Have you ever heard a song and all of a sudden you feel like all of your dreams are about to come true? 'Like, damn I need to sit down right now and write, edit, paint, because this is about to happen! I feel it!' If you haven't felt that way, then you probably haven't heard underground sensation, Sony Life. & If you don't know who Sony Life is, then you're probably leading a really, incredibly sad life and you need some Sony in It. Real talk.
For those of you who need some excitement in your lives, let me introduce you to the hottest up and coming rapper, photographer, and video producer out right now. Sony Life is a 21 year old, knockout representing the incredibly under-represented upstate NY and doing it very well.
Endowed with positive vision and ambitious lyrics, Sony's music is both captivating and very easy to listen to.
Even though Sony has talent with the camera; producing some of the best videography to come out of the 845 area, Sony's first passion is music. "It's all I can think about. My music is fun, but I'm real serious about it. People are listening to me, I'm not just doing this for myself anymore."
Sony praises his older brother D.E. for influencing him and sparking his interest in music,"When I was little he would come up with these raps that nobody really believed were his, everyone would be like, 'nah you stole that from somebody, get outta here', because they would be so official, it was like, 'this has to be stolen [from a major label artist].' When I found out that these raps were really coming from him, it made me feel like I could do it too."
And he certainly does it well, with hits like 'EROS remix' Sony Life lets his words loose so fluidly that you will end up wondering why he isn't signed to a major label and being played on New York radio. Although New York has yet to pick up on the talent of Mr. New York himself, Sony has been burning the waves in Atlanta and was a summer favorite with his hit 'Go Get it remix' ft. D.E., a video he also produces.
Check it out here:
Sony Life cites the movie '8 mile' as having influenced him to take rap a step further, "When that movie came out, I was living in Waterbury, CT and I remember everybody thought they could rap. Well it was me and another kid, who was my best friend at the time, neither one of us had the courage to rap, but we had these other kids who we would coach and direct, making them have rap battles."
Sony says that while it was the movie that made him consider rap as a career and helped him to form a friendship with his then best friend; it was the experience that came after that bond was built, that made him become serious about rap as a life choice.
"It wasn't too long after that, that we were running in gym and he just collapsed and I knew it was over. Like, I had a connection with him and even though everyone thought it was fine, I knew that it wasn't.I knew that I lost my best friend. That was the first time that I wrote a real rhyme and from there music just took off. People listened to that one song that I wrote and were like, 'You know you've got some talent here.' I don't remember the actual rap, but I'm pretty sure it was mostly words that actually rhymed, but in any case that's how many rappers start (with bubble gum rhymes)."
But the name Sony Life came long after his original rap brought him local appreciation. His name is a simple yet definitive example of his creativity; Sony breaks down to be So N.Y., Life adds on to the meaning of the montage. Sony says that he came up with it while lying in bed and watching T.V., we all know the corporate giant SONY which produces electronics, but Sony Life saw more than that. "After I broke it down,I felt like, yes! I can run with this and make it mine, and so I did, and it was actually a bigger movement than I thought it was going to be. I'm taken seriously and even though [my name] came from something so simple, I take it seriously." Adding to it, Sony says, "I've moved a lot, but New York is me, I connect more with this place, than with any other places I've ever lived."
Sony, whose real name is Sayeed Merced manages to stay humble even as his fame gathers, he says that his family, namely his mother and daughter anchors him. In his words, his stage presence; Sony Life, is like a magic trick,
"Sayeed is the real me, Sony is the illusion. When you look into my eyes, you will see Sayeed; what my mother and God made, but Sony is what I and the world makes up." Sony is the alter ego to this 21 year olds life.
"Sony is my positive energy manifested into music"
When asked how much of the hype created by his alter ego Sony replied with this,
"Well, not much of what I do as Sony is hype, everything that I speak of is real, you'll never catch me speaking out of character and saying something crazy like 'I want to blow up the world or I'll grab a weed whacker and chop somebodies head off. No, I rap about real things that happen in my life. The only hype I can say, that I may create is in my videos, I create videos that I want to be watched, so of course I used popular imagery."
The confidence in himself and his work is priceless, when asked if he thinks he will do well, Sony simply, but assertively, replies, "Yes."
Sony considers doing any kind of work with Jay-z the identifier to making it, "Jay's a man that you should admire, no matter what anyone has to say about him. There's a picture of him in Forbes magazine standing next to Warren Buffet, one of the most influential men in the world. If that's not making it then, I don't know what is. This and the fact that he still manages to stay relevant even though he'd been out for so long. He's never finished, he's still evolving."
Sony says that he is learning to take his time and build imagery with his words and passion, a task that he's learning by listening to old school artists such as Billy Paul, "Just the way that they deliver a line, it could be the most simple thing to say in the world, but when they deliver it, it has you like 'Damn! What was he feeling, when he came up with that?'
"My music is whimsical, you'll always have a reason to connect with it, I'm never just talk, I always have a reason to be on the mic. I mean, there are times when I'm like, 'pop bottles, let's do what every body else does' because you have to give a little of that. But if you look me me up, then you'll find my songs are different. I'll give you feeling and you'll sense that I'm trying to touch the feeling and give it to you."
And Sony certainly proves to be much more than a one track mind, Sony shows the diversity he speaks about with tracks like 'This way' 'I love it remix' 'Raining between her legs' and 'Outta sight', all which have different focuses and emotion, but are all delivered with a fiery passion that Sony has crafted well over the years.
So what inspires an artist as creative as Sony? "As an artist and person my 4 year old daughter inspires me the most. Her name is Zakyra, she's just the cutest little thing in the world. I've been through a lot things, it hasn't been this glamorous image that people probably see, but it's like once she came along, it was like a head start some people buckle under that kind of pressure, but it was like, that's what me and mines needed. It's what I needed for me to get serious. It's what drives me to continue my music."
Currently, Sony is in the works of producing videos for his own music and has just completed a tour in Atlanta. Rapping since he was 12 and doing photography and videography for just a few year and Sony is already being sponsored by the likes of B&H photography. His latest video M.O.E. features Aaron Jhaye and Doccc Johnson, is yet to be released, but if it's anywhere as fanciful as the lyrics, then we're definitely dealing with a hit. Idk about you, but I'm pretty excited to know what Sony has up his sleeve with this one!
Check out the song on his sound cloud:
Watch some of his previous videos and await the new:
