Matt Proxy Is Planting His Flag in Underground Music
Inside the journey to his debut album
Artists are shaped by the time and place they grow up in. What does it do to an artist to grow up in America in the 2010s? This question matters. The next chapter in culture will, in part, be shaped by it.
Matt Proxy is one answer.
“Minnesota was perfectly designed to create Matt Proxy,” he told us. “There’s so many government psyops. It’s made to radicalize people. During my formative years, the city was literally getting burned down.”
The 2010s weren’t only shaping the 19 year old rapper through the events outside, but the trials and tribulations of his personal life. These included:
going into internet-induced psychosis
his sister’s overdose
his father’s deportation
a long distance relationship
exploitation by the “energy vampires” that swarm any young musician as soon as they gain the attention of the industry.
We may never know whether he had to experience these things in order to become the artist that could make trojan horse, the EP he dropped today. What we do know is that trojan horse is, by far, his strongest body of work yet, and one of the best to come out of the contemporary underground.
There are a lot of artists who claim to be innovators. Most aren’t. This is especially true in today’s underground rap space. But, like always, there are a few true pioneers whose artistic vision steers the ship. trojan horse proves Matt Proxy is of that few.
As a project, the EP plants a flag in a musical frontier that remixes many of the sounds from the last two decades of underground rap in an abstract sonic buffet which breaks traditional norms around song structure, rhyme scheme, and production style.
We’re constantly seeking out the contemporary avant-garde. We called Matt Proxy the week before trojan horse dropped because we believe he’s part of it. We talked about the project, and what it took to get here. Read on.
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Welcome: When did music come into your life?
Matt Proxy: I grew up around it my whole life. My mom is the biggest hip-hop head I know. She’s on some A$AP Rocky, Speaker Knockers, Tupac, Danny Brown. Jeezy, things like that.
I realized a lot of niggas got introduced to rap in like 2018. I’ve been writing my whole life. If you knew me in elementary school, you knew that.
In first grade, I had a rap group called C.O.M. I would beatbox. I looked up how to become a producer, and I thought I would have to get like a whole studio rack so I was like, Fuck I just have to beatbox. That’s how I really first started writing my raps and trying to make beats. In my head, with my mouth.
But 12 years old is when I really started taking it seriously.
The experimental ethos is so clear on this project. Has innovation always been important to you?
It’s always what interested me the most. My uncle Jesse put me onto SOPHIE, Aphex Twin, Panda Bear, Neutral Milk Hotel, and Death Grips as a kid. I remember he showed me the “Come to Daddy” music video. I was freaked out about that shit.
Tell me about how you emerged as an artist? How did you enter people’s ears, people’s feeds?
Really it was the Instagram group chats in 2020 with niggas like Ayce Comet, mollymoon333, David Shawty, Kuru, osquinn. All these niggas who are up now are remnants from Instagram groupchats. That really is what it is, connecting with all these artists on the internet.
We know that behind the scenes you’ve experienced tragedies this year. I’m wondering if you can speak on how you’ve managed this.
My mental health is declining at the same time that my status has been rising. It’s a super weird dynamic but like I feel like that’s what makes a great artist. If I have really bad feelings, I just want a place to write that all down. This year, my older sister overdosed and my father got deported, and the only thing I could do was put it in the album.
Has coming up in Minneapolis shaped you? That environment has been very politically intense during your lifetime.
Minnesota was perfectly designed to create Matt Proxy. There’s so many government psyops in Minnesota. George Floyd, the ICE shooting, the Somalian takeover. It’s made to radicalize people.
During my formative years, the city was literally getting burned down. I remember seeing Philando Castile get shot by the police on that Facebook Live. George Floyd happened a couple miles from my crib. Then a year later, Daunte Wright got killed for having the air freshener by Kim Potter in Brooklyn Park right next to where I live.
Actually, that lore goes even deeper because Kim Potter was the same lady that arrested my dad in like 2007 for cocaine and sent him to jail for five years.
Where does the ‘Proxy’ come from?
From a VPN. That’s what proxy means. That’s how I got my home studio set up when I was 14.
Who is an important artistic inspiration for you?
I’ll never forget how X was. X is really who made me feel like I could do this shit. I want to make people feel how he made me feel
X was so important for artists of your generation.
I told my Uncle Jesse, Yo, you’re putting me on to Aphex Twin. Let me put you on XXXTentacion and Lil Peep. And he’s like, Bro, this is like the most bottom-level surface-level romanticizing-drug addiction music and it’s corny.
I get why you feel that way, but if you were a teenager in the early 2010s, you know there was something special about it. You had to be there to understand it. It was so fucking strong.
At what point did you start taking music more seriously?
Since I was 12 or 13 I knew music was my number one path. I feel like I blew up way too late. Nowadays 14 year olds are getting Billboard hits. I am happy I didn’t, though.
On this new project it feels like your artistic identity has really matured. Tell me about that.
I mean, if you listen to “bibles & rifles” from when I was 15, I’m rapping over a soul sample. I don’t have this elitist idea of saying, Oh, this trap music, this catfish jerk shit, it holds less value than me rapping like Kendrick Lamar.
