Artists from across all genres are shaking up the music industry, especially in Atlanta. Hip-Hop artist Feenyx is standing apart from the rest with motivating and relatable hits. His mellow flow aligns entirely with his energy. As an artist he is setting a standard for grinding hard to excel as an unsigned artist. From his music to his content Feenyx shows his fans both old and new that anything is achievable. 2020 has been a year filled with life altering events from COVID-19 to the Black Lives Matter movement and Feenyx has used this time to not only evaluate his outlook on things like smoking which can be viewed via his YouTube, but do what he does best in the center of the protests in Atlanta…and that is transmit positive energy through his music. I had the opportunity of catching up with Feenyx to talk about his career and the visual for his track “Get 2 It.”
You share a lot of free game for aspiring creatives, what got you into making videos that would help others?
Being from West Virginia, that’s where I grew up, it wasn’t too much people able to teach you how to do that stuff, so I know how important it was to learn that stuff on my own and just try to apply it, and just show people how to do it by just… You have to learn, and go and visiting different places, learning more, coming back. So the best thing I know to do, what they always say… I know I sound whack, but they always say you have to give back, and you have to. But you can really help some people that way, if you just like show them like, “Hey, if you get the camera, do it… ” Or if you can just get your own studio and learn, and you struggle for the next 30 days, it’s better than… With that knowledge that I learned on YouTube University.
Did you start music out in West or when you came to Atlanta?
Nah, I started out there, fourth grade, that was my first time I got in the studio. And then my first time performing, was a sixth-grade talent show. We did some things like Hip-Hop Bootcamp, but overall, the market wasn’t there. It’s a real country place. Don’t too much rappers go through Charleston. At least the capital. They’ll go to Morgantown, where the college folks at, the 21-and-up crowd at. But as far as where we were, they were shutting our clubs down. I mean, we were fighting, acting up. Just my age group and all that, they would just shut it down, man. Shootings. So as far as music goes, it’s so small it’s like these people can’t see you sometimes as what you’re trying to be and what you see yourself as, because they saw you in… They know what had happened to you in second grade, and it was embarrassing, and it… You know what I’m saying? It’s a good and a bad thing, but I think it’s dope, regardless, whether they do or not. You at least get to see the show, regardless.
How long after coming to Atlanta did you become Feenyx & was there anything specific that sparked the change?
So yeah, I was going by my name for a long time, BB Thomas, and I was just doing a whole lot of work under that. But I tell you, when I did move down to Atlanta, I was working at this T-Mobile, I was working there for probably two and a half years. And even before… And that’s when the idea dinged on me like, “Man, you should change your name.” And I’d been thinking about it. I’m like, “Man, I don’t know what name I would really want to go for.” You know what I’m saying? So then, I’m like timeless, I’m the only animal that rhymes, that goes with timeless, is a phoenix, because it is, it’s a timeless animal. I’m like, “That’s our mascot. I want to embrace that name more.” And then it turns out, what I found out is, a customer had walked in, and this is like, oh, maybe a week after I changed my name. Customer walk in, he’s like, “Oh, I stay right across the street at the Phoenix.” I’m like, “At the what?” she’s like, “at the Phoenix” is… ” She was like, “Literally walk outside your front door and walk, and look straight across from that door. That’s the Phoenix on Pete Street.” And I was working here for two and a half years. I’m like, “Wow, for me to know nothing about this being directly across from where I go to work,” It’s just crazy, because it was Young Thug who lived in that tower. It was like, yeah. But he was like, “Hey, thank you, bro, thank you,” he said he, “Excited for that next one, man. Hey, thank you.”
And shout-out DJ Act right now, man. He really spins, breaks records and is… That’s one dude I would say that, we didn’t have too much of an outlet, but what he would, literally, when they all got their shows… And had their show, they put local talent on there, man, waking up to real local music in Charleston. And I’m in Atlanta, so that’s just great, but even the Phoenix thing, it just all manifested, once I kept saying Phoenix, they like, “Phoenix? I like that.” Everybody like, “I like that, I like that. I love this.” “Okay.” So I’m like, “It wouldn’t be too many.” You know what I’m saying?
Talk to me about you’re Black Lives Matter freestyle in the streets of the protest. What was that experience and the energy like for you in the moment?
