ScienZe Drops Off "Water to Wine" ft. Blu, Discusses Education & Spirituality

There’s a level of purity with Brooklyn’s ScienZe that we’re not offered too much. Refreshing from all angles, you know? Maybe you don’t know. If so, welcome. I think it was Toine on a DTMD record a few years ago that said something along the lines of, “if you want to get sampled in the future you better start loving people” – in reference to the lack of love and respect on the radio today. That gets brought up here because ScienZe is an example of maturity. He represents love on all levels, from respecting women to respecting this culture and hip-hop’s timeline that paved the way for him to create today. Oh, and most importantly respecting himself. None of this is being pulled out of thin air might I add. It’s all gathered from listening to his music and watching his career.

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It’s special when the content in one’s music adds up. I ended up spending an hour or so with ScienZe while in Brooklyn in the middle of one of our unrealistic heatwaves that we were microwaved in. Running around with Blu and Matt Diamond (Coalmine Records) while they were on their press run for Titans in the Flesh, Blu had to link back up with ScienZe for his cd collection and to say peace before he left town. The few of us ended up in Kith looking at sneakers, talking about books and bullshitting around the area. In that short amount of time it all added up. The content in his music actually matched him as a person, in his setting. That’s rare today. I guess this whole story lead up to us admiring ScienZe’s authenticity as an artist.

He was kind enough to drop off his latest single “Water to Wine” featuring Blu, his friend and frequent collaborator of many years. The production is credited to Black Space, who aside from offering beautiful palettes like this one here is an active singer and emcee/songwriter. It’s a taste at what’s to come with ScienZe’s forthcoming Kind of Dessert EP. The extended play will act as a follow-up record to Good Food, his latest body of work from back in May. It’s dope if you missed it. You might want to eat more too. Hopefully healthy eating.

We invited ScienZe to weigh in on a few things while dropping off the new single. Hope you enjoy the conversation. Peace and love:

Good to catch up with you again, and happy belated. Tell me a little bit about the forthcoming EP.

Peace! Thank you. The forthcoming EP is ‘Kind of Dessert.’ Originally I wanted to do a Deluxe album, but I want to give the people a whole new experience with this one. A second course.

It’s no secret that you live with a set of spiritual principles. It leaks into your records and your overall aura in person. Do you think this is a quality that’s lacking today and that more people in general could benefit from (in and out of music)?

I don’t think it’s a quality that is lacking in this day and age. I’m familiar with a couple of artists that have principles they stand by and beliefs that shine through their art respectively. I know we’re actually in a progressive time where more and more artists are mentioning God in their music. Before, in my opinion, mentioning your belief in the Most High could put you in a category of “Christian rapper” etc lol. Nowadays, the arts, specifically Hip-Hop welcomes the individual, their perspectives, ideals, views, in the name of creativity. I love it.

I didn’t know much about you and your music until the first Divine ScienZe record came out. From there I backtracked to find out that since 2010 or so, into present day, you’ve been very consistent.

Indeed, indeed. God is good. I was able to keep the music coming.

A good friend of ours Rogue, and a few others, told us amazing things about the live performance the other night at Friends & Lovers in Crown Heights. Generally speaking, is the live performance element important to you?

The live performance is very important. I remember chopping it up with King I Divine one day like, “bro, I think we got this music thing down. I think we should focus our energy on live performances.” At the time we knew we were great at performing and brought great energy, but I think there’s still more that you could do during a live performance, especially in Hip-Hop, to make the experience a greater one for the audience and yourself. The live performance is what makes a fan, a loyal fan. It’s an experience that you and the crowd share. It’s the time you get to make the people feel you – whether it be 10 mins or 20.

Outside of recording music for yourself and others, education seems to be an important part of your life. Talk to us about your current endeavors surrounding the children and the neighborhood.

Education has always been an important issue to me. For years I travelled the country with some great friends of mine for a movement called “The Hall Pass Tour.” The tour was founded by Holley Monelle and Janelle Bechdol, and our mission was to teach children of different ages, backgrounds, circumstances how to recognize their talents, strengths, and inner genius and how to utilize these qualities for obtaining a specific goal or dream. We wanted to instill in them that no dream is too big or unattainable. We still do. We basically supplied the guide for them to unlock what was already inside them. One big thing we wanted them to understand was, the idea that education is a hinderance to pursuing the arts isn’t true. What’s important is utilizing your education to push your art and your dream to where it needs to be.

Lets talk about Good Food, your latest body of work. It made me want to eat a bunch of healthy food and be the best possible human being that I can be. Excellent release.

LOL. Good Food did good for you then! It was a very very fun record… I literally recorded that recorded that record around the world… only project I can say that about. Some records were recorded in Europe while on tour back in 2013. Came back home and finished it off here in Brooklyn. It holds a very special place in my heart. Some special people in my life helped inspire that record and bring it forth. I intended it to be good for any diet, and it is.

All Praises Due to the Most High, and thank you.

ScienZe

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