An interview with Sybyr

Last fall, while doing my annual road trip from Atlanta (where my family stays) to New York, I stopped for a few days in DC. One morning, I paid a visit to Maryland rapper/producer Sybyr. In the mid-2010s, Sybyr pioneered the underground subgenre Trap Metal, which in my opinion makes the best case for rap-rock and rap-as-rock out of anything from that decade. Sybyr and his peers in his collective Anti-World would become lodestars for artists of the next generation who’d make “hyperpop” and digicore, including funeral and quinn, who once tweeted at me that “101Dalmatians” inspired her to use Auto-Tune.

These days, Sybyr doesn’t rage as hard. He meditates, journals; sometimes he makes synth-pop. In the backyard of his friend Owen’s studio, we had a conversation about getting into rap through the internet, battling mental health issues as an artist, choosing to go the independent route, and the long tail of trap metal.

Host/Producer: @manosundaresan
Cameras: @loganwintorsomethin, @mr_gustavo
Editor: @srikarswork

Watch our interview with osquinn:    • An interview with osquinn  

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Timestamps:

0:00 - Intro
1:00 - "The Mill" and pivoting out of trap metal
2:22 - The importance of genre
3:16 - Sybyr's experience on the internet growing up
4:05 - Influences (Juicy J, Lex Luger, Three 6 Mafia)
5:35 - Creating trap metal and his classic album HELLHORSE
8:28 - How hyperpop artists draw influence from Sybyr
9:51 - Sybyr inspired quinn to start using auto-tune
10:38 - You don't need to rage to make good music
11:50 - How Sybyr has worked on his mental health
13:25 - Sybyr on releasing Charleyhorse while he was in a ward
15:57 - How music is a job for Sybyr and why that's a good thing
17:32 - Sybyr on why he chose to stay independent despite label interest
20:04 - Sybyr doesn't listen to new music, "negative inspiration"
22:16 - Mano gives Sybyr his flowers for helping create "rage" music
24:06 - Don't be a young old head

Tags (ignore)

sybyr anti world trap metal hyperpop osquinn funeral producer rage beat tread digicore working on dying baltimore hellhorse johnnascus bruhmanegod spider gang no bells