New York City’s music and fashion scenes have been intertwined since the inception of the music industry reaching a worldwide scale and as time has progressed the two have only become more synonymous and simultaneously blended together. Washington Heights born-and-raised artist fourfive is continuing this symbiosis and both innovating through music and the proliferation of fashion in a manner that builds off of the traditions of the past and present while marching forward aesthetically, launching him into a lane of his own. Between his music career and involvement with rising brand New York City Gun Club, fourfive has his hand in many of his hometown’s primary cultural elements and looks to only further tighten his grip on the scene as the 2020’s roll on.
He has dabbled with music making since 2016 when he was initially captivated by the SoundCloud scene, citing Young Thug as his primary influence while drawing inspiration from Lil Yachty and that entire tier of musicians who innovated so much throughout the 2010’s and set us up for the trends we see in the present day. He experimented with different flows and melodies. Concurrently fourfive was equally enamored with the burgeoning New York fashion scene which was powered by and existed primarily on social media which he quickly realized was the key to exposing the world beyond his neighborhood to any number of artistic mediums, as well as connecting with other like minded individuals to grow in tandem with.
In 2019 fourfive was at a concert and in the middle of the mosh-pit he looked to the floor to find a sweater that immediately captivated him. The design was simple but striking and the production quality was already obvious, brandishing a logo reading “New York City Gun Club ” which prompted him to post the sweater on his Instagram and quickly was connected to the brand’s primary designer. They immediately connected and while xyz was focusing on curating the best graphics possible, fourfive began to handle the day-to-day operations of the business as well as taking control of the guerrilla marketing that led to its distribution throughout NYC and beyond. He called upon all of the connections he could find to put notable artists and creatives in their brand, going anywhere necessary to push the clothing.
Fourfive credits this success in the fashion and marketing realms to building the confidence he needed to fully take his musical artistry seriously, coupled with the tragic loss of his grandmother who he lived with that fully left him on his own and this tribulation forced him into maturing rapidly and from there was able to work through this trauma via the catharsis music could provide. Soon after he linked with Sham whose production expertise quickly gave his music career the boost it needed and since Sham has been an integral part to fourfive’s musical maturation ever since, handling both the beatmaking, arranging, and engineering of fourfive’s songs, resulting in a uniform but constantly evolving sonic approach.
Since he has gradually built up an increasingly sizable cult following across SoundCloud and Instagram, as well as having a strong hold on his local scene bolstered by numerous singles and aesthetically striking visuals, building to his debut project titled “MACK” which releases March 18 and is the most comprehensive, well-put together, and forward-thinking releases from a New York artist in 2022.
Also check out fourfive’s recent video release “PRIVATE.”
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