Release Date: September 25, 2020 Genre: Hip-Hop Label: Lost Poet Records Rapper/Songwriter Raz from Toronto, Ontario, is continuing to make his presence known within the Canadian music and Canadian rap scenes with his brand new aspiring single, “Be Okay.” His brand new single is an infectious blend of hip-hop and pop-rock music that’s soaked in the warmth of the summer sun. Raz wrote the track as an ode to the summer while intertwining the hopefulness and some positivity out of the darkness of this wildly turbulent year into song. “Be Okay” was co-produced by music producers Taabu and Andrew Falcao after Raz heard the original production in an Instagram post from Falcao. Raz and Falcao had one sitting in the studio with Taabu to finalize the instrumental on the single and recorded the vocals as well in one recording session.
“This track [Be Okay] is an ode to summer and a reminder that we all experience highs and lows. But if summer and nature find a way to come back, giving us joy and warm weather each year, then maybe we can pick ourselves up and get through this struggle on the way to our next triumph,” says Raz.
Raz started writing poetry, as well as spoken word at the age of sixteen, where his love of music strengthened and his will to start a career in the music industry began. After graduating from the Kinesiology Program at Western University, Raz declined his acceptance into a Doctorate Program. He left his hometown of Toronto on a one-way ticket abroad to Germany to perform with a band he met while in Australia during his time on a Study Abroad Program for school. Ever since this touring trip to Germany, his music career has continued to blossom to where it is today.
Raz draws his inspirations from a mix of stadium rock and conscious hip-hop in the likes of Imagine Dragons, Thirty Seconds to Mars, Coldplay, Knaan, Lupe Fiasco, Lauryn Hill, and Talib Kweli, to name a few. It allows Raz to craft, shape, and develop his unique sound. He has dubbed himself under the genre-blend of his as “stadium hip-hop” and delivers a type of music intended to pull you into his hopeful, positive messages in his songs, with the intent to leave you with some food for thought. At the very least of it all, an anthemic or infectious hook to get stuck in your head. This is all evident on “Be Okay.”
“I hope you take a sense of positivity and inspiration from this track. Sometimes it may feel like we’ve been down forever, especially during this crazy year, but looking to the resilience of nature can inspire us to pick ourselves up and try again,” Raz continues.
Raz has quite a respectable resume so far to date. He has written music with Yusuf Islam, also known to many as Cat Stevens. He recently released a collaboration with Isam B of the rap group Outlandish titled “My World,” which garnered international attention with over 135,000 views on Youtube and over 70,000 streams on Spotify. Raz has also opened for many notable names in Toronto in the likes of Brother Ali, Shawn Hook, performing alongside Mustafa The Poet, and has finally opened for comedians Mo Amer and Hasan Minjah. His singles “My World, “Myself,” and now “Be Okay” are all gonna be featured on his upcoming debut EP, One Time for Your Mind.
Check out more from Raz: