Wantagh Resident Pursues Rap Career

Anthony Matos is a 23 year-old rapper currently residing in Wantagh who is pouring his heart and sole into music through a new label called Loose Camp. Matos is also a former Division I college soccer player who played at St. Francis College in Brooklyn Heights.  Matos recently met with Wantagh-Seaford Patch's Jason Pollak to discuss his music career.

Patch
What city were you born in? What year?
Ant Matos
I was born in Corona, Queens in 1988.

Patch
When did you discover you had a passion for music?
Ant Matos
When I was young my family played a lot of music around the house. My older sister was a big influence as well. She played a lot of hip-hop such as Rakim, Wu Tang and some Usher. That definitely caught my attention.

Patch
What did you major in while at college? Which classes did you enjoy?

Ant Matos
I graduated St. Francis with a degree in communications. I really liked taking philosophy. That was the first time I was introduced to those types of classes. I never got to take those classes in high school. I took a lot more than I was required to take. I liked economics as well.

Patch
How do you balance your life now? You are now a graduate, working a job and trying to record music. How do you do it all?

Ant Matos

When I graduated, I didn’t have a job. I was able to record all hours of the day. Now I have a job from 10 to 6 in New York City. Even though I find myself going to sleep at 2 o’clock in the morning every night, the money from my job has ultimately made my life more organized. You begin to understand you have to do it this way, so I really don’t have much of a choice.

Patch
How did everything get started for you with the music business? What’s the story behind that?

Ant Matos
Everything started to take off last January. We met up with PMS Radio and they started to promote my music. They were also nice enough to help me fund studio time. I got the chance to meet up with Mercedes Dukes at PMS Radio and she has become my manager. I have put out three mix tapes with them. The first one was called “Get to Know me Before I’m Famous”. The next one was called “Vs. A-tility”. It was pretty much exactly that, as I did a variety of genres of music ranging from pop to rock and hip-hop. I also did some R&B and even some alternative music. The last mix tape, called “Schools Out Forever”, was really cool to do because I got to work with my in-house production.

Patch
What was it like when you dropped your first mix tape?

Ant Matos
We put the first mix tape, “Get to Know me Before I’m Famous”, out on Datpiff.com and it got really crazy. The first day we were on the homepage as one of the top eight downloads of the day along with Gucci and Neyo. So that was really crazy to be on a chart with those two guys. The second mix tape we didn’t promote as much and it didn’t do quite as well as far as downloads, but it still was a great record. With the “Schools out Forever” mix tape and the one I’m working on now, we are trying to get back to where we were in the beginning.

Patch
Can you explain the meaning behind “Loose Camp”?

Ant Matos

Yea, people don’t need to be fighting in the world. We just need to live. That’s what we are all about. We just want to be fun and outgoing. We know that there is time to be fun and joking and also a time be serious. We just try to have a good time and get through the tough things in life when they come about.

Patch
Why should I pick up my MP3 player and put on Ant Matos?

Ant Matos
I think when you do music in general, people have a personal checklist of what they want to hear from you. Everyone has their own criteria. I feel like the way I am caters to a lot of people. I am very general and down to earth. There is a lot of angst in the world and people just need to live. I am trying to put out music that is just easy to listen to. I want to appeal to everyone no matter the race or class. You can be black, white, Hispanic, poor or rich. I just want to continue to put out quality music for everyone. 

Patch
How do those ideals relate to your actual life?

Ant Matos
I’m from the middle class and know of the ups and downs that come with that lifestyle. It’s full of good times and bad times. I joke around with my friends and they all call me a middle class rapper, but that’s what it is. I have some family that are completely well off and yet I have other members of my family living in shacks in the Dominican Republic. Growing up with that kind of diversity and living in Corona, I think makes me very well rounded. It gives me the ability to talk about numerous subjects. I just want to do well to prove to others that if you set your mind to achieve a goal, that it can be done.