Creative Q&A with Fairbanks rapper scheduled to perform at Palmer Fairgrounds

WASILLA — Fairbanks rapper Joshua Silva, a.k.a. Alaska Redd recently participated in a question and answer interview discussing creative expression, local talent, and his upcoming performance during the 2021 Alaska State Fair through AK Rhymefest.

Q: How long have you been making music professionally?“Over 20 years.”

Q: How did you get involved with music in the first place?“Just a musical upbringing with family. My brothers and my father were in bands and played music… I just have a very musical family. My grandmother was an opera singer down in San Francisco.”

Q: When did you start getting into rap?“It kind of started happening early in high school. That’s when people started noticing I kind of had a talent for rapping… That was my start to becoming an artist, freestyling at house parties and hanging out with people walking home from school and stuff like that. I would just make up little raps… After a bit, I took it a little more seriously and I stuck with it. It kind of came naturally to me.”

Q: What are your overall goals for your music?“Just to keep having fun with it and be productive with it and keep moving in a general forward direction, that’s all I’ve ever wanted to do with it really… My goal is just to keep creating and having fun with it. Hopefully, open other doors for artists up here too in Alaska, that’s another thing that I strive to do… I’ve had to wiggle my way into situations but it’s always panned out really well because I have really good intentions behind it.”

Q: When did you release your first album and what’s the most recent album?“I made my first album, ‘Organized Ruckus’ in 2001… The last one I did, ‘Snow Suits & Bunnyboots… I got some killer tracks on there.”

Q: What’s been some of your favorite things about making music in Alaska over the years?“One of my favorite things is like the end result, like watching people at a show… They don’t see everything that goes into a show but they see the end result… When people are entertained, I’m like, ‘hell yeah, I did my job. You know what I mean?”

Q: So you’ve opened for Tech N9ne and so many other big names in the industry, what’s that been like?“Yeah, I’ve toured with E-40. I’ve toured with Tech… I’ve opened up for Method Man, Red Man. Three 6 Mafia… Macklemore, Nappy Roots, just a bunch and bunch of people. I’ve been doing so long I can’t even remember everybody,” he said with a laugh. “It was surreal back in the day but I’ve been doing it so long… I’ve sat in the same room with these guys so many times… Honestly, it’s what I’m supposed to be doing. This is where I’m supposed to be.”

Q: Is expressing your creativity really important to you?“I mean, yeah. I’ve always been my own thing, my own entity. So, it’s like I’ve never had any kind of restraints or anything like that. I’ve always expressed my own creativity in my own ways… I just do it.”

Q: How do you feel about being a part of the first incorporation of AK Rhmyehfest at this year’s Alaska State Fair?“I think it’s gonna be pretty cool. It’s gonna be fun. I love doing shows with Devon [D. Tha Lyricist], all my buddies out there. They’re great people. I’ve been making music with those guys for a long time. They’re like family to me, and I try to get out there and support what they’re doing whenever I can… It means we get a little time to do our thing on the stage where we get to show our art off.”

Q: What’s your take on Alaska’s music scene?“It’s weird… There’s a lot of super-talented people all throughout the state of all different genres and types…It’s just generally a kind of hit or miss type of place. Sometimes the scene is really blossoming with all kinds of things just popping off and happening. Then it’ll be like, ‘where did everybody go?”

Q: What do you think about Devon Shaw and his efforts promoting Alaska’s music scene?“I think it’s awesome. He’s a cool, cool cat… I brought him on my very first tour I did in Alaska… That dude is the most unselfish artist or person probably that I’ve ever met in my life, he said with a laugh. “Especially when it comes to what we do, it’s weird. That’s a rare line when you find people that are like, ‘man, let me pump your platform. Let me push you, Let me get you on.’ People are like, all about themselves, very much so… That dude just keeps it very neutral. I love that dude and I love what he does for everybody else… What it does is bring unity to it. It opens up bridges between artists and people in general.”

Q: Whare are some of the biggest lessons or takeaways from over the years?“Just keep going. Like, if you’re an aspiring artist or anything in life, anything, if you want to do something, you’ve got to wake up. You’ve got to put the work in. You’ve got to do it. You’ve got to keep trying. You can’t be afraid to fail. You can’t be afraid to invest your time and your money into something because if you do, you’re only gonna be successful as you let yourself… Keep pushing and you’ll be so surprised where you can take yourself.”

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman reporter Jacob Mann at jacob.mann@frontiersman.com