While his hiatus away from the ring continues, WWE Superstar Lio Rush is focusing on his music career. He tells Daily DDT about his new single, “Scenic Lullaby.”
At just the age of 24-years old with just under five years of in-ring experience under his belt, Lio Rush is already one of the most immensely talented wrestling performers – both in the ring and on the mic – of his generation. After making a name for himself on the independent scene in promotions like Combat Zone Wrestling and Ring of Honor, he’s already made it to the greener pastures of the WWE.
Between his appearances in NXT, on 205 Live and on Monday Night Raw, Rush has done pretty well for himself since signing with WWE in 2017. The highlight of his WWE run so far has seen him work as a manager for “The All Mighty,” Bobby Lashley, a partnership that took the 24-Year Old Piece of Gold to the big stage of WrestleMania 35.
We have not seen Lio Rush appear onscreen or in the ring since the week of WrestleMania. Whether recent rumors regarding Rush are to be believed or not, the fact of the matter is that The Man of the Hour is currently on hiatus from wrestling. However, he has been keeping himself busy more recently by getting his hands dirty in the music world as a rapper. A few days ago, he dropped his debut single, “Scenic Lullaby,” which you can download here.
Lio Rush took the time to talk to me about his new song, his creative process and his ambitions as a musician.
JAM: First off, tell us about your debut single, “Scenic Lullaby.” For those who haven’t heard it yet or just want a deeper understanding of the song, what is this song about?
Lio Rush: “Scenic Lullaby” was something that kind of developed over the past year. I’ve always been interested in spoken word poetry and I write a lot. This one just kind of spoke to me a little more and it made me want to push it out to the public. I’ve always been pretty open about my life and struggles that I’ve been through and “Scenic Lullaby” is about my upbringing and how I grew up, as well as my current situation and things that I’ve gone through in my life.
That’s what “Scenic Lullaby” is about to me and it’s pretty cool [to see] the amount of support that I’ve been getting from it so far.
JAM: Since this is your debut single, why this subject matter? Why did this have to be the first song that you put out?
Rush: I feel like we’re just in an era – and this is just speaking on music now – where we kind of get lost in the song, you know? We really don’t feel anything. And I’m saying “we” like I’m speaking for everybody else [Laughs] but I’m pretty sure that I’m not the only one who thinks this. Some of the rap music that comes out this day and age is something that you can kind of just nod your head to or that you could dance to and just focus on the beat, but the lyrics aren’t really hitting you hard or hitting you deep and you can’t feel anything.
I’m all about music that makes you feel a certain kind of way and that tells a story. I feel like this [song], I think it’s the right time. I think magic comes out of hard times and sticky situations. I feel like the last few months of my life personally and professionally have put me in a rough situation, but it’s also fueled me to put my thoughts and my words into music and produce something that people can relate to.
JAM: Since you bring up today’s music, do you have any music influences? Musicians who inspire you to hone your craft and fuel your writing process?
Rush: Oh, yeah, for sure. Like I said, I’ve always been inspired by music that makes you feel a certain kind of way and I’m into poetry, so I’ve always been into guys like Common. Guys like Mos Def, Wale. This new guy out right now, YBN Cordae, who is amazing and is also from the [Maryland] area; him and Wale. All of the people that are just lyricists are key influences [and] inspire me a lot.
JAM: How does your writing process for songs typically go? Not just for “Scenic Lullaby,” but for all of your songs.
Rush: My writing process is literally as soon as I feel a certain way. Like a random emotion and I ask myself “why am I feeling this way? What am I thinking about to make me feel this way?” I just write it down. Even if it’s for a split second, I write it down, I put them in different notes and I go back.
Say if I wanted to put out a song where I’m feeling kind of down and depressed about a relationship or something like that, I go back and I see the emotions that I felt and why I felt that way. Then, I would just grab all of those lyrics from certain tabs and kind of put them into one song and it’s always been working out pretty good for me so far.
I can never just sit down and just write something all in one go. It’s always just grabbing from different tabs and different emotions and bringing it all into one.
JAM: Staying on that creative process for a bit, I want to talk about the music video for “Scenic Lullaby,” because it’s really visually striking. It’s simple, but effective and there’s an atmosphere there. I was wondering how you came up with that concept.
Rush: I think the whole thing is a project in itself. With the song, the cover art and the music video.
The song talked about me growing up as a little kid, so I wanted to tie that into the cover, which depicts me being a little kid on the cover. Then, I wanted to kind of tie that into the music video and I was like “What can I do to make me feel or look like a little kid or give that kind of kid vibe?” Or almost a vibe of me reminiscing on the old days. So I thought, “Man, a playground would be awesome! Like, just sitting on a swing.”
So that’s kind of how that footage came to play and the creative process of me just wanting to sit back, think back on the old days, remind myself of when I was a child and kind of think about where I want to go and where I currently am. Then, me sitting on the bathroom floor is kind of a representation of where I am now, or how I’ve been feeling the last couple of months. Just kind of down in the dumps, sitting, thinking about – again – where I am now, where I want to be.
JAM: Staying on your visuals for a second, how does your creative process go for creating visuals in general?
Because whether it’s for other music videos you’ve done or the parody videos you’re doing, you have this knack for creating images that leave an impression. So I just want to gauge how that creative process goes for coming up with these visuals. Is that creative process anything like how you come up with your lyrics that you talked about earlier?
