We had the good fortune of connecting with Neon Taylor and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Neon, how did you come up with the idea for your business?
Well the idea actually started out as a joke between me and my good friend Pujo Williams. We would go to the gun range frequently and every time people would make an effort to talk to us about our firearms. Literally half our sessions would be entertaining conversations about our gun builds, me doing simple reload drills and wanting to hold the nasa themed Kriss Vector. We would always leave there joking about how we should become “YouTubers”. It wasn’t until at the height of the pandemic that we kinda started taking the joke a lil bit more serious. With all the protests and riots going on now more than ever people were looking to protect themselves and there loved ones. There was an extreme uptick in people flooding to the gun stores from all ethnicities and for the first time in history a record number of African-Americans. I would go to the gun stores and it would be packed with first time buyers and sales people behind the counter selling them the wrong sh*t or sh*t they don’t need and guns and equipment that’s too advanced for beginners. I would hold conversation with gun sales men only to walk away like “holy f*ck how does he have that job”. That didn’t sit well with me but i still wasn’t sold on starting a YouTube channel. It wasn’t until one day I was browsing on YouTube looking up information for a certain gun part like I normally do, that i realized that all the information I’ve ever learned came from white men. Whether on youtube, gun magazines and websites. Not saying that there’s anything wrong with that but it just showed me how the African-American community is underrepresented in the second amendment community. I mean outside of a typical 2021 gun collection review there really wasn’t any other African-American gun channel that spoke in depth on firearms. And with all these new gun owners especially black gun owners I felt that it was my responsibility as a black man to pass on the information that I learned along the way back to my people. Over here at Urban Syndicate Armory we strive to be that representation and aim to do a damn good job at it too.

What was your thought process behind starting your own business?
Here at Urban Syndicate Armory we wanted to create a safe and healthy environment for gun enthusiasts of all walks of life. The 2A community (second amendment) can be intimidating and toxic at times with gun snobs under every social media post and in most gun shops. Most YouTube gun channels only do reviews on Gucci gear (high end gear) that normal American citizens cant afford. Our goal at Urban Syndicate Armory is to inform and give reviews on products that we run ourselves that will give you the best bang for your buck as well as reviews on Gucci gear. We wanted to create a hub for people that are like minded. A one stop shop if you will, if you need firearms training we have a 20 year retired police sergeant that’s a certified firearms instructor. We have licensed FFL dealers that can ship firearms to any certified FFL dealer in the country. Hell, we even have people that customize firearms just in case if you wanted to add a little razzle dazzle to your freedom stick. We are constantly building new relationships and adding new resources to the machine we call Urban Syndicate Armory.

Why did you pursue an artistic or creative career?
Believe it or not but I actually never wanted to be a rapper, I was more into the production side of things. I never really wanted to be in the limelight like that, but how I ended up becoming a music artist is a mystery within itself. No cap, true story I remember several years ago one week I was having these loud, vivid dreams that would wake me up in the middle of the night. Sh*t was really bugging me out. We all have dreams where there is a popular song you hear all the time on the radio in the background but mines was different. The music I heard had a cadence and flow with bars that I never heard before but the voice was familiar. As the week went along I was really debating if I was losing it because I couldn’t get any sleep and then one day hit me, that was my voice and lyrics. That same night the dreams stopped……..and here I am 200 songs later.

The production side is a lil bit different. I was that kid that had all the instrumental mixtapes. I didn’t get them to rap on I really just loved hearing the beat. Growing up my favorite producer was Timbaland and still is till this day. I remember when I first moved to Atlanta i met a guy that installed a music production program called “Reasons” version 3.2 on my laptop. That was my first true introduction into producing music. Overtime I would upgrade the software and hardware but always felt stagnant, never really feeling like I’m reaching my full potential. That is until I got an iPad strictly for making music. It completely changed my prospective on how to make music and where I can make music. I literally make music when and where I please, I’m not confined to a desk with the same scenery. The workflow for me on the iPad is a lot more fluid than when I was using laptop/desktops. To tell you the truth I haven’t touch a PC since 2010, for over a decade everything I’ve done has been on the iPad. I mean, even the footage you see on the Urban Syndicate Armory YouTube channel is all edited on the iPad. Being able to create wherever I want makes me fall in love with making music over and over again.

Work life balance: how has your balance changed over time? How do you think about the balance?
Well considering I don’t have any children or a wife, the balance is pretty easy to maintain. Seriously though I’ve became a lot more selfish with myself. Meaning I don’t entertain things or individuals as I once did. These days I’m very picky about what I give my energy to and who. Ive become obsessed with work but that could be do to me having a problem with escapism, as of late I find myself constantly working to keep my mind off of past regrets and guilt…I’m not sure if thats healthy or not but its damn sure getting things done.

Risk taking: how do you think about risk, what role has taking risks played in your life/career?
I actually was never a big risk taker until recently. I always thought I was being calculated but in the long run I was just hindering myself. I’ve missed out on lessons that needed to be learned to move to the next level because I was too scared to fail. “Luck favors those that are in motion”. You can say cliché phrases like that all day but until you feel those words in your soul and in your bones then the meaning is of no use. It was a big risk investing and pursuing a music career with only an iPad. It was a big risk starting a gun YouTube channel as a black man thats wanting to be taking serious outside of the typical stereotype stigma that surrounds black men with firearms….I think I’ve adapted well.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
Please tell us more about your art. We’d love to hear what sets you apart from others?

Sure, I think what sets me apart from others besides my aggressive beatmaking style, my wavy rap flow and the ability to transition to other genres with ease or even mesh genres together is again, the iPad. I know people that have 20 to 40 thousand dollar home studios that can’t accomplish what I can on the iPad. Granted that can be do to a lack of knowledge of their own equipment but most of the time its just them trying to replicate what other popular producers are using or what they think a studio should look like. I think that its very important to find your own workflow and equipment that works best for you. I acknowledge that theres a lot of trail and error that needs to take place before finding it but thats where diligent research comes into play.

What you are most proud of or excited about?

I’m most proud of how much I’ve changed within the past few years. I literally had to reprogram my brain on how I see life and going about it, it took a lot of hard work and holding those hard conversations with yourself. I had to let go a lot of my pride just to be as humble as I am today.

How did you get to where you are today professionally. Was it easy? If not, how did you overcome the challenges? What are the lessons you’ve learned along the way.

It took consistency and a lot of fortitude….things wasn’t easy at all. I lost a lot of pieces of myself along the way as well as people I loved and things. So many times I came close to giving up but I started to develop a Viking mindset. I was coming to take my self respect back, I was coming to take my success that I felt I deserved, I was coming to take whatever I felt my heart desired. The people that are close to me know this but when I say “It’s Viking season” thats what I mean. I learned to trust the process and not to force anything, success, people or things come when needed and not a second before.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Shout to my friends and family

Website: https://youtube.com/channel/UCca0KqxKhuEpc0fZX0gwAZw

Instagram: @neontaylor

Twitter: @Neon_Taylor

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/neon.taylor.7.

Youtube: https://youtube.com/c/NeonTaylor

Other: Instagram: @UrbanSyndicateArmory Facebook: Urban Syndicate Armory Twitter: @BigSyndicate Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/neon-taylor?utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing BeatStars: https://www.beatstars.com/neon_taylor

Image Credits
@my_skin_treebark @certifiedjo

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