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Monteasy is an incredible artist, producer and a dope talent. His music definitely is a vibe. He such a creative genius that thinks outside the box which is awesome and something that is needed in music today. He recently sat down with Sheen Magazine to talk about his musical journey, creative process, biggest influences and more.

Your music is incredible!! What first got you into music?

Music was something that was instilled in me. I wasn’t the person that actually grew up of like a family of music. A friend of the was MC Lyte who my aunt raised when she was young. A lot of it came from my family. It came my from my grandmother, my mother, playing music in the house. Playing a lot of oldies in the house. A lot of great concepts of music came from that. Just from being young and being able to have that connection with music. Then when I got older, I studied from Erick Sermon, Lloyd Banks, 50 Cent, Nas, Talib Kweli those are my favorite artists and the people who got me into music. I wanted to do it because they inspired me to do it. That was really my inclination into music was those guys and being raised off oldies and classics from different genres from Smashing Pumpkins to Red Hot Chili Peppers to Bobby Womack , Sade you name it. I was raised on of a good variety of music.

Tell us about your musical background. How did it shaped your style?

When I started making music I wanted to make sure that when it came to hip hop, I wanted listen to as many styles as possible and when I wanted to practice my skill set I wanted to learn how to make different kinds of music on a hip hop level. So listened to a lot of West Coast, a lot of G-Funk, Tha Dogg Pound, Snoop, Dr. Dre which is my favorite productions from West Coast even though I was born in New York and raised in Florida. A lot of musical choices and inspirations musically come from the West Coast or even like DJ Premier from the East Coast. I just wanted to be as well verse as possible. I could listen to a Twista and I tried to teach myself how to speed rap which I got better at. I learned from Ludacris, Redman, sometimes put some humor in what you’re saying. Eminem who sometimes put some humor in his stuff or 50 Cent who was great.  Nate Dogg, T-Pain who were phenomenal at hooks.  There were different people who had great skillsets and wanted to learn how to be able do these things. I just wrote song after song for years. Even with me doing theme songs for pro wrestling now, it’s the same thing. Erick Sermon taught me the pattern of a flow, how to keep a flow. Lloyd Banks taught me how to write punch lines and being able to punch in lines. Talib Kweli taught me how to write from the heart in the sense of being able to write conscience music and work on that crowd. I believe the more well verse you are, you be able to do anything. My mentor always told me to be able to hop on any beat and be able to come up with a concept. Even if your rocking with the beat or not always come with a concept and try to write three different concepts to the same beat. Take that one beat and try to write something for the females to it, take that same beat, write something conscience with it and take that same beat and write an anthem to it. That’s method normally when I’m writing.

Who are your biggest influences, and how have they impacted your music?

Truthfully, if I can say from people that I have worked with, I want to give credit to my engineer Shawty T. He is here in Florida. He engineers everything that I do and we have been working together for ten years. We are litterally peanut butter and jelly in the studio.  I want to give him his flowers because I probably recorded two to three thousand songs with him. Just learning from him as an engineer, his ear, the stuff that he does is absolutely phenomenal. He has worked with everyvody to Juvenile, Boosie, Kevin Gates you name it. I learned a lot from him. Musiq Soulchild who was my inspiration recently, working with him and watching him create in the studio I was like, “I got to get better”.  There is a reason this guy has been the man since 99”. Just the way he recorded the record. I am sitting there in shock like this is incredible. Jon Connor, we have an album together called, “War” and he was one of the most phenomenal lyricist to ever do it formally of “Aftermath”, now doing his own independent thing. Just his recording the way he records. I was happy to a&r his last project, “Food For The Soul”. Just seeing how he puts his songs together, I have learned so much from the professionals.  Just because I have my accomplishments and what I do doesn’t mean I still cannot be a student and learn. Even the kung fu master that teaches the kids karate still learns himself. It’s great to be able to build that and to learn so much about the process of recording and in the industry. Also, although I never met him, I love the way Kendrick Lamar does his music. That’s been my favorite rapper for years even before he got famous when he was known as “K-Dot”. Just seeing where he is at now, how he handles his public perception and his brand, the dude is a GOAT!! The way he records his music makes me want to get better.

You worked some amazing heavy hitters in the music industry such as: Musiq Soulchild, Ghostface Killah, Jon Connor and Twista. How was that experience for you?  

It’s a surreal feeling. My Grandad (rest in peace) he always invested in music career.  He brought me my first guitar. He asked me, what do you want for Christmas grandson? I want a guitar. I never fully took the lessons for an acoustic like I needed to. The reason I say that is because I never would of thought having that conversation with him being 14-15 years old that I would be able to say that I’ve worked and done songs with these legends, be to able to have studio experience with these legends, to have these guys clear verses for me to use. It’s a surreal feeling, but it shows that it is possible. To any artist out there it’s possible, if you just put in the work. I try to be one of the good guys in this industry. There is a lot of bad stuff that you hear, but there are good people in this. The negative always gets better promotion. The positives is that I am blessed to be able to work with these people. To have co-signs, like this new record I have with  LaRussell to see how on fire he is right now and to be arguably the top independent rapper in the world right now. For him to throw me a verse, that shows a huge co-sign. I never would have dreamed and never would have imagine that it would be here. That I would still have good name and still these favors from these people. All my experiences have been great working with these guys. They have all been phenomenal. Jon Connor is like an older brother to me, we talk every couple of days on the phone. I am real tight with Musiq we talk all the time. It’s really good and a blessing. I don’t take any of this for granted and I’m thankful.

