Raphstar Raphy wants to be a household name in the rap game, and he’s not stopping until he gets there.
Arriving on the scene with the ability to both rap and sing, the rising star exudes a confidence that’s unmatched, with lyrics inspired directly by real-life experiences he’s encountered growing up in North Philly.
From getting trouble at the age of 15 in an environment surrounded by drugs, violence, and poverty, to now using music as therapy, Raphy creates music for the underdogs: the ones without a voice or platform.
In describing himself, Raphy states he’s “lit, down-to-earth.” “I’m a people’s person for sure, everybody loves me. I love my parents, I love everyone around me. I’m a Leo at that,” he adds.
Getting his start in a duo with his brother called Blun Bros, Raphy is now focused on his own solo artistry. Most recently, the recording artist released his new project titled Space Goat, in collaboration with Ikebeatz. The title alone reminds you that Raphy is not from this earth, but rather somewhere in space living his best life.
AllHipHop: How would you describe your sound?
Raphstar Raphy: I can’t really describe it because I sing, I rap, I harmonize. If you listen to a lot of my songs you’re going to get a different sound from it. It’s a little bit of everything because I originally started off singing singing, before I started getting hip to the melodies and all that. I used to be on my Chris Brown s### until it got to 2016/2017, then we had to switch the narrative to A Boogie type melodies. I’m still getting the hang of it though, it’s in between everything.
AllHipHop: What was it like coming up in North Philly?
Raphstar Raphy: I compare it to any other neighborhood, any other projects. Drugs, violence, PHA, struggle… it’s a lot. I was close to a felon. [laughs] I was a troubled kid, I did 18 months in Pittsburgh when I was 15. I was always getting suspended and locked up in juvenile detention. I grew up basically in DHS, I was on probation from 14 to 18. But after that, it wasn’t really too much trouble. It was minor stuff, but I kept getting in trouble. It wasn’t no crazy stuff for real that would keep me away forever. It was more so fighting and violating probation, never really nothing serious. At 17 or 18, all my troubles stopped because I found music. That became my therapy.
AllHipHop: Biggest influences?
Raphstar Raphy: I listen to Lil Uzi, Durk. I listen to Migos, I listen to Lil Baby, everybody. I like all genres.
AllHipHop: Talk about starting the duo Blum Bros with your brother Cartier.
Raphstar Raphy: Me and Carti, that’s my big brother 2 years apart. That’s my real brother, same mom same dad. We started Blum Bros in 2016, we’re blood brothers and we’re from Blumberg Projects. That’s where the name came from. That’s my partner-in-crime so we compliment each other on everything. So far as us being a duo, we were lit for the last 4 years of us we’re coming up. We did every show in Philly, from The Filmore back to LA.
We started working with EDM artists, then we started getting songs playlisted on Need for Speed the game in 2019. A lot of stuff, stuff started going up after that. From there, we’re doing solo projects but still will come out with Blum Bros project. We’re giving the fans a little bit more insight on who we are. The way we’re set up: Carti got his fanbase, I got my fanbase, then there’s Blum Bros. If we can get traffic flowing through 3 different directions with Blum Bros and and our solo music, why not?
AllHipHop: Space Goat is out now, how are you feeling?
Raphstar Raphy: I’m loving it honestly because it’s my first solo project I did with IkeBeatz. I actually like it a lot. Even I came up with the tape in a day and a half because I literally freestyled. I don’t think I wrote on there. I promise you, I came up with it with Ikebeatz. He came up with all the beats in front of my face from scratch, I freestyled them in the studio in the same day. I probably would’ve gotten it done faster but we were smoking and eating. [laughs] That was more a fun project because I didn’t have to get serious and write. I can be myself and have fun, basically make hype music. For the album, I’m definitely writing. That’s where I get a different sound.
AllHipHop: Why are you the Space Goat?
Raphstar Raphy: It’s simple, I always looked at myself as I wasn’t born from here. I’m an alien, I was born in space. In order to call yourself a GOAT, you gotta have some type of standards. You gotta be really a goat. Me, I really could damn near mimic whatever sound I want to mimic because I know how to sing already, then I taught myself how to rap. The sounds are there so that’s GOAT status right there. If you have your own sound and can mimic whoever you want to sound like, that’s a cheat code.
