Photo credit: @busbyleigh on Instagram.
PaxTheCollector represents his hometown of Bridgeport, Connecticut with a burning passion. Whether you would see him doing shows in the city that never sleeps or at your local bar in Richmond, Virginia, Pax carries an unapologetic aura when it comes to his craft. He is one member of StarSquad7 Ent. alongside Casino-Damerino, who TheMSQShop recently interviewed. During their time at Virginia Union University, they were everywhere in Richmond performing at venues like The Camel, The Nutty Buttery, Virginia Commonwealth University, and Virginia Union University. Casino shouted out Pax by calling him a god-tier lyricist and a great example of his lyricism can be seen below in his visual for I Got It. In the song he raps certain bars like "Catch me going ghost-like Danny Phantom, smoking Piccolo like I'm on planet Namek..." and tying in one intergalactic bar after another with staying in his bag.
In the past couple of years, he released collaborative projects with his right-hand man Casino with a couple of singles and occasional EPs. He is going to release a full-length project The Collection 3 later in the year. You can find the second installment on Soundcloud. In our interview, you'll learn more about the lesser-known but underground Connecticut music scene and some of Pax's experiences.
Jay: Describe the CT music scene. What’s popping out there? What are some venues people should check out there? Any good food spots?
Pax: The CT music scene is very diverse in the sense of venues and artists. The majority of the cities I perform in are Bridgeport of course, New Haven, Ansonia & New York. The top spots to perform here are Ten20, LegacyLounge, Rum & Tequila, Cafe Nine & EleganceEventSpace in New York.
Pax rocking clothing from the @allinclusive.ct brand on Instagram.
Jay: As a CT Native, how would you describe the Richmond music scene?
Pax: The eclectic & diverse scene that inhabits Richmond is very similar to the New Haven scene here in Connecticut. Artists like Indigaux and Chef The Chef, who are both New Haven artists have a very lit following as well as crazy content and do a lot for the music scene in New Haven. Nevertheless, I will always have the highest level of gratitude for the Richmond music scene. With platforms like RVARapElite, it developed me not only as a lyricist, it gave a realm of real raw rap, combining live performing, production, battle rap & expanding series of segments dedicated to the hardest spitters related to the music scene. Through RVARapElite I was given the opportunity to do work with a platform called WorldEmcee. Their platform is clean-cut BARS straight through. Every artist on that platform has immaculate talent and almost mastery level skills at their craft. They do a lot of work with RVARapElite and are based out of Richmond, New York, and Michigan.
Jay: What should we expect from your upcoming album TC3?
Pax: This will be by far my most solid body of work. It captures a lot of my life at a stage of growing; through a full cycle of understanding as an adult what life has in store for you as it progresses. I went through a large amount of learning from 2020 to 2022. A lot of the things that I express on the album solidify a large quantity of what I was experiencing; regular life stuff. However at a point in time during those two years, I found myself. I began to notice myself more and emitting energy that I can only describe as immense love from God. This tape describes me finding my purpose in this existence; through all of life’s natural gifts and hardships. I also produced the entire project.
Jay: What are some issues in music that you see today? How could we fix that?
Pax: I see first hand that the music industry has been using their platforms to exploit artists as well as utilize the spectrum of drugs, violence, sex, and materialization as prominent topics from the artists they tend to promote. Don’t get me wrong rapping about your daily life is never wrong but look what image the labels love to portray.
Jay: What are some of your favorite albums?
Pax: DAMN. By Kendrick Lamar.
Photo credit: @busybyleigh on Instagram.
Jay: What was the best No you have ever received and why?
Pax: Not being able to go back to music school. It gave me an appreciation for the extracurricular activity that I had being that I lost it.
Jay: Talk to us about StarSquad7 Ent. Who’s a part of it and what do they do?
Pax: Star squad is made up of 7 individuals. Casino Damerino, who is the leader and creator of StarSquad7ENT. PaxTheCollector (myself), AceDeuce, EnlightenedTaurus (Cee), Andre The Poet, TheRapperTyY, and BigDoja. The core collective. Jay Guevara is definitely star squad too though, regardless. So it’s eight members. #SS7 #TMITG
Jay: Who are some indie artists that you would want to shout out?
Pax: First and foremost BIG big shout out to my brother Casino Damerino from DC; my man influenced my whole rap career in college. Influential individual right there. Watch out for a lot of fire content coming from him really soon.
Next big shout out to my brother BRAVO from Connecticut. We’ve been putting in heavy work with his music. I manage him & work on developing him as an artist. We’ve been doing an exceptional job. He has the natural tenacity to be a high-level artist and his content is of the same tendency!
Another CT artist that’s been making noise is my sister SADITY. She has been busy busy with recording, performing, and promoting her brand PYROMANEAK (Pax has a song named after this). She is definitely on the rise in the CT scene.
Big shout to my brother Christian Kennedy as well. He has been doing work in the CT music scene for a while now and has a solid fanbase with the music and visual content to match it.
All of Pax's music can be found here. Follow him on all social media @paxthecollector .
Written by: Jay Guevara. @justinhisprime on all social media.
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