Ziggy: “Breathe” – blurring of lines between the worlds of rap and electronic music

Zachary Raul Reyes aka Ziggy was born in Arcadia, California, but spent a lot of time moving around since his dad was in military service, ending up in a town in Ohio called Middletown where he spent most of my elementary and high school career. Growing up, music was his life. At 13 he received his first guitar, as a gift from his mom. He took two lessons before teaching himself how to write tabs and understanding harmony. From there Reyes ventured into listening to Hip hop and metal before discovering Dubstep, which represented a complete change of direction. Suddenly sound design became his driving passion. That desire saw the birth of Ziggy and the signing in 2017, to Victery Records LLC.

Now out on all major digital platforms you’ll find the Ziggy single “Breathe”. The blurring of lines between the worlds of rap and electronic music is nothing new. Many of hip-hop’s first songs drew their inspiration from the rhythmic thump of dance music, flipping samples from songs that had the specific goal of getting a crowd moving.

So it’s no surprise that the latest modern mutation of dance music, under the ambiguous EDM has crossed over and even been absorbed into hip-hop. This type of cross-genre pollination is essential to hip-hop.

The best EDM shares many of the same qualities as the best hip-hop: an emphasis on rhythm, a commitment to intensity and a powerful physicality. It’s really no surprise that an artist like Ziggy, with “Breathe”, brings one right into the other – it’s like Eminem meets Diplo, meets Martin Garrix.

The acquaintanceship of rap and EDM is perfectly personified by Ziggy, an anomaly of sorts who is an imaginative lyricist and nimble emcee. Ziggy sounds like one of the first rappers to try and conquer underground hip-hop and electronic music concurrently.

Music isn’t a one size fits all anymore. Electronic music today has fragmented into dozens of subgenres, and when combined with hip-hop it can range from appalling Pitbull remixes of Daft Punk songs, to the vibrant beat scene genre-mashing at Los Angeles’ Low End Theory club.

Hip-hop, of course, was created by piggybacking off of other genres, and has been infused with everything from disco to rock to nu-metal over the years. Hence today there are young and talented artists like Ziggy taking the genre in different directions. In the end, he is probably helping keep both hip hop and electronic music relevant for a new generation of kids.

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