Big Reeno: Inspired by Life

By Jeannette Madden
Staff Writer

Emerging hip hop artist Big Reeno, whom calls Fargo home, is heading out on The Blizzard Music Tour 2011, a 10-city tour with superstar Nelly starting March 1. The tour hits the Scheels Arena March 3 and completing the line up on the tour is pop super group 3OH!3, Sick Puppies, Cali Swag District and DJ Dextrious. Big Reeno shared more about his name, his ties with North Dakota and how hip hop is keeping it real when he gave the Reader a nice, long interview prior to heading out on tour.

High Plains Reader: First question. How old are you?

Big Reeno: [Laughs] How do they say you never ask women their ages? You never ask hip hop artists their age. It’s kind of wrong in hip hop land…I’m old enough, old enough.

HPR:  I get that a lot. So tell me about how you came to be in North Dakota.

BR:    See, I got tricked.

HPR:  Really? I think most people get to North Dakota that way that aren’t actually from here.

BR:    I actually came out here for college. My sister went to Valley City State University, and she was like it’s not bad up here; it’s not that cold and with all of your aspirations and stuff, you know…

HPR:  [giggles]

BR:    And she lied! She lied to me [laughs]. I think we had it kind of good this year, though. I stood outside; I’m in shorts right now. So that’s how I came up here and ended up staying. I’m in my fifth year right now, graduated college last year, Valley City State, so yeah, home.

HPR:  Are you going to stay in North Dakota?

BR:    I do plan to. Like I said, I feel right at home here. That’s why my music, I shout out Fargo, North Dakota, I say “701”, you know people ask me where I’m from, I say Fargo, North Dakota, and they laugh.

HPR:  That goes along with asking what you write about and what inspires you.

BR:    This might be cliché, but life, life inspires me! I think that right now, that’s what hip hop is like and that everything’s so commercial, they just want you to dance and have fun, which is not bad. There’re times every Friday and Saturday night what I want to do is dance and have fun. But there’re times where you just want to sit down and listen to some good music, like to soothe your soul, and that’s what I do. So I write about life; I write about things that people go through, everything that people like me and you go through. From my music, it just might help somebody, like “Hey, you’re not alone.” You know, I’m going through the same thing that you’re going through and hey, if I can still remain happy and keep doing what I’m doing, you can too.

HPR:  How did you get the name Big Reeno?

BR:    It was actually given to me by my older, older brother. I was really young, like 7 or 8 years old and my brother was in high school at that point. My parents shipped him off to boarding school, and on break he comes back, and I start playing him some of my music, like rapping or whatever, and he asks “What’s your name?” I tell him, and he’s like “Oh, that’s whack.”

HPR:  [snorts]

BR:    I’m like “Thanks for the support bro!” My mom used to make us do some housework, have fun a little bit, and he had something he was supposed to do but he was too lazy. So, he calls me by my name and says “Take care of my work for me, and I’ll give you a new name.” He’s my older brother who was in high school, and I thought he was cool so I took care of his business, and when I was done I’m like “Name time, give me a name.” There was a map right next to him, and he said “What about Reno?” I saw where his eyes went and I saw Reno, Nevada, and I didn’t want a name the exact name as the city so I just tossed an extra “e” in there and I thought, “That kind of looks cool, in the writing, too.”

HPR:  What are some of the projects that you’re currently working on?

BR:    I put out my debut album last year “Midwest Heavyweight”. It’s available on iTunes, Amazon, CD Baby and locally at Orange Records and Mothers Music Moorhead, but right now I’m working on two free mixtapes and one free EP so I’m going to be a busy man this year. I already started on the mixtape and all of them will be available on my website, http://www.bigreeno.com. I’ve run everything for the first mixtape, I’m like half way done with it so it’ll be coming soon.

HPR:  What’s on the mixtapes? Explain that to me.

BR:    Mixtapes are going to be called “My Words, Their Beats.” Basically, it’s a collection of instrumentals from some of your favorite artists like Lil’ Wayne, Akon, you know what I’m saying, so I take the instrumentals and I kind of flip it and bring the Big Reeno flavor to it.

HPR:  Got it.

BR:    Put that North Dakota flavor in it [laughs].

HPR:  Who are your favorite artists?

BR:    I don’t think there’s any artist, at least that I know of, that won’t say Michael Jackson, the late, great Michael Jackson.

HPR:  The new stuff, old stuff, middle stuff?

BR:    Everything! Give me everything. Anything with Michael Jackson’s name on it, I want it. I had the shiny glove, the little leather jacket, I used to moonwalk in the street, yeah, I did that. You did that too.

HPR:  I’m a lot older than that. I think we were doing the Jackson 5 thing when I went to daycare.

BR:    Oh, that “ABC” [singing]. Okay, okay. Michael Jackson is one of my favorite artists. I would say Jay Z, a.k.a. Mr. Beyonce. He’s got it going on in everything, his personal life, his professional life, he’s got one of the finest women in the world. I mean, come on man. I’d say Nas.

