I started rapping when I was 13 years old, so it’s been 20 years. Up to that point I had heard rap before but like I was never interested in that being a form of creative expression for me, then Jay-Z’s video “Hard Knock Life” came out and that was like the most inspiring thing ever to me at that point. You know he’s rapping, he’s driving this blue Bentley and the sample was really infectious, the hook was memorable. Up to that point I knew I wanted to be an entertainer (actor or a writer or whatever) but rap seemed more accessible. I didn't have to go to school for it, it was something that kind of came natural to me. Shortly after seeing Jay-Z’s Hard Knock Life video I wrote my first rap and I’ve been writing and rapping ever since.

Vice approached me about an interview and I realized that my story is important enough to share. That same year I had met Tomás Alvarez, he’s a social worker based in Oakland and he had started a non-profit called Beats, Rhymes and Life. He basically brought hip hop and mental health together to build this new platform, his form of therapy is having his clients freestyle. When I told him my story he was like “Dude, you need to tell that to the world. There's a lot of people who could benefit from hearing your story”. At the time no one knew I was struggling, except for my one friend who actually referred me to a therapist. No one I knew talked about mental health, talked about therapy, talked about depression. In the black community there is a huge stigma, at least for me in my experience. I had heard white kids talk about going to their therapist, it was just normal, but in the black community it wasn’t normal. Once I found out the benefits [of therapy] it saved my life. I don't know how I would have been had I not been to therapy, I still go. I almost felt like I discovered this life hack for my condition “Oh shit I just meet with somebody, tell them what's going on in my head and they tell me like why I’m acting this way, what things I can do to cope and then I’m good?! ” So fuck this not wanting to talk about it  and all these misconceptions about it being better to keep it bottled in. Fuck that, I feel like there's no reason at all it should be like frowned upon if you talk about it publicly. In my opinion hip hop is the most influential vehicle in music in the world and so I wanted to use hip hop as a vehicle to start the conversation.Since I’ve started this advocacy work I’ve lost friends to mental illness and suicide. Now I feel compelled to talk about it, if it’s going to save somebody’s life so be it. I will talk to whoever is willing to listen; I’ve been on VICE, BBC and I’ve been on pretty much all the media here in Cleveland. I am willing to talk to anyone about it, especially if it’s a large platform to continue the conversation. I think it’s an important conversation needing to be had.

When friends of mine confide in me there's always five things I always recommend they do. The first thing I recommend are breathing exercises. Close your eyes, inhale, hold for 3 seconds and exhale. Do that continuously for like 5 continuous breaths. I do that a lot to calm down when I have to deal with my anxiety, I don’t know any creative that doesn’t deal with anxiety. Breathing is definitely something that's important.Meditation. So there's a million different ways to meditate now a days whether you listen to different podcasts on youtube, use an app like talkspace, there are all kinds of ways to meditate. Meditation is a great way to get centered. There's actual guided meditations specific for different mental conditions such as anxiety and depression. I’m spiritual so meditation is definitely important.Third would be physical activity. I’ve actually started working with a personal trainer. I’ve worked with trainers in the past but I really like locked in and my depressive episodes/days have been few and far between. I credit this to staying active. The thing I learned from my therapist is that exercise gives you the endorphins to combat that down, depressive mood. The thing that people need to understand is that depression is like a cold. When you’re feeling down or feeling sad it’s not you it’s just your mind, there's nothing wrong with that. It’s a common so exercising is the third recommendation.The fourth one is eating right. My fiancée is a Zumba instructor, she is very conscious of what she ingests. As a result my diet has changed since we started dating. I cook a lot more, I’ve grown to love quinoa and cauliflower and all these healthy foods I never thought I would love. I think cooking is actually therapeutic. One of the biggest things I would tell anyone with depression or any mental illness is to try eating healthier for like a month and see how it makes you feel. I like Wendy’s Baconator as much as the next guy, it’s my all time favorite burger, I love it! But if you eat too much of that stuff it brings down your mood, weighs down your body, there’s chemicals they inject directly into that food that affects your brain and your mood. Whereas if you are eating a healthier diet, staying away from greasy foods that are super processed, you feel lighter, you feel energetic, you’re able to get around a little bit better. So healthy and eating right, that's another step.The fifth thing I always recommend is to verbalize it. Talk about it whether you’re talking to a therapist, a friend, or even to yourself (journal,use your phone/voice memo) but verbalize it. You don’t want to keep all those thoughts bottled in. One other important thing I would say is that we don’t own our thoughts. They are the equivalent of clouds in the sky that come into your view, you have the ability to grab these clouds and observe them. You can sit there and observe them meditate on them, try to understand them or try to poke holes in them. Bring them down, observe them and let them go.One of the other things I recently suggested to a friend was to give the illness a name. I recently read a book by Elizabeth Gilbert, the author of Eat Pray Love, she talked about giving your creative side a name. I gave my creative side a name, Noah. So like when I’m in the studio I’m like “Noah I’m here, it’s time for you to start doing your part, it’s time for you to start showing up and showing out.” So I told my friend “The same way I do that for my creative genius, give the monster, the mental illness a name and talk to it. Like ‘alright dude I got shit I got to do, if you want to hang around that’s fine but I got stuff to do, if that’s not something that sounds interesting to you then you can always leave’.” It’s just an empowering thing to look at it objectively, it’s not you, that’s the thing you have to remember.Finally it's tough to be in an environment where you don’t have that support from your family or friends. I would say find that support system, find friends that you feel comfortable sharing personal information with. Find people who experience the same condition or know how to deal with it and aren’t going to judge you or look down on you for it. I would have conversations with my friends and tell them “There may be certain times when I just need to be around you, I might not even talk that much but I just need to be around you because I’m having one of my depressive episodes or I’m just having a bad day”, so my friends get it. My fiancée has also been a big support. I would not have quit my job and I would not have followed my dreams without her support. Find that support system that really cares, people who are willing to sit there while you’re going through your issues and help you out, give you a couch to sleep on, or a shoulder to lean on whatever the case maybe. Find that support system that really believes in you, I can’t tell you how much that meant to me. I don’t know where I’d be if I didn’t have someone who believed in me that much.

I’m working on a new project called “I Like to be Wierd”. I’m working with the co-producer of “Layers” and my last EP, Perry Wolfman, he is a musical genius. The songs are pretty much done, we just have to fine tune a couple of things.I’m trying to do more special performances; more with live bands, unconventional hybrid performances with different types of music, different types of bands that you wouldn’t expect from a hip hop artists. Also, I would like to start performing outside of Cleveland as well as taking Peel Them Layers Back to the next level. I would like to do workshops not just in Cleveland but in Dayton, Ohio, Columbus and eventually bringing it to different cities across the nation. I was also interviewed by another international mental health publication, Marbles, which is based in Edinburgh, Scotland. They contacted me for their very first issue. Eventually I would like to go over to Europe with the mental health work. I would eventually like to establish a non-profit with Peel Them Layers Back, I would be able to get more funding behind some of the efforts I am doing.