With his album ‘MANIFESTO’ due next month, creative director, rapper, songwriter, DJ, producer and actor, TERROR REID, chats to VIPER about his definition of success and the meaning behind his name…

What five words define your sound?

Polished, nostalgia, cryptic, classic, premium.

Tell me something unique about your creative process.

I get most of my work done on airplanes and airports. Obviously not vocals, but my beats and mixing usually happens in the air.

Which song of yours would you like people to hear first?

‘Nod Ya Head!’ I think is my favourite song I’ve made in a long time. That song or ‘Seraphim’.

What inspired you to make that song?

Digging through old samples with my DJ Brandon, we found ‘Lord Groll’ by AL HUG, and the whistle melody was stuck in our heads for a whole weekend.

What’s the most vulnerable you’ve allowed yourself to be when writing/making music?

Vulnerability can sometimes bring the best work out of me. The possibility of making anything you want by myself, or some other artists, makes you stretch your creativity to lengths it’s never been. Then any project after that has the potential to be crazier than the first.

What’s the best/worst experience you’ve had on stage?

Performance wise, me and my DJ are yin and yang so we got that on lock. Even if the beat skips or something malfunctions, we flip it and make it seem like it happened on purpose. But i would say my worst experience is just the random people that will throw shit or come to a show too fucked up and try to interrupt it. My absolute best experience was playing in Arizona with Pouya and the AB6 squad. I heard almost 3000 kids all rapping my shit it was amazing.

What is your favourite song to perform?

Nod Ya Head! Is really my favourite part of the show so far. Its so danceable and its hard to not move, so the entire crowd is going crazy for the whole song.

Which artist/song/album made you want to make music?

Mac Dre – ‘The Genie Of The Lamp’.

What’s the meaning behind your name?

Honestly, I just thought it sounded good. All my favourite rappers have nicknames that just make sense, TERROR REID just kind of stuck with me.

If you weren’t making music, what would you be doing instead?

Probably be a cult leader [laughs]. No most likely some other type of art, or a filmmaker.

What’s success to you?

Success is the fulfilment of a goal, monetary or not. That feeling of fulfilment with anything you have been working towards, is my definition of success.

What moment in your life/career forced you to change direction?

Not enjoying something after 10 plus years. As soon as something that makes me feel good, stops making me feel good, I’m out. That, and I’m a firm believer in constantly changing styles. Last thing I want to happen is to pigeon hole myself and have to start over again.

Where can people keep in touch with you?

@terrorreid on instagram, thats where I’m most active.

Photo credit: @jasminescrafty