Talking New York City life with rapper Aurora Anthony
"Most people are sharks in the city so you gotta be one too."
[N]ew York is a major theme on Aurora Anthony’s latest record, Autumn. Having grown up in the shadows of the Manhattan skyline in the city’s famous Lower East Side, Aurora’s music describes his experiences living, learning and coping with the claustrophobic and sometimes hostile energy in one of his boroughs most diverse neighbourhoods. Autumn was released against a tragic backdrop. Two of the artists close friends passed away earlier this year, forcing the 23-year-old to embrace music as a means of exorcising his grief. ” I just took the ten best songs I had, I just had to put out music,” he explains.
Autumn is a powerful stream of consciousness as descriptions of life on the block intersperse with introspective, philosophical refrains and dreamlike hooks. Always it remains an album deeply rooted in its geography and the consciousness of its creator.
Is there a concept on Autumn?
With the album, it wasn’t supposed to come out like that. I put it out that way because two of my friends from way back passed away. A friend I used to be in a rap group with passed away first. I was with him the day he passed away and he was talking and saying, “Yo what are you waiting for? Put out your music!” I just took what I had, got it mixed and put it out there. I just took the ten best songs I had, I just had to put out music. I got the songs down, made him the cover and got it out there.
"Most people are sharks in the city so you gotta be one too."
New York is a major theme on the record, do you feel outsiders looking in understand the city or were you seeking to educate people on the reality of living there?
I think people act like they know. I don’t think you can know unless you grew up here. A lot of people don’t understand that. Even if you moved here when you were 20 and grow up to be 30, it’s still not the same as living here when you’re 15 or younger, when you had to cross the street anytime you saw a group of people. That’s just how it was. A lot of people won’t experience that because it’s different now. A lot of those people are either dead or locked up.
How do you think that upbringing influenced you?
It made me better, I feel like I’m ahead. I grew up fast, even at 16 I had my own apartment. If you don’t grow up fast it’s like a shark tank. You’ve gotta get to it or not, you get to pick who you wanna be and most people are sharks in the city so you gotta be one too.
How do you think that attitude has translated to your music? Do stories from your past appear on your records?
Of course, from the intro. I try to explain everything I went through growing up. Explaining how I didn’t to finish school, explaining how I already knew what I wanted to be from a very young age. I was thinking about my future since I was 13 or 14.
"I’ve been asking the universe for the same thing over and over, I never changed up and asked to be an actor or something else, I’ve put so much energy into this one thing."
What has kept you on track since then?
I always have the same attitude, and I tell people all the time when I start working with people: With out without you I’m gonna make it to where I wanna be. Those words keep me going. I’ve been in two rap groups, trying to help people out with their dreams and stopped doing what I was supposed to be doing. That’s why it’s taken a bit of time, I wasn’t always focussing on me. This is what I wanted to do, I’ve been asking the universe for the same thing over and over, I never changed up and asked to be an actor or something else, I’ve put so much energy into this one thing.
From a sound perspective, how have you kept our sound consistent? Are you influenced by what's out there right now?
I know what type of music is out right now. But I don’t think it really impacts how I make my music. My voice is very deep so I couldn’t even do the things those other rappers are doing, even if I did it wouldn’t sound like them. I’m not influenced or affected by it. I guess it’s just my experience, me explaining what I’ve been through in my life and how I handled it.
Let’s take "Blue 100s" for example.. how did that track begin?
Basically that song I was just on Adderall and shit and my homie played this beat and somebody else was on the song so I was like, “No way, delete that” and I had this hook that I’d already written that was ready to go and the rest of the song I just did in a one take freestyle. I didn’t even plan on putting the song out. I was in LA with my friend from the industry and I was going through my music and I played him a track I really like and he didn’t react to it, then he went into a gas station, I played “Blue 100s” and he runs out the gas station saying “Who’s song is that!?” That was it.
Talk us through your personal style...
I’m one of those people who has always been dressing a certain way. Even in my middle school pictures and my high school pictures I was wearing certain brands already, I don’t really look at anybody for style guidance or knowledge about certain things, I don’t even follow those people on Instagram. If I see something and I like it then I do it.
Do you feel like hip-hop is more stylish than it’s ever been?
A lot of early people like ASAP and people like that, they were pulling from older styles and older looks. What a lot of people ended up doing was saying “OK I’m gonna go back and pull something that these guys didn’t pull yet” and then you’ve got people dressing as punks and goths and doing all that crazy shit just because it hasn’t been done yet. Everyone’s just trying to be different and it’s just making everyone the same. Now if you just dress like a regular person you stand out. All these kids thinking that they started something…
What’s coming up next for you?
I’m working on a visual for “Moment” and I’m gonna drop some new music in early October, early next year I’ll be on tour in Europe too.
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