Meet Black Bobby of Square Biz in Edgewood

Today we’d like to introduce you to Black Bobby.

Bobby, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
My story is not a typical story for a musician. Sure, music has always been a part of my life. But, I never thought I would make a career of it. I was born in Washington, DC to a middle-class family of educated professionals. My parents sent me to Catholic school mostly so I graduated from a now infamous prep school in the suburbs where two Supreme Court Justices went to school as kids. My first calling was to social entrepreneurship. I co-founded my high school’s Black Students’ Union my senior year there after blowing out my knee playing football. Despite my injury, I still was recruited to a few schools like Tufts University, where I would matriculate for college.

I’ve been drawn to politics since my AP Government class in school. After giving up on football at Tufts, I switched my attention to student government and got my self elected to a seat my sophomore year. At the end of my junior year I ran for student government president and won, but more importantly, would go on to launch a nonprofit with three friends from student government that I would run for six years before leaving to finish my graduate degree at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. The nonprofit, United Leaders, trained idealistic college students to run for public office. We operated in Boston, San Fransisco and DC and were a pioneer in the movement to get Millennials elected to public office.

After I finished school, I worked in management consulting for a while before quitting to help my brother launch a record label in South Florida. My brother was a producer and needed help launching a business around his beats. So, I quit my job, left Boston and moved to South Florida. Along the way, I went to work on the Obama campaign in 2008 in Miami. And, after Obama’s historic victory my brother suggested I write and release a mixtape. I had been recording songs with him, sending them out to my friends and getting positive feedback. So, I took his suggestion and released the Miami underground classic mixtape, Phat Kid Tendencies.

PKT earned me a ton of recognition in Miami, DC, and NYC. My mixtape was all over the blogs, I was booking shows and based on that momentum I formed the record label Square Biz with my friends in Miami to support my music. I ended up releasing four projects in Miami, I did shows all over South Florida, in DC and in NYC. I was the only opener for Rock the Bells on South Beach for Blackstar’s reunion show and the only opener for Pusha T at Bardot. And, it was all going great until I tried to commit suicide and was hospitalized.

I was diagnosed Bipolar as I was leaving Boston and was not taking my medication in Miami as I chased the mania that I thought helped me make great music. After I was hospitalized, I left Miami and moved to Atlanta. I took a four-year break in Atlanta and two years ago starting writing for HuffPost and releasing music again. Since then I have done shows all over Atlanta, released two projects and am growing in my local activism. I love it here and I hope in my time in Atlanta I can contribute to the culture.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
The biggest struggle has been with my mental health because I was not prepared for the symptoms or diagnosis. Mental health is not an issue robustly talked about in the Black community and Black men especially do not take their mental health seriously. Many of us self medicate with alcohol and/or cannabis, do not talk to anyone about our struggle and leave mental health situations untreated. When I was diagnosed, I did so because I had been arrested for harassing a friend via email. I was manic and scared her. But, unfortunately, I did not take my diagnosis seriously enough. I did not take my medication all of the time in Miami as I chased the mania that I thought was helping me make dope music. I can identify with what Kanye was saying about not feeling as creative on medication. I had that same belief for a while. But, I realized that there isn’t actually any evidence to suggest artists need to suffer with their mental health to produce good art. It’s important that people find the right combination of therapy and the right dosages and combination of medication for them. Luckily, I have and am now on a much better and healthier path than when I was in Miami.

Please tell us about Square Biz.
I started Square Biz because i want to remain as independent as possible in the music business. The label kind of came together randomly though. I was already working with DJ D-Up and the MC Teagus. At the time i was doing shows and living in Downtown Miami. I met our street team through a friend. One of the DJs running our street team recruited our main photographer. We also worked with another photographer, a producer and we had different advisors come and go as we progressed. Square Biz mostly supported my own music, but we also supported music by some of our team members too as we grew. That was a fabulous experience and i love and am thankful for everyone involved.

I have released six rap projects to critical acclaim and am known as a great performer. I honed my craft practicing in Miami. When I was there, I ran Square Biz, but now I am making music on my own. The thing that I love that people say about my music is that I sound like a major label rapper. I sound like a professional. I should be on the radio. People say things like that to me all of the time and I really appreciate it. I work hard to sound like a professional songwriter and I try to deliver top-notch performances on my records and live. One thing I do not do in my music is demean women or talk about things that do not pertain to my life. I try to keep my records as real to me as possible while still being entertaining. I mostly tell stories from my life and experiences in my music. I’ve lived a wild life and I love to share stories that I hope inform, entertain and relate.

If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
I’m a big fan of multiverse theory so I guess I wonder what happened in the alternate lives where I stayed in Boston and pursued politics. Otherwise, I would change nothing.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://larryharrisjr.com/black-bobby/
• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/larryharrisjr/
• Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/iamblackbobby
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/larryharrisjr
• Other: http://blackbobby.bandcamp.com/

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