Floyd Christie picked up an Eminem cassette a few years ago, around the time cassettes were still ‘in’, and decided rap was the sort of outlet he needed to “feel free”. He was barely in his teens at the time, but had figured out music was his escape.
What Enimem was rapping about was not as important as what he was doing, at least that was how Floyd felt, and in a few days the little boy from New Amsterdam, Berbice was scribbling lyrics in a notebook which made sense to people close to him.
“It was poetry, it was my way of expressing how I felt at the time and trying to bring out everything that was bottled up,” he said during an interview on Thursday. Rap was not just music for him, it was an emotional release or as he said, “poetry”, and he embraced it fiercely.
Rap was all Floyd did for a few years; he grew up with it and by the time he had turned eighteen it was the one thing which he had any real interest in. He used it as a medium; opening up about his struggles, coping with the tragic loss of his parents a year apart from each other while he was only eight years old.
“I had so many bottled up feelings and there was no way to get them out [until] I discovered this outlet which made me comfortable to discuss these things,” Floyd said. He discussed them alright and when people sampled what he was doing they started to take him seriously.
But as good as his material was he still had to deal with the unpopular feel of local rap, particularly rap music coming from a young man residing outside the city. Floyd was forced to take a step back and pay attention to his education, which he did and after writing examinations at New Amsterdam Multilateral School he ended up taking a break from everything going on his life, including his rap music.
This meant his music remained scribbled in a notebook and in the minds of a few who had heard him, but it was nowhere close to being released for public consumption. Floyd recalled he was just at home for a while doing nothing so eventually he went back to take additional classes.
Somewhere between the break from school and resuming classes he decided to try modelling. He recalled that a friend encouraged him to try out for Guyana Model Search when the auditions went to Berbice in 2007 and after some persuasion he said yes. He got past the auditions and was accepted into the competition.
“I honestly did not take it seriously and I realised many people in the competition around me were [serious] and that is when I knew I might not make it far,” he said. Floyd reached the semi-finals and was knocked out. He was happy with the finish because his expectations were not as high.
Floyd’s attitude changed after the model search competition because of how determined some of the competitors were. He did a few modelling gigs after that, but decided to call it quits on the catwalk, and went back to his music. His resolve was so strong that he decided to work and support his own music, and in a short while his first single was recorded.
From paycheck to paycheck Floyd funded his own recordings and he would travel to the city and have his songs recorded at Brutal Traxx studio. He said the individual payments were not particularly pricey, but that over time the money started to add up and he was churning out a fair amount to release music he was not even certain would get any airplay here. He met singer, Kester D in 2008 and after a short conversation Kester D decided he would gave Floyd a chance to be heard; he played two of his songs on the radio during his programme that year.
Floyd said nothing major happened after the airplay, but he decided to push harder and eventually he was scouting the internet looking for a way to share his music. He later stumbled across You-Tube and he uploaded his songs material there, some packaged in a semi-professional way according to him, thanks to a group of friends operating out of Sychahmoh Production in Berbice. The songs have received positive feedback on the site and a fair amount of hits. “They have been a huge help,” he said of the promotional team.
Floyd then decided to make a strategic decision and leave Berbice for the city to promote his music and “get out there”. He released his first mixed tape called, ‘Game Time Part 1’, which features 25 tracks, some fresh and others reloaded. Things have not exactly been working out as planned, but he understands that it will take time. “This is a process and I am prepared to stick with it, but at the same time I want to do things with my life like gain meaningful employment and further my studies,” he said.
He plans on reading for a degree at the University of Guyana though the programme he wishes to pursue is still to be decided. However, he has narrowed his options to economics, business management and/or journalism.
Floyd said he likes rapping, but “I can’t be an ordinary rapper, I want to be a smart one”.
He raps about “everyday issues” like love, pain, money and about certain pleasures in life which he is still seeking. Floyd is aware of the tough sell which rap is here and is determined to come over as a rapper who people want to listen to. He is easy on the ears right now; offering up a fresh lyrical style which is still seeking to find its originality. On tracks like “Loving You is Wrong” and “Life’s Drama”, he is a young man facing the everyday pressures of life; on others he is rapping about money and women.
Floyd said he is not after the celebrity which rap offers, but that his aim is to promote his love for the music. He has plans to own a recording studio one day and be in a position to help young artistes who are struggling to make it in the business.
Within recent months Floyd has performed live and people loved him. He admits the crowds he has been working have all been in Berbice and that the opportunity to perform for people in the city has “just not come up yet”.
Floyd is hoping to get a shot soon at entertaining a crowd in the city and is not afraid of rejection. “I’m going to keep doing what I do,” he said. Floyd grew up with his grandmother following his parents’ death and he said she taught him how to be strong. He has no siblings and or immediate cousins he is aware of, but according to him he has never been short on friends.
Floyd said people should listen to his music before forming an opinion of what it is about and/or dismissing it. He is hoping to change attitudes here one track at a time, but in the meantime he plans to continue working hard and “be serious about the job I am doing now” Floyd is a young sports journalist working with this newspaper.
(ianaseales@yahoo.com)