One of the biggest barriers for an artist is that they think of the audience too much. This is what killed Uzi. It kills your sauce.
I just removed every rule that I wanted to remove. There’s no strong song structures. The rhyme schemes are very abstract. The beats are abstract. If I wanted to cross a line, I’ll cross a line.
You have to fully accept my artistry. I’m taking you on this ride. I don’t give a fuck about you, the listener. I’m worried about what I want to do and what I think is cool.
The song “Stars” really seems to encapsulate that.
The second half is the most beautiful harmony in the world, and the first half is abrupt 808s talking to you. You got to get through two minutes of what you consider noise to get to what you consider the beautiful part. Conventionally at least.
For me, honestly, the first half is just as beautiful as the second half, if not more beautiful. I’m doing distortion techniques that aren’t used in hip-hop often. Yeah, those Osama 808s hit, but can he clip like me?
I named it trojan horse for a reason. Everything is very intentional. You think it’s going to be one thing, and then it’s another thing. If you skip through the song, you’re shooting yourself in the foot.
How has coming up changed your personal life?
I’ve gotten everything I’ve ever wanted. I’m seeing problems in my life that I never would have comprehended. For example, I cheated on my girlfriend. I was so distraught. I fucked up and she didn’t talk to me for months. I kid you not, bro: Fakemink posted me, and she hit me up.
I say that to say I’ve been struggling with navigating this industry. I’ve been struggling with people hitting me up strictly for things they want.
I face this weird text anxiety where I feel like I can’t even respond to a lot of texts. It’s like energy vampires. So many people want to bite me for my energy. That’s the unique struggle that only other rappers, creators, and artists face. You start developing immense anxiety about interacting with people because it’s not personal.
Like I said, I’ve gotten everything I wanted. All the niggas who I came up listening to follow me. I’m supposed to be happy, but it manifests as anxiety.
You rap about your lifestyle sometimes. Gym, chicken, clean living. Tell me about your wellness routine. What value do you place on your health?
My dad’s actually a professional boxer. That’s what he did when he left jail. Growing up as a man in this age, we’re fed so much protein propaganda. Me putting that in my music is alluding to growing up in the early 2010s and the media we all consume
It’s like when you watch the Ye documentary and finish it and you’re like, Fuck, I have to do push-ups now. That’s the feeling I was trying to evoke.
What is your spiritual practice? Are you religious?
Yeah, I’m religious. I am a Christian.
I grew up as a Christian and went to church my whole life. When I was 11, 12, 13, I became an atheist. I was like, God isn’t real. This shit is a distraction. We live a meaningless life. The Bible’s for the white man. That manifested in a new-age spirituality thing.
I used to watch VonTooCut and SoIlluminati often. As a 15-year-old, I genuinely thought that you had to stare at the sun. I thought my peers and I were going to get superpowers on the winter solstice. I thought my dreads were antennas for energy.
I thought the rapture was going to happen December 21, 2021. I prepared everything. I fasted and didn’t speak for days because I thought it was going to lower my energy.
You see themes of theology often in my music. I believe in God.
How do you feel about the state of the underground right now?
It’s the coolest shit we’ve ever seen.
When Lil Uzi came out, he faced all these barriers. But those SoundCloud niggas went through the rain, so us young niggas literally go through zero barriers. We can be as gay as we want, as loud as we want, as experimental as we want. People hate that, but I love that. Obviously, that’s going to generate a lot of garbage, but I think it’s going to generate more good than bad.
People say mainstream rap is dying. My argument is: what if rap was designed to be underground? What if that’s the best way for rap to thrive? That’s the beauty of it. Once it goes mainstream, you start becoming pop. There’s genius pop-rap albums like Graduation, but a big problem with pop is that it loses soul. Maybe rap is designed to thrive in the underground.
What is a piece of art, other than music, that has made a big impact on you?
I’ve seen like five movies in my life: Beverly Hills Chihuahua, Mulholland Drive, Yogi Bear, The Princess and the Frog, and Good Will Hunting.
That cannot be true.
It’s true, bro. I’ve literally seen five movies in my life.
That’s incredible.
The Princess and the Frog is my favorite movie of all time. It’s goated. It’s like a jazz movie. It’s the coolest movie in the world.
I can think of a thousand albums that influenced me, but when it comes to movies…and I don’t game. Well, I play Minecraft. I love Minecraft. Minecraft is my favorite. I don’t game, though.
I’ve been into making furniture. It started with refurbishing furniture and sanding down dressers and changing the handles. Then it transformed into, How do I make wood frames?
Then, How do I make bed frames? Then, How do I make mattresses?
That led me to, Yo, I want to make couches.
Then I realized I have to study for like ten years to even get good. That might be my next endeavor.
What’s a topic that interests you?
I started researching Neanderthals and early human life and the emotional connections they held. Did you know Neanderthals cared for the disabled? If you were disabled in the Stone Age, you could live a long life.
We see them as cavemen, but they had just as complex and emotional brains and lives as us. All the emotional value we hold toward our family and caring for others, these people held too.
What is one thing you would say to a listener about trojan horse to prepare them?
Don’t skip songs. Enjoy the art.
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