Today we’d like to introduce you to Binta Zang.
Hi Binta, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
Well, as a kid I definitely had a connection to music- as every musician ever would say. When I was younger I didn’t know that the connection would evolve into me creating my own music. Really, music was a safe place for me. I didn’t grow up in a home where I could really express myself too much so I never really knew how to do that fully. Through the different music, I would listen, to it would evoke the emotions I couldn’t express and through another artist’s lyrics, I would be able to feel them, and process those emotions, and that was ranging from songs that made me feel happy and carefree, to music that allowed me to lean into my depression and even shed tears. The music allowed me to grow through these emotions, rather than having to suppress them all the time. It does amaze me when people tell me my music helped them feel like they weren’t alone and is something they can relate to on an emotional level. It’s crazy how I came up listening to music that made me feel that way, and now my music does that for other people. Fast forward to me at age 18-19, I was already writing poetry, a big shout out to Ms. Truskin for introducing me to poetry in high school! At this time it was really popular on social media for people to write covers or freestyle to popular rap song instrumentals and upload it online. One day I thought to myself, ” I think I can do this…” and I wrote my first verse. The rest is history, I never stopped rapping from there. Poetry took the backseat and will always be the root of my career, but something about flowing and rhyming over a beat just really does it for me.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I wouldn’t describe anything about my upcoming as “smooth”. I don’t even think that’s realistic to be honest, but that doesn’t have to be a bad thing. In my situation, being an independent artist, it absolutely starts with trial and error. You shouldn’t be afraid to f*ck up a few times, cause I’ll tell you what, those f*ck ups are key lessons. Sometimes you got to f*ck up once or twice just so you can learn what NOT to do, or what doesn’t work for you. That’s how you grow into wisdom for real, that’s how you learn to navigate certain spaces because once a similar situation approaches you, you’ll be able to identify that and choose how you’ll react to it with the knowledge you gained from the past experiences. That goes for just life in general really. Musically I’ve had to move around a bit in order to find what works for me, whether that was what studio I’d record at, what sound engineers I felt understood my sound, creating a budget to pay for things such as beats, photographers and videographers for recording and editing, all those things add up. The people and places that worked in my favor stuck around and the rest fell through but I don’t feel I lost anything by simply giving it a try.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am a hip-hop songwriter and performer. All of my lyrics are 100% penned by me, and I’ve actually co-wrote a few songs for other artists as well. My friends would always tell me I have a natural stage presence and tell me I was just the greatest, but I felt like they just said it to be nice. I started to believe it when complete strangers would approach me both in real life and online, just to tell me how impressed they were with my lyrics and my delivery. I’ve been recording music for about 4-5 years, but I’ve only been performing my songs live for less than a year now. My first time was last July in Los Angeles, a very intimate show. I remember leaving LA thinking to myself, “Well that was alright but I know in my heart I can be better”. So I came home and started going to open mic nights around Denver weekly. In the beginning, I was really hard on myself and felt very sad that I didn’t feel like I performed as well as my peers. I didn’t stay in that mood for too long, instead, I just payed more attention to what it was that I felt like I was lacking, then I would watch my peers as well as professionals, and I would kind of study them in a way, to figure out how I could incorporate that energy into my own performances. Within this last year, I’ve gotten to perform in Los Angeles, Denver, Houston, and Atlanta, and even booked my first couple of paid performances, which is a HUGE accomplishment for me. I am very proud of the way I’ve been developing and seeing how me just being myself and telling my story has opened up so many doors for me, and still is!
Can you share something surprising about yourself?
Something I don’t think many people know about me is that I am very much struggling with my mental health. See I’m not really the type to show my whole hand, ever. So when I say I’m alright, I’m probably not doing so well, and if I admit that I’m not feeling so well, I’m most likely really drowning in negative emotions. In the future, I plan to use my platform to bring even more awareness to the importance of mental health. I think most of us understand it, but I personally would like to present more information on what self-care really looks like. For me, it has to be an everyday thing, if not I am liable to dive headfirst into a downward spiral of me being mean to myself and not taking care of my temple. It’s so easy for me to fall into that negativity and self-doubt, and incredibly hard for me to pull myself back out of those spaces. Things like journaling, mediation, affirmations, and spending time with people who remind me how much they love and value me are very very important for me. So if you are someone who knows me personally and you’re reading this interview I’ll just say, “Check on your strong friend sometimes”. I probably won’t want to talk about it, but I promise it means the world to me just knowing somebody cared enough to acknowledge and check in with me.
Contact Info:
- Email: bintazang12@gmail.com
- Website: https://linktr.ee/BmacForever
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/as.always.bmac/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/binta.zang
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/AsAlwaysBmac
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7pwyuUI9xVh88GsZMk0WdA
Image Credits
Images by: Kwami Zang Michael Board RJ Mello
