Certified Fresh: Haddy Racks – Bronx Still Creating It
“I’m jumping on the bandwagon of people that’s putting out meaningful music,” says Haddy Racks. The Bronx MC is no hapless wave rider, but instead is pushing through the game as an indie artist with a potent debut album, Resumé, and an ever growing fanbase.
To help push his album, in September, Haddy kicked off #Mixtagram, a “visual mixtape,” and is dropping a second round starting Sept. 30. A vintage work ethic with new age social media savvy puts this rapper, who also can boast a Kay Slay co-sign, ahead of the game.
Find out more about Haddy Racks below and on the flip.
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Who: Haddy Racks, born Harold Easterling, 29, and repping the Bronx. His debut, Resumé, is out now and features Dave East, Bugatti and more.
Credentials: Back in 2004 he was battle rapping and caught the eye of producer Buckwild, of D.I.T.C fame, and for a minute Haddy was part of a group under his tutelage called Kurupp Money Inc. That’s a guy whose taste you can probably trust.
Fun Fact: Thank BIG. “In high school I used to rap a lot of Biggie Smalls rhymes and stuff like that. Once I seen the attention I would get it made me write my own rhymes.”
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Photos: Dove Clark
How long were you working on your debut?
I been working on Resumé my whole life. That’s everything I’ve been dealing with for the past 28 years, that’s what I been living with. In the last year or two I actually started recording. I recorded like 60 songs and those are the 10 we narrowed down. It’s so much more to come after that.
How did this concept of the “Mixtagram” come together?
A friend of mind told me to do the Monica “So Gone Challenge” but I never wanted to do what everyone else was doing. I seen people I know grandmothers doing one. [laughs] I was in Vegas one day and I wrote one, put up a 60 second clip and the response I got was crazy. I said this would be dope if I could freak it, give it a twist. Well, let’s make it a mixtagram, a mixtape on Instagram.
What are you bringing to the game that no one else is?
I’m just giving you my story. I’m bring you into the world of Haddy. I’m jumping on the bandwagon of people that’s putting out meaningful music. East coast music has been under a rock for so long, we always was known for putting out music with substance. It hasn’t been relevant in recent years, everything has been club club club, nobody cares about the people that struggle are dealing with. That’s not reality.
Why’d you drop Resumé independently?
I think the era that we in right now, when you see dudes like Lil Boosie and all of these artists that are actually make careers out of music independently it just tells me that I can do. I see a dude like Nipsey Hussle go out there and actually create a life off of his work and actually be able to live the way he wants to live, off of his music, doing the same thing that I’m doing—music, rap.
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