In the past couple of years, teenage rising star\u00a0Apex\u00a0Rich\u00a0has had to carry the weight of the world on his shouldes. He was almost homeless after his mother kicked him out of the house, a best friend he looked up was brutally murdered and the Jersey City, NJ native had to reevaluate his life path, quickly shifting hustles. Now with a sniper focus on his career as an MC, the 19 year-old is breaking through with mainstream kudos for his debut single, the righteous riot starter, \u201cKilluminati.\u201d<\/p>\n
Serving as the soundscape for his expression is the thunderous track produced the newcomers The CoPilots. They sampled the beat from the Rampage of Busta Rhymes\u2019 legendary rhyme crew The Flipmode \u00a0Squad \u201cWild For Da Night.\u201d That song originally came out in 1997.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI remember that record,\u201d\u00a0Apex\u00a0Rich\u00a0smiles, when thinking back to the Rampage smash. \u201c I heard it a long time ago. The beat for my song, the producers sent it to us. We all realized it was from \u2018Wild For Da Night,\u201d and you know I love that style of hip-hop. Rampage was spitting that third eye seeing, that real rap. I grew up on that style of rap. I was a Big L kind of dude. I loved Biggie too.\u201d<\/p>\n
As a youngster,\u00a0Rich\u00a0says he didn\u2019t get exposed to hip-hop until he was about eight or nine years old and heard the Notorious B.I.G.\u2019s \u201cBig Poppa\u201d song in the film \u201cHard Ball.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMy family played a lot of Spanish music around the house,\u201d he details. \u201cMy family is Dominican. I have two sisters and three brothers. One of my brothers played a little Eminem around the house, some conscious rap, nothing hardcore. Mostly Spanish music. More like old school Spanish, Anthony Santos, old Ricky Martin. My family was real heavy on the culture.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, some of\u00a0Apex\u00a0Rich\u2019s family were also heavy into the streets and played an influence on him following them down that slippery slope.<\/p>\n
\u201cJersey is a wild place, it\u2019s a jungle with no churches,\u201d he elaborates.<\/p>\n
Out on the streets, the rhyme Goliath had to turn to friends for shelter. Longtime friend Idris Black not only took\u00a0Rich\u00a0in, but he convinced him to give up hustling and dive into rap, and Black also got\u00a0Rich\u00a0a day job doing marketing until his skills-to-pay-the-bills, actually started translating into big dividends.<\/p>\n
As Killuminati bubbles online, in the streets and on radio stations like Shade 45 via \u201cSway in the Morning\u201d Apex\u00a0continues to field offers for guest appearances, while gearing up for his second single\u00a0 BITG – Born in the Ghetto.<\/p>\n
Written by Shaheem Reid<\/strong><\/p>\n