EXCLUSIVE: Avenue Interviews Craigy F

With our Avenue Interviews series we interview artists who are really out here. Craigy F is definitely one of them, hailing from Connecticut and he represents a new movement in the Northeast. We are very excited to bring you this exclusive interview and let you all know more about Craigy. Follow him on Twitter @CraigyF and listen to him on Soundcloud.

The Ridge is a movement that started in our city which is spreading fast across the Northeast. The people at freeonsmash.com named us the R&B wave of the Northeast, which was really dope cause I feel we’ve grown so much from where we started and built everything from the ground up we got our own sound and wave.  As far as artists in The Ridge it’s Me and My brother AG, but there are a lot of close people of ours that are down with the movement we’re just the franchise players haha. The music scene in my city is growing, I feel like we got a lot of young people coming up making noise and what not and that’s good thing . In my city it’s tough to win over you gotta come with some dope real authentic music. If the people not feelin’ you they’re gonna let it be known .. We gotta real thing going on out here in CT, but I would say its not really a hip hop scene. There’s a great energy about the city that belongs to everyone.

 Take us back to the time you decided to seriously pursue music as a career, is there a certain event that took place that made your mind up?

I would say it was summer 2011 I was going thru a lot of things at the time so I started writing music, But let me take you back before that…Mind you I always been into music like all my life but at the time when I was younger music really wasn’t the thing to do. Where I’m from you hear a bunch of local ppl nobody really got anywhere except for Cassie but other than that it was sport city or trap city. You was that nigga if you was a star athlete or was gettin to the money… Music really wasn’t cool… But it was cool to me and my friends so we used to play around I would record videos of my boys rappin and what not put it on Facebook then we started to get a huge following in the city …I think the ppl started to follow that cause we was just being our selfs and having fun. So now we at summer 11 and I felt maybe I should try do something other than being the camera guy. So I started writing. The next summer I dropped a song called Tonight’s The Night and the city loved it. From there on out I was like this what I wanna do and haven’t taken a break since..

 I hear a lot of 90’s influence and integration, you’ve sampled elements from Diddy, Aaliyah, can you explain to us how those artists and others from that era impacted you growing up.

Yeah they play a big influence on my music .. I think just always being with my mom growing up and her being in her 20s during the 90s and always hearing the Puffys Jayzs Biggies Aaliyahs Lauren Hills Ect… Throughout the house all the time, it just stuck with me. I remember watching all of Puffy’s videos and just wanting to be like that nigga and what not, I was like 6 or 7 wanting to be signed to Bad Boy. The Music scene in the 90s just look like a big party of good vibes and I wanna be apart of that. Everybody was so cool and laid back too but they knew when to turn up … I feel like that’s my whole personality. So yeah that era plays a big part on me, Blessed to live thru it …

 Speaking of Puffy, that record is crazy. How did that song come about? 

Thank you, glad ya enjoy the record. I always wanted to do a song like this but I actually never planned on doing it but it was always in my head.. I was goin thru some beats. And I was goin thru this time where I was recording on songs that aren’t really R&B. ‘Cause I’ll be real with everybody, I like everything. I listen to chief keef almost every day, that’s my nigga. But yeah, so I got the Puffy beat and i was just freestyling on it trynna find a melody to flow off and the first shit I said was “they looking they feeling I must be the money .. “Making my moves dancing like puffy“… And my boy ramp was like, “yoo keep that line“. And from there we finish the song. That song is just for anybody out there grinding and achieving goals. Dancing like puffy is just a phrase for after you do something great. It’s not about Puffy, But if he heard it I hope he would like it, ’cause he sets the standard on everything he really goes out and chases his dream. He has every right to dance around in the videos man…

I wouldn’t say AG was the rapper and I was the singer … I would say we was just being artist doing whatever we want having fun you know. Like the first song on the tape the intro that’s not me singing. Or AG’s masterpiece that’s not him rapping. We just did whatever we wanted to do but also make it good for the people. I’ve always did both, I leaned towards the R&B side at first ’cause I love the genre and what you can do with it as far as putting harmonies and melodies together. It’s a process I love going through cause the end point comes out dope. But yeah like I said we do whatever feels right if that beat calls for me to rap we gonna have some fun and rap if I gotta sing I’m gonna sing it doesn’t matter, as long as what we’re making is dope …