Rio 24K

I LIVE FOR GOD, NOT MYSELF.

You would be hard pressed to find a duplicate of the born again Miami native who goes by the stage name of, Rio 24K. His authenticity of sound and perspective leaves the listener with a satisfyingly unique experience.  Unapologetically honest about his life before and after accepting Christ, he cuts through the filters of conformity. When he had some time to spare, he sat down with Black Rice and did this interview.

THE INTERVIEW

How did God establish or begin his personal relationship with you?

In 2013, I went through a situation where I was in the streets and everything like that and um, I was I guess you can say that I was scamming, drug dealing and exploiting women. I hit a point where I became so empty with things. My cousin, she passed, and another friend of mine, she passed. Two deaths in two months. I became so empty. I began to search and search. First, you search for yourself, self love, and then I just turned to my brother. He's actually active in the church. I spoke with him. Since August of 2013 I started going to church. I was baptized. I started studying the word. I just started building that relationship. I started cutting things out of my life that didn't align with what God had aligned for me.

Are you gifted beyond the music you create?

Yes. I honestly believe that there's more to what I've been given. I don't believe that it's just the music. I believe there is so much more that I can do for God. I do believe the music is a gift. It has reached so many people. They come to me and explain to me that the music has helped them through their walk with Christ. Especially for the ones who knew who I was and who I am today.

Can you tell us a little bit about your creative process?

Well, the creative process for me, it's all about heart. I can go through hours and hours of listening to beats and production, but it's more of a heart thing for me. It's kind of a weird thing, but I let the music speak to me. I lay back and listen to something, and even if  everyone around me says this is hot, this is good, you should get on this.. if I don't hear it or feel it, I can't do it. It's a touch type of feel. Like, I can touch this. I can feel this. Then, I just express myself to it. I mean, a lot of my music is just expression. It's expression of where i was or where I'm at. You can hear so many different songs, although I'm a Christian and I live for God, you're not going to get the happy go lucky. You're gonna get the I'm depressed right now or I'm feeling down right now or I just messed up, and I'm gonna talk about that. Whether it be I need love or I need God's love. There's good stuff today. I'm happy where I'm at with Christ. I'm happy that I made this change in my life. I want to share this with everybody. You just get my emotions when I make my music.

What inspired you to use the samples for some of your songs?

Those samples just actually spoke to me, and like I said, it's a weird thing when I listen to music. It's a weird thing when I listen to music, I don't just listen to music. I get taken to a different world when I listen to music. Like yeah, the person that's rapping on it or talking on it, it just hits that point in the middle of your chest, goes down to your stomach, the goose bumps starts coming up on your arms. That's when you know like this is it. This is what I want to speak to people with. This is what I want to express myself on. Those samples and beats spoke to me, and I just spoke back.

Do you think that popular secular samples help your mission?

Well for me, what it does is, it helps get those who are.. how can I say.. that were like me at one point. not wanting to listen to Christian music. So, when you use something that's popular, a certain type of sound, a certain type of beat that's popular, they actually hear it. Sometimes, that sound hits the younger crowd. Just hearing that sound and then they hear the message. They actually listen to the  words. They listen to the substance that's in it, and that's what grabs them in. People always wanna know what's more to the person, and when you listen to my music you'll see what's more to me is God. Just more.. you see Jesus and how i just want His glory to shine.

What do you hope others will get from your music?

Ultimately I just hope that, I mean the ultimate goal is for people to see Christ in me, see Christ in the music, and see why it's so important if you haven't already taken that step into allowing Christ into your life. I just want people, I'm not gonna sit here and say it isn't all about Christ, but at the same time I still have the passion and the love that I have for music. I want people to see that I'm a lyricist and that I have substance in my music that you can listen to that you can allow any generation to be able to listen to, older or younger or anywhere in between to listen to the music -something that's positive. Like look, we all go through hard times in your life. It doesn't matter where you're from, but as long as you have Christ in the center, you'll be able to get through it. That's basically where I'm at with my music.

Tell us about your favorite artists.

Who I listen to now would be an artist named John Givez. He's a Christian rapper actually. JGivens too, they're cousins. I of course listen to Lecrae, Andy Mineo. My secular artists would be Biggie and 2Pac. Those are the legends. Those are the ones that I mainly listen to. Now, I don't listen to anything crazy. I mean, I listen to a lot of R&B, a lot of old school R&B, Temptations, Isley brothers, Miles Davis. I listen to Adele. I try not to listen to the new stuff, because 1. the new stuff there's a lot of corruption. It's really bad for the spirit. 2. they're not saying anything. I mean, I listen to J Cole and Kendrick Lamar as well, but the rest of the stuff they're not really saying anything for me personally. I just like to listen to substance when I hear music. I like things that challenge me when I listen to it.

What scriptures define you and your mission?

Well, I have two. I can't remember them off the head, but I'm actually going to look it up on my phone. (reading from his phone).

The first one is Joshua 1:9, Have I not commanded you be strong and courageous, do not be afraid, do not be discourage because the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.

The other one is Isaiah 42:6, I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles, to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.

