 What they gonna do with me now? I'm still a twerk of the town Y'all it's your girl Brianna Imani and you're here for another talk of the town interview and today Let them know who we got in the building. So it's your boy Eugene black Yo ego get it. Wait. Give me a second. Give me a second. Oh, all I gotta say It's about to be the most legendary interview talk of the time ever had Okay That is a very bold statement because we've had quite a few interviews on here So, I mean, I like the energy Out there, this is gonna be the best interview talk of the town. Let's see facts manifesting that we manifest in it All right, so tell us about yourself Eugene. Where you from? Okay, so I'm from the Bronx, New York, the South Bronx Okay, I'm Puerto Rican and black. Okay. I heard you thought a little Espana and a couple of your songs Okay, that's cool. So what is it? What was the light growing up in the Bronx like who were your influences while you were growing up? I would say because my parents like the music they listen to is very diverse Okay, so like my mom will listen to church music like Kerr Franklin Fred him Exactly, you're right. No, but then she also listened to R&B like our Kelly Tyree She know the Jota sees the new additions right right and now my dad side I'll listen to like Mark Anthony hate the love boy, you know Spanish music But then he also listened to which I feel like this would raise me with my hip-hop like the hip-hop that I love is like The Nas, the Jay-Z, the Tupac and Bad Boys like P. Diddy went to the same high school as me So, you know, like I feel like that generation of music is what I want to bring back into hip-hop Okay So would you say that those are like your influences like the people that you named or is there somebody else that influenced you? I would say those are my influences growing up, and of course now like of course like also the 50 cents to DMX and stuff like that But I also feel like now Like Turry Lanes, okay, the Drake's XXX Long live pop smoke, you know, like people who didn't just stick to just one thing, right? So in that like I could rap I could sing Okay, I could do some pop music. You know, that's how I make my music And we're gonna get into your versatility because that is something that I noticed as I was like going through your tracks and stuff like that I'm like, okay, you have a whole bunch of different sounds going on. So we will get into that But I'm just so curious like when did you start making your music? So I started making music six years ago. Okay, my freshman year at Delaware State University Shout out to DSU shout out to HBCU. You already know the vibes But um, I was just going through a lot at the time Okay, I was trying to find an outlet to like get the things off my chest my pain off my chest So music just found me. Okay, and now I just love it. I'm hungry. I'm starving I mean, well, that's good and that's the perfect mindset to have so what was it like you Just like one day were like, let me just put a pen put my pen down and like see what I could do Or was it like something you always thought about and you didn't have like that motivation? Like what was it that propelled you into making music? Okay? So what I used to do I used to because I always was singing Okay, I was young like in the church and stuff But what I used to do was go and go up to girls and I used to sing usher nice and slow Oh, you know, it's a it's seven o'clock on the day in my drop top cruising the streets. Oh Yeah, you know, I mean like You know just to be like, oh, yeah, they're like I sing and stuff so one day I was sitting at my lunch table at the issue Conrad and I was covering in track in college to okay, right Exactly, you already know the vibes Okay, so you were sitting down and yeah, I was sitting down and I was just I'm singing to my teammates and stuff same song everything There's two people next to me just started recording me Right and they was like, oh, yeah, we have this group called. I'm suai you Which is our organization at my school, right? So they did like poetry rap Singing stuff like that. It was like, oh like we love your voice You should try to come to one of the meetings and stuff. Of course. It didn't catch me right away I wasn't into making music. I just sang like that was just my thing in the beginning so then afterwards like I went to one of the meetings and then people started liking my music they started One of the kids that I know shout out to Jean Grey. He brought me to the studio and then That's it six years later. I love So what was the reaction from like your family when you were making Music when you started making your music like I felt like my mom in the beginning was like Like not confused but more like More like just trying to understand what I was trying to do with it You know, she always support me of course always support me But then after a while of course in the beginning, I'm not gonna lie. I wasn't good I wasn't good in the beginning, but then I made like a song called love the one I had the little Spanish in it Yeah, and then she was like one day I was in a kitchen or something and she was like, oh She was like truthfully in the beginning your music was You can't only have yes men in your corner Who's gonna keep it real with you because you won't get better without it. Exactly. So that's funny Your mom was supporting. Yeah, so my mom was supporting me and then I did love and then I did oh and then I just kept on going Okay, then last year I started rapping And then since then I always wanted to rap But I didn't I felt