Yeah, that did. Right when we were doing it. We were down there, and I guess they were just looking for something to happen or something. I had just seen them… We’re trying to get our footage, me and Duffelbag. Shout out Duffelbag. He out there. He my producer, camera man. He does it all, man. But he out there trying to get the footage. And then once they seen what we were doing, I just see everybody start gathering around, like. And then CNN comes, Telemundo comes. Photographers are snapping they pictures. And then I’m just like, the whole time, I’m like, “I just wrote this shit yesterday. I just recorded it yesterday. I do not know the words. I don’t know the… ” It’s a two-minute freestyle. I didn’t know the words, so I’m just like trying my best. And I got, I would say maybe 60% to 70%, but the other 30$, I think, well they were just like… I think they saw like, “Oh, this dude doesn’t know the words. Or either he’s nervous or something.” I just didn’t know the words. I’m like… And I couldn’t hear because it was getting so loud, and at the same time, like you can see, as soon as I got done, they were pushing me, with their shield, me and my boy, they punching me in the back, like, with the riot shield. It just was crazy. I was like, “We was right there.” And then even after that, we fucking around, we parked to the right, we fucked around and went left, and our car’s right here, right at curfew, and at 8:50, and 9:00 o’clock is curfew, 8:50 they got the whole city blocked off. So even you stayed down there that long just to try to play around and try to leave, you still were going to get caught. But luckily, we were just walking with one little army dude, and he was like, “No, they have to walk around the park,” and then we just kept going from each little army, from the one to the next. And they like, “What they doing out? It’s 9:40.” We still walking around Piedmont Park trying to find the car, so that was awesome. I just feel like it was a once in a lifetime thing, everybody has to do something like that, man, get out there. But everybody has to get out there and march with their people, they were playing Biggie. Everybody had free stuff. I have never seen anything like it, free drinks, free food, free masks, free this, free that, and it was just so uplifting to see everybody. That’s Atlanta at its finest.
As an artist where do you get your support from?
Definitely my family, most supportive, they always on everything. But everybody I met down here is just solid, they’ll support you, they share your stuff, it’s crazy, but it’s true, everybody, they always say everybody, strangers support you more. And I think that just goes back to, because people know you and they trying to, they got they own, but I feel like just supporting is… Having social media is a big factor in this day and age, so I’m like, “I’m glad I can stay more active on it and just produce more content because that’s what I’m best at. And I have been slacking, quarantine, coronavirus slowed everything down, but since we revving it back up, were going to see… We trying to turn up, at least from my demographics, I’m seeing I’m getting a lot of different views from everywhere, I’m trying to find that key to my own fans, man, so they can find me, I can find them, and they can get entertained, man, and listen to some music.
Talk to me about Tymeless Music. What are your goals for that brand and are you working with any artists?
My main artist on here is John$on, and I got a couple of more guys who been with us, it’s a whole group all in itself, Tymeless is just a collective of, there’s someone out there, I don’t care if you was washing dishes, man, make sure they say you the fastest, quickest, best one, you know what I’m saying? I don’t care if you are a janitor or… It doesn’t matter what you do, just make sure you are remembered, and what you are remembered by, make sure they say something about you, man, try out the whole thing. And it started off just people, Kobe, that we thought was timeless, Michael Jordan, the two of these people are timeless, and it’s a lot more people, but that’s what we try to push, and activism, from what we believe to our music too. And now it’s just turning into more of a brand, because a lot of people just are finding out about Tymeless and they like, “What is it? What is it?” And I’m like… And a lot of people will wear the shirts. So that’s, like I said, for me, the best way I’d put it is a lifestyle, so it’s just a lifestyle, how we live, how we represent ourselves, there’s not anything that isn’t going to be remembered. Everything that we putting out there is the best, like We Just “Get 2 It” is a… That’s been out a whole year, you know what I’m saying? So that just how we want it to age and we want it that they don’t matter when you listen to it, man, and you’re going to be like, “Oh, when did this come out?” “A year, two years ago.” You know what I’m saying, yeah.
I want to touch on your last project “Flock With Me.” You had some dope collaborations on there, how did all that come together and what was your overall message with that project?
Yeah, “Flock With Me” was my first project where it was just a lot of, I want to say, not random songs, but it wasn’t… I didn’t want there to be a clear theme to this, because usually that’s what I’m about, I theme out every single project, so it all makes sense. But with this one I wanted it to just to be bangers, I just wanted… Yo, you know what I’m saying? Just something you could ride to, work out to, because…For the day we had B La B out, and… Look, I’m tripping, I can’t remember, I’m trying to think on that now. I had Gandhii, I had John$on in there, man. I had Danax. Super Freaky on there, man. It was crazy. Yeah, it was a good project. I do, I love that one. But this next one, we still don’t know what we’re going to call it, but from every… It’s been done. We just getting it mastered now and then mixed down and everybody that’s listening to what it’s like. Yeah. So it’s good that it’s so much artists out here, and I think the fans think like you have to stick with one, you can’t rock with the other, which is always the wrong… It’s like I can listen to 50 songs in a day and they can be by 50 different people and I can show them all of it, knowing that I just helped put money in each safe, so I just don’t understand why it’s like, I think a barrel for their shine, but this music is definitely like it’s… Yeah, I hope they put it, I hope it gets right up there beside what… Who I want, and you can’t deny it, man. You will notice after this after this is going to go.
