Xclusive & Envy Interview Q&A

Boston Culture: How did you guys get your name?

Xclusive: I got my name from one of my childhood friends I grew up with back in the day. He would always mention that all of what I had to say or think was purely exclusive. From that moment on I've gone with the name Xclusive and never thought about changing it since. 

Envy Indiyo: Typically the word envy is viewed in a negative manner. Personally, I wanted to reinvent and bring a new meaning to the word Envy. I like to think and view that my hard work is embedded with pure positive and raw emotion. So with time I want people to look back and see that I brought a different value to the word Envy.

Boston Culture: Talk to us about your relationship with each other, how you guys linked up with your management. 

Joint response between Envy Indiyo & Xclusive:

 Xclusive and I met each other in high school, we both played on the same basketball team.  From playing sports together we ended up becoming pretty much brothers and that's where this all started. As for our manager, he's a family friend that we’ve gotten close with over the years. Bryan saw that we had something special cooking and wanted to help us elevate our game to the next level. It's been about 4 months now since all 3 of us have been working together but it feels a lot longer than that. who just started managing us this year. Before that it was us managing ourselves and getting everything done on our own.

Boston Culture: How did the chemistry between you guys come to be? Was it difficult in the beginning forming that connection? 

Xclusive: Me and my bro Indiyo have been close for a minute. We both went to the same highschool and played on the same basketball team so we were always hanging out. To be honest we clicked off the rip, I swear bro is my twin. We remind each other of one another by the way we think and act so I feel like that’s why our bond is so strong. We've always wanted the same things out of life. So as far as chemistry and forming a connection, that's never been a problem, that's always came naturally to us. 

Envy Indiyo: From the day that we met, we've always had a strong bond, so it came natural to us when creating chemistry, it's always been there from the jump. Xclusive and I have been working together for nearly a decade now so we feed off each other's energy and hold one another accountable when it comes to chasing our dreams which is making it in the music industry. 

Boston Culture: Which artists would you like to collaborate with in your career? 

Xclusive: Right now, my focus isn't really on collaborating with other artists since the goal is to really grow and expand our brand/music. My brother Envy and I got serious pressure on the way that we've been working on for some time now but I'm sure as we continue to grow there will be artists that I see myself working with, especially locally since our goal is to grow the brand here in Boston. 

Envy Indiyo: I'm sure a lot of people would expect me to name a big top 40 artist as my dream collab but personally I’d like to work with more talented underground artists. I know for a fact that there are a ton of unrecognized artists out there that don't get the appreciation they deserve. At the end of the day it's all about growing the culture and giving artists a platform to reach as many audiences as possible.

Boston Culture: Who are your musical influences? I'd like to get into your younger mentality and how you guys came about in being creative and making music. 

Xclusive: I grew up listening to a number of different artists but I'd have to say 50 Cent, Jadakiss, and Jay Z have always been my biggest musical influences. I feel like their style of rap is unmatched but what always really stood out to me was the impact they had on the game. That's what I want to do with this, I want to leave a big enough impact that has the younger generation look at me as a role model for their future careers. As far as my mentality with making music, to be honest is very cliche and what I mean by that is that this music stuff just comes natural to me. I write ideas or topics down that I want to wrap about but as soon as I step into the booth I just get locked in and flow without really overthinking it. 

Envy Indiyo: Rap is my go to, growing up I spent a lot of time listening to artists like Fabulous, Meek Mill and J. Cole. Overall I listened to everything from hip-hop, R&B and a lot of Caribbean music. I feel like having a diverse music palette helped me explore my versatility when it came to music. If you listen through my catalog of songs you'll quickly realize that no song sounds the same, each one has a different sound to it. The way I look at it is that I never want to limit myself to just one genre, I want to make good music no matter the type.

Boston Culture:  Where do you see yourself in the next year and the next 5 years. 

Xclusive: I just had this conversation with my manager and Envy, we're all locked in and on the same page. This next year is really all about keeping our head down and focusing on building a foundation not only for myself to succeed but also for aspiring Boston Artists. Now for the next five years I really see myself and my bro's looking back on this and seeing all our hard work payoff. We're going to look back and reflect at the fact that we were able to build a global foundation for our success. 

Envy Indiyo: Right now, I'm laser focused. This next year is going to require us all to work the hardest we have on this dream. The goal for the next year is expanding my audience not only here in the United States but also internationally. On top of that we really want to start doing shows so we can begin to gain that professional experience. As for the next 5 years I see myself where I deserve to be and that starts with being a role model to the upcoming young artists that are listening to me.

Boston Culture: What’s your greatest accomplishment in your music career? We’re eager to know. What are the plans for future releases this year? 

Xclusive: My biggest music accomplishment as of right now definitely has to be the fact that someone used a quote from a song I wrote as their personal yearbook quote. To me personally, that makes me feel unbelievable, it showed me that my music, my lyrics resonated with someone on a personal level and that's really what making music is all about. For the future? You guys are going to have to wait and see, our manager has us both locked in the studio and trust we have some heat cookin. I promise you it'll be worth the wait and hype. 

Envy Indiyo: So far in my career I'd have to say my greatest accomplishment was definitely when I dropped my 2nd single ever, “Temporary Love”. At the time I was recording out of a  garage just trying to find my sound and then I dropped that track that went viral with 800k streams and with no promo. I’m very grateful that I was able to accomplish that on my own, especially so early on in my career. Now for the future you can expect a lot of new music, our manager has us focused in the studio that way we wrap up this year and start next year with some fire new music. 

Boston Culture: Since you’ve been rising in your career, is there anything dropping that we should be on the lookout for soon? 

Xclusive: Hell yeah! Make sure to be on the lookout for me & cuzzos video for our single “FUEGO“ video dropping later this month. I also have another video coming out for my recently released single "Celebration" coming before the end December. 

Envy Indiyo: For sure! Be on the lookout for the official video of our song "FUEGO" dropping in early November. We've also been spending a lot of the time in the studio and the stuff we got cookin up is something special, trust me.