Q: So you want to go towards the more independent route? Or are you looking for a label deal?
A: “To be honest, I am on INEVERRAPPEDTOBECOOL Records and I can always talk business. And at this point, everything can be started from the bottom up. I feel like every record label that is major currently didn’t start major, you know what I mean? And that’s my goal for my brand (INEVERRAPPEDTOBECOOL) that I created, just to look at all the business possibilities. But as far as selling gaVen heVy to a label, that’s not possible. But with INEVERRAPPEDTOBECOOL Records, I am defenitly willing to collaborate with investors and explore different business opportunities. But as far as someone owning the rights to gaVen heVy and compromising my integrity, I just don’t see that happening.”
Q: How did INEVERRAPPEDTOBECOOL start?
A: “It really started around the time I decided I was going to be a solo artist and do music professionally. With my business and administrative background, the first thing that popped up was to create a platform, create a publishing group that I could release my music with, sell my merchandise and really control how the music is distrubited, marketed etc. So it started around two years ago. I think the name came around like late 2011 or early 2012.”
Q: What’s the reasoning behind not having any social media outlets like twitter?
A: “Like I said it goes back to the marketing and separating yourself from other artists. I feel like now a lot of people, not even artists, just anyone… people fall victim to just being lost in the sauce, and I wanted to create a platform or a culture for whoever comes in contact with my music [that] they’ll find me on gavenhevy.com and that would be my Facebook, my Instagram, and my Twitter, and that would be my way to speak directly to my hevy hitters who hit me up.”
Q: Looking back at your influences being Jay-Z and Nas and the way they made it through selling demos and what not, are you trying to make it like that and stay true to the game?
A: “Exactly, as organic as I can possibly make it is the best way. The grassroots way wehre your consumer can see your growth, there’s nothing better than that; just pressing up your own copies and getting in the streets and selling that product. I am a big supporter of the open mic scene in New York, and just being humble and getting the music out in as many ways as we possibly can. So yeah, I definitely support those guys in the 90’s who were selling music out their trunks; that’s kinda the same thing we’re doing now, but we’re just doing it with the internet as well as the trunks.”
Q: How did the name gaVen heVy come about?
A: “It’s my rap name, but I made sure my rap name is almost identical to my real name. My real name is Godfry Henry. There was a day I woke up, I had a dream, cause at the time I was named something else I went through like several different rap names coming from high school, but at this point I wanted to make sure that my rap name was almost identical to my birth name to represent that there isn’t a gap between me and my rap name. It’s two words just like my real name the initials are both “GH,” and it has a verb, “the hevy factor,” so I wanted to make sure it has an adjective in it to describe my approach and how I am going to pursue music and I wanted to go as “heavy” as possible so I came up with gaVen heVy.”
Q: Do you remember your first rap name?
A: “I think it was something like Speciallist or something like that when I was like 13 or 14, something crazy like that. Then it turned into like Story Tella, something like that. Then it got to this point where its gaVen heVy.”
