Q&A With Hip-Hop Artist and Entrepreneur, Sy Mosquiat
- bkingangelica
- Jun 3, 2018
- 7 min read
Photo courtesy of Sy Mosquiat
Recently, I had the pleasure of talking with Sy Mosquiat. Sy is a recording artist from Philadelphia. He has been rapping since he was 10-years-old and began recording at the age of 14. Over the years Sy has created his own sound and style musically, drawing inspiration from various artist such as Big Sean, Lil Wayne, Tee Grizzley, Drake, and A Boogie.
Sy's album 'Teef The Album' was released last year, 2017. 'Teef The Album' is a 12 track project and is fire from the first to the last track. 'Teef The Album' is undeniably an outstanding body of work. Some personal favorites are "Quan Music 3", "NAFWM", and 'Kobe". If you've been listening to Sy throughout the years then you know that he reps his LoveYaFace clothing brand through music too. In "Kobe" he raps a bit about his brand: "this be legendary of course my tee hot/ or the LoveYaFace shirt wit the three dots".
Mosquiat launched the LoveYaFace clothing (LYF) brand in 2011. The brand has since been featured on 106 & Park and Omelly and Bobby Shmurda have been seen with a LYF tee. Sy plans to expand the clothing brand by eventually opening up boutiques throughout Philadelphia and California.
Aside from being known for its dope designs, LoveYaFace is also known for the positive message it is pushing, which essentially is self love. "I feel like self-esteem is a issue, a big issue, that doesn't get voiced enough. I feel like a lot of people go through self-esteem issues, a lot of suicide going on, a lot of bullying. You know, things that are important but I feel like it's not a lot of people speaking on the issue. What's a better way to push the issue than through clothing" Sy said.
Sy Mosquiat and I chopped it up about his brand, his music, challenges he has faced as a rapper and entreprenuer, why he took a break from rapping, Kanye, and more. Check out the Q&A below to find out more.
Angelica: Your mom is a business woman, she owns Banana Mousse, did she inspire you to branch off into entrepreneurship?
Sy Mosquiat: My mom definitely inspired me to get into entrepreneurship not particularly Banana Mousse. I started my first clothing line in about 2005, it was called Mosca and I transitioned from Mosca to LoveYaFace...I always been dipping and dabbing into fashion.
Angelica: So what's the story behind the brand 'LoveYaFace'?
Sy: I just wanted to do something positive. I feel like it's a message that's not getting pushed a lot. It's not a message that people talk about a lot when it's in fact a big issue. It's a big issue that's going on with like suicide, low self-esteem, things like that. It just don't get touched on enough and I just decided why not do it and a good way to get a message out there is fashion, tee shirts, sweat suits, just things that's visual. So, why not market a good message.
Angelica: Were there any difficulties you faced as a rapper or challenges you faced when starting your brand?
Sy: Yea. Rap is nothing but challenges today. Everybody is a rapper, everybody got promises for you, everybody break them. Rap is all over the place. It's a lot with that. With clothing, I can't say that I had a whole bunch of challenges because it caught fast. I mean I made a lot of mistakes with my first brand that I knew not to make with LoveYaFace so I didn't have many challenges but it's always a new hard task at hand to get the clothes on the person you want it on.
Angelica: Right. So when did you decide to do the 365 Days of Grease?
Sy: It came from me and my managers just talking one day. They was like yo rap, do them car raps. Every once in a while I would just rap in the car and record myself on the 'gram and the numbers would just go up and people was liking it. Next thing you know they was like rap every day so I was like ard we gone do it for a year. Then, we put together the whole marketing plan for it, where we plan for it to go what we plan for it to do. We just did it.
Angelica: How do you find time everyday to get a rap done?
Sy: I read before that it take like 30 days to form a habit. So now I feel like it's pretty much a habit. I would say like the first two weeks I was like 'I like this' but after the first two weeks it was burning me out a lil bit. I was like I forgot I got to write a rap today- not write a rap, I don't write, it just be in my head and I just call it writing because that's how I put it together. Now after like 30-40 days it was like it's a habit.
