Today we’d like to introduce you to Bruce Brown.
Hi Bruce, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I started out pursuing my gifts in music and my love for film at a early age. Using music and video throughout my time in school showed me I could connect with people in a unique way. and it also helped that I got good grades because of using those gifts of Songwriting, performing, and making videos for various school projects. After High School though, my focused shifted from doing both music and video to strictly music. Most of this was because I felt I lacked the budget to make the films I felt I wanted to make. It was there I made connections with various people and things seemed to begin to take off. But I began to get too comfortable with how good I was as an rap artist and I also began to party, too much. Losing focus of the business and music parts of my career I should have kept clear headed on. And then something unexpected happen. In 2010 I was diagnosed with schizophrenia. I thought I was fine, but people around me let me know I wasn’t. It wasn’t until I was unable to work, unable to hang out and socialize, unable to do what I loved to do that I realized that I had a very real problem. From what I remember the specialists who first dealt with me told me that my case was very severe. It was expected for me to stay in a very limited way of life. What it took would be me opening up and trusting others in a way I hadn’t before. For years I poured into the person who I was speaking to for therapy. I also had to help my family understand I wasn’t the same person I was before my diagnosis. That and the right medication to offset the symptoms of schizophrenia I was experiencing helped me to be able to finally get through that dark place. I had to relearn how to be social again and to be able to use my mind properly again to be able to make sound creative things that could be understood like I had once shown before. During this time of becoming well again I was using my pre diagnosis life as material instead of where I was and who I was becoming. Today I am getting back to using all my gifts in music and video when I thought It was too late because of my age (42) I’m learning that it’s not your age that makes it too late to pursue what you love, it’s the belief in yourself that makes it too late for what you can do with your gifts.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
my desire to be social and socially accepted made it hard as I got older to stay my true authentic self I knew when I was younger.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
My music as a rap artist is and I am proud to say is all clean music. usually that is looked down upon as not being expressively free nowadays. but I see it as a way to broaden who I reach with being creative in knowing my words and using them to the best of my ability. I specialize in talking about different phases of life, Among them are love, loss, and understanding yourself.. I’m proud that I have kept true to being myself in a music landscape that tries so hard to find the next star yet Imitate the last star with no difference from who came before them. As a filmmaker I am relearning how to develop my writing and filmmaking skills for a new era of filmmakers and people who love to watch films.
Where we are in life is often partly because of others. Who/what else deserves credit for how your story turned out?
My Family has played a large part in my success as a artist in supporting me My mother Stephanie Otey, My StepFather James Otey, my brother James Otey Jr., My sister Victoria Otey, my father Bruce Brown, my grandmother Victoria Dickinson. My Aunt Hailey Bowley and my Uncle Steve Bowley., My fellow artist/friends Tiffany Hines and Daniel Jones. my partner in media storytelling Angela Trice, and lastly my church family Matthews Memorial Baptist Church in Washington DC and countless other friends who believed in me. They all supported me in my highest times and elevated me when I felt my lowest in my mental health.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brucebrown2
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brucebrown26
- Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/0ysflhOQdxbvXYKALU6KLj?si=G2joRMcbQmq4ciN5f8EFow
