Ryzen Sun

Ryzen Sun
“Can’t stop the sun from rising” is the motto that Ryzen Sun lives by. Born in the Mount Eden section of the Bronx, in New York, life has been no “crystal stair” for this artist. From childhood to his adult life, Ryzen Sun was worried about the next meal and a place to rest his head, while his peers enjoyed the security of a stable home. Moving from home to home, living in shelters and on the streets inspired him to write about his life in a journal.

When he first heard Tupac’s music in the early 90’s, he was flabbergasted. He began rapping about his struggles and trying to survive in the street. Rapping became his means of escape and therapy. Once he had the confidence to start rapping to his friends and strangers in the street, people encouraged him to perform at open mics. At his first venue performance, he received a tremendous response from the audience. That one night changed his life forever. He knew then that this was definitely the career for him. He began performing nonstop at open mics and made a name for himself.

After a performance one night, a producer offered to record him for free. He took up the offer and went to the producer’s home studio and brought a song that had a hook. The producer asked him to sing the hook instead of rapping it. When he sung it, the producer loved what he heard and told him he was a better singer than a rapper. While trying to accept this revelation that he could sing, other guests in the producer’s home were playing with a gun and accidently pulled the trigger. While the producer went to find out what happened, the engineer decided to record him. As the engineer was recording him, the producer interrupted to let them know that someone had called the cops. When they looked out the window of the top floor, they saw the cops entering the building. While the cops was coming up the steps, Ryzen Sun told everyone to harmonize while he sang “This Christmas” by Donnie Hathaway in the hallway. While he sang in the hallway, people began opening their doors and complementing him. When the cops arrived, they saw him and began questioning him. The elderly woman who first opened the door told the cops to leave them alone and to deal with the hoodlums on the floor above them. From that point on, he knew that he was meant to be a singer. Singing had prevented him from going to jail that day.

He decided that he wouldn’t sing traditional R&B. He would sing what he rapped about, which is his perspective of life on surviving in the slums of New York City. He categorizes his music as Hip-Hop/Blues. It is the deep ghetto gospel of the streets and a real reflection of life in urban America. He chose the moniker Ryzen Sun because as he puts it “My music is as hot as the sun and no matter what I go through I will rise above any adversity. The sun never sets; it rises in another part of the world. This music will speak to the heart of people around the world, give them hope and be the light in their time of darkness.”

Written and edited by Tessa Adikarie and Whitney Su