Hey Muenster, how are you doing?
Hey y’all…I’m just rad! In overclock mode… getting all the things ready for the big drop!
Tell us about yourself, what makes you want to create hip-hop music?
Ok … so yeah… I am a musician from the great state of Texas! An 80’s baby, I was born and raised in Austin, and have been playing tunes since my fingers could push the pearly whites!
From some of my earliest musical memories, I remember being drawn to funk and blues, jazz and rhythmical grooves… Of course not knowing what it all was, but just being drawn to it… flashes of scenes of my folks just listening to good funky music… I have ALWAYS been drawn to rebellion… and inspired by self identity… I think even being a Kid, I understood the power that the MC had… I remember scrounging up pennies and nickels and asking what chores I could do so I could buy my first tape “Rap Masters vol 2” because it had the Fat Boys on it rapping about pizza and ice cream and thats how I was able to slide it in low, under the parent’s radar… from there a monst…er ..a Muenster was formed.. I just didn’t know it yet.
Fast forward hella years and many many tapes layer from “He’s the DJ/I’m the Rapper to “Enter the 36 Chambers“ and everything in between my love, knowledge, and appreciation of Hip Hop just became ingrained in me.
By the time I hit highschool I found west coast hip hop and my entire world changed…MC’s from the Good Life cafe/Project Blowed/ Hieroglyphics/Living Legends etc… blew my mind and easily forced me to abandon my previous concepts of hip hop//rap music and take on the art of freestyling that ‘the Blowed embodies (and bodies) so well.
From there I just ate it all up and started working on my own craft…by graduation we had a lil squad and we were trying to rap at keg parties and make these mixtapes and do these shows man! ….what a time…
Fast forward to/landing on now, with numerous national tours,festivals, and records later…I am still just as hungry to create my art, speak my piece, and use my platform to speak on it man!
Who are your main influences?
Fasho…. So, certainly the Funk Brothers, Motown, Late 60’s post-straight ahead jazz, and fusion electronic jazz music heavily influence the musical structures I seek , and if its funky, Im taking it in…BUT …as an MC…I have to give it up to Los Angeles… What the LA underground hip hop scene did for California, and hip hop in general through the pioneers at the Good Life cafe, Project Blowed afterwords reshaped the notion of “paying dues” and forced you to sharpen ya styles and wit. Without that, I know I would not be the MC I am today.
I also have to give it up to the east coast and southern rap tho… Groups like Organized Konfusion or Poor Righteous Teachers were aware of their voice and their power and listening to this type of honest hip hop helped keep a level head perspective for me as a foreigner to the plights but students of the lessons being taught. It was fundamental that I acknowledge the systematic disenfranchisement that the black voice was speaking about. We don’t abide tourists, at least the real ones don’t, and for that reason I had to pay homage to the message… I needed to live through these cats to really get I. So, I could wax poetic about influence and art forever… But yes.. this sums it up I think. At least for now !
You possess a real flow and direction with your rapping style, has this always been a trait of yours?
Wow … thank you… Yes, I think so, I’ve never shied away from rebellion or speaking my mind. No matter how much trouble it would get me in from time to time. I think the real power in hip hop comes from authenticity. From acknowledgment of our presence in the whole of it, while making sure to find a lane and carve it out as your own, solely, is how we make an impact. What are we leaving behind, it’s all we have really.
So when I see atrocities, divisions, ineptitude, etc I feel it is my purpose to write about it, and reflect my own framework in a way that maybe, just maybe appeals to A few others, and then to a few more, and we create a ripple effect through music in away that may not have cut just right if delivered in a different medium ya know?.
So, yes I fully embrace my role as a modern day griot and storyteller of the hard truths that most may not want to or be willing to speak up on.
Tell us about your new project, ‘Muenstervision Presents: Ian’?
Oof… where to begin… so… it’s the pandemic right ? …the world is shut down.. socialization is non-existent but creatives still need to make art! I never stopped writing, or collecting beats from producers who never stopped chopping… and this, likely the case w most of my contemporaries created this new form of it in itself. “No rules releases” was born, to me, during this austere and new normal.. I decided I would make a record that had no boundaries… If I wanted to write a 32 bar verse, no hook, bridge into a jazz solo, cool..I did it… Want to take a dub song and drive some EDM over it and then rap about the truth that a mannequin provides, I did that too…
I reached out to over 20 years of friendships, idol-ism, tour warriors, and show mates from my history in hip hop and said… “Lets cut a record y’all”
And we did just that … Everyone joining me on this journey gave me a piece of their life on wax.. I am so grateful to have built these bonds and broken these barriers, as my guy Keldrick Scott from Gitmo Music likes to lean on, because without these shared experiences , old and new, we wouldn’t be able to create in the way we do.
This record really has proven to be my most fantastic work, and I pulled out all the stops from a features standpoint because I really wanted to create a holistic work that resonates long after any of us that made the dang thing are vibrating in the physical.
What do you want listeners to take away from your music?
Yeesh.. this is such a subjective answer… I think if nothing else, I want them to acknowledge the agreements we all made with each other while we were here, all in it together.
We all can get sort of caught up in the day to day and fail to remember that all just trying to find our way…
No one has figured it out, so if we can slow down just a bit, listen to each other, our journey’s, and our experiences in this shared space, then maybe we can close some of the gaps that keep us separated. Because believe me, when allowing the real power to be ignored that we all possess when we unify, while the masses stay distracted by the latest headline, that’s on us. The confusion is devised, it’s all intentional. Imagine if we all recognized the struggle, and showed some grace to our fellows.. what a world it would be.
Perhaps that can be considered, while listening to the record. If nothing else, I want them to take away a groove and a vibe.
Your favourite track from the album?
Oh man… Do I have to answer?…. Well it changes, frequently. Right now it’s been “Log Out”.
As I have been getting closer and closer to the release, not only in hand but on the blockchain, it has just been smacking just a bit harder than the rest because of what it is about. It’s a joint touching on web3 expansion, NFT overhype, virtual detachment, and navigating all of it as a creative in this new 4IR(fourth industrial revolution).
So yeah.. bump dat one… on LOUD!
Ill be adding the official GraffPunks.world animated music video to my running “Muenstervision Presents: Ian” visual playlist:
Tiny.one/mvpianmovies
Do you plan to take this on tour?
So a part of why I’m releasing on 03/03/2023 is because its my daughter’s first birthday. SO while I certainly have some opportunities coming up I’m having to be pretty selective of the shows I take on.. I am doing a big album release party/listening session the day of and I’ll be streaming that into the metaverse via Twitch. If any of your readers are curious about how to jump In ill post up a live stream link on my hoo.be: hoo.be/muenstervision
Anything else you want to add, please do so here!
I hope you all are good to yourselves, and each other. We only get once in this skin suit of ours, no matter what you believe comes after. So lean on to it now. Embrace the moments as they come. Do the work to see the change.
Thanks y’all…
Peace and Manifestations- Ian . (Muenster)
Listen here:
https://fidbak.audio/muenstervision/player/758baad48a7d/1e16d87a5ae3