Rush: Definitely. This past two years have been super eye opening to me. I’ve always kind of been the person to hold back emotion or hold back on letting people get to know me, but these past two years of my life, I’ve been wanting to be a little more open and a little more relatable. I just want people to feel what I feel. See what I see. I want people to look at my videos and be like, “Man, that happened to me, too,” or “I can feel myself being in his position.”
At any time that I think about a video, I’m always thinking about the viewer. I’m never thinking about myself. Although it is my idea and what I want to push out there, but I’m always thinking about how can this be visually appealing to the audience and how can I make them feel like they’re apart of this video and not just myself.
JAM: This is just something I’ve always been personally curious about: is that you rapping on your WWE theme?
Because I used to always think that you rapped on your Man of the Hour theme from the indies, but then I found out that was actually Troy Andretti, so I just wanted some clarification.
Rush: [Laughs]. It’s not me on my WWE theme song. I wish that it was, but I just wasn’t on that level yet, lyrically, before I put out [“Scenic Lullaby”], but it would be awesome if it was me, though.
JAM: Just curious, who did perform it?
Rush: I’m not entirely sure. I do know that CFO$ produced it, so whoever is doing the actual rapping, I’m unaware, but it is pretty dope.
JAM: And since I just brought up Troy Andretti (aka DRETT1), I was just curious how you two met given how often you’ve worked together and collabed on a song before.
Rush: Me and Andretti, we’ve been childhood friends. We grew up together. We actually met through amateur wrestling. I remember being on the amateur wrestling team and seeing him not do too much other than just school. We became friends and then I was like, “Hey, why don’t you try out on the wrestling team with me?” That relationship developed through there.
We started dancing together and we produced our own videos and we learned how to edit stuff together. We kind of taught each other a lot of different things to become entrepreneurs. Then, he started rapping and he was like, “Hey, can I make a theme song for you?” So that’s how the indie song came about. Then he said, “Hey, you should do an actual song with me this time.” That’s how “Money Money” came about.
The relationship with him is more of a brotherhood than a friendship, if anything.
JAM: Going back to “Scenic Lullaby” for just one second, since this is your debut single, I was wondering if you were working on an album and if so, when can we expect it to drop?
Rush: Like I said, I’m always writing. I’m always thinking about new things to put out. I definitely was not expecting the amount of positive feedback that I’ve been getting from this single. I haven’t seen this in a really long time. Just positivity all the way through. It’s been amazing and I think that I can get a lot out of this single.
We’re gonna just see how this one goes, see what the reactions are, how long reactions can play out and maybe I’ll put out another single just to give the people and the fans and the viewers just a little taste of what’s to come in the future and what all else I can possibly do musically. Then maybe, I would love to do an album one day, but putting a date on it, I’m not quite sure yet. It is all pretty shocking and surprising to me. It’s pretty overwhelming.
JAM: You’ve said in the past that you have a lot of goals that you want to work towards. Not just with sports, but with music, acting, modelling, theater, etc. Is rapping just something you want to cross off of your bucket list, or do you view it as something like a secondary passion?
Rush: I always knew since I was a little kid that I wanted to be involved in music. I just didn’t know how and when. My mom used to always say, “Aw, you should do a song. You should sing. You should rap. You should do something!”
My parents were actually a duet. They were a husband and wife duet and they got nominated for Stella Awards and they always toured and I was always on boats and concerts while they were doing their music. My room was actually right above my dad’s studio, so I could never sleep. He always had sessions. He always was working on something.
So I just knew that one day, I would be apart of music and I think that it is a passion of mine. I think that it’s something that I was meant to do. I think it’s something that I was supposed to do. The more that I write and the more positive feedback that I see online, the more that I’m starting to believe like, hey, maybe this is something that I can accomplish and be successful in.
At first, I did think that it was a bucket list thing, but now I’m actually believing that it is something that I am supposed to be doing, as well as other things. Not even just music. I feel like I was made to act. I was meant to model and I feel like wrestling has kind of prepped me for that, especially with the amount of things that I’ve gotten to experience within the wrestling world. So yeah, I have a lot of things that I want to accomplish.
JAM: That’s super cool and that’s a cool fact about your parents. What kind of duo were they?
Rush: They were gospel singers.
JAM: Since you seem so passionate about rapping and music, can you ever see yourself leaving wrestling and transitioning into music full time?
Rush: Oh, man, that is a hard one. Just because wrestling has been my dream for so long. I’ve wanted to be a wrestler ever since I was five-years old and that’s all I ever thought about, so going into music full time, I don’t know just because, you know, anything can play out unexpectedly.
And who knows? If my music one night just blows up and it’s doing pretty good and people want more, then I’ll definitely push out more music, but I feel like as long as my heart is still in wrestling and as long as my body is cooperating with me enough to take the bumps and the bruises, I feel like I’m always going to be a part of wrestling. Especially with having the experience from the WWE, I feel like wrestling will always be a part of my life, even if I don’t want it to be [laughs].
Because everybody is still gonna talk about it and I’m always gonna have that WWE kind of stamp on my name.
JAM: Well, whatever you do next, I’m excited to see it. Thank you for this interview.
Rush: Thank you so much. Really, I truly appreciate it.
Don’t forget to support Lio Rush’s music by downloading and streaming his music from Spotify, Apple Music, iTunes, Deezer and/or CD Baby.