What’s your name, degree, and most embarrassing item of clothing?
My name is Reyne Brady as in Rain but spelt different. I would say I have a degree as an MC in the Hip Hop Industry. My most embarrassing item of clothing that I’ve still kept to this day would have to be my Du-Rag. I use to rock that back in the day when I was a teenager doing the whole wigger look when I first stepped foot into this scene.
So, your stage name is Mugzy. How would you describe your sound and vibe?
A lot of artists nowadays seem to be doing this Auto-Voice, Quick Syllable rhyming (which half the time makes no sense), Plain Beat Futurist GARBAGE.
New artists AND Old artists (who change their ways just because its popular) seem to all be doing it. It’s like this massive pool of trash doing the same thing over and over. There is no uniqueness anymore, and they’re all fighting for this one spot, which is the dream BUT you all sound the same?
With me, I grew up in the generation of hip-hop where lyrics and making your music sound TIGHT was everything to the listener and I’ve stuck by that from day 1. I’ve been told from me staying this way, it’s made me unique. Like when people see me they instantly know I’m hip-hop affiliated and that’s because back then in the 90s/00s character/image was everything too.
What are some of your biggest musical influences and inspirations?
50 Cent, Tupac, Eminem, NaS, DMX
Okay, be honest. What’s your biggest musical guilty pleasure?
Haha, I think it’s the fact people know you as a rapper like, “Hey, we know that guy from the Coast, he’s a rapper?” OR “Ohh yeah, Mugzy, the hip hop guy?” It’s that warm feeling knowing you’re kinda like a local town celebrity just from the craft you make.
You’ve come across some pretty big celebrities! Can you name a few? How did you cross paths?
Yeah, it blows my mind to know I’ve met some celebs that a lot of people (including myself) look up to.
Like the likes of names such as Greg Page (The Wiggles), Seth Gold (A&E TV Show Hardcore Pawn), Justice Crew, Naughty By Nature, Fabolous, Big Sean, Linda Blair (The Exorcist), Wu-Tang Clan, Dennis Rodman, Aron Baynes & Patty Mills (NBA 2014 SPURS Champs), DJ Mustard, Robert Englund (Freddy Krueger), Ken Kirzinger (Jason Voorhees), Jason David Frank (Tommy Oliver/White Ranger, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers), Austin St John (Jason Lee Scott/Original Red Ranger, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers).
But the ONE who I’ll never forget, because still to this day it blows my mind would have to be my childhood hero, Walter Emanuel Jones, who played (Zack Taylor/Original Black Ranger, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers).
He was doing a meet & greet sesh alongside Austin St John (Original Red Ranger) last year at Sydney’s SUPANOVA Pop Culture Expo. My brother and I rocked up to his signing table and can you believe I was the first and ONLY one waiting for him to come out. When he finally rocked up he looked at me, put his hand out and said “Wassup man, I’m Walter, good morning”. I was LEGIT shaking and stuttering, but then I had to catch myself and we started chatting like two best friends.
So then, he was like, “So my man do you want an Auto or Picture?”, and I said, “Gotta have a pic man”. He was like “Do you wanna pose or do you wanna morph it up to the camera”, and I said, “We gotta morph man”. So, we both grabbed the Power Ranger Morphers and out of nowhere this crowd of people surround us like an audience, and then he goes, “You ready man? 3, 2, 1”, and we both said, “IT’S MORPHIN’ TIME” and the crowd went WILD.
What’s your most popular track? Tell us about what inspired its composition!
HANDS DOWN would have to be “Can’t Stop Us”, which features my producer Pablo Gutierrez, who produced my second album (Understand Me).
One day in the studio we were taking a break and I asked him if he’s made some beats of his own. He said, “I’ve made a TONE, just never get around to them because a NEW idea always pops up.” As we were going through the list, we came across the beat that was used for the track, and I said, “Yoo, what is that?” So we listened to it, I took it home, and a few mins later I already had two verses done.
What’s the craziest thing that’s happened during a live performance?
Back in 2012, I was doing a TONNE of gigs LEFT, RIGHT and CENTER. I came across a street flyer for a talent competition called URBANSTAR, which was catered only towards Hip-Hop & RnB.
I contacted the promoters on Facebook to find out more about the event, and they said one of the judges on the night was gonna be a guy called Marcus Pernell, who was a producer at DEF JAM/UNIVERSAL. From hearing that I knew I had to put my name down for this event ASAP and give this performance my ALL.
On the night there were about 30 contestants (I was one of the last ones to go on) and ALL of them did cover songs (I was the only one who did original material). I performed my track “Keep On Rapping”, which is the third track on my first album, Ride Or Die. Two of the judges scored me with a 0, but Marcus scored me with a 10/10 and it completely blew my mind. After the event we had a bit of a chat about my career, which later on made us close friends (Marcus Pernell R.I.P).
There are a lot of people who would be interested in breaking into the Hip-Hop scene. Do you have any advice to give?
Don’t come into this culture if you don’t love it, because you WILL get smacked up. I’ve seen it happen before. To the kids who love this culture, who have done their homework, who are willing to put in the hard yards 100%, then you have my biggest RESPECT. But watch your steps along the way – don’t think you will be an overnight success because this industry will chew you up, break you down and spit you back out without a care in the world.
What details can you provide about any projects, tracks or albums that you’re currently working on?
Hopefully at the end of this year/going onto early next year, I’ll be recording my third album. I have no title for it yet, no track list. Haven’t really written anything because I’ve been super busy with acting. I will tell you this though: I have a TONNE of instrumentals ready to write to. Some are originals and some are from other people’s work such as Swedish Producer Yanni, but when I listen to them, I envision them to be number one.
Also, for this album it’s gonna be a 2Disk. Hopefully, I’m gonna be compiling as much content as possible.
Where can we see more of your music? Do you have an online page?
I’m always on Facebook. I think I use it way too much (but doesn’t everyone, haha). So, hit up my fanpage link here at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mugzy/216863988358655.
Drop me a line about anything, even if it’s to chat (ALWAYS tend to get back to everyone). Don’t forget to give me a LIKE too – the more likes the better!