#INDIANA: TCC Magazine Interviews Freddie Bunz in "Real Name, No Gimmicks"

The Counter Culture Magazine recently interviewed Naptown’s Freddie Bunz about a slew of different topics. Read a bit of it below, but make sure to head over to TCC to check out the full read. Click here. I’ve added a track he did over a Sango track below too.

Place yourself in a large, dark basement teeming with an almost palpable energy and crammed with people, all of whom are about five PBR’s in for the night. Lights come on, and a sonic wave of a dirty bassline simultaneously shakes the floor and ceiling. An up-and-coming MC steps up, stage center, jumps on the mic (as hands fly up in the air), and cuts loose a relentless barrage of lyrical profoundness in and out of the sound system, and straight through your understanding of Hip Hop as you knew it. Meet Freddie Bunz. Reppin NAPTOWN to the fullest, Freddie Bunz has already established himself in the Midwest underground hip hop scene, and is set to become a 2015 household name in Hip Hop, Trap, and Bass Music nationwide.

Bill Samuelz: So what’s the scene in Indianapolis like? What do you love about it, and what keeps you rooted there? How long have you been living there?

Freddie Bunz: NAPTOWN is special to me. I’ve been on tour all over the country and met some really dope artists. But Indianapolis is very special and blessed with amazing artists of all strokes. It don’t matter if it’s rap, indie rock, EDM, DJs, painters, or whatever . . . people do what they are passionate about here. Most recently, over the past 5 years, this city has advanced as far as the progressiveness and acceptance of culture in general.

BSZ: Are you referring to EDM culture? Hip Hop? Both?

FB: BOTH. My mission is to bridge the two. That’s what Freddie Bunz means to me . . . I feel like over the years, I have gained so many EDM followers and lost a lot of hip hop heads . . . critics don’t know how to analyze it . . . it’s not generally for radio, I get that!!!! But the truth is I am very much hip hop . . . other hip hop artists realize that. With this new album, I am taming it down as far as the crazy bass lines and such . . . this record is boom bap . . . this record is EDM . . . It’s just alien music, really. I can’t wait to have it done.

BSZ: When did you start rapping over electronic music? Do you remember the first time you did it? What transpired between the time you started rapping, and your first production or recording?

FB: Of course, I grew up listening to things like Daft Punk. I always felt those types of electro-style timing . . . That’s how I developed my rhythm. My rhyming style, I would say, came from what I was listening to at the time; lots of east coast stuff. The classics, like Mobb Deep, Wu Tang . . . then on to the Def Jux stuff. I can remember the first time I did something over an EDM track. It was the first night I heard the DJ ICEY tape, “Essential Elements.” It was just those raw Florida breaks with modulated bass lines. I was jaw-dropped.