Frayzie hosting an album release party on April 19
Rap artist Frayzie grew up in Gallup listening to the music his mom, dad, and older brother put on: classic rock and pop songs sung by the likes of Madonna. He didn’t start listening to rap and hip hop until he was in high school, but he instantly took a liking to it.
“I just really loved rap music. I would sing it, I mimicked it. But I never said ‘Oh, I want to be a rapper’ until I was 16,” he said in an interview with the Sun.
He recorded his first album in a closet in his dad’s apartment, and now over 20 years later he’s about to release his ninth.
Frayzie said his favorite part about making music is getting to sit in the recording studio. He compared the feeling he gets when recording to someone scoring a basket in a high-stakes basketball game.
“It gives you a high. For example, if you’re playing basketball and you really love playing basketball, once you grab that ball and make a shot and everyone screams, you’re like ‘Oh wow, they love me.’ It’s an adrenaline rush,” he said.
He added that the hardest part about his music career is performing and having to memorize and present the music in a way that gets people to connect with him.
“You have to memorize and then present it in a way where people not only hear you but also feel you,” he explained.
Despite Frayzie’s hesitation and self-doubt about performing live, Juggernaut owner Ernie Santiago, who helps Frayzie record a majority of his songs, said he’s a very strong live performer.
“His voice is really cut through and he just works on being a live performer so much. There’s a lot of artists all around the nation who are pretty much just studio artists, they don’t really perform much live and whenever a lot of artists do perform, they use back tracks to help support them, but Frayzie doesn’t really do that,” Santiago said. “He always memorizes his stuff and delivers it strong.”
MAKING IT IN GALLUP
Over 20 years have passed since Frayzie started rapping, and now he’s getting ready to release his ninth album, which is titled “Inside Out.” It will be released on April 19.
With 20 years of his music career comes 20 years of life experience, and Frayzie said he really put his life experiences into this album’s music.
“I’ve been through a lot, so what makes this album different is just going through so much, holding back a lot of stuff that’s been going on in my life. I’m finally letting that stuff out,” he said. It’s also for other people who have been going through struggles and troubles and trials and tribulations.”
One thing Frayzie strives to do with his music is show people that someone from Gallup can “make it” even if they don’t move away.
“I’ve been holding on to this dream to make it with this music so that I can give back to my community of Gallup,” he said. “A lot of people move away from the city so that they can make it elsewhere, but me, I want to try and make it here to show the youth and my kids and anybody who’s struggling that you don’t have to go far to make it far.”
Frayzie began writing this album when he lived in the apartments at 107 E. Hill Ave. He and his family were some of the residents who had to move out of the apartments after the building was red-tagged in late July.
He reflected on that stressful time in his life, and the bond it created between him and his neighbors.
“You could see it on everybody’s faces, we were stressed, we were sad, we were mad. We were going through so many emotions, and we didn’t have no funds to go anywhere,” he said. “As we were moving, we all gained a bond seeing how stressful it was.”
He said that the experience helped him grow close to his former neighbors, and now he finds himself helping them out by offering rides and in any other way he can. He also dedicated his new album to those neighbors.
“I had to dedicate this album to the people of Hill Avenue because they can relate to the songs on this album,” he said. “It relates to the people around here who are in the streets and struggling. I had to dedicate it to them because I felt like they were feeling the same way I was feeling.”
He called the music on the album “motivational” and for anyone who may feel hopeless, helpless, tired, sad, or lost.
“It’ll pretty much bring you out of a slump if you’re feeling down and out. It will give you motivation and hope and a sense of security like ‘It’s going to be OK, everything’s going to be alright, all you have to do is keep your head up, look forward, and keep going for that goal you have in mind,’” Frayzie said.
The fifth track on the album is called “Who Do You Trust?” and talks about having to trust yourself with the lyrics, “Who do you trust when your world is upside down/trying to hold yourself down but there’s no one here to help.”
The song goes on to say “You’ve got to trust yourself, because only you know yourself/you got to do it for yourself, you can do it with no help.”
ALBUM RELEASE PARTY
The album release party for “Inside Out” will be held at Juggernaut Music at 7:30 pm on April 19. Tickets for the party cost $10, and multiple artists besides Frayzie will be performing, including his band “Drunktown Zombies.” He is the lead singer of the band.
The band formed in the summer of 2023, right before Frayzie was kicked out of his apartment. He said the band’s music can be grouped into a variety of genres, including rock, metal, rap, and punk, but all of their songs have a sort of political edge to them.
For more information about Frayzie and his music, find him on all major music platforms, including Spotify and Apple Music.
By Molly Ann Howell
Managing Editor
