BR33Z WORLD Refuses to Let Survival Be the End of the Story
Credit: BR33Z WORLD
Punk Head: You called this the first chapter of a three album story. What exactly begins with Black Heart that could not have begun with Purple Heart?
BR33Z WORLD: BLACK HEART had to come first because it’s the foundation of the entire story. It represents the pain, betrayal, survival, street life, relationships, and experiences that created the scars in the first place. Before somebody can understand where I’m going with PURPLE HEART or KISS OF DEATH, they have to understand where I came from and what shaped me. The three albums are connected, but each represents a different chapter. BLACK HEART is about living through the darkness and what that darkness does to your heart and your perspective. PURPLE HEART takes that survival into another place. The symbolism for me is about surviving a war that doesn’t come with medals. In the streets, you can survive things that should have killed you and nobody gives you an award for making it home. I survived being shot in the head and three times in the back. There were no medals, balloons, or ceremony waiting for me afterward. Life just continued, and every day became another battle. In that environment, respect isn’t automatically given to you. you have to earn it and sometimes demand it. That mentality is part of what PURPLE HEART represents to me: survival, scars, resilience, and the respect that comes from still standing. Then KISS OF DEATH takes the story into betrayal. The title draws from Judas betraying Jesus for thirty pieces of silver and identifying him to the Romans with a kiss. I connect with the symbolism of being betrayed by somebody who was close enough to you to hurt you. I’ve experienced my own versions of Judas people I trusted who showed me that betrayal can come from the people closest to you. KISS OF DEATH explores that darkness, along with the atmosphere and emotions surrounding betrayal, loyalty, trust, and consequence. That’s why BLACK HEART had to come first. You have to see the wounds before you can understand the survival and the betrayal that follow.
Punk Head: “Survival becomes identity. Pain becomes fuel.” That is a powerful line. When did survival stop being something you had lived through and become part of how you understood yourself as an artist?
BR33Z WORLD: It happened when I realized surviving wasn’t the end of what happened to me it was the beginning of what I was going to do with it. I survived being shot multiple times, including being shot in the head and three times in the back, and I had to relearn how to walk and talk. When you survive something like that, you don’t just wake up one day and go back to being the person you were before it happened. It changes your perspective. It changes what matters to you, how you look at people, how you understand loyalty, and how seriously you take the time you still have. At some point, I realized I had a choice. I could allow that pain to define me by what it took away, or I could define what that pain became. Music gave me a way to transform it into something. That’s where Pain Into Purpose comes from. It isn’t a marketing phrase for me. It describes my life. I’m not creating a character or borrowing somebody else’s experiences because they sound good on a record. When people hear pain, darkness, survival, betrayal, or determination in my music, a lot of it comes from things I actually lived. Survival became part of BR33Z WORLD because survival became part of my identity. The difference now is that instead of allowing the pain to control the story, I’m using it as fuel to write the next chapter.
Punk Head: This album moves between introspection and harder, high-energy records. Do you see those as two sides of the same person?
BR33Z WORLD: Absolutely. They’re not two characters. They’re different sides of the same person. Real life isn’t one emotion. Somebody can carry pain and still celebrate. You can be reflective one moment and aggressive the next. You can understand loss and betrayal while still having ambition, confidence, energy, and hunger. I’ve lived enough different sides of life that it wouldn’t be authentic for my music to exist in only one emotional space. That’s why BLACK HEART isn’t eight versions of the same song. Records like “Can’t Run,” “It Ain’t Easy,” and “Different View” can bring you into a more introspective space, while other records bring out a harder energy. But they all come from BR33Z WORLD. I want somebody who listens to the entire album to understand that contradiction, because human beings are contradictions. The darkness and the energy can exist in the same person. The pain and confidence can exist together. BLACK HEART is meant to show more than one side of me because all of those sides are real.
Punk Head: San Francisco-born, Oakland-raised is a very specific map. Which parts of those places actually made it onto Black Heart?
BR33Z WORLD: Being born in San Francisco and raised in Oakland isn’t just something I put in my biography. The Bay Area helped shape the way I think, move, create, and understand the world, so it naturally lives inside BLACK HEART.
It doesn’t always have to be an obvious city name or street reference in a lyric. You can hear it in my perspective, my delivery, my independence, the way I talk about loyalty and betrayal, and the way I tell stories.
Growing up in the Bay taught me that you have to create your own lane. It taught me survival. It taught me how quickly circumstances and relationships can change, how important loyalty is, and how to move through different environments without losing who you are.
The Bay also has a long history of artists and entrepreneurs building independently instead of waiting for the industry to give them permission. I identify heavily with that. I’m building BR33Z WORLD independently not only as music, but as entire brand which is something bigger that I own and control.
So San Francisco and Oakland aren't just locations attached to BLACK HEART. They're part of the mentality behind it. The Bay is in the DNA of how I tell my story.
Punk Head: Intention can sound very different after survival. Before what happened to you, what did success mean, and what does it mean now?
BR33Z WORLD: Before everything I survived, success was easier to measure by what somebody could see money, possessions, recognition, status, and being able to say you made it. I still have ambition. I still want success. I want the music to reach the highest level possible, and I’m building businesses and creating things that I intend to become successful. Survival didn’t take that hunger away from me. If anything, it made me more intentional about it. But the definition became bigger. When you’ve survived being shot in the head and three times in the back and then had to relearn how to walk and talk, you understand that simply getting another opportunity at life means something. I could have never had the opportunity to make BLACK HEART. I could have never had the opportunity to build BR33Z WORLD or any of the things I’m working toward today. So now success is also about ownership, legacy, and making the opportunity I survived for actually mean something. I want to build something that lasts beyond one song, one album, one video, or one moment of attention. I want my music and everything I build around it to show what can happen when somebody refuses to let the worst moments of their life become the final chapter. I know what it feels like to almost lose everything. Now I’m trying to turn what I survived into something that can outlive me. That’s what Pain Into Purpose means to me.
