Envy Man Magazine Online

text by: jtravis
photos by: hyte

When asked point blank, “Are you a party boy?” Cazwell smiles playfully, lowers his head, and impishly sighs, “Yes.”

But should that come as a surprise from an artist whose song titles include “All Over Your Face” and “Rolling Over”? When it comes to getting drrty, X-tina sang about it, but Cazwell is living it!

Let’s face it, we gays do love our sex. But we’ve had to settle for straight artists singing about it and then substituting pronouns when the chorus came. Cazwell is breaking down those walls with his unique brand of rap that is up front and in your face about the life he leads.

Cazwell grew up on the sounds of many different styles of music. He cites: Biggie Smalls, Deee-Lite, The Beastie Boys, and Cyndi Lauper among his biggest influences. As these groundbreakers pushed the envelope, Cazwell strives to do the same thing. It’s apparently working; his idol Cyndi Lauper asked him to play a few dates on her HRC- (Human Rights Campaign) sponsored “True Colors” tour this summer.
How does he see himself fitting into the music scene? “The U.S. record industry is no longer taking chances,” says Cazwell. “While they may not be homophobic, they are hardly doing anything new or innovative. They can lament about loss of sales due to Internet piracy, but the fact is, if you release something good, people will go and buy it. But why should they when the music sucks? I have no major promotional company behind me and I am doing just fine. I may not be the world's best rapper, but I think I'm a very good conductor of energy. Rhymes are like spells to me," he adds. "You can shape the future with what you say."

Cazwell, like this writer, grew up in Worcester (pronounced "Wusta"), Massachusetts, an industrial city with few outlets for an artistically-inspired adolescent... let alone, one growing up gay! His earliest musical stylings were mixed up with a good friend who was a big, butch lesbian. "We would write about the silliest things when we started: Cheeseburgers and our Converse sneakers."
But that’s how you start! They eventually split up on good terms and Cazwell began his solo career. And given the fact that he now gets to perform with his idol onstage this summer, this simply shows that leading an open and honest (and yes, OUT) life can lead you down the right path to make your dreams come true.

I want to show what the gay mind can do for hip-hop, for electronic music, and how interesting that take can be. To just talk about gay stuff seems so surface level. I know I can't just show up at the Source Awards and go, 'Hey guys, I'm here!' So instead, I have to create a new space, and invite the people, everybody, to come to me." Sounds like he is on his way.

{EM}