1/5 of the Boston based collective "PLOTMORE". I$aac started writing songs in the 5th-grade. By the age of 16, he started recording music at his friend' s dad's studio. He's been applying a ton of pressure lately as he's recently released "On the Rise" and a visual for his previous single "RELAX".
I$aac is a 23 year old artist from Hialeah Miami Dade County, but at the age of 5, he moved to the Northshore in Danvers, MA. I$aac describes living in Danvers was nice, however struggled with confidence issues.The environment in which he grew up consisted of mostly white kids and felt like an outcast as he didn't see or have many people/friends that looked like him. This enabled him to explore his creativity and has been able to build a strong fanbase not only in the Northshore but also across the entire state. We recently caught up with him, the future looks bright for Plotmore Records!
His latest visual is Directed by ReadySetToast Written by Isaac Balmaceda
Boston Culture: Where did you grow up?
I$AAC GROOVE: I’m originally from Miami, that’s where I was born. HIALEAH to be specific, but when I was 5 my mom wanted to get my sister and I a better education and away from all the bullshit that’s in Miami so we moved to Danvers,MA. I spent the rest of my teens bouncing back & forth between Miami & Boston until I finally landed in Salem around 2016 and that’s where I stay at now.
Boston Culture: Talk to us about "RELAX". How did you get the idea?
I$AAC GROOVE: I just dropped the video for my new song “RELAX”. Usually I’m pretty anal about getting a treatment and everything ready for my visuals, but this time with everything going on in the world I decided to take a more laid back approach. So I called a couple of my friends and told them to meet me in the Beverly Airport Lookout in Danvers. On some real shit there was no plan🤷🏽♂️ The whole goal of this song was to just really remind people to take a second chill the fuck out, cause we’re all just trying to do our best and be successful you know?
Boston Culture: Was there ever a studio session when you thought. "Yo this is crazy" ?
I$AAC GROOVE: Imma be real wit you dawg, I’ve had a couple sessions like that (I hope that’s not vain). I just had a session recently where I cried for the first time while recording an unreleased track for my upcoming project. I also had that moment when I recorded my song “NO GOOD”. It’s the first song I made with my mentor Jon Glass that we’ve released so it holds a pretty special place in my heart.
Boston Culture : I want to get into younger self's mentality. You obviously had to put a lot of work to get to the position you are today. What made you want to create your first song and how old were you?
I$AAC GROOVE: On some real shit dawg I was fucking idiot growing up. Me and my friends were the ones that started doing shit way too young and that people kinda considered “Going nowhere in life.” Personally I take a lot of pride in my growth as a person cause I kinda used to be a huge prick. The homies would prolly tell you I still am but I guess the difference is now I’m determined. As far when I created my first song that’s kinda tricky. I’ve been hearing melodies and stuff like that in my head since I can remember. I started adding words when I was like 11 or so, but I officially recorded my first song when I was like 16 in homies home studio in Miami.
Boston Culture : What was the best advice you got early in your career?
I$AAC GROOVE: I’ve always been that kid that spent way too much time around older heads, so I’ve gotten a lot of good advice. I tell y’all 2, the first is from my mentor Jon Glass (and im paraphrasing here so in case he see’s this & I fuck it up, y’all know I’m just giving you the just of it) but basically it was something like “You gotta treat your career like a workout routine. Figure out what areas you wanna get bigger,train those areas and once you plateau, add more weight cause you’ll never get bigger if you dont. You’ll just stay stagnant.
Boston Culture : What do you dislike about the art world/music industry?
I$AAC GROOVE: Personally I really dislike how it seems to be about clout rather than actual talent. Another thing I have an issue wit, is the double standard for female rappers. It kinda seems ridiculous to me that female mc’s still have this stigma that they can’t be too nasty or thug. I’m from MIAMI ,I love that shit. So I hope we can kinda grow past all the clout chasing and give more credit where it’s do.
Boston Culture : Did the pandemic affect any plans you had?
I$AAC GROOVE: : Eh, not really. Don’t get me wrong, it defitnetly threw me off cause I’ve had a couple of shows I was supposed to do canceled, but other than that not really. Thankfully I’ve been able to release a single a month for the past 7 months without having too bad of an issue arise due to the pandemic but nothing detrimental to what I already had planned for this year and going into 2021.
Boston Culture : Who are your biggest influences?