like I didn't have that confidence. Okay at the time. Okay, but now it's like I have that confidence I know I know how I can spit bars. I know what I could do And then it's just an extra thing that I could sing now, right Go on top of that. I I noticed that because I was thinking like I heard oh And when I heard oh, I thought of a song that I used to a long time ago Call excuse me mama about me Sean and I don't know if you know But like the sound sounds very similar And it was like a love song like very like nice and I'm listening like to your early songs It was like very nice and then I noticed a shift There was a shift as time went on and I'm like, okay, we not talk about just Love and chasing after your That was like we getting money and popping So like I'm I'm interested in knowing because you said like you got that confidence Is that what like Led you to start making a different type of music or was it more so like what it's trending right now I don't feel like it was the trend. Okay. I feel like it was my experiences. Okay. I feel like Truthfully like in the last five years. I just been through a lot. Okay, you know family situations. Um Last year I got in a car accident a real bad car accident that Had me out for like eight months. Well, I'm happy to see you. I'm sorry I'm grateful. God is good at the end of the day. So it's like last year that happened And I didn't really get to promote peru. I didn't get to promote get down low Didn't really get to get my name out there. So it was like this year. I'm like, I'm taking over I don't care anybody got to say. I'm hungry. I'm starving. Yes And you bought up peru and I know it's out. It's hot. It's doing Doing numbers on youtube and you even went as far as saying that it was going to be the song of the summer It's going to be the song of the summer. So what do you think about it? It's really like, what do you think in comparison to the other songs that you have out? What do you think it is about peru that is Like that is why it's such a hit. Yeah I feel like because even even when I was writing the song and stuff I started thinking about even when you hear it from the beginning it says I was on the train riding on the six not flexing no whip Got nothing in my pocket got not a dollar yet nothing to spend It's talking about my struggle talking about where I want to be I feel like there's rules that I did a post where it's time. I like rules to being in peru Where it's like, okay All right, I lived in the hood For a certain part of my life that I moved that means I'm elevating in life. I'm doing bigger things I'm in peru right, okay, so If I come across this a little slow, I'm sorry. Are you talking about peru like the the country? I'm yeah peru in the country peru is the country But I don't I'm not taking it as saying I'm in peru But I'm saying is like it's a lifestyle a way of wanting more in life a way of Being better in life not settling for less being more hungry. Go towards your goals. Go towards your dreams Don't don't let somebody stop you from doing your dreams being motivated. Be hungry because at the end of the day We only got one life You know, so we got to live it strong. You got to do what we love So and I stand by what you're saying 100% like why peru? Why not like kinkoom or bad? No, it's funny. It's a little my mom says she was like you put a weekend. Why you didn't say I'm in Puerto Rico, baby I mean I was wondering it too. I'm like maybe you thought it was gonna be a little cliche. No, it don't it don't go together That's why okay. It just didn't fit like it didn't fit the melody. Okay. It's like if I'm like, I'm in Puerto Rico, baby You see it don't fit but like I'm a poo, baby. Okay Okay, I feel like so it was all about the way that the flow Yeah, the melody the flow and stuff is so how do you feel about because you are from the Bronx? So I know you already know like drugs was going up right now A lot of attention has been focused on these drill artists Yeah, facts, you know, especially when when we think of the Bronx, that's what comes to mind Do you feel like r&b upcoming r&b artists are kind of like Taking the back front or do you feel like? No, no because they're cappella gray. Mm-hmm. He's doing this thing I feel like for me, of course I do r&b, but I'm mainly a hip hop artist But you know, I do r&b, dance, reggaeton, stuff like that to the side But I feel like r&b can be up in in New York I feel I feel like it depends on what what the people want Also, what the blogs and and the radio stations play to It all depends on you guys all depends on the artists too. So what would you say if you had to like Comment on the state of upcoming artists. Well, who do you think is getting the most focus right now? Drill artists in New York. Definitely drill artists But I feel like I feel like we could do better though What I mean by that is like, okay You got the cave flocks. You got the beat loves. They doing that thing You got the ducky beats and stuff, you know, they their music is not actually bad. They actually good They sound good, but it's like some dudes just doing anything on the beat At that point, I feel like you just you just jump it on the train For me when I did Peru, I didn't jump on the train I just felt like it was something I wanted to do And I felt like I could I could put my little sauce on there Speaking of trains, I heard something real interesting one of your songs I I wish I could remember which song it was, but you was like big bird I said, oh, yeah, yeah. Get down low. So I mean, I feel like I said, I