Genre: Rap and Hip Hop

Pain And MuZiK’s MNotez Interview:

• MNotez: How long have you been a musician? What age did you begin?
  • Pain And MuZiK: ToRuZ started rhyming at the age of 13 and nFxus started at the age of 15 in a buddy’s garage.

• MNotez: Do either of you remember the first time you busted a line? Have you always dreamt of being rappers?
  • Pain And MuZiK: Hell ya we was herbed out and cooking mini pizzas on a garage space heater the first time we rhymed. As for being a rapper, its not so much rap we wanted to do as much as music. There has always been a beat in our head so ya we dreamt of being musicians at a very young age.

• MNotez: What motivated you to start creating music?
  • Pain And MuZiK: ToRuZ was motivated after listening to ESHAM from Detroit’s underground rap scene.
    nFxus was motivated after first hearing ICP’s Carnival of Carnage

• MNotez: Who were your musical influences, idols, or bands growing up that have helped mold you into the artist you are today? Or helped mold the music that you create?
  • Pain And MuZiK: ToRuZ – The Temptations, Esham, Nas, Tupac, Scarface, Ice Cube.
    nFxus – Esham, ICP, Mace, Noturious BIG, Tupac, Masta Mind.

• MNotez: What’s the greatest concert you’ve ever been to? Or performed?
  • Pain And MuZiK: ToRuZ – Esham & Natas “Live at the RiTZ”
    nFxus – Garth Brooks at the Place of Auburn Hills

• MNotez: If you could work with any other artist or band… who would it be? (past or present)
  • Pain And MuZiK: ToRuZ – Tupac, Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gay, Al Green, Nas
    nFxus – Tech N9ne, Krizz Kalikio, Tupac, Biggie, Eminem

• MNotez: What’s the ultimate goal you want your music to achieve, or for you to achieve in your career as a musician? Any particular message you wish to send?
  • Pain And MuZiK: We would like to make Music or “Job”. Its something we have done for so long that we could not see ourselves doing a 9-5 as a career. The beat and flow just pours out of our every thought and we want to bring back the originality that is missing from todays Hip-Hop/Rap. If we could send a message to everyone in the world it would be, “Be who you are and remember the streets you grew up on. Remember the real friends you made on your path through life. And every time a door closes open another one or push through harder.”

• MNotez: What’s it like being a rap group out of the Midwest? Particularly Howell, Michigan? What’s the music scene like there?
  • Pain And MuZiK: Well South Lyon is the stomping we grew up on. So as for Howell its just an extenuation of S.L. As for what its like as a Midwest artist we get the best of both sides, We think that some of the best music ever has come out of Michigan in all genres. The music scene here is mainly Underground Hip-Hop, Motown and M&M’s

• MNotez: Out of all your songs or albums… do you have a favorite? What is it? And why?
  • Pain And MuZiK: Together we would have to say MACHiNE as a group project. Its our favorite because it has that break through moment and feel an it breaks all stereo types. We add a lot of our personal views pertaining to Americas current state and its down word spiral. If we were to sum it up it go as such… in Bruce Lee’s words “Put water into a cup it becomes the cup. Put water in a tea pot, it becomes the tea pot. Water can flow or it can crash, Be like water my friend.”

• MNotez: How do you believe the internet helps the music industry or you as musicians?
  • Pain And MuZiK: It has brought the nobody to the front line. It has helped to change the music industries grip on the individual artist, and help make room for the singer/songwriters you would other wise not hear. If it wasn’t for the internet PAiN AND MuZiK probably wouldn’t be giving this interview. Instead we would be printing up CD at Kinko’s and dropping them off at the local music never getting beyond the local scene. So for us it has helped out tremendously, it has put us Global instead of just Local.

• MNotez: When you’re not creating your music, what kind of hobbies do you have? What do you do in your free time?
  • Pain And MuZiK: ToRuZ – Family, Work, Cooking and Watching Documentaries.
    nFxus – Family, Work, Computers, Running a Business.

• MNotez: Anything else you wish to say about yourself or your music?
  • Pain And MuZiK: Pain And MuZiK is life in it simple forms. You deal with the pains of life and use the MuZiK to relax the stress away. Our MuZiK is is just a form of the Pain that we have gone through put on wax. We make this MuZiK to ease our stress and hope that it helps others ta do the same. Our friendship could be summed up in this simple poem…
    
    “They say a true friend can go long periods of time without speaking and never question there friendship. These types of friends pick up like they just spoke yesterday, regardless of how long it has been or how far away they live.”
    
    PAiN AND MuZiK.