I$AAC GROOVE: I grew up in a lot of different environments which exposed me to an eclectic mixture of music and culture so my influences are kinda everywhere. Let’s how deep we get into this;
JAY Z,KANYE,A$AP ROCKY,FUTURE,MASTER P, BIGGIE,QUEEN, JIM MORRISON,THE BEATLES, RICK ROSS,GUCCI, TRAVIS SCOTT,ELTON JOHN,KURT COBAIN, DRAKE,AEROSMITH,JOHNNY CASH, MICHAEL JACKSON, RAY CHARLES, CLARENCE AVON, QUINCY JONES, NWA (DRE,CUBE, and EAZY specifically), KID CUDI, J COLE, KENDRICK,SCHOOLBOY Q, AND THE LATE GREAT MAC MILLER️
Boston Culture : What do you think of the music scene in the city? Are there any Boston producers or artists you'd potentially like to work with?
I$AAC GROOVE: I feel like I have a unique perspective on the scene in Boston due to the fact I was in Miami during the underground wave that eventually bred artists like XXX,PUMP,DENZEL,POUYA,FAT NICK, ROBB BANKS, etc. What I saw down there was everybody genuinely working together and fans showing REAL support. Playing the music,buying tickets to the shows, buying merch, and putting their friends on to new local artists. Up here in my experience at least, that’s not the case. People up here really won’t pay talented artists any mind until somebody that they see as a “tastemaker” in the city shows interest. That’s not a knock at the city at all ,I love Boston. On some real shit I think Stizz said it best. The city expects a lot from its people and sports teams so if you coming out of the city or the state in general you really gotta have SOME SHIT you know? They don’t accept anything below fucking greatness here if you’re gonna represent them so I understand it to an extent.THERES SO MANY PEOPLE IN THE CITY I WANNA FUCKING WORK WITH!! Right now I’m kinda in a place where I’m trying to collab more but I’m kinda picky. As far as artists go, the people I’ve been itching to work with are; Seefour,Luke Bar$,Rosewood Bape,Justin Clancy, Tyler Loyal, BIA, and a few others. For producers I been having my eye on Ricky Felix, Vinyl Villain, Mister Wilzon, Twayne, but honestly I usually stick my main people which are SKTHEGR8 and my PLOTMORE family FVCKJERM.
Boston Culture : Tell us about your goals for the rest of the year and 2021.
I$AAC GROOVE: Honestly I don’t wanna expose too much cause I like to keep things close to the chest, but as far as the rest of 2020 I wanna try to finish the year out strong and keep dropping singles. Going into 2021 I think I’m gonna back off of my monthly releases and really try to put all my focus and effort into my first project.
Boston Culture : What inspires you to wake up everyday and stay hungry?
I$AAC GROOVE: There’s a lot dawg. From growing up with a single Mom that I truly owe EVERYTHING to, Not really feeling like I was going anywhere as a kid, but mainly my family. I just wanna be able to tell everyone I love& care about that I got them and that we gonna be alright.
Boston Culture : How do you seek out opportunities? I'm trying to figure out how you navigate the art world and music industry, because you are very strategic in all of your moves.
I$AAC GROOVE: Bruh when I figure it out I’ll let you know cause I got no idea myself It’s kinda just trial and error at this point but I think my saving grace is the fact I was blessed enough to be surrounded by a lot of local legends at the start of my time here in Boston, at least in my opinion. On top of that, just really trying to surround myself with people that have similar goals as me.
Boston Culture : When was the last time you were in the studio?
I$AAC GROOVE: Well in an actual studio..since the start of the pandemic but I have a home setup that I work out of for now and I actually really like the transition to just recording out my crib. Last thing I was working on was this song that may or may not be on my upcoming project.
Boston Culture : Who's your favorite producer and artist?
I$AAC GROOVE: Just to make it easy imma say KANYE is my favorite mainstream artist by far but Scott Storch is prolly my all time favorite producer with Dre as a close second.
Boston Culture : What brands should sponsor your?
I$AAC GROOVE: I’ve been waiting for this one bruh So straight up dawg Imma need the following companies to hit my DM; Converse,New Balance,The Farewell Division, Playboy,Nike,Dusé, Fronto King, and literately ANY WEED COMPANIES️️️️️️️
Boston Culture :Anything else we missed you want to tell your fans?
I$AAC GROOVE: Nothing other than I’m really tryna do something that’ll make both my cities proud and because of that I think imma be something y’all never heard or seen before. I just wanna make hometowns proud and really let the world know that not only does the south have something to say BUT SO DOES FUCKING BOSTON. So if y’all support me enough and allow me to I’ll put this whole shit on my back make sure we get our due recognition. Cause y’all know it’s bout fucking time that we get ours also for whoever wanna know Im Dominican🇩🇴 and Nica🇳🇮
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