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http://teammetafore.com/images/news/blk_beat_lrg.gif - Black Beat

Hailing from upstate New York, 18 year old lyricist Metafore is hoping to change what's on the radio with a seemingly simple plan; create songs that are radio friendly, but with a twist. Like many Hip-Hop fans, Metafore is tired of what he's been hearing on the radio, but he's also sure that nothing is going to change overnight, so what's an artist to do? Adapt. This week I sat down with the young emcee to speak about his plan, his history and what he feels makes him different.

Adam Bernard: First of all, tell me who Metafore is and how you got into Hip-Hop.
Metafore: Metafore is an 18 year old rapper who got into rap because his mom and dad were DJ's over in Germany so rap was always there for me. How I got to where I'm at now is from listening to songs on the radio like wow I can do that ten times better.

AB: I've heard that from quite a few artists, that their inspiration is coming from the idea that the songs on the radio are garbage.
M: Yeah, it is.

AB: What are some of your biggest issues with the radio scene.
M: There's a lot of copying going on. Like the screwed and chopped hooks, a lot of that stuff, that's being copied. I'm not trying to go that route.

AB: In a perfect world who would you be hearing on the radio other than you?
M: Other than me? People like Jay-Z, Nas, Big Pun, Scarface, people like that. People who make legitimate club records and still have enough cred to go back to doing the stuff that they regularly do.

AB: So if what's on the radio is garbage how are you going to work yourself into that mix without becoming garbage.
M: Easy, I have a unique sound and style, at least I think so. Like the songs that I come up with aren't songs that you would regularly hear but they're still radio friendly. They're not songs like "Snap Yo Fingas," not hatin on anybody or anything, but they're not songs like that and they still could be played on the radio.

AB: What kind of Hip-Hop scene is there where you're from? Is it like the city or is it harder to find places to perform and find Hip-Hop?
M: It's kinda hard to find places to perform but we maintain. There's Hip-Hop culture around, you just have to travel a little bit being that it's upstate New York and there's not a club on almost every corner.

AB: What are your plans for the next few months? Now that you're 18 you have a few more options.
M: Yeah, 17 was like a whole bunch of blockades, you can't do this, you can't do that. My plans now are a lot more promotions, trying to get into performing at a lot of clubs, a lot more promoting of myself, stuff like that. Going out there and trying to talk to dudes who own clubs around here and try to get local shows and try and get people to come out and support.

AB: Talk to me about "Nah Mean," your first single.
M: It's a club experience that I had, I just put it on paper. A lot of stuff you hear about clubs is people bragging about what they have and it's not what the real life club scene is so I took it a step further with "Nah Mean" and made it a club scene where people could visualize what's going on, like you actually were there.

AB: At 17 that must have been an interesting one to write.
M: Yeah. (laughs)

AB: So is the album going to be more stuff like that? Are you going with the expected sound but going against the normal lyrical grain?
M: Nah, not really because I can't say that I don't have stuff that people already have, like hard stuff, I have hard stuff, too, but you're not going to hear any "Laffy Taffy's" on there, I'll guarantee that.

AB: OK, so what are we going to hear?
M: You're going to hear a lot of stuff about real life situations, me growing up, where I grew up, how I grew up, stuff I've been through while growing up, stuff like street life, surviving in the street, things like that.

AB: What are some of the experiences you had growing up that helped mold you as a person?
M: I think moving around so much really helped develop who I am. When you move around a lot you gotta develop something, you gotta make friends somehow, so I think that's one of the main reasons I started rappin.

AB: How many times did you move?
M: Back and forth… I would have to say about twelve times.

AB: How many different places was that?
M: Three. Alabama, Florida and upstate New York.

AB: That's a lot of travel. One last question, why do you feel people should pick up your CD over anyone else's that's coming out this summer?
M: Because it's not something you're going to hear over and over again. I expect it to be a classic. You can pick up a Metafore CD and someone else's CD and look at both of them and be like what am I picking up? Am I picking up something I can hear on the radio, or that I can go listen to someone else and they're talking about the exact same subject matter, or can I pick up this and be enlightened by a whole new different type of music? - RapReviews.com

Hip-hop’s youth movement continues its momentum with Metafore, a 17-year old rap phenom from Monticello, New York. Despite his age, Metafore is an old soul, listing Slick Rick, Rakim and Jay-Z as his earliest musical influences. On October 25th, 2006, the young rhyme slinger opened for Method Man and KRS-One at Revolution Concert Hall in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Good company indeed.
“Wow. That was an experience,” recalls Metafore during an after-school interview with Insomniac, exuding genuine enthusiasm. “I got to meet KRS-One. That’s something I’ll never forget.”
Metafore’s first mixtape, “Heir To The Throne”, is hosted by DJ Envy of NYC’s #1 radio station, Hot-97. Like back-to-back shots of hot Hennessey, “Heir To The Throne” has created a heavy buzz throughout the streets of The Rotten Apple, featuring guest appearances from the almighty Jadakiss, Motown R&B singer Yummy Bingham and Brooklyn rapper Joell Ortiz (from Kool G. Rap’s song “It’s Nothing” on “The Giancana Story” LP). As the mixtape marinates amongst the listening public, Metafore is hard at work on his yet-to-be-titled debut album, which features the production talents of The Alchemist, Heatmakers, No ID and Knobody. Metafore’s first single, the Charles Roane-produced “Nah Mean”, currently rules the Music Choice airwaves with an iron fist, and is being steadily downloaded on Rhapsody and Napster. Metafore promises a well-balanced album, with songs catering to the streets, to the women and to the clubs. With his management team, Luckybug Entertainment, providing guidance, Metafore is writing the opening chapters of what he hopes will be a storied career.
On the sick-as-a-dog joint “Higher Than A Mountain”, Metafore sprays opposing emcees with a clip full of hot bars: “I’m a f*****g heathen, demon when it comes to eatin’ / beatin’ when it comes to freakin’, leave a n***a not breathin’ / people need to stop the sleepin’, even on the block when creepin’ / told these n****s I’m a beast an’ how could n****s not believe it? / Meta’s Baretta vendetta, bullets will rip through your sweater, hittin’ your leather and tear the paint off your jetta / I’m better than these so-called competitors / and I’m ready for the world, is you ready, my n***a? Gimme the word / Absurd, that’s how I’m spittin’, you n****s spittin’ your writtens / and you claimin’ it’s a free style… Okay, bleed, pal.”

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“I started off like every regular rapper, basically. I know everybody tells the same story,” explains the laid-back Metafore of his journey into the rap game. “I got in trouble when I was a little bit younger… about twelve. My pops (said) I need to devote my time to something else, and rap was always there. I’d listen to a song on the radio like, ‘Damn, I could do that way better than he did it now. That s**t is wack, I can do it better than that’. So I started writing a little bit of stuff. I moved to Florida with my moms and what not, linked up with some people… got into a little home studio and started recording a demo. I got to the point where I’m at now because my mom’s co-worker, who went to school for business management, heard my demo and she liked it. It got to the point where she started a management company, Luckybug Entertainment, and I was the first artist.”
Although he’s a young gun in the business, Metafore doesn’t subscribe to the theory that rappers over thirty years old should retire, a disposition harbored by many unseasoned emcees as of late.
“Nah, I feel if you’re still doing it and you’re doing it right, then keep on doing it,” Metafore says. “I ain’t got no problem with dudes that’s over thirty still doing it. But if you know that you’re f*****g up, you shouldn’t keep doing what you’re doing. Like if you stumbling now, you ain’t flowing like you was when you was in your prime… quit.” - insomniacmagazine.com