HANZ
Image via Kevin Aponte
HANZ aka Hanz Jean-Francois is an artist from Lake Hiawatha, NJ. HANZ first remembers falling in love with music as a child, listening to gospel music at his Haitian church. HANZ says, “When you hear it in that setting, it’s less about it being a genre and more about it being an atmosphere. Gospel means good news. It's the scoring of a message, whether you’re preaching it or seeking it.” HANZ also has vivid memories of his dad playing him music in the car on the radio and old cassettes of Earth, Wind & Fire and Hall & Oates, along with Kompa bands like Tropicana and Skah Shah. He describes himself as a “sponge to different sounds.” As far as rap music goes, HANZ remembers being drawn into the genre by Kanye West, Pharrell, and Lupe Fiasco. HANZ refers to the three artists’ supergroup, Child Rebel Soldier as “the three-headed monster to [his] inner child.” Above all, he says that the “Touch The Sky” music video made him fall in love with hip-hop.
Later on, while in college, HANZ began to gravitate towards the collective movements of A$AP Mob, TDE, and GOOD Music. Today, he continues to be inspired by Kanye West, as well as Solange, Tyler, The Creator, and Westside Gunn. He picks these artists because “they have pipelines to many other artists outside the realm of music which pushes [him] to look at [his] art more holistically.” With creating, HANZ says that he tries to make music based on what he’s feeling and what is going on in his life at the time. He also is strongly inspired by things outside of music like photography, fashion, and movies. HANZ says, “I sit there, stare at them, and then figure out ‘how do I score this all?’ or ‘how do I compose this sonically?’ Then I go gather these different parts (producers, instruments, equipment, sounds) that can make that happen. As of now, I feel like there are different planets for each of my sounds so I just gradually try to make that universe sound as cohesive as possible.”
After a few SoundCloud releases, HANZ released his first full-length project, Praylude in 2020. HANZ finds his footing and shows his ability to explore various sounds on the songs “Mesh,” “Back On,” and “Fiends Like Pigeons.” Wasting no time, HANZ would release his next project, Vagabond later that same year. In just the few months between the two projects, you can hear how he was able to take his artistry to the next level, especially on the songs, “Mwense Mwense,” “Process,” and “Booka.” He would proceed to release Vagabond Reconstructed in 2021, a project where he remixed 9/10 of the tracks from the original album.
In 2022, HANZ released a 4-track collab project with fellow NJ rapper, Rwude called Vino. The project is highlighted by track 2, “Gimme Summ.” Sticking with collab projects, HANZ returned in 2024 as part of the duo BLACK MOSS releasing the self-titled, Black Moss along with DC producer and DJ, Reggie Volume. Led by lead single, “Fall in Line,” the project released for purchase on the duo’s website in May 2024. Other standouts from the project include “STAR CHILE” and “HARDCORE LOVE.” The project falls into a genre the two coined together, called “warm punk.” HANZ also remains at work on his debut album and continues to build out his creative house/concept space, L.S. VAGA.
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