Those are the scriptures that I go back to. When I feel down, I have other scriptures that are used throughout my day, you know memory scriptures. Those are the two that I run back to when I need a reminder of why I'm doing this.

Who do you associate with most in the bible?

I think this is kinda cliche, but King David. King David is.. I just can, feel him. It's like man, is this me writing or is this King David writing? As we go through this walk we make mistakes, and I've made plenty of mistakes. I am nowhere near the perfect Christian. No where near it, I am working everyday. Thank God for grace. Without it we would not be here. I just, I relate to him so much. His emotional side is just, me. I'm such an emotional person. I can go high. I can go low, within two minutes. It's like I have to continue to come back to God and I have to cry. I literally just have tears, like oh God please forgive me or even flipping the script, oh God I'm so grateful. Even when I got the instant message from I don't know who it was. I just knew it was you guys account. I was like man, I'm so grateful, because I was struggling the day before. I was like God, is this what you want from me? Is this what you want from me, because if you don't want me to do this, then I won't do it. Even though this is what I love and this is my dream, I'll walk away. I just want to do what you want me to do. I want my desires to match with Yours. So, King David for me, that's who I feel.. Me and him are the same person.

The Beauty of Freedom

Rio 24K

Venturing out into a world of trilogies and story telling, the always appreciated Miami rapper Rio 24K presents to us his sophomore debut, The Beauty of Freedom. This project is a creative exhibition of audio honesty packaged into three separate cinematic parts. Each portion is set to be released accordingly by the artist. As the day awaited him for the official release of his second album, Rio gave us some of his time, along with an insider's view of what it took to make The Beauty of Freedom.

THE INTERVIEW

What inspired The Beauty Of Freedom?

The Beauty of Freedom was inspired ultimately by my walk with God. The walk of being free from the chains of sin, you know, being saved by Grace, God dying on the cross.. That was the original inspiration, and then just the freedom to be myself. I want others to be themselves and to express their flaws. I don't mind people seeing my flaws. I don't mind people seeing my shortcomings, because spiritually, the process of being like Jesus is a marathon. I just wanted that freedom. There was a point where I felt, as a Christian, that I was chained in and couldn't move. I couldn't be myself. I had to be this guy who had this standard to set for everyone else, but I'm not the standard. A Christian hip-hop artist is not the standard. Your preacher is not the standard. Christ is the only standard. I've found that freedom in the way that I make my music, and I just wanted to share that with everyone else.

I feel like the six songs are an expression. All of them are expressions and emotions from different times, every song but the last song. The last song was about my penmanship. It was a little bit of myself, I can say. It was a little bit of before Christ, and currently with Christ. It's a story about suicide. I felt like with the production of that song, there's a difference, but then I go deeper in the next two parts of this album. 

THE TRACK LISTING

1. Face The World

This song was just a situation of going back to the old neighborhoods, hanging out with everyone and seeing the new dudes. I'm not as around anymore as I used to be. At least in that neighborhood, I'm in my neighborhood hanging out, reaching out and speaking with the people. Face The World was more so like, seeing that, and seeing everything that was going on with the guys in my neighborhood. In my neighborhood there was an indictment that went on. If I didn't give my life to God a year in advance before this indictment took place, I probably could've been in that indictment. Face The World was just going through the problems. In the song I said,

"What's  going on I never seen before/ Youngin's drinkin lean."

Lean is a drug, of course. We weren't like that when we were younger. Now, it's evolving with these guys. Us being Christians, us being ambassadors have to continue to still go out there and reach out to these people. Having the issue with my home, with my father being incarcerated, the FEDS actually taking the home by forcing us to sell it, that can mess with you spiritually. That was just me with God, a lot of prayer went into that time. That was April/ May of last year. At a point, I can say that I lost trust. It was just an overload of things that were happening in my life. I found myself crying out to God, trusting in God, getting back up in courage feeling like I needed to face the world. So, when I heard the beat (my cousin actually sent it to me) and told me that he could hear me on it. I wrote it in like fifteen minutes. I went to the studio that same day and I just mopped it out right then and there. That's one of the first songs that I did for the whole project. It ended up track number one.

2. Jump Out The Gym

The funny thing about Jump Out The Gym was, I didn't like the song. I didn't like it all. It was another one of those songs where I was like, man this is a tight beat. It took another fifteen minute writing process to complete it. Then, I was like, this is tight. The message, of course, was to call people higher. I was like, nah, people are not gonna understand what I mean by jump out the gym. People are not gonna understand certain parts that I'm saying. The beat is maybe a little bit too trap, a little too southern. That's the southern bass down here in the south. We have that sound down here. So, I'm like people are not gonna understand that. People are not gonna like it. Around that time of Jump Out The Gym, I was feeling trapped, but I had to be who I was as an artist. I want to express my sound. I don't want to feel like I have to conform to a commercial type of sound or Christian hip hop type of sound. I just wanted to be free in the process of creating music. Part two of The Beauty of Freedom, gets a whole lot deeper.