Talk to me about your “Get 2 It” video shoot, you mentioned in your live you did everything yourself the set up and everything. How was that and as an independent artist what challenges do you face when it comes to doing things yourself?
The main challenges I face is having and finding people to hold the camera and/or know how to use a camera or something like that, because if you can get me in focus and pretty much get what I want, I can work with it. You know what I’m saying? I’ve been editing videos, I went to college to learn how to edit videos and maybe I’m doing some video editing classes. They had script-writing classes and all of that. I’m just trying to just bring it all together. I’m an engineering intern for damn near a year, for 12-hour shifts, I didn’t get paid anything, just met hella rappers and hella engineers, hella label people. It was just an experience. Like I said, last year, this time, man, I was broke, broke. I probably was facing my car repo, getting kicked out my… I’m like, “Listen, and it’s all just chasing this music, just trying to learn and get to that next level.” Now, I’m like… It was selfish of me, because I’m having to work so hard seven, eight years but… And now I’m down there digging myself a hole right back to where this whole thing started and that shit is like, it’s crazy the coronavirus happened, because it’s just… That’s all someone like me needs, is time. I just need time. And if everybody else has to wait too, if you say time out, everybody got a time out, you’ll catch up, I promise you. So that’s what I was just working on, kept working through, worked through the whole pandemic. And then just ended up getting my credit score, paying everything off, invested in better equipment, this and this. So eventually, I’m like, “Alright, now I got my camera and I have to shoot,” so now I’m back to it, I got out of it. I didn’t want to shoot my videos anymore. I wanted to pay… Whatever to shoot great videos. And I just be an artist, but it’s too hard. You don’t get nothing done, I guess, so I’m like, “I know what I’m doing.” So, man, I’ll… From the lights to this that, the other, editing, if we just can hold the camera, that’s the only challenge I face, man. If you can just hold the camera and make sure my sun is straight while I’m doing it.
Lastly, are you working on any new projects do you have any new music coming for fans?
So we’re just trying to make sure we get everything right with our engineers, and get that quality, make sure for every single we got the four pack, the instrumental, the beat, the whole, the clean and dirty. The whole four pack, getting in marketing, blogging, it’s press and press and press, we want more press. New customer acquisition, new fan base acquisition. Find out who is the demographic? And now I’m just starting to listen to what people are telling me, I’m shutting my mouth and listening, and people are like, “Bro, you sound like you’re from Cali or something. You act like you’re from… ” “You sound like this.” Y’all are too… ” You know what I’m saying? Like, “What you talk about and this and that”. Then over here… You know what I’m saying? So I’m like, “Okay, who can we target?” So if they say I sound like that, we’re going to focus over here on that, focus over here on that. Because there’s some people like, “Oh, bro, that’s them Drake vibes.” “Okay, well let’s try to start a campaign, create these campaigns for only Canada, maybe. Let’s see if we can take some of Drake’s fans or something, man.”
We’re just really trying to figure out our own way, because with this next music, I have… The one in the past, I’ve learned, I’ve just been putting music out and not promoting it the right way, and it’s so wrong for me, even though I got all these songs, and everybody like, “Man, if you don’t put them out… ” You’ve got one rapper saying, “Put ’em out every week. Just go, go, go.” Then there are people saying, “Stop doing that. Fix it,” you know what I’m saying? So it’s like… I’m just like, “Alright.” You have to find out what work best for you at the end of the day. And I’m like, what’s going to work best for me is, since I shoot my videos, I engineer them myself, I record myself, I’m literally… This is my studio, I been this. We shot the video in that garage. I put newspapers up all in that garage and did all that and made the whole scene and edited and all that, so it’s just like if I can do all of that, all the… I don’t know, I just like, I just can’t make that mistake. Let me do it one by one. Let me do the video, the promo, do another one. Once we get three, four, and get that steam going, then we’ll drop the project when they’re ready for it.
Feenyx’s lyrics encourage and motivate his listeners to hustle and grind until dreams become a reality. As an unsigned artist he continues to put in the work needed to provide his fans with hits and visuals that keep them wanting more. He has recently release another video for his track “Pull Up,” produced by Yung Spank.