What is your creative process like?

When I was a younger in my music career, I started out with the notepad and writing. Back in the day (guys don’t kill me lol) I use to get the music off of Limewire back in the day.  (Don’t pirate music y’all). I couldn’t  afford music at the time. So, I would get beats and write songs on a piece of paper. It mentally trained me. A friend of mines named Chris would call each other on the phone and back in the day when we use to have the radio speakers, playing instrumentals, we would be on the phone for an hour and freestyle back and forth running up my Grandma’s landline phone bill back in the day. I did not know it at the time, it was building my skills to rap on command and the process of songwriting. It’s changed now because I am an under pressure writer. For example: I would book a studio session Thursday and I will have the beat on Tuesday and I do not write. So if my studio session is at 4pm Thursday, I will write the song at 2pm and go in the studio and just do it because I want to record in my freshest thoughts. I feel as a creator sometimes, you can sit on the same song too long. It’s kind of like what Method Man said his ideology of it, “if you sit on an idea too long, you’re going to overthink the record”. So I will write under pressure. I don’t have nothing wrote down or mentally in my head to say. I would go to the studio Thursday and record how I feel. Does it mean there are certain songs that I don’t have to take my time on? Sure there are a few once in a blue moon. When I know it’s investment, I want to make sure everything is right. That’s lesser than of me writing it. I kind of go off feeling and don’t overthink it. I will let it come to me, so I will have a selection of three to four beats and get to it. Like when I do songs for pro wrestlers and wrestling, I will book an hour and half sessions and record five to six songs right there on the spot. My process is chill for two weeks and then book a session and drop four to five songs and not have it written down until an hour before. This is just how I work. It’s very abstract.

What is the best advice you have been given?

Always treat the owner like you treat the janitor in the building is the best thing I can tell people. No matter how high you get, no matter how you low you get, always treat everybody the same because you never know where anybody is going to be. This thing of life whether it’s the entertainment industry or anything. It has ups and it has downs. When I say that, master time, master patience, understand that everyone has a season. When it somebody else’s season salute them, root for them, show love. When it’s your season, shine bright, maximize the opportunity. Understand when to be seen, when not to be seen. If you take all those things and master that into one gumbo pot, you will never go wrong because you will treat everybody well. You will know the master of timing, you never hate on no nobody, you just root for people. When it’s your time to shine, you still show love. Don’t let it go to your head because it can be taken away from you. You just to have to be prepare to weather the storm. Good or bad. As long as you take those principles, your punctual, you speak well, have a great work ethic and you invest into people, you’re willing to put in the work, success will never leave you.

What can we look forward to from you in 2025? Any special projects in the works?

Oh yes!! I will start will music first. I have the new record with LaRussell called, “Stomp Out” make sure you guys check that out. I have a big fitness thing. I am on my health journey to back in shape, so this record is motivational for people in the fitness world to get right. Stomp out any problems you have, stomp out any issues you have, you got those fitness goals, any problems, you going through any issues to stomp it out and continue to keep moving, so that record is produced by Kofi Cooks. I am releasing EP called, “It Is What It Is”, which would be out in the summertime. I am working with some of my favorite producers, me and Kofi and in a few other people West Coast influenced production. I just released my “Teasy’s Table” interview with Sara Jay adult entertainment legend. That’s my podcast and make sure to check it out. You can go all networks and subscribe, I am always shooting podcasts episodes for that. I am working on my motivational speaking gigs that I will be doing, so check that out on teasystable.com. Also, I would like to announce that I am doing the official theme song for UFC legend Rashad Evans!! He just announced that he is going to be fighting Rampage Jackson in New Mexico in a boxing match live on Pay Per View event coming later this year. I just produced a theme song for him, so that will be my biggest theme song placement I ever had especially in wrestling. That’s a huge gift for me to say I did that for him. Just stay tuned. I’m always busy working, podcasting, music, motivational speaking, just collaborating with a lot of people doing content. A&R’s people projects behind the scenes. There is also an exclusive “Stomp Out remix”, being put into the works with possibly someone with spoke about in this interview, I can’t say who, so just be on the lookout for it in the future.

How can our readers keep up with you?

Follow me on all socials @teasyjones on Instagram @TeasyJones on Twitter. Any bookings, you can go to monteasytv@gmail.com to reference everything to my manager for anything booking related. Make sure to check out www.teasystable.com to keep up with everything from my tour schedule, to everything that is happening. I will also be in Texas at Bun B’s birthday extravaganza on March 9, 2025, so if you are in the Houston, Texas area for the rodeo weekend, be sure to show love. I will be there with me and my homies showing love to him. Happy Early Birthday to Bun!! I wanted to plug that as well.

Photo Credit: Stylish Studio Photography