Riz Tha Great is a DC-based Musician, Entrepreneur, and Community Activist.

MS: So, can I know your given name? 

Riz Tha Great: My mother gave me the name Phillip. Some people say it means lover of horses, and some people know it as a disciple name. My last name is Row, which hints at my nickname, Rizzo before I became Riz the Great.

MS: Yeah, I did want you to understand the meaning of Riz Tha Great, like where it comes from and all that.

Riz Tha Great: When I was younger, like my young teens, people used to call me Rizzo cause I used to freestyle all the time, and I would battle people. They’d go, “oh there go, Rizzo, Rizzo boutta freestyle, Rizzo boutta come up!” I was just having fun with the music then. As I got older and more into music, I ended up being part of a group called Swag Guys, and I was like, everybody knows me as Rizzo, but this is something so different, as far as the type of music we were making so my mans was like “Bro, we gon call you Riz, Riz Tha Great.” And I have been runnin’ with it ever since.

MS:  Can you go a little bit into rapping, like how you decided to take it more seriously? 

Riz Tha Great: I’ve always loved music ever since I was a kid. As a kid, I would run into the house thinking that I would see the video if I heard music. I had a softer voice when I was younger, so I sang a lot then, but I gravitated towards rap in my early teens. I was picking up on bars and metaphors, it was clicking and making sense to me, and I was falling in love with all that. At 15, I started freestyling, and I started battling people, and I was winnin’. I guess they boosed my head up, honestly. Somebody should’ve crushed me cause then I would have probably just stopped *laughs*, but I just kept going, and I got to that point where I just started recording music at like 16 or 17 years old. I learned how to write and count beats and bars, so here we are now, damn near 15 years later.

MS: So, is your intention to become like the next Shy Glizzy, not necessarily their style but making it like that status?

Riz Tha Great: I feel like my purpose is bigger than just the DMV, but this is my backyard, my home, so I feel like my purpose is to shed light on what we already have going on here. I’m in the mix of so many different things here in D.C. I’m into some of the political things. I’m also into some of the music scenes. I’m in some of the club scenes. Just a lot of scenes that not all of these particular artists are into. So, it’s more of me kind of like putting a light on my people, putting a light onto myself, but also to put the light onto everybody else. I feel like we get overlooked a lot. There are a lot of talented and exceptional artists. To answer that question, I would love to be in that spot, but I appreciate where I’m at right now, and however big I get, it’s always going to fall right back into D.C.

MS: As I was speaking with Riz, I saw a water flask with an assortment of stickers. One stood out to me, a Jay-Z sticker that had an interesting story behind it. I asked for the story and inquired about his connection to Jay Z and his music.

Riz Tha Great: Jay- Z is a person that has influenced me, not only in music. Initially, his drive and his hustle are what inspired me. Musically, hands down, he’s an amazing artist, he’s amazing, he’s the GOAT. But my initial perspective of Jay Z is he’s a go-getter. But the funny thing about that sticker on my water bottle is there’s a movie with Eddie Murphy called Vampires in Brooklyn and Jay-Z’s from Brooklyn. I went to this art show, shout out to Rene Chris, there was an artist there that was supporting her, and he had stickers with Jay-Z with vampire fangs” I asked, “yo, is this about Vampires in Brooklyn and he goes, “not a lot of people know that” and I said, “bro I love that movie. It was a crazy combo”. But when that Blueprint album came out, “song cry,” the whole album pivoted my mind into music and how words are used like metaphors and all that stuff. So it was him, and then Lil Wayne was definitely a huge influence on my music. He was kind of like how Jay-Z was in the aspect of showing you the musical genius…but for me, Wayne was around 12 like I was, and it was remarkable for me to see a kid talking that much shit, like rapping and being in that realm with the big boys.

MS: Are there any other artists that inspire you? 

Riz Tha Great: I get inspired by a lot of music, I love horns and funk music, so I like orchestration, saxophones, and trombone players – hearing the instruments. Hip Hop is the realm I operate in, but if you listen to songs like In The Wharf, you’ll hear a saxophone at the end of the song like. “Keep on Keep Keeping on” is probably one of the craziest songs I ever made in a different realm. I’ve never made a song like that, and it’s such a funk feel that you can tell the influence. You might think of some Bruno Mars; you might think of The Silk Sonic album. When you hear that joint, you might think of some Bootsy Collins-type stuff.   

MS: We took a smoke break, discussed family life a bit more, and dove into the popularity of Riz’s  clothing line and catchphrase “Don’t Trip.” He explained that it represented a mindset to keep during trying times like COVID-19.  We came back inside, and I remembered I had been very curious about the meaning behind his album covers. He explained the inspiration behind the “Keep on Keep Keeping on” album cover.  

Riz Tha Great: Shout out to Doc. He’s the guy that makes my album covers, everything comes out of my head, so when the songs are coming about, I have these visions for them. So, Doc puts the ideas I articulate together for me — his name’s @amzco1987 on Instagram, dope artist. The “Keep on Keep Keeping on” piece is Donald Trump, Doctor Fauci, Vladimir Putin, Joe Bidden, Kamala  Harris, and Muriel Bowser playing craps, and the world is bleeding over the top of them. It’s meant to represent how people gamble with people’s lives all the time, and you can’t pay attention to all the extra noise. My covers have a real message to them, and there’s more of a meaning than the title.

We also discussed gentrification and the impact that it has had on D.C. throughout the years, discussing the reconstruction of the Wharf and the impact it had on his mindset and his community. It even inspired one of his latest singles, The Wharf. 

MS: What made you decide to name your song after The Wharf? What is your connection to The Wharf?

Riz Tha Great: Shout out to Karpae X and JoeJoe, the producers at Highlight Studio. The Wharf was made from scratch by both of those individuals. The Wharf came about from my connection to that area, Southwest, 106, and Park. I have a close brother, and I used to be on that side with him, seeing everything that goes on in Southwest. The Wharf, going to get crabs, just the real Chocolate City Culture stuff going on there. Then here comes new development, with gentrification going on and with everything going on in the city. Now everybody wants to go to the Wharf. I remember when people didn’t want to go over to cross that bridge to go to The Wharf. “The Wharf” came from all the things I’ve seen, the poverty I’ve seen in the city, the homelessness, and the hook of that song is “Ain’t no chimney’s in the projects,” RIP Sharon Jones, she’s the one who sang that hook. And this is me trying to shed light on the stories I see in the city. Single mothers raising kids had a husband/a man/ a baby father, whatever you want to call it, who was out doing what he was doing to keep a roof over his family head, and he got jammed up.

Throughout the interview, Riz shouted out various local artists and producers, personifying his love and compassion for his community and its members. He also shared multiple events and groups he is a part of, noting his many collaborations with the local go-go band UCB. His latest event with the band was on February 25th, presented by Black Lives Matter DC.

Riz Tha Great: It was called A Family Reunion: A Community Celebration of Resistance in DC and was kind of like a family gathering. It was an event where artists, other activists, and other journalists came together and rub elbows with people in the community.