Zay Abstract will be the first to tell you that he was an “outcast” as a kid and that he never really fit in with anything. He’s bringing that philosophy along with him as he grows and develops his skills as a musician; mental health issues are very real and Zay Abstract is well aware, and wants you to be the first to know that it is okay to struggle.
“My main point in this EP is to make people understand that mental health issues are very very real; I want to make that as clear as possible,” said Zay Abstract. “You are going to be right there in it because I was one of those people that didn’t believe in talking about how I felt and it led me to a lot of actions that I have regretted.”
Lyrically, Zay Abstract’s upcoming project follows the path of the protagonist, a boy named AN!O ENDOLAR, who Zay says is the “physical manifestation of everything that is flawed and looked down on in a human.” He describes the EP as a therapy session between the listener and the protagonist, and how by the end of it all, the listener will have a clue to who the protagonist really is, and not the front he’s been putting up.
“He seems like a tough guy from the outside and it appears like he doesn’t give a damn about anything, but as soon as you hit him where his soft spots are, it hurts him real bad because he’s as fragile as they come,” said Zay Abstract.
“He really does want help; he is searching so many places for it, [he] even went deep in religion but it only helped to ease the pain a little,” he added. “But, he finally found the answer to the problem, but it wasn’t the answer he thought he would find.”
There is so much in store for the 19-year-old Crenshaw, California native. He’s keeping it simple though, with a barrage of singles that only get better and better as they come. Zay Abstract is a hungry young rapper, and his mentality is what’s going to keep him ahead of the many others that are trying to stand in his way:
“I’m still a young dude, and I’m going to get better with time,” he said. “It’s really inevitable.”