Angelica: Now I know there was a period of time where you stopped rapping, what caused you to stop?
Sy: It's like fifty percent discouragement, other fifty percent focusing on the brand. The brand did a lot more for me than music and I didn't understand how to run them concurrently. I was looking for a person to be the face of the brand you know, looking for a market to push it to when along I'm that person. So me and my managers was like ok we need to run you with concurrent with the brand. Everybody love me for the music. My mom even say you can rap better than you can make clothes and I can make clothes good. Everybody love me for music but it just get discouraging at times when you been doing it for so long and you been through so much with it. After a while you gotta take a step back, look at the game, figure out what you need to do and then come back aggressive.
Angelica:How do you plan to evolve within music and are you working towards getting signed?
Sy: Im rolling with the punches. I don't really like expecting too much from music. I like just going with it with no expectations because you know, it's no let downs that way. But you know as artists, especially people that really rap, we all aspire to be the Jay-Z you feel me? I feel like I'm talented enough to be that one day. So we all aspire the Jay-Z but when it come to expectations and seeing where I wanna be, where I plan on being- I'm just rapping every day right now...we just gone see where it go from there.
Angelica: Right, what about your clothing brand 'LoveYaFace' because this is the second brand you started so, moving forward how do you plan on evolving that brand?
Sy: Well, boutiques. Real independent, keeping it independent, street wear. Right now we trying to expand to west coast, that's our main focus. We been around since 2011, it's 2018 so this our seventh year so, this year we really focusing on west coast, California. That's heavy street wear over there, that's what they do so we just really focusing on locking in on the west coast. We just plan for the brand to be huge one day you know, worn by your favorite A-listers along with millions of people on the street.
Angelica: With you being a person in music I'm sure you follow what's going on in hop-hop, that being said I have to ask you about Kanye West. Have you seen his interview on TMZ?
Sy: Yea.
Angelica: What do you think about Kanye's state right now, especially with him being a prominent figure in hip-hop and in the culture?
Sy: I think 'Ye going through something, like serious. Like, anybody that know me or anybody that was following me since I was younger they know I'm a Kanye West head. I used to want to be Kanye West you feel me. So, I ain't just gone automatically abandon him but I feel like he going through something and he saying a lot of crazy stuff but maybe it's a reason behind it maybe, he'll make it make sense one day. Maybe a month from now or when his album come out it's going to make sense and that it's going to be one song on there that make us be like "oh this is what he meant". Maybe we gone understand it later but right now I think he going through something and he sound crazy and I don't agree with most of it.
Angelica: Yeah same, I think it was pretty outrages when he said slavery was a choice.
Sy: Yea that was what put me over the edge. A lot of it I was like 'Ye being 'Ye and he trying to market his album, he trying to bring attention to himself but when he said the whole slavery thing I just think that's disrespectful to a whole people you know, that was real. I wouldn't have said that.
Angelica: Yea. So, after you complete the 365 days do you plan on releasing new tracks, songs and videos?
Sy: I'm working on that now. We dropping this summer. We dropping a EP this summer. The end of 365 I don't know. I don't even know what the end of 365 hold like hopefully it's like getting to the end of the rainbow. Like what's there I don't know but hopefully it's a pot of gold. I don't know what the end is. It's just building, it's working. We gone drop some music this summer and just build the anticipation. We just going with the flow, we riding it out.
Angelica: Can you share more details on the Ep yet?
Sy: It's going to be a 5 song EP. I got a couple records done for it. I got about 15 songs done for it so I just want to choose and figure out 4 or like 5 more. I can't really promise what's gone be on it. I just dropped "Get It Off The Stove" that's on Soundcloud to hold ya'll over but we coming. It's gone be a good EP though.
Keep up with Sy Mosquiat:
Instagram @symosquiat
Twitter @symosquiat