“I just started as a joke, I did it for fun,” said Sam “I.D.” Lowery when asked how he started rapping. “I was four years old when I got my first tape…. I had MC Hammer and my older brother had Vanilla Ice, so obviously I was a little cooler, haha.” I.D. has been in love with music ever since. “My first rap c.d. was Busta Rhymes When Disaster Strikes, that was my SHIT… after that it was Wu-Tang, NaS, Jay-Z, and The LOX.” Coming from the west side of Rochester, NY, I.D. says that the lyrics of these artists were an early influence, but says that he really came to develop his unique style over the past three to four years.
I.D. is the self-proclaimed “sickest” rapper in Rochester, because of the dark lyrics and themes in songs like Torture, where he says “Imagine waking up in a room where you can see ya breath/ unaware of the fact that your about to freeze to death/ aint too much breathing left/ especially when you look down at your wrists and realize your about to bleed to death.” When he was a little kid, I.D. says that he used to hang out with his older brother and the other older kids on the block, where he remembers always “saying some sick shit… it’s just dark humor.”
The dark humor that is a theme throughout many of I.D.’s songs was developed partly through a tumultuous relationship with his father, who has used heroin since I.D. was young. Another influence to his style is the socioeconomic environment of inner city Rochester, where the murder rate has been on the rise and is today much higher than that of New York City, which was previously considered New York State’s “murder capital.”
I.D.’s rugged style reflects Rochester’s inner city culture. “Rochester is just sick… everyone is shady, you can’t trust anyone.” When you first hear I.D., his deep, raspy voice announces his presence on the track and connects the listener with both the lyrics and the beat to bring the song together and convey clear visual imagery.
I.D. raps mainly with his group Roc City’s Grimiest (RCG), who he credits for teaching him how to write rap songs. I.D says, “They taught me how to measure bars, format a verse… they taught me how to write my first 16.” I.D. and RCG have performed in many local shows and have collaborated with many popular Rochester artists. In addition to being featured on various mixtapes by artists in the Rochester area, I.D. and RCG have also been featured on Green Lantern’s Myspace Invasion mixtape, Grafh’s Ear to the Streets mixtape, and have also worked with DJ P-Cutta.
I.D. feels that his style brings a fresh dose of reality to the hip-hop scene, which has become dominated by popular artists talking about money, cars and other topics that average people cannot relate to. I.D. discusses his views about this topic in the song “Talkin’,” which calls out rappers that lie about having expensive possessions that they cannot afford, because of the mistaken belief that people want to hear those songs. In “Talkin’,” I.D. says, “I’ve even got some advice I can offer to you/ before you start writing about your cars and your jewels/ look around mutherfucker, are you confused?” But you don’t get any confusion with I.D.; instead you get a raw perspective that represents the depressed conditions of inner city Rochester, which is common to cities throughout America.
ALSO AVAILABLE AT HIP HOP CENTER 795 W MAIN
FABULOUS APPAREL ON THE CORNER OF THURSTON RD AND SAWYER ST MAD FLAVORS 185 LYELL AVE
THE GREEN STORE ON ARNETT AND WOODBINE
You should create your own MySpace Layouts like me by using nUCLEArcENTURy.COM's MySpace Profile Editor!
