Meet Iris Stryx from Nassau, Bahamas who is a rapper.

About Your Hustle

Business / Project Name

Iris Stryx

How did you get started, and how did you get to where you are today?

I started by having a need to get out what I was feeling. I always wrote, since I was 8, but never vocalized it. Rap gave me a voice. I was tormented inside, built up over years of suppression, my environment didn’t help. I felt neglected, I never felt loved. I hated myself. One day out of frustration, I grabbed my laptop and locked myself in a car. That was my studio. That was the beginning. I then decided to record at a home studio, some guy I Googled. I recorded my first “official” song. That would be the song I played after A&R Greg Green from Cash Money Records heard my poetry. He then encouraged me to pursue it and set me up with one of his engineers. I recorded 3 songs in one day. Then he flew in an engineer to set up my own home studio. That was an amazing experience, I learned a lot about making beats and recording. We made songs and recorded music videos, a lot of advertising. I think a van with my picture and name might still be driving around in Miami lol. I gave my first autograph during this time. We did a lot of street work with a street team he organized. I didn’t have a lot of money at the time, but everything I made I put back into my business for it to grow. Then I moved onto Criteria Recording Studios, where I record now. Trevor, the manager there is awesome, he set me up with Grammy Award winning engineer Javier Valverde. I’m blessed to have met him 3 years ago. My sound was developed further and the artist in me began to spread its wings. I now have an in-house marketing team, they’re all awesome. I recently got with a PR firm and I have a loyal and growing fanbase. Many of them have remained with me since my first tour or the first time they met me.

Challenges and Obstacles

Has it been a smooth road? If not, what were some of your struggles along the way?

Haha! I mean there are times when I’ve wanted to quit, so the struggles are definitely there. When I first started putting out music, EVERYONE pretty much hated me, they hated my voice, they hated my visuals… it was a little crazy. Then I did something unusual, I said well they hate me already, I might as well just be myself and put out the image that I really feel, who I really am. The people on my team at the time was 100% against it haha. But I was done. I decided if I’m going to quit, let me quit doing it my way. And the craziest thing happened! People started to like me, I mean they absolutely LOVED my crazy ideas! That was a complete shocker! I enjoyed doing that type of music and portraying the characters that I developed my way. It still wasn’t smooth sailing cause just last year I was like OMG, I’m done with all of this. That came out of the frustration from the business, sooo many crooks in the industry, sooo much red tape if you choose to remain independent and stay true to yourself. I was in the studio working on what I felt would be my last project, Javier felt like it was a lot like “Island Girl” but on steroids hahaha, I’ll never forget that. I then told him that this was it, after this, I’m done. Then he says, “Well this one is called Rebirth, so let’s see.” LOL, his response was right.

Business Contact

instagram.com/irisstryx

fanlink.to/fireandice

www.irisstryx.com