Interview: Long Island Based Rap Artist Mini Mac Discusses His New Single/Video "One Shot
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Mini Mac
Long Island, NY
“I’ve been wearing multiple hats from songwriter, to engineer, to co-producer, and also making it a point to learn and stay current with the music business. Additionally, I touch on adversities I had faced growing up, and chose to bring those to light because those were the experiences that actually made me try harder. ”
Congratulations on the release of your new music video "One Shot"; the song itself and the visual are dope. Tell us about the song in regards to your motivation to write it and how you came across the beat by Slothbeats.
Thank you! The motivation stemmed from reflecting on how much has changed in a short period of time, I’d say; I was surviving on minimal funds a year ago, and now I’m learning what it means to be the most self-sufficient independent artist I can be and seeing results from it.
I’ve been wearing multiple hats from songwriter, to engineer, to co-producer, and also making it a point to learn and stay current with the music business. Additionally, I touch on adversities I had faced growing up, and chose to bring those to light because those were the experiences that actually made me try harder.
I actually met Slothbeats at one of my shows in upstate New York! He was visiting from Germany and was checking out the scene here. The kid is 16 and killing it with production. He loved my performance and asked if I wanted to work on some music with him. His goal was to find an ideal mixture of new school and old school, and thus “One Shot” was born.
If you could select any artist to appear on the remix to "One Shot", who would you pick?
I think it’d be really cool to hear Logic on this because I think he could flow well to this beat and spit some real conscious/thought provoking bars that would fit or coincide with my concept on the track. I can hear a Young Sinatra vibe of his on it.
Even though there have been many legendary rappers coming out of Long Island like EPMD, Keith Murray, Rakim, and Busta Rhymes, why do you think there's still a misconception about artists from there in comparison to those from NYC?
Unfortunately, I honestly don’t know when and why that misconception started, but I plan on repping us heavily to the point where hopefully we will find the outlook of us changing.
I take Hip Hop very seriously, and I think people will start to notice and respect overtime that there is still some great talent here on Long Island! I mean, if we can birth the legends mentioned, why can’t we have others?
How did you and the director, Bryan DeVissiere, come up with the treatment/concept of the "One Shot" visual?
Bryan is a huge believer in capturing the most candid of scenes and compiling them in a way that tells a great story. He ran with my vision and took it ten steps further. His focus with the treatment was to give the city a grimed like filter, but let the whites in my outfit pop and exude a more positive and bright side.
For the second half of the video where the skit comes in, I really wanted to capture what life was like for me back in high school, so I wore my glasses I had since 9th grade and shared the kind of texts I got from friends at the time. Bryan and I really wanted the audience to understand the feeling of the environment I was in physically and mentally during that time.
Can we expect to hear "One Shot" on an upcoming EP or album this year?
For now, “One Shot” will be standing as a single release because I feel like it can stand as such, and sonically tells its own story; however, people can expect to hear new music in the coming months for sure.
Even though the current pandemic has thrown a wrench in almost everybody's immediate plans, what are your goals musically for the remainder of 2020?
Definitely working on pumping out as much content as I can especially given the extra opportunities we have to lock in at home to just create and share.
Thankfully, we’re in an age where we can make music in the comfort of our own homes and I’ve really been taking advantage of that as much as I can. People can definitely bet on a lot of new music, and shows to follow once this all settles because I truly miss the stage.