said, um, big Like like uh, Cory LaRae Like oh, I think that's correct. Yeah, big Okay, well, I feel like even with that there are some trends that could even with your sounds I feel like like I said before looking at different stages of music of your song specifically It seemed like it kind of followed like what was happening now So not necessarily saying that your music has like a drill type of feel But I feel like it has that melodic feel that's still kind of like You on timing like I don't know. It kind of gave me like a little nice little feel. I guess I would say I don't know but But you say that it's all up to your versatile you make whatever you want. So what can we expect like Coming up because I know Peru is going up. But what else is in the words like I'm working on a project right now and in this project it's Oh man, so many different sounds Of course, there's drill in there a couple drill a couple real hip hop Because I care about real hip hop What's real hip hop to you real hip hop is just Little cool rap And it does it could still be it could still be swaggy You could still have some flow to it But it's still being lyrical like talking about real stuff Now, you know, no cap rap nothing like that You know, so I feel like I have little cool rap I have the reggaeton songs You know dance all r&b, but then I got the real hip hop stuff at the same time. Okay So, who do you think like your audience is? Who would you say everybody because I can reach everybody I can reach everybody and like I feel like my music is what new york really is Because if you really think about what new york is the diversity of what new york is Really think about you got the west indian people. You got the spanish people You got black people You got people who live in the hood that like drill music. I bet I feel like I could hit everybody or even with pop music too. I could do pop music too So, who would you like if you had to name five people that you would like to collaborate? Who would they be? Okay, so I have I have two lists for me if I can if I can add What's the tool so I want to say artists that are Like at my level or maybe a little bit higher up and coming I've been coming artists and then artists that are already there like mainstream mainstream artists So for mainstream, I would say drake um I would say little baby little dirk Unwell, he's a reggaeton artist. Okay, and then one of my favorite artists right now is a sentry sea Sentry sees it from the uk. Okay. Nice. So that's what I like So I listen to a lot of like different different diverse music and stuff I'll say up and coming. I like lola brook a lot. She nasty out the city She nasty. I like lola brook young devrin. Um, I want to work with the girlco too. So you in tune with the female rap? I'm in tune. I'm in tune. I feel like they nasty like I saw they on the radar thing crazy The freestyle I'm not even gonna lie. They rapping better than dudes I mean, I've heard I'm being truthful. I've heard that quite a bit like this is the time for female rap No, thanks. What do you think it is though? Like what is it about their like female rap that you think that they're doing right now better than I was talking to my girl about this, right? Can we watch like on the radar? By the way, you guys should have me on there. I got this crazy freestyle. I just had to put that in there but um But seriously though, like me and my girl was talking about it and she was like as a woman She feels like women take things like take things more serious or very particular about the way they do things So maybe that might be a reason but I just feel like the girls are the girls are doing that thing Girls are doing things definitely out the city Definitely doing that thing. So have you always been in tune or is it just now that they're going up that? I feel like I feel like since I got in that car accident I started being more in tune like just with music Just understanding what what I'm doing What other people are doing You know, why are they big and why I'm not there yet, you know, and then I started learning So what would you what were some things that you took from that? Because you just say you were looking at like why were people certain people big and you weren't so what were a couple of Things that you would say you took from that as to what you could improve. So for me, right? So for me, I feel like you can have the talent You could be you could be nice. That's how I feel about myself. I feel like I can rap I can sing I could do a little Spanish. I could do you know, I could hit different areas But it's about your marketing At the end of the day, if you don't got your marketing, you're just a dude on the street Just a dude that didn't get recognized I feel like it's about your marketing. Oh, how can I for example, perfect. This is perfect, right? I'm gonna talk to the town. Let's do this interview. Let me get my face out there. All right. That's marketing Let me do this tiktok video. Let me pay some people do this tiktok stuff. That's marketing instagram marketing It's just another way of getting your face out there, right and come because the media Media and also like, um, the internet is so big You can hit so many different fan bases and everything. Yeah, cuz So it's like for example, like The reason why peruse so big I had this kid do a tiktok video He had a million views Right To the point where now my song is not just in new york, but it's in los angeles. I had people hitting me up from Los angeles. I don't even know you but it's fire. It's fire Seeing the support