Tom Ames : 2017

THE BROOKLYN LIFESTLYE.

Pull quote-“stand up and fight for the truth.”

Today we will be cracking down on the infamous rapper known by many names, but widely by his stage name, “HitxMane”. The notorious rapper known mostly for his difficult past and heartless/aggressive hip-hop style was born and raised in the streets of Brooklyn, NYC. Before his music became popular he was seen as another gang affiliated, drug dealing murderer; but there was reason behind his “twisted” or “ghetto” lifestyle. At the age of only 16 years old, HitxMane’s younger brother of 7 was shot and killed on a trip to a local grocery store for his mother, “since they shot my baby brother in the head I’m on some other shit.” He explains that it was the kick-start to his career as he says, “I started to rap for war in the streets *laughs* not peace”. After reading this exclusive Hip-Hop Supreme interview you will know more than you’ve ever known before about the infamous artist, “HitxMane”.

When we were firstly sitting down in Hit’s crib we are astounded at how clean he keeps his living room apart from the “glock on the side” and the scattered Xanax tablets riddling the table top; we were sitting in front of him waiting patiently watching him fulfil the art of “rolling up” before we began the interview. HitxMane sparks up, kicks his feet up then before I begin speaking offers me a toke of his “grade” which for those of you that don’t know is powerful marijuana, I think it would be stupid to turn away such a question, but for the sake of the interview I decline, although he persists that I should “loosen up a little.” Not easy with gang members kicked back with guns on their lap.

My first question is of course the why, “Why did you begin rapping?” as of which he replies that he is passionate about music, or more specifically he says that “I’m passionate about my music” He goes on to further explain that he believes he’s the only one with any, “common knowledge of the world around them and I’m only spreading the message, the human race is a crowd of sheep that’ll follow the media like it’s a shepherd. Put that phone down go outside or read a book and learn; either that or you stand up and fight for the truth.”

To our surprise this man is really switched on, whether it’s the large amount of drugs that have altered his view on reality or he’s onto something, he claims he’ll, “carry on rapping until the world understands it ain’t all about what you got, but also who you got”, who would’ve thought we’d be discussing the wisdom of the human race with HitxMane? “Ever since my little brother was shot down innocently by some wanna be thugs on the street, I realised the world is truly cruel, especially cus’ the bullets should’ve hit me”. Cheating death for your own younger brother isn’t an easy thing to live with, he tells me death is a reoccurring thing that happens every day in the street; “especially since cops think it’s cool to shoot up young innocent black men and women, the generation is beyond repair. The truth is that money doesn’t and never will have meaning or bring happiness.” It would be hard to disagree with a man sat in front of you dressed in Versace and Gucci clothing line that’d started from nothing and is now known worldwide and he’d rather have his brother back over any amount of money. We entered through his door with the impression of talking to another star bragging about their money or clothes, although he is in fact the complete opposite, he tells me his success doesn’t bother him, whether or not his song goes viral doesn’t change the way he’s living, “I sleep on top of hundred dollar bills and I’d still take a bullet for one of my brothers on the street. Staying humble is important, your net-worth ain’t on your gravestone so have people who’d cover it with flowers instead. ”

As I begin to ask him a question about his music he quickly interrupts, “Anything you’d ever want to know about my music is that it’s to educate, although I have released some songs that just make you wanna bop ya head cus I needed to get myself known before I could effectively teach. No niche rapper is ever listened to, they’re just deemed as delusional wannabes…that’s the problem.”

This is usually around the time we’d ask about products or concerts/festivals, but to my knowledge HitxMane has none, an effective question would be to ask why; “How come I’ve never seen any concerts or products under your name, do people have that much of a problem with you?” the reply is to be expected, considering the lifestyle he lives and the people he’s pissed off. “If I wanted to die I’d put a bullet in my head, there’s no point having an audience watch my brains fly out cus that’d be the outcome if I tried rapping publicly. As for the products, I see no point in selling some useless trash; I know some other stuff I could interest my audience in though.”

Throughout the interview we have been nothing but amazed at how real this artist is. The stereotyping portrays all rappers to be these heartless men spitting over a mic, which is in fact untrue and a fake portrayal. He is becoming very popular in recent months and says he is currently working on releasing new music, to be more specific a new album called “Smoke Break” coming out anywhere between March and April and a single coming out February 13^th which he wouldn’t share anything with us as of yet but we will keep you updated on our website www.hiphopsupreme.com.

This is my final draft of my magazine cover, it has been altered accordingly to make it look more professional including a crown graphic to clear up dead space, changed font sizes, location and colours to make my writing stand out more and I also changed my masthead. The writing was simplified to have a black outline as a coloured outline looked too dull, the black outline creates a clearer display of the writing. My masthead was simplified as I believe the previous masthead was too over-complicated so it catchers the consumers eye more. I also added a grey "glow" background to make the cover look less basic. Finally I got rid of the page numbers from my sell line, therefore making it more professional.