1. What is your name, where are you from, and what name do you go by as an artist?
Redrum Red: My name is Redrum Red, born and raised in Staten Island—Shaolin.
I come from nothing. My mom raised us on her own, and we were always struggling to pay rent. Back then, Chinese food and a two-liter soda meant we were living good. Growing up with red hair and freckles, people used to tell me I had a disease. I got picked on, jumped, and never really felt like I belonged. Around eight or nine years old, I’d stand in front of the mirror repeating to myself hundreds of times a day, “You’re handsome. You’re worthy.” I had to teach myself to believe it because nobody else was going to.
Eventually, I stopped trying to fit in and started looking inward. I became obsessed with understanding why we’re here and what life really means. That’s when writing entered my life. I realized words could heal—not just myself, but other people too.
2. How did your journey with music first begin?
Redrum Red: Music became my escape before I even knew what an escape was.
My sister and I lived through violence at home, and whenever music came on, everything paused for a little while. We’d sit there trading verses from Loddi Doddi by Slick Rick and Doug E. Fresh. Getting every lyric right mattered to me because it made me feel heard.
I’ve been beatboxing since I was seven years old. Every day I’d practice new sounds, and by the time I was a teenager I was starting cyphers everywhere I went.
When I got rejected because of the way I looked, I leaned into creativity because nobody could stop me from becoming better at beatboxing or sharpening my pen.
I was also deep into graffiti. Rival crews would cross out our work trying to steal recognition instead of earning it. One day my boy looped a Steve Miller Band record, and I started rhyming about everything we were living through—dissing rival crews, talking about life, letting my frustration out while having fun. We weren’t trying to make anything special, but those mixtapes started spreading through the streets. That’s when I realized, “Yo… I just made a mixtape.”
3. What inspired you to take music seriously and start sharing your gift with the world?
Redrum Red: One of my closest friends overdosed on Xanax and cocaine on his birthday. His father later told me he might have survived if people had called an ambulance instead of worrying about getting rid of the drugs first.
That crushed me.
I was twenty-one years old when I wrote and produced Till Then using a sample from Art Garfunkel’s Break Away. The song spread through the streets, and complete strangers started walking up to me in clubs telling me they had lost someone to addiction too and how much that song meant to them.
That’s when I realized music wasn’t just entertainment anymore—it could actually help people heal.
Around that same time, my crew and I had an opportunity with Zomba Jive and Atlantic distribution. Everybody was supposed to show up to sign.
Nobody came.
That hurt because I believed in us more than they believed in themselves. I knew then I had to go solo.
After that, I performed anywhere that would let me grab a microphone—open mics, showcases, clubs, anywhere. I did hundreds of shows.
One night I headlined Club Secret. Somebody on the side of the stage kept pulling on my hoodie trying to throw me off my rhythm. It didn’t work.
After the show, Red Cafe walked up to me and said, “Redrum, don’t let them tell you you ain’t ready. You’re dope.”
I’ll never forget that.
4. How would you describe your sound and the message behind your music?
Redrum Red: High-speed sarcasm with a warm emotional vibe. Music that makes your heart beat.
I make grit music for your warrior. I write about mistakes, failures, bad relationships, arrests, addiction, growing up lost, and trying to become a better man. Every lesson comes from pulling something meaningful out of pain.
I’m always searching for who we are as people and asking uncomfortable questions about life, corruption, healing, and purpose.
Mike Tyson once said, “Do what you hate, but do it like you love it.”
I say, do what you hate because of the man you’re becoming on the other side of discipline.
5. What life experiences have shaped you the most as an artist?
Redrum Red: Fighting for my life.
For over two and a half years I battled chronic pain caused by a rare syndrome. Doctors kept adding medication after medication until I was taking thirteen different prescriptions. My body completely shut down.
I didn’t sleep for nine straight months.
My body felt like it was literally burning alive.
I’d pass out for thirty minutes every few days because my body couldn’t keep going.
At one point my pastor told me he’d come back with the elders to pray for me.
He never came back.
Maybe because we grew up together and it hurt him too much seeing me like that.
I survived, and that’s nothing short of a miracle.
Once you’ve gone through something like that, you can’t give up on other people. Now I feel like I have something real to offer someone who’s asking themselves, “Can I make it?” “Will life ever be more than suffering?” “Is there actually purpose behind all this pain?”
6. What do you feel makes you different from other artists?
Redrum Red: I know exactly why I do this.
I’m trying to reach somebody who’s ready to give up because I’ve been there myself.
I can honestly tell somebody, “You’re worthy.”
Don’t let somebody else’s opinion become your identity. Their projection isn’t your reflection.
I’ve survived violence, graffiti, police chases, alcohol addiction, bad decisions, hospital beds, loneliness, and everything that comes with trying to find yourself.
Now I get to use all of that to remind somebody else that they’re not alone.
7. When people listen to your music, what do you hope they feel or understand?
Redrum Red: I want people to feel connected.
When you’re sitting there throwing back shots thinking nobody cares, somebody else somewhere is fighting that exact same battle.
To that person…
You’re worthy.
Forget your ex.
Forget your asshole boss.
Invest in yourself.
One day at a time.
Go after your life.
To the version of me sitting alone after the hospitals, drinking every day, hearing gunshots outside my apartment, living with chronic pain and believing nobody was coming…
Nobody is coming to save you.
You’re the motherf***ing hero of your own story.
One sober day.
One reason.
One promise to yourself at a time.
Accountability isn’t popular, but without it, we’re screwed.
8. What has been one of the biggest challenges you’ve faced throughout your music journey?
Redrum Red: Budget.
Breaking a hip-hop artist costs around $200,000.
But mentally, the hardest part is staying resilient.
You wake up excited because your newest post is getting attention, then somebody comments, “Kill yourself,” or “This isn’t for you.”
People don’t realize I’m not sitting in some mansion with millions in the bank. I’m couch surfing, barely paying bills, putting every dollar I have into this dream.
Writing.
Recording.
Beatboxing.
Filming.
Editing.
Posting ten to fifteen times every single day.
Over the last year I went from around eighty thousand views to more than one and a half million views across YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram simply because I refused to quit.
I already became who I promised myself I’d become.
The world just hasn’t caught up yet.
9. Outside of music, who is Redrum Red?
Redrum Red: I’m an animal lover. Rescuing animals became almost a full-time job. At one point we’d all be piled up on the bed together every night.
I’m also obsessed with terrible B-movies. The worse they are, the better.
One of my dreams is to remake a classic B-movie with completely different voice actors just to make people laugh.
10. Where can people listen to your music and keep up with everything you have coming next?
Redrum Red: You can find everything at RedrumRed.co.
I’m on YouTube at @RedrumRed and on Spotify under Redrum Red.
My newest video, “HipHop Is My Drug,” featuring A-F-R-O, is out now. No AI. Real B-boys. Real B-girls. Real graffiti. Real culture.
Next up is “Footwork,” produced by K Fresh, dropping in early July. Performance clips are already up on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube.
I’m just getting started.
