Over the summer, the Nyack-based rapper Lucky Me drew attention to his music by talking about drugs, Uggs, and slices of pizza in New City. When we included Lucky Me as one of our People of the Year, several readers informed us of another incendiary act from Nyack—Fire.
The 23-year-old, raspy voiced artist (Gregory Dubuisson on the dotted line) has been penning rhymes since he was 12-years-old and started passing out demo CDs back in his days at Nyack High School. He launched a MySpace page last year, which connected him to several promoters who got him gigs in Manhattan and Atlantic City, opening for Saigon at one point (Entourage fans will remember Saigon, who lives in Nanuet, as Turtle’s protégé). Fire has a deliberate, confident flow, and a gravelly voice that exudes character, but a few of the themes that pop up in his songs—sex, violence, contempt for the law—are bound to cause a stir among some Nyack residents. Especially nettlesome is a song where Fire slams the police, repeating a refrain that talks about proffering an insolent middle finger and a gesturing with his crotch. But more on that after the jump.
Fire’s parents are Haitian, and during his childhood in Central Nyack he wasn’t allowed to listen to rap in the house. However, he inevitably heard hip hop through his friends. In high school, he started listening to 2Pac, Dr. Dre, and, most of all, Biggie. “Biggie was my dude. I mean, I really love that rapper.” He also finds Michael Jackson inspiring because his music reached people around the world, which is essentially what Fire hopes to do.
In his youth, rap served mainly as an outlet for thoughts and emotions. “It was just freedom of expression,” Fire said. “I was just talking about anything I wanted to talk about.” He got more serious about rapping after high school, recording with a local label and eventually putting together his own 20-track album, where he mostly raps over other artists’ instrumentation. This gives him a chance to showcase his flow, and lets listeners compare his rhymes to the original lyrics.
Fire’s MySpace page features songs that riff on the standard fare of sex and drugs (the green kind; none of that New City white stuff*), but the most powerful lyrics are those directed at the cops. “I just don’t like the police. They mistreat me, they harass me,” he said. “I’m just walking down the street and they search my pockets.” He’s had numerous run-ins with the law, and twice gone to jail as a result. He did eight months in Rockland County Jail for armed robbery in 2004 and about 50 days for assaulting a police officer after that. In the first instance, he says that he wasn’t even at the scene of the crime. A friend showed him a knife earlier that day, and his prints ended up all over it. After the robbery, Fire said, that friend fled to Miami. The second arrest took place on Main Street in Nyack where he said an officer punched him and he responded in turn. Although he insists that these instances were a matter of being at the wrong place at the wrong time, he concedes that he’s been involved in plenty of fights over the years. When there were a bunch of people brawling over at the Palisades mall recently, he was “right in the middle of that.”
His lyrics often depict a violent world of fleeting pleasures. In “Down 4 My Block,” he paints a picture of a Nyack that might surprise some residents:
“I’m from Y-A-C-K-T-O-W-N”
Rhyme til I die I don’t pretend,
Smoke mad weed, sip juice and gin,
Stay low-key, keep a gun by the shin.”
Fire may share a bit of lyrical controversy with his peer Lucky Me, but there certainly isn’t any kind of kinship between the two. “He has nothing on me, point-blank, period,” he said. “He can’t do what I do…He wasn’t even rapping by the time I was rapping.” And while Lucky Me is constantly churning out clips on YouTube, Fire isn’t interested in posting amateur music videos. He’s more interested in working on his upcoming album, “The Definition of a Blockstar,” which he hopes to finish by spring 2008. His fans appreciate his focus on songwriting, he said. “Some people lived it and went through it and they can relate to my music, “Fire said. “Some people just like it because it sounds good.”
*This sentence does not imply that anyone in New City, Rockland County, or America, for that matter, uses cocaine.
Gangster, laid back, and full of punch lines that's what you'll get when you listen to FIRE, along with all of that is a crazy rhyme scheme, rough lyrics and a raspy voice delivering it all. But behind that is a man who is a hot head, fun loving party animal, who's influence goes as far back as Michale Jackson and as recent as Jay-Z, Jadakiss and B.I.G. he has the face of hip hop and speaks industry. FIRE comes from a religious family background. Growing up he lived in a low income household, nothing was ever handed to him on a silver platter. He wasn't even allowed to listen to Rap music but FIRE couldn't hide the love he had for the industry and began making music of his own. He has teamed up with several different camps but the one that sealed the deal for him is his very own recent development, ROCKLAND BLOCKSTARS PRODUCTIONZ as the founder and single artist of RBP he is once again calling the shots and conducting his destiny. As for the future he sees his self investing and expanding with RBP so don't be afraid when you see him on top of his own empire with a chain of apparel and design lines. ....Other than his name he is the HOTTEST boy around!!
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