The South has a lot to say and a lot of great music to hear. Let me introduce to you an artist where location means everything to his sound: Czar Josh.
In the beginning, Josh details that he comes from a musical and artistic family, so naturally he wanted to try his hand in music and arts.
“I grew up with a stutter but I always had something to say. I heard that in some way scientifically, the brain allows fluent speech when music is involved – similarly how the brain computes beats and rhythm.”
He’s a proud Georgia boy to the fullest; consecutively repping the Eastside, Southside and the Southwest. While growing up in the early 2000’s, he witnessed Atlanta and its culture become the center of music firsthand, especially for hip hop and rap.
It was inescapable and everybody wanted to be a rapper or be around rappers. I studied my favorite rappers and just kept at it over the years until I became good and now I’m fye.
Who were those rappers he was studying? Southern stars ranging from OutKast, Goodie Mob, TIP, Jeezy and CyHi (GA), J. Cole and Lute (NC), UGK (TX) and Big K.R.I.T (MS). Josh proudly represents his influences with his intricate storytelling flow and cultural references.
I have fully begun to embrace the title and the responsibility, and the culture of being a southern rapper. I wanna make the soundtrack to being a southern nigga: trying to make some money, build a family, break generational curses, drink and have fun, be independent, and follow God through it all. Also coming from a “down-south” upbringing, a lot of my songwriting is influenced by a juxtaposition of rap, blues, country, jazz, southern rock, gospel and the old classic records. You know, the stuff you would hear from parents, grandparents or elders. The southern rapper tradition, I feel, has always been to bundle all those influences up into something that’s relatable, that niggas can play in the car, and that can get them through the day.
You can definitely hear those influences from his latest release – “Tha In-Between”. His manager Travis suggested doing a tape that had a more lo-fi sound considering some of his earlier popular songs in his catalog were more in that style.
Josh didn’t shy away from the challenge due to his personal love for the production style and the eagerness to add his own rap spin. The result actually came out to be like a juxtaposition of lo fi, vintage pop, and throwback Outkast.
“I was joking with my engineer, Nanci of NTG Engineering, that this sounded like ‘80’s cocaine music’.
He came up with the title “Tha In-Between” essentially through his own life experiences. Moving through this phase of “growing pains, leaving a past life of hardship, toxicity, dumb ass decisions, being young and impressionable”, – and now in pursuit of this new life he wants alignment and discipline and for life to fall in place. “But I’m not there yet. I’m in between the two.”
So let’s get into the inspo behind the collaborations on his tape:
Eluzai started out as a mutual friend between Josh and his good friend Chiyanne who Eluzai was dating at the time and as of now are married. “I met him in 2019 in Philadelphia while shooting a music video. He pulled up with Chiyanne, took some dope BTS shots and from then, we became good friends and just kept supporting each other. Eluzai is also really in the lo-fi scene. Chiyanne was always telling us to make music together, so we finally did years later in 2023. I’m glad we did it and it’s crazy how all the pieces came together.”
Zach Paradis is first a good friend and then he’s a great artist and a very talented engineer. He used to live in Atlanta but now he lives in LA. “We collaborated on my last project, “LongLiveUs”, so Rinse and Repeat came naturally. I knew the approach I wanted to take with the verses, but couldn’t crack the hook by myself so I shot the track to him.”
“Amber Enadeghe has grown to become a great friend and big sister to me over the past few years. I actually met her through my older brother doing videography, which is another one of my passions. Tag Applied For was a track I wrote a few years ago when things just weren’t going right in life. I felt kind of stuck, wasn’t making the money I wanted then, things just weren’t clicking, I was depressed. People in my life were telling me to change my mindset and to be grateful for where I was and build with what I had. So I just applied that to my life and made that song for niggas in similar positions, trying to make things shake and still trust in God.
Amber, along with her visual art, is also a spoken word artist. We’re both from Atlanta and love OutKast so I jokingly asked her if she wanted to be my “Big Rube”. Big Rube is the legendary spoken word artist featured on early OutKast, Dungeon Family and Society of Soul records. Collaborating with Amber was like communing with my big sister about life issues and also paying homage to Atlanta hip hop tradition. Amber is so talented and a kind soul, I was just happy people get to hear and experience that for themselves.”
When speaking on what comes next after The In-Between – he actually speaks about first dialing back in his discography. He wants to drop a deluxe version to his mixtape, “LongLiveUs” with some bonus tracks that’s set to mark his new musical transition. After that, he’s giving us what he calls “the spiritual successor” to Tha In-Between, titled “Grounding”.
I truly believe this will reach and resonate with a lot of people. It’s an collaborative EP about healing and fully enjoying all of life. A lot of different sounds on that project. It’s produced by Joe Ayindé, and will be featuring singer JIRÚ. Both of these are slated to drop in 2024.” He also details a rap/R&B EP in progress that he affectionately describes as “CZAR & B”. “I’m currently still creating for that and trying to get some of Atlanta’s R&B faves on that. It’s an album deep in the background that I’m conceptualizing, hopefully for my debut.
For his last remarks Czar shares:
I really appreciate all the love and support that I’ve gotten thus far, especially here at home in Atlanta. I truly feel like I’m here to stay and I don’t take that lightly. I love this city and I honor community for real. And all I want to do is offer my art as another thing this city can be proud of. I’d be okay if nobody outside the South knew me as long as the South knows me.
There’s a lot of new music coming soon so stay tuned! ” You can follow him on all socials @czarjoshmusic and check out Tha In Between on all major streaming platforms now and subscribe to his text/email list by texting “CZAR” to (678) 501-7793.
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