3. Easy (Quotable)

"Soul searchin' tell me where it's at/

My dawg, he move the rocks like a quarterback/ 

Pray for the hood, we takin' corners back/

I pray that God intercept like a cornerback/

Got homies fightin' indictments/

In them streets ain't really nothing exctin'/

Tell social media my God alive/

Do it for my homies doing triple life"

4. You Can Be More (Quotable)

"Another day, another dollar, hate my 9 to 5/

But it's the only way I can survive/

They run away from all they problems, so they gettin' high/

They neglect the One Who watchin' Eagle in the sky/ 

But who am I to talk cuz even evil's in my eyes/

I see them stuntin' in my city get to thinkin' pies/

This for the youth cuz all them rappers do is feed 'em lies/

I'm speaking truth cuz with the fake I don't coincide"

5. Doing Better

The track title is self explanatory. I felt like that song was not your typical Christian hip hop song. I don't think there's anybody.. At least I don't know, if there's anybody going in detail like that. When I first made that song, I was with a group of friends that were not Christian. These guys are still doing what they're doing. They took it in. They were like, wow. I felt like, this is what it's about. I wanna reach Christians. I want Christians to have healthy music. For these guys out here, I want them to understand that, this is the process. This is something that we all go through. I believe we all should share. You have certain lyrics where I say things like,

"A couple months prior to this, I was moving some Hope/ A couple months prior to that, I was moving some coke."

I felt like I had to break that boundary, because it's reaching people. People are messaging me, reaching out to me and it's God truly working. They see it, feel it and tell me to continue to revolutionize the culture. I'm like whoa! It goes pass me now. It's not even me. It's God taking control. I just did my part. Now, God is doing the rest and people are really connecting to it. The music has actually helped me build relationships with certain individuals who want to know the Bible much more, certain individuals who want to come out to the church. Doing Better is just one of those songs, to me I feel like, when you're listening to it, I'm speaking for you. I'm speaking for the listener from before Christ to where they're at with Christ, even if they haven't reached Christ, they just know that they're doing better to making that step to Christ.

Most people don't want to share those things, but I felt confident in God first, and the grace that He's shown me. I was able to spiritually grow, to be free. I can be myself. I can talk how I want to talk. I can do exactly what I want, with God in my corner of course. Like it says in

1 Corinthians 10:23, "Everything is permissible, but not everything is beneficial." 

I understand that.

6. You, Me & The Enemy (Rio's favorite song)

You, Me & The Enemy, it's a story. It was gonna be really bad. I can't lie. I held back. I had to change the ending of it. I feel like You, Me & The Enemy The first verse was about a guy named Ricky. The second verse is me. The third verse is like all three of us (the devil, him and me). I just feel like that first verse was me before I found Christ. He (Ricky) says,

"All I got is depression, all I got is the pain/ From getting all of this money/ And getting all of this fame/ All I got is the women and all I got is some chains/ They don't see nothing wrong, so why do I feel ashamed?"

I feel like a lot times that can be people. It can be a rich man. That can be a person who is doing great in school, a person where both parents are there in any situation. People from the outside look and are like, you have  everything. Then that person inside is like, yeah, but why do I feel so empty? Why do I have all these things, but still feel so empty? I remember me, how I was feeing. It was like, that was me. I had a good amount of things in my life to where the next person would say, you're doing good for yourself. There was something missing in my life. Where we come from, it may feel like going to church, being saved is a form of weakness. The truth is, it's a form of strength. It takes some time for some people to understand how strong you are to admit that you need The LORD and Savior. He (Ricky), goes through that first verse just depressed and asking for help. Finally, he recognizes it and says, although I feel people are weak that go to church. I know I need to be there. I know I need to seek God. I know I need help.

So, he reaches out to me, and then I explain to him, look, I've been in your shoes. Trust me, God has a plan. I use the scripture, Jeremiah 29:11 and keep going from there like you don't have to commit suicide or do anything crazy. God has a plan for you. I love you. Your family loves you. You have a kid that loves you. Don't worry about your friends (because usually, it's your friends that hold us back from taking that step forward in our lives). The third verse is more of the story. I say, you me and the enemy as the devil, but it's really the devil and then Ricky's mind. Like in Luke 4 when Jesus was being tempted by Satan or in that throwback DMX song where he's just battling. I didn't want it to be happy go lucky. I wanted it to be real life. In real life, people die, not everyone makes it in real life. So, as he's dying, he's repenting in the process of dying. He's like the guy who was on the cross with Jesus during His crucifixion repenting at the end of his life. That was my favorite song because it was different and really refreshing to show people my love for the art of music. I have a passion for this. Besides my prayer and quiet time with God, and with my son, this is my passion. This is what I love. I want to give great music.

What advice would you give to new Christians about old friends who haven't experienced God yet?

I would say, it's a whole lot of prayer, a whole lot of quiet time, and number one, I would say, it's discipleship. You need others in your life who are going to help you grow. Certain things need to be cut out. Certain music needs to be cut out. If your old friends are bad for you, you need to cut them off. You can come back and reach back out, but of course, you come back when you're much stronger in the faith. The first two years are the hardest, because that’s when most people usually fall away. Understanding that you're not perfect, and understanding that this is a marathon.

If you could sum up the beauty of freedom with a bible verse, what would it be?

Romans 8:2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.