Sure, I could’ve interviewed hip-hop artist iNTRO at a studio where he recorded parts of his latest project, “Duality of Man.” But selecting such a typical setting didn’t seem like the way to do justice to an artist who shows, over the course of his EP’s six tracks, that he’s unwilling to be constrained by expectations.
This is, after all, an emcee who has an interlude about rising early to exercise. “I done ran me a little 5K before you even made your breakfast,” he brags with laidback satisfaction.
When I messaged iNTRO to inquire about his fitness regiment, he informed me that he’s actually a certified personal trainer. So we arranged to unpack his artistic vision while hitting the gym together.
“This is what I start most of my workouts with anyway, whether it’s leg day, chest day, whatever,” he says while grabbing a pair of dumbbells from the rack, “because it’s a full-body movement.”
iNTRO in personal training mode; photo credit: Jewly Hight
He demonstrates how to smoothly transition from a weighted squat to pressing the dumbbells into the air.
“This is discipline right here,” he notes, loosely quoting his own lyrics.
And from iNTRO’s perspective, discipline isn’t only for pumping iron–it’s part of his creative practice too: “I don’t rely on inspiration to write or to be in the studio. I’ve learned my own intrinsic motivation.”
iNTRO leads me through a series of strength exercises, offering levelheaded feedback to help me improve my form. He’s in workout clothes today, not the fashionable streetwear he usually performs in. Plus he never wears his grill to the gym.
A style of his own
On “Duality of Man,” he paints a self-portrait from many different angles, continually shifting in style and subject matter alike. “I know that people’s first impression can be, ‘He looks like a rapper.’ But what is a rapper? That’s a question that I want people to ask. Because I’m also doing these other things that aren’t necessarily rapper-esque, like baking banana bread.”
Or going to therapy sessions, I add, mentioning a track that begins with hard-won insights: “I know I’m seeing growth, cuz I’ma tell the truth even though it hurts.”
The longer we talk, the clearer the picture becomes. iNTRO, I learn, also works as a DJ by night and an elder caregiver by day. “I’ll tell my patients if I have a show this weekend or whatever else is going on,” he says, “but they don’t really care, respectfully. It really keeps me grounded.”
His relationship to music started early in his Nashville upbringing, and stimulated his mind, long before he adopted the moniker iNTRO. As a kid who everybody knew as Desmond, he was in piano and trumpet lessons and African drumming classes at the Global Education Center.
“Growing up with African percussion opened my mind up to more than just hip-hop and rap and R&B,” he recalls. “It shaped me in a way that gave me an appreciation for more than just what was put in front of me. I think I’m that type of person anyway, where I’ll be presented with something and I’m like, ‘Where did this come from?’”
In audio engineering class at McGavock High School, he had an instructor named Victor Oquendo who’d had success as a hip-hop producer. And Oquendo proved more than willing to help a promising student, and aspiring rapper, set up a home studio and develop the right mindset.
“He’s like, ‘Well, this is what you need to do,’” says iNTRO. “And on a real tip, not shutting down anyone’s dreams.”
Locking in
That’s when teenaged Desmond became iNTRO, and forged a partnership with a fellow rapper in his class. After high school, he linked up with the local hip-hop collective ThirdEye, led by the deep-thinking artist Chuck Indigo.
iNTRO began dropping a string of lo-fi loosies, but it wasn’t until he made his first album in 2021, “Welcome to Next Year,” that he felt he was zeroing in on a style he could own.
When he turned 25 a few years later — and the frontal lobe of his brain was fully developed — he says he dedicated himself to being the best he could be on all fronts, and depicting that quest in his music. “It was almost like I woke up on my 25th birthday and was like, ‘Oh man, you gotta lock in,’” he recalls. “And that’s where the physical side of it [came in] with fitness, but then the emotional side and and the reflectiveness [too].”
“Duality of Man” is the first project he’s completed since. The shape-shifting that iNTRO does across its six tracks — from braggadocios to conscious; player to philosopher; trap-style to thoroughly chill — is united by a strong vantage point.
“It goes from hype song to kind of mellow song, to kind of hype song to kind of mellow song,” he summarizes. “All I can really say is that’s just me.”
There’s an identifiable sound to hip-hop from cities like Memphis, Atlanta, Houston and New Orleans, and people often try to pinpoint an aesthetic that’s shared by Nashville rappers and producers. But iNTRO doesn’t share that concern; his new music contains multitudes. And he doesn’t consider himself alone.
“I really hope everybody gets that the duality in myself is the duality in all of us,” he says. “I’m not just one thing, and neither are you.”
In the weeks since iNTRO dropped “Duality of Man” in late October, several listeners have told him they identify with where he’s coming from in songs like “.What’s my name.” The gist? Instead of wasting time on superficial appeal, he wants to be truly known.
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