion — I have about 2 or 3 cousins that help me out with that and then I get in it as well. I don’t stop doing what I do.

Is Sozay a stage name?
It is a stage name. I took it from “The Usual Suspects” with Keyser Söze. Kevin Spacey plays Keyser Söze. Obviously I kind of thought that the whole name was a little much – and the spelling – They spell it with Soz and then there’s an accented E and I thought that’s not gonna work. So I switched that with A Y and that just works so I kept it. So far it seems to be working. A lot of people know the movie. It works.

What makes you stand out from other rappers?
I was a writer first and foremost. I spend a lot of time writing. I don’t write something and record it right away. I proof read it, I edit it, I go through it over and over and I’m a perfectionist. If it’s not 100% right, I don’t want to record it. The worst thing ever is to record something you don’t like and then you’re stuck with it. I’m really into metaphors and similes and personification and all those different styles of writing. I was blessed in the fact that I was well educated. I basically dropped out of high school in the 10th grade but up until that point I was very well educated. My mother is very intelligent. I have the book smarts mixed in with the street smarts that I learned from a lot of my friends growing up so I’m able to make an intelligent song. My music is very intelligent. The word play is very clever.

That’s cool because there are so many rap songs out there with just ridiculous lines.
When I was coming up, that defined hip-hop music. If you weren’t clever and didn’t have dope lyrics, you just didn’t fit in. But now it’s not like that and I get it. It evolves and that’s fine. But that’s not how it works for me.

Are you inspired by more of the old school rappers and people like Run DMC?
I’d have to say my biggest inspiration would be Rakim. If you listened to what he was recording in like ’86, ’87, ’88 and you could play that now, it just would topple the competition. He’s a phenomenal lyricist, very gifted. Some of the guys that are out today – I think Jay-Z’s extremely talented. Nas is very good. I like Talib Kweli and Mos Def and those guys. I also have the hardcore aspect of the West Coast because that’s where I was brought up. I’ve tried to mix everything together because that’s what I was brought up on. I think that everything comes full circle. You got the movie “War of the Worlds.“ It came out, did really well and everyone’s like ‘wow that was a great concept.’ It’s already been done before but nobody knows because it’s so many years later. Everyone’s looking at my music and saying ‘wow man you’re coming off with these clever lyrics and this word play and your music is so hardcore.’ They’re so used to the electronic dancie stuff that they’re hearing now and they don’t realize that this has already been done. It’s nothing new that I’m bringing to the table. I’m just doing what I was taught to do by the people that originated it.

And you have a new album coming out, “Black September.” What can people expect from that?
It’s phenomenal. I’m going through it with a fine-toothed comb and making sure everything is perfect. There’s a lot more concept songs on that. There is kind of like an apocalyptic song that talks about where mankind is headed – just different things that I’ve seen out there. There’s one about the corrupt business system – especially in California. There’s a lot of songs more where I just kind of let you into my life – into my world and I expose my vulnerability and insecurities and I think that’s very important because there’s a lot of ego in hip-hop especially and no one really exposes who they are. Everyone’s really cool. Everyone’s really tough. Everyone’s the best in bed. I expose these vulnerabilities and these insecurities and I think when you identify with it, it’s a very strong thing to do so I have a lot of that coming on the album. Right now it’s scheduled to be a double disc – 20 songs.

That’s exciting. You don’t see that many of those anymore.
No you don’t and I really wanna give people their money’s worth.

Are you excited that you’ll soon be going on tour with House of Pain?
Yeah! That’s great because for me when they first came out, they were iconic. I mean obviously they still are. There was another white hip-hop act called 3rd Base and other than 3rd Base they were the only other white rappers with credibility. There was no one for white people to identify with. I mean even now, white people are the main contributors of hip-hop music financially and yet there’s no one to really identify with. You got Eminem – well on a mainstream level. On an underground level you’ve got Jedi Mind Tricks, and there’s a lot of white rappers, but I’m saying on a mainstream level, they were the first ones and they did it right. They did it real rhymie, real hardcore. I’m really excited. It’s an honor and a privilege to be going out with those guys and that’s definitely a demographic that I want to target. The fact that I get to go around the country for a month is going to be awesome.

And to be able to get your music in front of a lot of different people…
I look at it like here’s this project that started in my living room. I was just typing on Microsoft Word and I reached out and got some music from different people. We recorded it, friends liked it, and now I get to share this music with different people. Whether they like it or not, it’s such an opportunity. How many people get to go on national tours with acts that have the notoriety of House of Pain. I mean this is awesome. This is so much more than I could have expected in this amount of time. I believed this is gonna be successful but…

It’s moving fast?
Exactly! I mean December 7, 2010 to February 10th. In two months we have this showcase. The Single “High Hopes” is on rotation in 15 different markets across the West and we have this national tour and it’s just really is amazing. I’m really excited and that tour is going to be awesome.

Look for Sozay to roll through your town as he hits the road in March with the House of Pain. Be sure to check out Sozay’s official website for tour dates and info:

Words by Nicole Pajer. Photos by Dustin Downing.