AllHipHop: What’s the vibe with Ikebeatz in the studio?
Raphstar Raphy: Oh man, that’s big bro right there. From the start, since I met him our vibes are all the way there. I’ve known him for only 5 months now, but since the day we met we’ve been locked in. We got closer everyday for the last 5 months working with each other. Everything’s positive vibes, we’re both on the same page. He likes UFOs, he likes what I like: aliens and space. We fit perfect.
AllHipHop: Bring us back to when you recorded “Bling.”
Raphstar Raphy: Oh yeah, he produced “Bling,” one of the tracks off Space Goat. That’s our second track on there. It’s simple, we came up with the beat. If you listen to the song or the beat, it’s basically singing the hook for you. I went off with what the beat was saying. In my head, the beat was saying “got bands on deck, see me throw money when they dance on me.” It was right there for me already for that song, so it was easy to come up with that melody.
AllHipHop: Best memory from the video shoot?
Raphstar Raphy: Honestly everything, because I’m getting professional videos now. I’m not used to the treatments that I normally be getting. Everything was professional, it was on point. I seen movie cameras. The backgrounds I’m recording in now is different from how I used to record on my block or record in the room. Everything was a good experience because I’m still getting used to it.
AllHipHop: 3 things you need in the studio?
Raphstar Raphy: Weed, some great beats, and good vibes.
AllHipHop: How much you smoking in a day?
Raphstar Raphy: Honestly I can’t even tell you, I roll up every 5 minutes. Just know that I wake up, I gotta smoke a couple Dutches before I decide if I’m hungry or not. After I eat, I smoke again after that. Whatever I do: using the bathroom taking a #2, I’m done there and I’m smoking again. After I’m done eating, I’m smoking. Before I eat, I’m smoking. When I wake up, I’m smoking. [laughs] I only do weed, so I smoke it all day.
AllHipHop: Talk about doing two records with Scott Storch, what can we expect?
Raphstar Raphy: Damn the crazy thing about it, before I started working with Scott Storch, I didn’t know who he was. That was my manager, he was a friend of my manager’s. Being a good friend with my manager, the way I met him, we were inside a Vegas hotel but it’s connected to a mall. We’re walking past, we ran into Scott Storch. My manager introduced me to him like “this is my new artist, I want you to listen to his music.” As we’re walking, he’s listening to my music off his phone. He was vibing to it, liking the sound. From there, we set up a session in LA. We got along with it.
AllHipHop: Best memory from those sessions?
Raphstar Raphy: Coming up with the song because when I came up with it, I started harmonizing anything so we could get the melody first. After we got the melody, he started building a beat around my voice. He’s vibing very well, good vibes. It wasn’t even like me and an older guy, moreso me and a guy that’s my age. He stooped down to my level to vibe with me, that’s why I respect that part. After I did a couple songs with him, I did my full resume on him, wow I really didn’t know he was big like that. Who he really was, ‘cause I’m young. I’m only 24 years old, I don’t really know much about Scott Storch. After I did my research on him, my manager told me “this is a good look, they want to work with you.” From there, alright that’s golden. [laughs]
AllHipHop: Goals yourself as an artist at this point of your career?
Raphstar Raphy: I mainly want to get my music out there, make music for everybody. Make a legacy out of it as far as putting my family on, getting everybody in a better position, basically saving lives. Same with Blum Bros, that’s the same goal. We both got the same goal. We both in the same family, so the goal’s to get everybody out. Maintain good music and keep the fans occupied. As long as you keep them occupied, you can never go wrong. I don’t think I’ma ever not think of a good song.
AllHipHop: Your chain says FLVS, what is that?
Raphstar Raphy: That’s short for Flavors, that’s my clothing line. It’s originally the CEO, her name in Sabera. That’s my cousin, she started it back in 2017. I was the first person to model it so from there, let me get parts of it. It’s us two when we first started, I started off as the model and she started off as the person designing it. After a while, we started designing together and we became a team.
AllHipHop: Anything else you want to let us know?
Raphstar Raphy: New music coming out with me and Scott Stroch, new music coming out with Blum Bros. It’s a lot going on. We got new videos coming, new everything. Right now is a flooding time. The tape already came out, now it’s time to put more music out so we don’t keep them waiting. Once we got the attention, we gotta keep it.