Musicians helping each other follow dreams

Editor’s note: This profile is the first in a weekly series this month about the world of music.

Inside of a makeshift studio in a commercial building in west Portales, dreams are being pursued and skills are being crafted.

Amauris Lopez, 23, created this haven of music for himself to achieve his goals of being a successful musical artist. Lopez offers mixing and mastering of tracks for a fee at his studio, and has experience filming and editing music videos.

link Eric Norwood Jr.: Portales News Tribune

Amauris Lopez, 23, also known as Teddy P., plays a song in his studio in Portales. Lopez is a native of New York City and goes to school at Eastern New Mexico University. In his free time, he works on his music.

“I actually got started in music by first making music videos,” said Lopez, who goes by the stage name of Teddy P. His partner-in-rhyme, Lloyd Black III, 21, goes by the stage name of Haze and the two share a common bond in that they were both raised in New York and are huge fans of hip-hop and music in general. Lopez was raised in New York City while Black hails from Rochester, N.Y. After meeting as members of the Eastern New Mexico University football team, they now focus on college and music full time.

“We basically linked up through football. I went to his dorm room and he played some music he had and we talked about hip-hop and discovered we had the same taste and vision as far as what we see in our music,” said Black.

Though they are not officially a duo, Lopez and Black assist each other in their musical endeavors.

“There’s stuff that I know that I’ll help him with and there is stuff that he knows that helps me out,” said Lopez.

Both are solo artists but have performed and recorded together. Their collaborations are unique because Black raps in English while Lopez raps in Spanish.

Lopez, whose parents are from the Dominican Republic, attributes this to his heritage.

“The thing is Spanish is my first language. I think in Spanish. They way I articulate what I am thinking isn’t as smooth in English as it is in Spanish. But I do write poems in English,” said Lopez.

“As a rapper, you have to encode your regular language into rap language,” said Black. “For (Lopez), he has to encode Spanish into rap language which is crazy. It sounds real nice though.”

Black said there have been times when they are in the studio together writing to the same instrumental beat, and they have created songs with similar lyrics and subject matter except that Lopez’ verse is in Spanish.

“He translated each bar (line) for me. We actually came up with the same type of song. It’s a pretty dope sound to have both the Spanish and English,” said Black.

Lopez and Black have released mixtapes of their music before, and both plan to release separate projects in early 2014. For now, they are trying to spread the word to the local community.

“We’re going to perform at Eastern’s Got Talent on Oct. 23. Then on Halloween, we’re going to throw a concert and costume party at the Yam Theatre,” said Lopez. They both performed at the Yam in April as well.

“We’re just trying to entertain the community. We don’t want to just go party and go wild. We want to give other people something to do,” said Lopez.