Only hip hop could birth Stimulus, an MC as good as he is a DJ

Stimulus knows how to blend worlds. The quality that makes him a supreme DJ, cutting and rocking diverse grooves, gives him his voice. And place in the circle when we were growing up. 

He brought me and my friends knowledge of what's possible outside of Ocean Avenue. He was the first one to leave and travel. It feels like he never looked back. 

"Two floors above the basement" (on his song "Groove Cray") brought me into his memories. And how he found a home inside hip hop culture.

Stimulus, or Ian Lawrence, grew up in Flatbush BK and from there went to private schools, like I did. Only rich surroundings could match his mental vigor. So his mother told my mother about this program where you could get scholarships to top boarding schools. 

He went to one and became legend at 1122, my building. He made it out at a young age, to the point where we were just telling stories about him to make up for the gaps we didn't know. 

After stops at Wall Street and then downtown clubs, ripping it as a DJ but still chiseling his raps, he started to branch out further, and seem otherworldly. This DJ who went to his college had become famous in his own right, and was born from a music family. Stim's easygoing smile and wit-stamped lyrics flowed through his work so friend Mark Ronson urged him to make a debut as a rap artist.

But life and love forced Stimulus, the rapper, to survive tragedy, beat mortal illness, and go across the world. DJ Stimulus, alive and well as a hip hop symbol, drove his new pursuits. MC Stimulus, who I knew to be passionate in both parts of his craft, the rhyming and the spinning, was dying to be born again. 

He sings "Groove Cray" in the spirit of a memoir writer. Rather than cling to his thoughts, he braces and forgives. It answers the question of whether a song, in short form, can tell a whole life. 

You end up, in a young man's reflections, sort of "lost again" when dealing with traumas you haven't slowed down enough to face yet. That's where Stimulus curves the record, morphing his laid-back rhymes into sneaky truisms.

"We all tell the same story different ways."

That couldn't be more true of the paths we've each taken since Ocean Avenue.
 
Here's what he said to me about his own life stories on "Groove Cray":

AR: "Groove Cray" is this hopeful song that's still reflective and even a little sobering, mood-wise. If we listen to that first line closely, the question becomes: where have you made it to?

STIM: I’ve made it to a goal I set for myself while I was still in school - I am a professional musician. I always wanted to reach a point in my life where I could be financially stable by doing what I love - creating music. I didn’t know that it would happen the way it has. I always thought I would have to have a boss, or a record label in order to share music for a living. And luckily that’s not the case.

AR: Guide people through summarizing your life on "Groove Cray"...what are vital moments you wanted to include and what scenes were harder to leave out? It seems like you covered everything I knew, but then there were some questions I had too (first proposal? NBA player was who?...)

STIM: There wasn’t anything that was hard to leave out. I wrote the song from an emotional space. The vital moments are the ones that still affect me for better or worse.

The first proposal was to my college girlfriend. I always found it interesting that when you consider the time difference, we were in Portugal breaking up at the same time the Twin Towers were falling.

My next serious girlfriend after N___ - referenced above, cheated on me with Stephon Marbury.

AR: It seems like, on the album, you're questioning what it means to find your way. Can you be lost and still have friends all around you? 

STIM: I think so. Maybe I think so because I went away to boarding school and college and continued to move to places for work after graduating college. Moving around always made me separate friendship from my personal goals. I recently reflected on that when my wife said she felt more comfortable in Berlin once she had a base of friends. I’ve never considered that a part of whether I do or don’t like a place or whether or not I can handle and/or enjoy a certain part of my path.

AR: What makes a place home, and can you tell me how crafting "Black Fryar" gave you insight into that?

STIM: I’ve distanced myself from the importance of being “home” or building one. I still consider Brooklyn and my mother’s apartment as home. Working on Black Fryar gave me space to reflect on where I am now and how I got here. Especially in terms of the city of Berlin versus the city of New York. The other 2 members of Black Fryar are born and raised in Berlin. I felt the need to share these observations with them and the larger Network I have in Berlin.

AR: You've gone to nations across the globe that all interpret hip-hop in their own way. What's one thing that's universal about rap listeners though? What does listening to rap require?

STIM: A universal trait of rap listeners is the ability to view oneself as part of a global community. I have yet to meet a listener that is completely unaware that they share a common experience and or sentiment with people in other places.

It only requires curiosity. If you hear rap and like what you hear, you have to be willing to look for more.

AR: What's universal about MCs? What does MCing require?

STIM: Every MC I’ve met has a need to express themselves. Many of them also believe that their point of view needs to be heard.

It requires dedication and practice. Anything shared in a rap can also be spoken, sung or written. To be an MC, you have to decide to transcribe what you want to express into hip hop.

AR: On "Going In Circles" you say, "Deeper my than my skin color, keeper of the facts..." Please explain the idea you want to lay out in this line, is it one of truth versus perception? Or something else?

STIM: This verse addresses some of my observations on institutionalized racism in America. I’m talking to America. The dark history of America is deeper than the black of my skin. The truth is in shared experiences of Black people in America as well as in the shared experiences of the people who founded, shaped and or maintained the system.

AR: "Look Like Jesus" feels like a parable inside the shell of a love song. What made you want to mirror that image of Jesus (bronze skin, woolly hair) and turn it lusty?

STIM: I wanted to poke fun at the conversation about what Jesus really looked like and how the descriptions in the Bible are used. I don’t think his appearance has anything to do with the deeper meanings and or lessons in the Bible, but for different reasons, people choose to debate the issue and place meaning in it.

I also wanted to poke fun at our new religion of social media. For spiritually religious people, courtship happens within he guidelines of the church. For many of the digitally connected, courtship happens within the guidelines of the web. I find it funny and ironic to search for a soul mate and or life partner in a digital space. But I respect my many friends who have married people they met online. I can write about this for days because there are so many angles to explore. I guess that’s why the song stays simple and comical. The listener can jump off an intellectual deep end or just cruise along to what can be listened to as a typical song about love.

AR: You're the only artist, I think, that's gained equal renown as a DJ and as an MC. Both of these practices are coded into the DNA of hip-hop, and exist as separate dialects within its language. What does one teach you about the other?

STIM: DJing has taught me a lot about how people react to beats and production. It has also taught me a lot about song arrangement and the music of other cultures. I can’t rap in any language other than English, but I play music in lots of different languages. 

When I hear a beat, I can imagine lots of different reactions and think about the differences between how I think “people” will react and how I feel about a beat. I can also create flows that I know people will react to without needing to understand the actual words.

MCing has taught me a lot about timing and the arc of a musical experience. I can play a DJ set or full party like a song or concert arrangement and try to create certain moments at certain times.

AR: You're doing a Ted Talk in Berlin? Why? What's that about? 

The TED team in Berlin wrote me and asked if I wanted to give a talk. They suggested 2 topics. It was the holidays. I was too busy to craft and pitch a self made topic, so I went with one of their options.

This interview was conducted digitally and has been edited for clarity and consistency.