Thy Muel is a hip hop artist from Cleveland, Ohio. We recently had the opportunity to interview him and disucss his influences as well as the hip hop scene in his area.
He has played shows with Bone Thugz, King Chip, and Twista as well as collaborations with Celeb Forever, Ray Cash, and KPT.
Thy has a very unique style that mixes old school vibes with his own modern twist. Further down the page you will find a Soundcloud embed if you want to check out the album.
The CanniBus is Thy’s follow up to his debut Subherbia.
First off, who are you? Where are you from? What style of music do you create?
My real name is Sam Lucarelli. Im 21 from Cleveland ohio, and I make oldschool newschool hiphop. MY good friend and partner zach varsa (@zachvarsa) produces all of my music and I write all my own lyrics. Killa Kam is our live dj (@Tharealkiller)
What is the scene like in Cleveland?
The current scene in Cleveland is pretty crazy. Tons of upcoming talent (where I consider myself but you’d never hear me say that) Everyone makin moves and workin constantly, you skip a day – you fall behind. You got the veterans like bone thugz, chip, n ray cash workin with lots of newcomers…the promoters are a monopoly but the shows are there and the exposure and opportunity is up for grabs…overall id say its flourishing and not just in the hiphop scene either…Im a huge rock/altrernative fan
I sense several influences but Cunninlynguists seems to be the most prominent [in my mind]. Who or what influences your sound and style?
My main influences as far as hiphop is concerned are guys like tupac, nas, az, brother ali,, atmosphere, I like hearin a song and the lyrics tell a story – that you can almost envision, i dont like a ton of new music because i feel like 90% of its fake…I listen to a ton of rock and always have – nirvana and smashing pumpkins took over my life at age 12…pearl jam, alice in chains, led zeppelin, the who, queen, the cure…the list goes on….im still stuck in the 90’s and a lot of the beats feel from that era to me…i like the nostalgic but modern twist we got goin
How long have you been at this? Was there ever an “ah-ha” moment when you realized this is the path you were going to walk?
Ive loved rap since I bought “the eminem show” at age 12 (my parents took it away cause of the parental advisory, so i limewired it). The song “without me” was the first rap track that ever knew all the words too. I started makin goofy nonsense rap at 14 under the name “Cows with gunz”, made 15-20 tracks and actually played 2 shows openin up for my (younger) brothers metal band. At 18 i started making little demos with my friends and it turned into me making them on my own on my macbook and postin them one by one. mixed reactions obviously but i really liked the fact i could be expressing myself and feeling accomplished at something as i put out more and more tracks.
the ah ha moment came when my good friend and producer zach varsa came over one day and had a cd of some insturmentals he was working on. ive known him for 3 years prior and had no idea he did music. I pretty much knew instantly that he’s a genius and should already be gettin paid a shitload by bigger artists for what hes capable of. we immediately found our groove and were on the same page. 4 months and tons of late nites we cranked out subherbia
I really dig Black Sunshine. How did that track come together? What is the significance of black sunshine and white crosses?
black sunshine to me is the realest song i ever wrote (i didnt know it at the time) i wrote it on a shitty ass day i still remember when i was gettin tons of bullshit negativity on my newest track at the time. I wrote it all down and it sat in a notebook for almost a year, when we were gettin beats ready for “The cannibus” i found it and knew it had to be used. if you watch the music video (http://youtu.be/i7LsXHXM2_k) you can see im just speaking from my own mind, expressing exactly how im feeling with everything we have to go thru to get all this shit done..its a lot of work and i cant do it alone, but we have a solid team where everyone holds their own and shits done, no matter what the fuck anyone else has to say….black sunshine to means when there is no light I can still shine, if you catch my drift….and white crosses to me represents blind faith….you dont know whats gonna happen no matter how hard you work or what you do, you might know some possibilities some of the best ways to get there, but you never know….
Who produced these tracks? You’ve got a great sound and you guys are using some dope samples.
As far as the beats go zach pick up lots of vinyl and takes bits n pieces to bring them all together, sometimes a banger can be done in 20 mins (1995) n sometimes it takes hours…..he’s heavily influenced by the oldschool as am i, so bringing back pieces of music that havent been heard in 40 years or a hook from a familiar song is really rewarding on both ends….ive watched him go at it for hours and still have no idea what and how he does what he does but slowly but surely im catchin on.
What other artists or producers have you worked with?
my good friend dj killa kam is our live dj, and hes really starting to branch out and gettin gigs at parties bars etc so its good to see growth on everyones individual end.
ive worked with another good friend of mine and fast rising in clevland KPT, Jaylenz, Lorenzo Asher (formerly “Celeb Forever”, Mista Fab’s AC, Im waitin on a track back from Ray Cash as we speak that should have an appearance on my next project im just starting “humble pie”, and im currently reachin out to other bigger artists not only from cleveland as well to work together in the near future
What’s in store for 2013? What should we expect?
we already played a few big shows and the cannibus just came out so weve been super busy up to this point and now were just about ready to start recording again here soon. so on top of promoting one record were gonna be recording another and playing shows and everything else along the way. Im hoping to have the next project and a video or 2 out by july then go into promo mode for a few months while i write the first full length album (and will hopefully have some kinda major distribution my then). “humble pie” should be somewhat easier to record since i have most of the tracks written ahead of time for once. so this summer should be interesting if i could predict
How is the Internet helping (or hurting) your marketing and promotion efforts? What is your biggest challenge?
the internet is literally the best and worst place in the world to promote yourself point blank. you can go buy 10 million views and followers and proclaim yourself a local celebrity even if 95% of your feedback is fake and the 5% that is real is “haters” (another word youll never hear me say). using the base weve already established to expand, its amazing what the power of one click of share or a tweet can do – the growth is literally exponential (hence viral). in 2 years ive gotten about a pretty decent following online but it definitely took a shitload of time and im not talking about spamming. there are 1000 smart and cheap if not free promotional tools out there to be used and they work. just make sure your not getting scammed. the hardest part is keeping up with it all and stayin consistent, spamming is annoying as fuck and takes forever for the spammer anyway so i stay away from that, yet you want people to see what you post even if its just album art let alone the album…when it works it works
Where can we grab your album? Where can we connect with you online?
you can go grab subherbia and the cannibus right now at soundcloud.com/thymuel. my official website trustinthymuel.com, get at me on twitter @TrustInThyMuel – my biggest thing is interacting with everyone….facebook.com/thymuel and every other site you could possibly think of its thy muel.
Any last thoughts or shout outs?
just wanted to say thanks for the opportunity, love workin hard and sharin the story along the way….shoutout to Cleveland for being my home and where this has all established and to everyone out there that supports us and what we do