HPR:  Somebody just told me the other day I need to listen to Nas.

BR:    Oh, Nas. You need to go to your iTunes and buy some Nas music. It is just great; he’s a great lyricist. Also like Kanye West no matter what people say about him. I like P. Diddy. P. Diddy’s one of my musical influences, too, because everything he touches just goes gold.

HPR:  Do you feel like you’re a seasoned tour veteran, since you were out with Flo Rida, Chingy and now Nelly?

BR:    You know what’s crazy? I’ve only been out there really pushing with this music since 2008. I’ve only been out there just a little over two years but I feel blessed because what I’ve accomplished in two years it might take artists five, ten years to get to where I’m at right now. 50 Cent was pushing with his music since ’93 or something like that, and he didn’t get any recognition until like 2000, 2001. I still feel like I’m a young buck in the game, I feel like there’s a lot of things I could learn, and I’m still learning everyday. But yeah, I feel blessed working with all of those artists and hitting the road in a big way.

HPR:  Do you have any advice for new artists just starting out?

BR:    Stay true to yourself. I think that’s really important. A lot of new artists come in the game and they just go with what is on the radio right now. They want to make that kind of music. “This is popular right now. Soulja Boy did this so I’m going to something like that and see if I can get a buzz off of it.” No, be you. People can tell that this is X and X style of music and he does it really good and nobody does it like him. They love you for who you are and just keep it real because everybody loves real music. Don’t talk about spending money and VIP and bottle popping if you’re not doing all those things.

HPR:  I talked to Flo Rida awhile back and one of the things that really surprised me and one of the things I really love about hip hop was he was excited about Obama, and he was excited about touring in Africa. I thought that was really cool, and I see that and like you said, it’s real. That’s real. That’s what people on the bus are talking about.

BR:    That’s right. See, you get that. As soon as he started talking you felt the realness coming out of him. He’s like the nicest, most down-to-earth dude ever. I’ve met a ton of “hip hop stars” who don’t have as many hits as Flo Rida does or who aren’t even on top of the game right now and a few of them got big heads. Just be cool. Don’t be a diva, basically.

HPR:  Like you said, being real is what gets them in the first place so you want to stay that way. I can’t believe how powerful hip hop lyrics are.

BR:    Right. Once you get past the crap that’s out there that labels themselves as hip hop, there is a lot of cool music, a lot of cool artists. Hip hop is supposed to be a reaction, to make you feel something…

HPR:  Exactly. It makes you think.

BR:    It’s a real powerful tool, and it’s the only genre of music that you can actually say anything. You can say anything you want to say. It’s coming right back around. The real hip hop, it was suppressed for a little bit the last couple of years, but what you find right now is it’s coming back. People have gotten over all the commercial stuff that’s out there and they’re not fooled anymore. You have a song on YouTube that gets a million hits, okay, you get a record deal. Doesn’t matter what the song says, and they don’t care what’s on the album. You have that one hit on it? Okay. And what you find is all those artists, those albums just sit on the shelf gathering dust. So the real hip hop is coming back, and it’s a great thing.

HPR:  Another thing about hip hop is there are so many artists with other artists with other artists, like featuring so and so. How does that work and why is that so prolific in hip hop?

BR:    It’s important because you have to open yourself up to different fans and different fan bases. The collaboration thing is so big right now because people are trying to tap into the other person’s fan base, which is not a bad thing. I think there’s a Katy Perry song featuring Kanye West right now…it sounds good. It opens it up to a much broader audience. She comes from the pop world. Kanye comes from the hip hop world. I listen to all the genres of music, I listen to everything, so I already knew who she was but I know a couple of people who didn’t know who Katy Perry was when she had the song with Snoop Dogg so that opened her up to Snoop Dogg’s audience.

HPR:  Do you do any sampling?

BR:    Oh yeah, I mean sampling, that’s how hip hop was born. Some people call it stealing. It’s not like we’re going to be stealing a whole entire song. We might take a loop from an old vocal sample here and make something nice and cool with it but that’s the foundation of hip hop. That’s how hip hop came along, with DJ Kool Herc in the Bronx. He’s a DJ and he started like scratching soul and R & B records and stuff like that, just kind of change the pattern and everybody was like “Wow, what’s this?” And that’s how hip hop was born. Sampling is part of hip hop so I do sample, yes. Hell yeah.

HPR:  I appreciate it because again, it opens up an audience to the different music, and I love that.

BR:    One of my songs on my album, one of my aunts was listening to my album and she heard that song and it was a sample. She’s like, “I remember this song!” It blew her away and now that’s her favorite song on the album.

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IF YOU GO:
What: Blizzard Music Tour featuring Nelly, 3OH!3, Sick Puppies, Cali Swag District, DJ Dextrous and Big Reeno
Where: Scheel’s Arena
When: Thursday, March 3, 6 p.m.
Info: http://blizzardmusictour.com