One of the most beautiful and liberating aspects of social media is the freedom it affords artists. With each platform offering a different route for expression, enterprising artists are learning the meaning of Marshall McLuhan's famous quote, "the medium is the message."
If that's true, Connor Musarra, a rising rapper from Cleveland, is playing the medium of Instagram like a fiddle. After witnessing the success of Tik Tok's short video format, Instagram introduced its own version called "reels" to compete with their social media rival. While other artists viewed "reels" as a novelty addition, Musarra saw an opportunity to create a bold, new art project.
For the last 299 days, as of writing this blog, Connor Musarra has been releasing a new song concept every day. While that alone might be impressive, Musarra also provides the instruments and production for all of his work. However, Connor doesn't view his multi-instrumental ability as anything unnatural. During my interview with Connor, I got a chance to learn about his origin and creative process.
Musarra can't remember a time when he wasn't playing music. As a boy, Connor picked up the family instrument: drums. " Well, both my dad and older brother are drummers, so I just grew up around it. I was always exposed to it," says Musarra. "I was always making beats. I mean, my older brother is a producer, so, since I was like 12, I would always get on his computer and f*** around."
Although his advanced proficiency doesn't show it, Musarra didn't experiment with other instruments until his time in college. "Music theory was kicking my a**, so I had to learn piano," says Musarra. "College was also when I started to learn how to sing."
While his music does include a variety of unique sounds and themes, Musarra doesn't like the idea of being slotted in one of the many sub-genres of hip hop. "I definitely make hip hop music," says Musarra. "I don't think it really needs to be put in a different category. I make hip hop."
Musarra views his song a day process as a form of performance art in itself. "Every day, right before I click post, I'm like, 'alright, this the one where they[his fans] turn on me." Likening the experience to doing stand-up comedy(yet another art form he engages in), Musarra views the project as a "process of surrender."
"If anything, this is an exercise in feeling the fear and doing it anyway," says Musarra. "Don't get me wrong, I have career goals and where I want to go with music, but I don't really have a master plan with this."
Despite the sharp political lines tucked into his lyrics, Connor only aims to create music that makes people feel good and spark conversations. " I want to make it normal to have these conversations. I want people to be like, 'wait, Connor is a normal guy, and he's talking about abolishing the police. Maybe this isn't weird,'" says Musarra.
All in all, Musarra's views on art and music are extremely grounded and loaded with humility. Musarra says that "art is about commiserating and sharing experiences."
If you want to experience a talented multi-instrumentalist rap artist on the rise, follow Connor on Instagram @connormusarra. Or you can listen to his new album "Horny singles in your area" available on all streaming platforms.
