Summers Forever With Curci
At the early age of 8, Colorado emcee Curci knew he wanted to rap, he grew up listening to hip hop and surrounded himself with people who were passionate about music. His earliest introduction to music was close to home as his father owned a record store. Curci nearly dropped out of high school due to his commitment to hip hop. After being in and out of a couple hip hop groups, he then travelled to Japan for inspiration for his first mixtape. With lyrics focusing less on drugs, money and women, Curci joins the Conscious Minds group, touring everywhere from San Francisco to Miami.
Having just released his mixtape dubbed ‘Forever Summer,’ Curci talks about the inspiration behind the music, touring with Conscious Minds, and growing up with hip hop. Adam Lunn writes.
Tell us about your mixtape, ‘Forever Summer’ and what’s it about?
‘Forever Summer’ was my way of saying that hip hop is definitely my job from now on, and I'm not leaving. ‘Forever Summer’ starts off with the song "Graduation" which was me telling my story of my days in high school and almost dropping out because I had to leave so often to play shows in other states. I did end up graduating and this mixtape was my way of saying that my summer will be never ending because I don't plan on ever going back to school.
Did you ever think you’d become an emcee while you were in school?
Yes, I started writing lyrics when I was eight and fell in love with everything involving hip hop immediately. In high school it became apparent to me that I had no other option but to pursue music as a full time career.
How did you start with Conscious Minds?
When I was 16 years-old I released my first project and ended up meeting a lot of different artists that I reallyconnected with, which made me have the idea of building a platform that could be beneficial to a team that I wanted to create. I took time from school to travel to Miami to play a show with my DJ (DJ Tico) and there I met Jizockk. We clicked up the day we met and I told him about the idea of forming Conscious Minds and he was with it, so that's how it began. I had the DJ and another artist already, from there I went to the artists that I knew had the same vision as I did and it kept growing.
Who influences you musically?
Everybody that I'm around of course, but growing up a skateboarder Pharrell was like a god. I try to read as many books as I can to study the best musicians, like Jay-Z, Common, Wu-Tang, Nirvana, etc.
How do you see hip-hop in the future?
I think hip hop is going to grow more and be more diverse. I feel like the average hip hop listener is going to want to hear more lyrics in the future.
You’ve been touring from San Francisco to Miami. How has that been going? Any plans to tour outside the US?
Performing is my favorite part of making music. It's absolutely nuts that something I wrote by myself can touch mass amounts of people and can make them feel an emotion that I can see when I perform. I love that I am able to play in different states. I don't have any plans to play outside of the US as of now, but I would love to make that happen.
What’s next for you?
More touring, I am working on the first Conscious Minds mixtape which will hopefully be dropping this year, more features, and just working on getting more people to listen to my music.
What stimulates you soul?
New experiences and hip hop.
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