H3RO has been born in the Columbia hip-hop scene. USC alumnus Justin Daniels, also known by his stage name H3RO, is bringing a certain flavor to the underground scene, one that will be further savored with his new album “Between the Panels,” which is set to drop this summer.
The journey began in one of the scariest places on earth…high school. “I liked messing around with loops and things like that back in high school, making beats,” says Daniels. “Well, I didn’t really make beats. I was just slapping loops together and trying to rap over them, and people would listen to the music and think, ‘Okay, well the beat sounds really awesome but your rapping, like…you should just stop.’”
But he didn’t. Daniels took about a year hiatus from sharing his music and worked on his first mix-tape “Who Is Junior Blaze” in the meantime. This time around, the response was a lot different. Though there were the token haters, there were a lot more supporters—peers who told Daniels he needed to keep going because there was something special about what he was doing.
Daniels became serious about his craft. During study hall, he would research rappers and classic albums. He would read Rolling Stone album reviews, scour top 100 lists and listen to every track, then proceed to dissect each individual process and what made that style successful. “I think that’s how I was able to mold my own craft out of it,” says Daniels. “A lot of rap artists start off mimicking or copying somebody else, and I do feel like I used to adapt styles from certain people, but then I feel like I got to the point where I knew how to basically rap without having to take somebody’s style or sounding like another artist. You always get comparisons, but it’s different when you’re like a mirror image of somebody. I found a way to go my separate way from that and make my own path.”
Daniels’ parents heard about the mix-tape from some coworkers, which sent him into a panic at the thought of them listening to all the profanity. During the recording process, anytime they would come into his bedroom, he would hide the evidence. His top-secret project was handed over to his parents during a car ride, however, and they played it right then and there to Daniels’ complete horror. Surprisingly, instead of pointing out every curse word, his parents ended up fighting over whom Daniels got his artistic ability from. From that point, they became his biggest supporters; they even purchased ProTools software to get him started.
In 2006, Nas dropped album “Hip-Hop is Dead.” In 2009, when Daniels graduated from high school, he felt that this statement was becoming true. “When I changed my name from Junior Blaze to Blaze to H3RO, my goal was to save hip-hop. That was my whole thing. I knew something had to happen to save hip-hop, and I was like, ‘I’ll be the hero,’” says Daniels.
When Daniels came to USC, one of the first things he did was pass around a new mix-tape, which led to making friends that he still works with now, like rapper Mike Gray. Gray collaborated on the 2012 disc “Heroes Live in a Gray Area” and works at Elite Records.
Daniels also performed at USC’s Got Talent his freshman year, which ended in an intense case of stage fright. “My parents were out there. My girlfriend was out there. And I just bombed. It was horrible. I tried to invent a dance called The Gamecock. I will not tell you... I will not show you what The Gamecock is like,” Daniels says, cringing.
Daniels didn’t perform again until a year later when he built his confidence by performing on stage with a fellow artist at New Brookland Tavern. Now, the stage doesn’t faze him at all. He performs locally at different venues.
Though Daniels is an independent artist, he has an agreement with local executives at Elite Records where they pay for his studio time if he puts their logo on his projects. He’s currently using that studio time to finish up “Between the Panels.”
For inspiration, Daniels analyzed Lupe Fiasco’s first album “Food & Liquor” to see what elements he wanted to emulate for his own project. However, the album is also tied to a larger concept based on a continuing saga that has run through his last three discs. “The concept is that you have to read between the lines in a way. Like, you don’t get the whole gist of the story unless you have every scene, but it’s the parts that connect the scene that you have to understand,” explains Daniels. “It’s like this is what happens in between scenes, in between tapes, in between saving the world. It’s like when you’re on your day off. That’s why a lot of the songs on this project are more real to me.”
“Be Something” is about how to steer people in the right direction in today’s society, something Daniels feels the rap industry lacks. “No Rules,” however, which is dropping in April, is “one of the most vulgar songs you will ever hear,” according to Daniels. “Love in a Speech Balloon” shows Daniels’ playful side with a love story focused around comic books and the gaming industry, while “City Under Siege” touches on political and racial issues that are reflected in Daniels’ upbringing. “The Last of Us” goes a step further and elaborates on the Treyvon Martin and Michael Brown cases.
Daniels’ friend and local artist Brian Means is creating 13 different album covers, one for every song. The front cover of the disc packaging will include all the covers stitched together. Promotional posters for the album will have each one individually presented to create a story piece by piece.
Check out H3RO’s music at YourH3RO.com.
