Photo courtesy of 973tony.
Everyone starts from somewhere.
And for 973tony, his “somewhere” is recording and creating music from inside his car, where his microphone is on the left and computer is on the right; or holing up inside his bedroom; or finding solace inside a closet.
Despite the “weird” spots, this is just how the Jersey-made rapper likes his sounds: raw and as “bone dry” as possible, which can be heard in his newest album “the shaman and apothecary’s exchange.” He told Slice of Culture that as long as he can keep doing what he’s doing, and rep Jersey along the way, he’s content with wherever his music and art takes him.
“I record all my music myself. Everything is me. So if I want to keep it that way moving forward, I want it to just be a reflection of me as a person, as an individual,” the 21-year-old rapper smiled.
“… I don’t have no desire to be some big star, but I just hope however many people hear it can appreciate everything that I do and everything I put out.”
Music As A Form Of Therapy
973tony, whose real name is Anthony, got into music about five years ago.
He was with his cousin, and they were making music in his room on a “really bad microphone.” At first, he was doing it just for fun and also because of his cousin, but soon enough it became an outlet for him to talk about his life experiences.
Anthony lost his mother at 16 years old.
“[Losing her] influenced a lot of my passion for music and really put the batteries on my back to really go all out with [music],” he said. “It kind of steered my life in a whole different direction. Stuff got real bad. I was acting real bad.”
The Passaic County native had dropped out of school and was jumping in between jobs. But he “bounced back” once he realized he needed to get himself together and “put some discipline” in him.
He left for the military just a week after turning 18 years old.
He was stationed in Arizona, Texas and other parts of the country as he worked in airplane mechanics. And though he was good “for a little bit,” he said it started to get bad again. So to ground himself, he looked to another creative outlet: painting.
“I picked up painting [and] reading; some like real boring hobbies that ended up helping my creativity a lot. And that’s why I made so much music that year because I was doing so much peaceful things for myself and I wasn’t keeping my mind busy with all the bad things and it steered me in a better direction,” he added.
Anthony was gone for about three and a half years before returning home to New Jersey a few months ago.
Homecoming
But coming back home hasn’t been as good as he thought it’d be.
“I really thought I’d come back to Jersey and it was gonna be a land of opportunity and I was gonna be happy with my family,” he explained. “[While] I’m thankful I’m with my family and I’m back home, it’s been a little hard figuring everything out, but it’ll come with time, so I’m not too worried about it.”
973tony marked his return to the Garden State with “973 Til Infinity,” which is also one of the songs on his new album “the shaman and apothecary’s exchange.”
Over a classic old-school beat—specifically pulled from Jay-Z’ s 1996 song “Dead Presidents”—the Jersey rapper speaks from the heart on his “homecoming” and how he’s giving his all in his music and also his path to growth and change. This sentiment echoes similarly on other iconic rappers’ renditions like J. Cole’s “Dead Presidents” and Logic’s “Dead Presidents III.”
Though 973tony admitted that he gets more musical influence from New York’s old school rappers, he still tries to “pay homage” to his home state with a few of his Jersey club songs, inspiration from his family who were “born and raised here with” him and, of course, his rapper name “973tony”; 973 is one of Jersey’s area codes.
“They don’t know nothing about Jersey. There’s a lot of culture here. It’s real beautiful. I mean I love Jersey. I’m gonna die here, so I’m confident in that,” he nodded, noting that big names have come out of New Jersey like R&B artist Lauryn Hill and NBA great Shaquille O’Neal, but there’s still not much recognition.
“… Even my name 973tony is the embodiment of Jersey… They don’t really show us a lot of love. They don’t really look at us… I want to put on and kind of represent for the people that feel like they not heard or not seen.”
opium man and the drunk monk” album released last year, original artwork titled “trappin! – acyrlic 06/25/2024”
original artwork for the EP released “gotham, nj”. – “city block – acrylic 08/15/2024”
Digging deeper into his music, he said he gravitates more to the underground sound—that has more noise, is raw and experimental—and also boom bap tracks—that has hard-hitting drums and an emphasis on lyricism—because you can feel the “grimness” and “grittiness” of everything.
Then if you mix in his artwork, which he handpaints for each album cover and project, you’ll get something “real weird,” but he tries to make them reflect each other. His favorite is “opium man and the drunk monk.”
“When you listen to the whole project, you could get it.”
In 2024, he dropped 150 songs out of over 300 that he recorded. In 2025, he’s trying to complete more albums. He’s already dropped one of two albums he’s been working on, which he described as one with an underground sound and the other with the boom bap flow.
Ultimately at the end of the day, he’s just doing him.
“For my people that have been listening to me, I appreciate all of y’all. It’s a blessing…I know none of y’all heard every single song of mine, so make sure you go back and do your studying,” he smiled.
“For my new listeners… there’s a lot more than what you hearing, it’s deeper than surface level. I appreciate everybody that take the time to hear me out.”
You can stream 973tony on Spotify, YouTube, Apple Music and Soundcloud.
