Meet Zay The Beast | Musician, Photographer & Writer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Zay The Beast and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Zay, why did you decide to pursue a creative path?
In my opinion, creativity allows individuals to express themselves in a way that is unique to their desired communication method so I decided to become an artist as to assist with promoting the freedom of art. I honestly feel like art has a hidden power within society as it is always around us in so many overlooked formats that it may be embedded in our natural instincts rather than our learned behaviors.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I think the main factor that sets my art apart from others is my conception of the idea and how I have to present it. Although I use several mediums of creation I try to not box myself into being “one type of creative” so if a photograph works better than a song to present a message or idea I use it. If I were to box myself into being a musician then the photograph would have to compliment the song rather than just existing for it’s own purpose. Another factor that sets me apart is the fact that viewers or followers of my art never really know what type of art I am going to create next, which adds mystery to the discovery thereof.

I got to the creative point I am today because of really thinking about what I was doing previously, am doing and plan on doing in the future with pretty much every decision I made. Doing this helped me greatly because more than fame I seek to positively inspire as many people as possible with my art. It definitely was not easy because when you come from a boxed in creative environment where you only do one thing, expressing other talents professionally feels a bit weird at first. It almost feels like you are betraying your primary talent just by showing the world that you actually have many talents. I overcame these challenges by kind of forcing myself to limit what I did with my primary talent temporarily as to force myself to use my other talents for creating art.

The main lessons that I learned along the way are to never give up and to start somewhere rather than making an excuse to wait. In pretty much every creative field I realized that there is a point where we could feel like we are getting nowhere but as long as you are creating you are getting somewhere. You just may not know how to publish the creative piece and attract the attention you want yet. Stay with it and things will brighten for you because they have to.

The main thing the world should know about my story is that I authentically try to depict the world in my art as if it is historical artistic data for future generations. When I start a photographic project, a writing assignment or musical piece I begin with the mental concept of being committed to preserving the eras of humanity as well as the Earth and influencing the power of artistic freedom. The art that I create with this mental concept it licensed by Tuccera LLC.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I am nature freak so I would take them to a few hidden gem places that I use for nature photography such as to experience the metroplex as opposed to a single part of the city. As far as for food I would take them to “Bone Daddy’s” off of 75 for barbecue, “Hook, Line & Sinker” in uptown for fish, “Mumtaz” in Richardson for Mediterranean and “Casa Mama’s” on Preston for Hispanic. Those are some of my favorite restaurants as to date.

The funny story is that I’m not a fan of drinking and driving at all so we would not go anywhere to drink except for the house or hotel room but the shopping prequel to drinking would most likely be Grapevine Mall. I have always enjoyed finding myself spending too much money there lol.

From my viewpoint some of the most interestingly unique people I have ever met stem from the Addison and Richardson area so if they were having a public event I normally would attend those with my friend. Even if they were not having an event the atmosphere in those portions of the metroplex tend to inspire.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Throughout my creative journey my wife has been my biggest supporter, especially at helping me to not feel withdrawn from society as it takes a lot of my existence to manifest my artist creations. I also have a pretty dope spiritual organization called “Sazi Lyf” I work with to give my art more meaning as they teach me true art starts inside of the spirit and manifests itself outside of the flesh to plant a seed inside of someone that we must water with future artist creations. They also help with providing me specific topics to create art about so I believe they deserve a lot of recognition for helping me to expand my creative thoughts and processes. I also believe the first 3 models I photographed deserve recognition for helping me to build a great portfolio of images. Their names are Lora Ebadian, Renee May Model and J Soul Envy.

Website: https://www.ZayTheBeast.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zay_tb

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zetucker/

Twitter: https://www.x.com/zay_tb

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ZayTheBeast

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@zay_tb

Other: Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/artist/13UYaTBsHnkYvBjSkz4woH

Image Credits
Photographer: Zay The Beast

Models: Lora Ebadian, Renee May Model, J Soul Envy

Zay The Beast Stylist: Bougie Bella Couture

Creative Director: Badd Chix Only

Image Licensing: Tuccera LLC