Pronounced: (Love – awe – see –air)
Place of Origin : Brooklyn, New York
A famous rapper once asked if there was a Heaven for a Gangster. Lavoisier is the embodiment of the answer to that question. Up until a few years ago it was “Stolen cars, gun sales, crack deals and jail cells,” but since then, Lavoisier has changed lanes. “I guess you could say I had an epiphany,” he says with an almost mischievous laugh, of his new approach to rhymes and life. But what happens when a drug dealer slash rapper has a crisis of conscience? What is the product of a real thug who’s turned over a new leaf in the name of God? Its name is Lavoisier and his lyrics are not for the faint of heart.
A student of hip hop since a youngster, Lavoisier was first introduced to two turntables and a microphone at the impressionable age of six by his older brother, and so began his love affair with all things hip hop. His older brother, who was a serious and dedicated MC on the verge of a record deal would later be murdered in the streets of Brooklyn, NY when Lavoisier was twelve. Growing up displaced, losing a brother to gun violence and already having lost mother to a heart attack at age four, combined with the pain of having an absentee drug addict for a father, became too much to bear. At age fourteen, Lavoisier began penning his own lyrics as a way of getting attention and also expressing his frustration and anger at life and the hand it had dealt him. His art was imitating life around him, but slowly, his life began to imitate his art. Lavoisier began to live out the violent and rebellious lyrics that he was writing. The streets were calling his name. “I didn’t have a paternal image and thugs were the most powerful figures to me that I could touch, so that’s who I wanted to be; that’s who I wanted respect from,” says Lavoisier of his pursuit for an identity.
Following a conversation with a close friend while smoking weed and counting drug money in an abandoned building, Lavoisier began to pursue a relationship with God. “Jesus got me up outta them streets and healed all of those broken areas of my life, so that’s who I’m gonna do this music for,” he says. Lavoisier’s aggressive and sharp delivery and passion along with his demeanor, which is unmistakably street, hardly make you think of Sunday morning at your grandmother’s church. Of his subject matter Lavoisier says, “My content hasn’t changed all that much, but my perspective has changed tremendously.”
In addition to moving over 5000 units of his debut album, The Next Big Thing V. 2.0, Lavoisier recently released a video that is burning up the web entitled “Rap Terrorist Goes to School” that has over 100,000 views and is steadily climbing. In the video, Lavoisier addresses a group of junior high kids and schools them to the hypocrisy of today’s most prominent rappers and the harmful effects of living out their lyrics. When speaking about the video and the backlash that has ensued, Lavoisier doesn’t seem phased. “I’m built for this man; you don’t have to be a thug to have courage.” Spoken like a true RAP TERRORIST.
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