you from texas people from chicago alana you from overseas They play my part. They play my song at a at a party overseas So it's like that's also the reason why I said it's gonna be stronger the summer Why not me and you you like right before you said that I was gonna ask you how Important you think tiktok has been To like assisting in your level up Because I think that a lot of music that's trending Especially like in new york, like you get some traction on tiktok You were just talking about like getting sturdy and all of that stuff like that's really was getting people's eyes So you would say that it's been a good marketing He's like wait The best I'm not even gonna lie like if you really up and coming and trying to do your thing Yo go and do that tiktok. Okay. It might be because in the beginning I didn't want to do it But let's point back to mom again. She told me. Yes. She was like mom always knows She was like go do the tiktok try the tiktok baby try the tiktok I did it and look what happened now. We're here. Nice. See mama always knows So who's on your team? Obviously your mom is I would say my mom my girlfriend Rocco, which is my engineer. Okay. He worked with like timberland NBA young boy. He's nasty with his Um and use the same the same engineer. I use the same engineer and if it's not him I I record myself. Okay. I know how to record myself and stuff. Okay, so and then shout out to um One of the first producers that ever produced me. Um, snooper fiasco. He's from queens So, you know, I shout out them. So I say like that's my team Okay, like people who I worked with in the past and also gene gray shout out to my mentor somebody I wouldn't be doing music if it wasn't for him. Okay, so that's dope. You have a lot of people that I seems like support you Yeah, support now. I wouldn't I'm curious. Is ug like your government name? No, it's not. No Okay, so I can talk about my real name. I mean, you don't even have to talk about your real name I want to explain something. I want to explain something. Let me let me do my thing. Go ahead. Go ahead. Do your thing Do your thing. So my real name. I'm just gonna say my last name. So my last name is Castillo, right? Okay. And Castillo In English means castle, right? So it's funny one time was like Why? You know something like my name is Castillo, right? Castle, so I'm gonna be the king You know, I just feel like you manifest good stuff good stuff is gonna come back to you like I'm gonna be the king Okay, everything. So then where do Eugene Black come from? Okay, so Eugene Black came from so my dad Was trying to start like like he always wanted to be like an R&B singer But he can't sing But he was like he always wanted to be an R&B singer, but he couldn't sing So he was like if I was an R&B singer, I'll call myself Eugene Black So then later on I started doing music and stuff. He told me this when I was young So later on when I started doing music and stuff. I was like Oh, I should call myself Eugene Black. You know, like a legacy exactly Okay, exactly because I was wondering like I don't know. It's not like a real name, right? Yeah, because I'm like I was gonna ask like how important do you think an artist's name is to their brand? It is because I Not to say that the name is bad. It's not a bad name at all, but like when I think Eugene And then I hear like the music It's two different things. Like I'm not so what what do you think of when I hear Eugene? I'm thinking like First of all, I'm thinking SpongeBob But no, I'm thinking like Some kind of like so full blues Like blues like yeah, like deep in your feelings Like Eugene No But exactly what you just did like oh you like that Eugene song. That's the feeling I want to give people Okay. Oh, you're like, oh, yeah, you heard about Eugene Gene Black about to be something. Oh Eugene It's eccentric. Exactly. So We know what you got coming up You got a project in the works. Is there anything else for 2022 that you see Working for yourself outside of your project outside of Peru anything else you got on your list I want to do a lot of modeling God did modeling to pass, you know to support my brand and stuff like modeling and acting Because like me and my girl does like a lot of tiktok videos a lot of skits I like and even if you ever watched my music videos a lot of skits a lot of A lot of movies. I feel like people don't make music videos how they used to I feel like everybody's just on the corner. Da da da da. It's cool. Like that's raw It's raw, but I feel like you could put a little spice to that Yeah, because even in my video see me like yeah, I was on the corner But I made a I made a whole idea to it. So it makes sense, you know Okay, that's dope. That's dope. So we definitely looking forward to seeing what you got in works No, definitely. So is there anything else that you want to talk about before we wrap up Okay, so all I'm gonna say is that number one Peru song of the summer, right? We already know this number two I'm hungry. I'm hungry. I'm starving. I've been waiting for this morning. I've been waiting for this I manifest the talk of the town. I manifest the honorator Manifesting from the block. I'm gonna get it. I'm gonna get it by the end and we'll be rooting for you Nothing is unattainable. So thank you once again for coming here. So happy to have you shout out your social media handles So, you know, my instagram is Eugene black 22. Let me say it again Eugene black 22 and my tiktok is Edad black 22 and you already know the vibes is your boy. Yo ego get it All right, and we out of here