Interview: just bizarre + definition of fresh + dunn deal promotions

Lodi, New Jersey rapper and Elite Fleet Gang co-founder Just Bizarre presents “Dance With Me”, his new single produced by CL Subs. A child of Filipino immigrants, Biz released his first mixtape The View in 2010, followed by Legendary, then The View 2 hosted by the Fleet DJs (listen), then Legendary 2 (listen), hosted by DJ Onpoint, Mobb Deep’s official tour DJ who hosted Joe Budden’s MM3 and J. Cole’s The Come Up. Biz has collaborated with Chiddy of Chiddy Bang and shared stages with Cyhi The Prynce and Joell Ortiz. Biz calls the new single “a very different kind of record. Subs played me the beat and I immediately fell in love with it. Sonically, it’s not your typical rap record, it’s very wavy and groovy. It’s about when you in the party and you just see that one girl and she’s just glowing. And you’re just thinking to yourself like, “I don’t want to have to sit this song out and pretend to be on my phone. All I want her to do is dance with me because if she does, everything after that will fall into place’.” Biz currently resides in Hackettstown, NJ.

“Dance With Me” establishes a unique sound for Just Bizarre. How do you plan to follow it up? By going deeper in that direction or trying something different to show your range?

I'm always doing different kind of songs to show my range. I mean, my name is "Just Bizarre" so people shouldn't be surprised when I come with some left field shit. But no, I don't think I'll only go deeper in that direction, that's just a small glimpse of who I am.

How has the game changed since the days you first got into it?

Ahh man, it's changed a lot. I started rapping in 2005 so it's so different and crazy now. The game is way more digital, social media presence is a must. Musically, the game is very melodic now when back then it was more punchline heavy. Style of clothing is different, more tighter. You got so many sub genres now and a lot of new weird acts coming out. Muhfuckers dying their hair left and right. Everybody sips lean lol, a lot of trolls and attention whores. Some artists don't even put out physicals anymore or even really promote a project like that. They'll announce a project title and a couple weeks later you wake up and it's available for purchase on a streaming service. Way different now.

Have you seen the crowd reaction to “Dance With Me” in the club? What are your different experiences with that?

Yea, I've performed that track quite a few times already. I'd say at first people are like, "Ok, what's going on here?" cuz sonically it's so different. But as the song plays out, and people hear the bars and see my storytelling capabilities, they're like "Ight, this is cool, I can get down with this" People definitely vibe to it. It's such a groovy joint so you can't help but bop to it. 

How would you sum up 2015? What do you hope to do differently this year?

2015 was dope man, for the game and me personally. You had a couple break out acts that lit it up like Fetty who had a huge year, shout out to Jersey. And then for me, I had a couple milestones, first paid performing gig, shared the stage with a couple lyrical heavy weights like Budden and Joell, had one of my videos get on MTV.com and I got posted on a few other dope blogs so it was cool.

Who do you think is the most influential artist of 2015 and why?

Hmm tough to say. I think it was Future and Drizzy. They did a lot of crazy shit this past year individually and then with What A Time, that was a big moment when that dropped. I think they've been influential for the past few years now actually so shouts out to them, holla at the kid let's work.