Bizzy Crook is probably a name you're becoming more and more familiar with, as he makes his way across the U.S. alongside Kid Ink and King Los for the "My Own Lane" tour, not to mention recent leaks like "Bands In A Depression" featuring OVO's OB OBrien. However, for Bizzy, all these things are a just warm-up to his forthcoming mixtape, No Hard Feelings, which he promises will be album quality, and the expansion of his "Good Luck" movement. We hopped on the phone with the rapper to get a little more acquainted, and talked about what his come-up has been like, the tour, his name, recent studio sessions and more.
Get familiar below.
HotNewHipHop: Hey Bizzy, this is Rose from HotNewHipHop.
Bizzy Crook: Hey Rose, how are you?
HNHH: I’m good, how’re you?
Bizzy: I’m chilling.
HNHH: Where are you right now? You’re still on tour right?
Bizzy: Yeah I think we’re in Charlotte.
HNHH: And how’s that tour been going with Kid Ink and Los?
Bizzy: It’s been crazy. Every night is something crazier.
HNHH: Is this your first tour experience like this, or have you done this before?
Bizzy: It’s the first tour this big, I did a small East Coast tour with Chris Webby before this one, but this is the real thing.
HNHH: Do you have any crazy stories you can share, do you get groupies yet?
Bizzy: Yeah [laughs]...there’s been a couple. Crazy tour stories, let me think. There’s been so many, something crazy every night. I think one time when my homie disappeared with some sketchy Asian girl.
HNHH: Do you guys go out every night after the tour?
Bizzy: Sometimes, it depends what city we in. We know so many people in so many cities, normally we just turn up with our homies. If we don’t go to the club, we normally just turn up on the tour bus after the show.
HNHH: And where are you from originally?
Bizzy: I’m from Miami.
HNHH: Growing up, what were some of your rap influences? And what was the first rap album you bought?
Bizzy: As far as rap influences, I was listening to guys like Eminem, Jay Z, Nas, D-Block, Dipset, a lot of up north stuff. Which is kinda why I probably don’t sound like a South rapper.
HNHH: Yeah, you weren’t necessarily influenced by the local scene.
Bizzy: Yeah, I was listening to Clue mixtapes, Kay Slay tapes and all that. As far as first rap album I ever went and bought, might have been Marshall Mathers LP.
HNHH: Where did you get your name from? I mean, it makes sense as a name, but how did that happen?
Bizzy: Right. Basically, long story short, I used to get in trouble as a kid. I used to do just do mad BS, so the name just fit at the time. Not so much no more.
HNHH: How old are you now?
Bizzy: 22.
HNHH: Okay, you’re still pretty young. How has your come-up experience been? Obviously you’re not yet at the stage you wanna be just yet, you’re in the come-up phase, but has it been slow or fast from your perspective?
Bizzy: It’s kinda like there is two phases. There’s the come-up, and then there’s the actual COME UP. I been putting in a lot of work on the actual come-up.
HNHH: Yeah I know what you mean, there’s your come up in your local scene kinda, and then…How long have you been rapping for, how long were you kinda just stuck in Miami?
Bizzy: As far as rapping, I been rapping since the first time I ever heard Eminem, which was back in like 2000 on the Grammy compilation album. When I heard it I was like, oh my gosh, this is exactly [what I wanna do]. As I grew older I got more involved in it, and I took it more serious. When I was 18 I met Mona Scott, and she came in, and I learned a lot from her. It was a bumpy road for me, it was a real bumpy road for me. I was just one of those kids who just always rapped back in high school, I wasn’t going out, I was more so in the house just recording, ‘cause I always knew this is what I wanna do. I just put a lot of work and now I’m blessed to be on this tour with Kid Ink and Los and things working out.
HNHH: Mhmm, and have you received any major co-signs so far, is that something you care about, or you don’t give a fuck?
Bizzy: Umm, not so much for the public, but there’s just been so many golden moments that just mean so much to me. Like the other day in New Orleans, I played some stuff for Mannie Fresh and he just said some legendary stuff to me. And me and Lloyd, yesterday in Atlanta me and Lloyd was working and he said some legendary stuff, and these are all people I look up too.
HNHH: Yeah, so it’s more like people talking to you in private.
Bizzy: Yeah, it’s like a genuine co-sign, you know. Co-signs nowadays in the open are not so real no more, so it’s different when you playu music for somebody and you can see the reaction in they eyes when they understand something.
HNHH: Yeah for sure. So are you working on a specific project at the moment that you were playing stuff for Mannie and Lloyd?
Bizzy: Yeah, absolutely. It’s called No Hard Feelings sand it’s gonna come out after the tour and it’s gonna be crazy
HNHH: Cool and that’s a mixtape?
Bizzy: Um, yeah it’s a mixtape, it’s gonna sound like an album. Being indie I want the reaction to be like, yo, you’re an idiotfor putting this out as a mixtape. But I’m not, ‘cause we could do that again.
HNHH: Yeah, so you mentioned Mannie Fresh and Lloyd, are those potential features on the project, is there anyone else you can mention?
Bizzy: We gotta see. But yeah it’s definitely gonna be some big features on this project. This project gonna be big.
HNHH: Is “Bands In A Depression” off that?
Bizzy: “Bands In A Depression” is not.
HNHH: Okay, so that one you just dropped the other week, and it features OB Obrien who is connected to Drake and OVO Sound. How did you connect with him?
Bizzy: Right. Me and Ob connected through friends of mine, who is actually the producers, the Maven Boys. We actually did the record a while ago, I did it in Miami. Me and OB was on the Skype, and we did it that way.
HNHH: For that single art, you’ve got Miley Cyrus on it. Do you have an opinion on Miley Cyrus, good or bad?
Bizzy: Oh I love Miley Cyrus. She’s dope. She represents a modern day rebel.
HNHH: Okay. So do you have any specific plans for after you finish the tour? You already mentioned you’d be dropping the project, but any favorite food spot you wanna visit or something.
Bizzy: Oh man, I love burgers, I eat burgers every day on the road. After the tour, I would like to be able too…we was talking about going to L.A., moving to L.A. for a couple of months to finish up the project, but I’m hearing now we might go on another tour after. I just wanna work.
HNHH: Okay but you work on the road?
Bizzy: Oh yeah, yeah. I got a studio on my bus.
HNHH: Anything else you wanna let HotNewHipHop viewers know? Where they can find you?
Bizzy: Yeah you can find me on Twitter @BizzyCrook…Um yeah that’s about it, did we talk about ‘Good Luck’?
HNHH: No, what is that?
Bizzy: So ‘Good Luck’ is basically the movement. Why ‘Good Luck’? Because it’s what I heard my entire life. At some point, even yourself, you told somebody what they wanna do and they told you good luck.
HNHH: For sure, it’s a throwaway term almost.
Bizzy: Exactly. To this day, I can meet somebody in a store and let ‘em know what I’m doing, and the conversation is gonna end with ‘good luck.’ Now you know, what I took from it, when people used to say it to me back in the day, it didn’t mean people wanted to see me do it, it meant they didn’t think I could. So I just took that, and used it to gas me up and work harder.
HNHH: Okay, cool. So that’s your movement, that’s what you’re pushing.
Bizzy: Yeah, good luck.
HNHH: Cool, well, “good luck” with everything that you’re doing in the future, and we’re gonna look forward to your project when it drops.
Bizzy: Thank you Rose, dope interview I ain’t even know it started.