ARTZ (USA) 1,828

ARTZ

Everyone loves the underdog. No matter the arena, no matter the storyline. People rally around the unlikely hero. Time and again we root for the blue collar guy who somehow, against every bit of conventional logic, comes through in the clutch with an improbable win of epic proportions.

Cliché as the storyline has become, there is always a certain mystical, magnetic quality to it that draws people in every single time.

The story of ARTZ is no different, at least not on the surface. It begins pretty much like a million or so other New York City stories, in Brooklyn, with Hip-Hop culture coloring his lifestyle and Rap music playing the soundtrack to his life. If you’re from the borough that doubles as the 4th largest city in America, you don’t ask questions. You just know what it is.

Being born to parents with roots in Italy and Puerto Rico ensured that ARTZ was never going to be lacking in the passion department and it showed early on with that blue collar drive and unflinching approach to his craft. While other kids were busy glued to their favorite video game, or playing outside, he was honing his pen and then committing his verses to memory, It was this type of determination that led to ARTZ recording his first song at the age of 15 and going on to release his first full-length project: “Established 1990” before he was legally allowed to drink or even drive.

Surviving a stray gunshot wound to the face, trading a comfortable living situation for a musty basement room, financing the majority of his music dreams with just barely enough to make it and dealing with the loneliness of being a few states away from his family were just a few of the trials that ARTZ had to endure way before his 21st birthday.

Early on, in a bold move, ARTZ openly chose to brand himself a “Reject” with a “Dream”, embracing the type of introspection and honesty that many of his peers in the rap game normally shun in exchange for the appearance of riches or empty status. Thus, “Reject Dreams ®”, his community of misfits, was born.

“I’m a reject to the masses because I don’t stand for the same things that an average "rapper” stands for. I’m for the people and for the music, not the b.s."

Instead of allowing the current state of affairs in “the industry” to engulf him or make him bitter, ARTZ relishes the role of the underdog and forsakes the beaten path. With wit and wisdom beyond his years, he weaves raps that inspire, entertain, and cater to the “every man” in all of us and although he delivers with a refreshing and youthful approach, he shows the utmost respect to his “rap forebears” with the kind of professionalism and efficiency that is usually reserved for rap’s “elite”.

In a day and age where deciding to make a career out of rap music seems even more cliché than recycling the story of the underdog, ARTZ has set out, against all odds, to prove himself amongst the best that the industry has to offer, winning fans over through the power of connection, one “Reject” at a time.