Rookie Rise Blog

You may have seen a video that went viral of two talented guys singing in a subway as they covered The Beatles infamous song "8 Days A Week" The video would go on to reach the eyes and ears of people around the globe. As the internet pushed the video around, it ended up catching the attention of Ellen Degeneres who brought the two phenomenal musicians on The Ellen Show for the world see them perform. They did not disappoint!  Their names are ones that we hope to see headlining at every big venue across the country or even the world. Their names are Amiri and Rahiem Taylor of The Blac Rabbit Band. Click the link and follow them on Instagram. We reached out to Rahiem and Amiri to see if they'd be interested to answer some interview questions. We always like to promote those who are walking in the right direction to make it to the top. Here's what they had to say: 

• Rookie Rise: How old are you guys?
• Amiri: 25
• Rahiem: 25

• Rookie Rise: What age did you start to chase after your passion?
• Amiri: we started chasing music as a career around the age of 16
• Rahiem: 16 was when we started playing music, but that was really mainly just for the fun of it. It was after we graduated high school, when we were around 18 I think, when we started to see this as a possible lifestyle.

• Rookie Rise: Who is your inspiration?
• Amiri: The Beatles, Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson
• Rahiem: Hmm…that’s a tough one there are so many. If I had to pick though I would probably say John Lennon. I always resonated with his songs the most out of the Beatles

• Rookie Rise: What would you be doing today, if you weren’t chasing this dream?
• Amiri: I really can't even tell you...
• Rahiem: Probably working at a supermarket still bagging groceries but still playing music in a band and annoying all of my friends. Lol

• Rookie Rise: When did you realize that you had something worth pursuing?
• Amiri: When we started learning/writing songs and harmonizing together.
• Rahiem: It’s still a surprise to me that I didn’t didn’t see this as a legit way of life when we initially started playing. We’ve always had an ear for music though, going back to our childhood, but it took us a while to see that as valuable.

• Rookie Rise: What drives you to get up every to rise to the next level?
• Amiri: Making music and a better life is what keeps me going!
• Rahiem: The belief that I have had for a while about life which is: That we are on our path and purpose when we are creating and giving to the world. That we are constantly being pushed to reach the next level wether we like it or not. I’m starting to see more evidence of this the more and more of life I’ve lived and the more we’ve become set in our ways, pursuing our careers as musicians.

• Rookie Rise: If you could send a message to everyone what would it be?
• Amiri: We want to share our music with the world raise your vibration, and take you to new emotional highs and lows!
• Rahiem: Another tough one. There are so many I would love to send however, I think the most important one would be: make a choice not to live a life ruled by fear…it is paralyzing. You have so much potential in you, it’s crazy. Don’t let your fear squander it. Yet at the same time and EQUALLY as important practice compassion with yourself. If that makes any sense.

• Rookie Rise: What’s your favorite motivational quote?
• Amiri: "a dream you dream alone is only a dream. A dream you dream together is reality" -John Lennon
• Rahiem: Being at ease with not knowing is crucial for answers to come to you. -Eckhart Tolle

• Rookie Rise: What would you tell someone who is reading this right now, who wants to chase a similar dream like the one that you are currently after?
• Amiri: Only that it's so much easier than you think and more difficult than you can imagine. Not for the faint of heart, but then again, most musicians are!
• Rahiem: I would say to you. Find out what is stopping you from pursuing your dreams, understand it, have compassion for it, and release it

• Rookie Rise: What are your future plans from here?
• Amiri: We want to expand our Blac Rabbit catalog and our live sound. Quarantine has given us time to improve as producers. So mainly just tighten up ship.
• Rahiem: Recording tons more music and I’ve been getting into film and photography recently, my girlfriend is brilliant at those things so she’s helped show me the ropes.

• Rookie Rise: What did you do to become such a standout? Was it a mentor, school, what kind of practice did you do or advice to share to let others know how to pursue this in a similar way?
• Amiri: We attended a unique school with an out of the box philosophy. Which definitely helped drill the fear of going after what we TRULY wanted in life. The people around that love you want you to be happy, but most of them prioritize your stability and safety OVER your true happiness. So you'll have to go against the grain a lot. As cheesy as it sounds, go through your options and follow your heart and intuition!
• Rahiem: I would say really analyze all of your “limitations” and be really honest with yourself about wether or not they’re legit. A lot of the things we say we “can’t do” are self inflicted. Something that I struggle with a bunch myself.

• Rookie Rise: What’s the best part about being up on stage? Thoughts?
• Amiri: My favorite part of being on stage. Being in another world when the band is really feeling it and us transferring that feeling to our audience!
• Rahiem: Entering what some people call a “flow state”…I don’t know, it’s that moment when your so focused on something that time around you just ceases to exist anymore and you are 100% locked into performing and giving people and yourself the greatest show you could ever ask for. I get goose bumps just thinking about it…

• Rookie Rise: What has been your greatest opportunities or moments up to this point?
• Amiri: The whole week the virality started was a trip! We watched as literally tens of thousands of people following our social media overnight. I remember feeling though we've already been doing this for 8 years, our story was truly beginning. It's hard to find a moment that compares to that.
• Rahiem: There are many that I am grateful for but, I think Playing on the Ellen show is the one that started it all. 

• Rookie Rise: What was the biggest challenge that you crossed, trying to get over that wall of being just a local artist to being seen on a level that you are able to do shows nationally?
• Amiri: Again, right before the virality. At that point we knew what we wanted, but we had no idea how to get there, we played a lot of small shows with little to no attendance for sometime actually.
• Rahiem: For me it was nothing that had to do with marketing or the way we were being perceived, and everything to do with my own sense of self worth. I was constantly having thoughts that would come to me while playing Ellen and other big gigs like it where I (and still do this day) wrestle with wether or not I feel like I deserve this level of success. It really gets to you after a while and effects every decision you make in subtle and not so subtle ways. I used to think to myself “should life be going this smoothly?” Which usually results in me finding something wrong with the situation or worse, creating a problem.

Check out more of their subway perfomances on Youtube. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IDLeBtnVBo