By JOHN QUICK
During a recent episode of the Must Read Alaska Show, host John Quick interviewed a man known for his creative spirit and fearless political commentary: Zuby, the British rap artist.
Zuby, born Nzube Olisaebuka Udezue, has built a name for himself in rap, podcasting, publishing, health and wellness, and on YouTube. He has sold over 25,000 albums without a record label and reached over 1 million views on YouTube.
While being a part of these secular fields, Zuby preaches an important message: Always try to be the best version of yourself.
Watch the interview at this Facebook link.
Born in England and raised in Saudi Arabia, Zuby took advantage of his education and cultural experiences to gain admission into St Edmund Hall, Oxford University, where he studied computer science.
During his time at Oxford, he began learning how to rap. By his sophomore year, he had released his first album, Commercial Underground. After graduating he joined the corporate world but driven by his passion for music, Zuby left his job after three years to pursue music full time. He never looked back and now has nearly 900,000 followers on Twitter. He also just released his latest video on YouTube, “Live it up.”
When asked about how he was able to make his career transition from business to music, Zuby said music had already been his passion during his free time. Releasing his second album when he graduated and another while he was working, Zuby was able to build an audience in the music industry and eventually found the corporate work clashed with his music endeavors.
“I deleted my CV because I knew that I was never going to go back and wanted to be a full-time musician,” he said. “It is not like I quit my job and decided to pursue music, it was something I was working on the whole time.” He runs his own company, Con Entertainment, which he founded 11 years ago.
Zuby said he wants his audience leave his concerts thinking about how they can make an impact on the world. He said most modern-day rap music sends a false message of drugs, gun violence, and crime.
“That is not what I try to promote, I want to inspire others and help lead by example,” he said. His goals are to help promote a positive future and fight back against the never-ending negativity that is often promoted in the mainstream media. While Zuby acknowledged that things are far from perfect, he rejects the concept of the “doomer,” especially for those who are lucky to grow up in a developed country.
When asked who inspires him, Zuby’s first thought was his parents and his close-knit family, which has supported him throughout his career. He also pointed out Canadian media personality Jordan Peterson as a significant influence over his work, citing how Peterson encourages critical thinking and discussion in a turbulent time in history.
“There are eight billion people in this world, and we all have to be able to coexis. We all won’t be best friends with each other or share the same beliefs. But, we have to at least coexist,” Zuby said. His approach is to work daily to be a better musician, speaker, podcaster, athlete, son, and friend. This creates a chain reaction of making a better country or even finding the closest thing to paradise in this world. By embodying this idea to his audience and those he meets along the way, he hopes it can help make the world a better place little by little.
Political tension between the Left and the Right has spread across the globe, but Zuby tries to approach everything with a sense of humor. He often pokes fun of Leftist ideology due to the inability of so-called progressives to be able to laugh at themselves or try to see their own ideas through a lens of logic and reason.
While he likes to joke around, Zuby made it clear that he would never go after a person’s character. He is, however, willing to give the brutal truth to bad ideas. He points out the hypocrisy of Left ideology, comparing times of segregation to new forms of segregation that are being repackaged as “activism.”
Zuby’s endeavors have led him to be featured on the Joe Rogan Podcast twice, and he said that podcasters and YouTubers can lead the charge for civilized dialogue and a better future.
Zuby can be found on all social media platforms under @Zubymusic, his official website is teamzuby.com, where you can find all his merchandise and updates. His discussion with John Quick is at this Facebook link. The Must Read Alaska Show is on YouTube, Pandora, Amazon, GooglePlay, iTunes and everywhere podcasts are available.
John Quick is vice president of Must Read Alaska and president of Empire Consulting.
