Ireq Savage

**Justin Maxam Hubbard**, also known by his stage name **Ireq Savage** (stylized with the Q capitalized) & VOCALDINOSAUR is an American Rapper, songwriter, record producer, audio engineer, & video editor born and raised in Dallas, TX now based in Orlando, FL. After graduating with a bachelor's in audio engineering, he has been releasing music consistently since 2017 and has amassed over 150+ songs. Noted for his vocal flexibility and broad subject matter, Ireq draws from his experiences growing up in the intercity, his time spent in the military as an Army Ranger, dealing with his mental health diagnosis, his love of fantasy to include American Comics & Manga/Anime, & coming to terms with his blackness & Nigerian descent. He began getting traction by releasing AMV edits (Anime Music Video) that used popular and obscure anime titles in which their story, characters, and themes align with the songs that they’re paired with.

Apart from his solo career, Ireq from the duo, Simi In The Sunshine, in 2020 with Paris-based producer and DJ, Pehoz. Ireq has also worked with multiple online collectives including C.V.C. (Clear Visions Collective) & extremely closely with M.W.C. (Murda Worth Clique). This has presented opportunities to go on tour. Using the internet has allowed Ireq to work with artists across North America, and Europe & to gain exposure through placements on large web-based platforms.

## Early life

Justin Maxam Hubbard was born on July 11, 1989, at St. Paul (now UT Southwest) Hospital in Dallas, TX. He grew up in one of Dallas’ inner-city neighbourhoods called Pleasant Grove with both of his parents and younger sister. Because of the lack of good primary schools in the area, he went to a school out of the district in South Dallas. Going to this school gave him the chance to start learning piano at age 6 and grow his love of drawing and writing stories in the talented and gifted programs offered by the school. Even though this school primary school offered more helpful outlets for its students, South Dallas is a rougher area than where he lived.

Exposed to a lot of adult situations from an early age made Ireq aware of his family’s economic status as well as the troubles that can come about if you’re unhappily married. At age 14 things came to a head when he got into a fist fight with his father over what he thought at the time was unfair disciplinary action to his younger sister. As bad as it may seem, Ireq believes that was the start of the healing between him and his father’s relationship which is in great shape today. There was a lot of emotional abuse, explosive arguments, and substance abuse in his home growing up, but this still drives the subject matter for songs today.

At 17, Ireq enlisted in the United States Army where he would later go on to become airborne qualified and a part of the 75th Ranger Regiment where he would be in the 3/75th Ranger Battalion. During this time, he went on 1 tour to Iraq and 3 tours to Afghanistan. A lot of the death, adventure, and test of perseverance from this time in his life still shape musical content as well.

## Personal life

Ireq met his wife in the Orlando Music Scene at a show that some of his friends were performing at in 2015. The couple had their daughter in 2018. He has a daughter from a previous marriage from when he was 18. Ireq is bilingual and speaks Spanish.

He has been very open about his struggles with mental health. He has been diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder, Bipolar I Disorder and PTSD. He spoke openly about his experience on the YouTube Channel Special Books by Special Kids.

## Career

Originally starting as a beat maker exclusively, Ireq always had a drive to create his songs. A lot of his early beats were the testing ground to experiment with him being the main artist. After graduating college, he released his first solo project called, Final Days EP. After venturing out into the local scene of Orlando, FL, Ireq felt that he needed to refine his music and search for a better way to grow a following.

After retreating to the internet in 2019, he began to cultivate his following by collaborating with artists he met in online spaces such as Soundcloud, Discord, & Instagram. First, he connected with CVS (Clear Vision Collective) A network of artists, producers, and designers that now host shows and work as a media outlet in the LA scene. This showed him the power of collaboration through the internet. Next, he started doing music with M.W.C. a collective he was invited to join by fellow rapper, Chaotic The Crackhead. Working in M.W.C. immediately paid dividends because their first group track was accepted to the scroll忍 YouTube channel. This opened the door to more collaborations in the Internet underground.

Throughout this time, Ireq began making a name for himself with video edits. As a child of Toonami, he has stated that his goal was to make Adultswim style bumps for his music, usually using anime from series specifically chosen to match the topic of the song or the themes of a project. This is a tribute to the fans of the chosen series for an extra layer of immersion.

VOCALDINOSAUR also came about at this time. Initially, it was a creative experiment. He wanted a way to do darker music that didn’t fit “Ireq Savage” as well as to create a paradigm shift in his mentality when approaching songs. Ireq Savage is broad but as VOCAL, songs or simpler topic wise and almost one dimensional. VOCAL is the villain, the final boss, ready to deal destruction & pain as the antagonist. He loathes human society. He is baffled by the disgusting hypocrisy of humankind. Every track boasts of his unrivalled power. Every track contains odes about humans as a species. VOCAL appearance on songs can be identified by his deep booming pitched downed vocals & use of illeism. This is to pay homage to MF DOOM & Chopped and screwed music.

Ireq's contributions to the underground music scene began to come in when he started notching underground bangers with tracks such as New Car, TakeoverKING., 1punch., Jewelry & Ridin’ Bikes. These tracks are still percolating in the underground and opening doors for him to this day.

## References

1. ↑ Indie Rapper Ireq Savage said “SoundCloud bridges the gap for unlikely collaboration to birth hit Single “New Car”.
2. ↑ 1punch. Notches Ireq’s 2nd hit song.

## External links

* Ireq Savage on Soundcloud
* on YouTube