Foster Owens Jr. aka. “Grimmshi” (born July
17th, 1996) is an American musician,producer,filmmaker,artist and actor hailing from the city of Pittsburgh,Pennsylvania. Since 2012 he has produced numerous projects such as self-produced albums and eps. To fund his own projects he has also sought freelance work shooting music videos, and photoshoots for various clients. As a selftaught musician he focused solely on music of the Hip-hop genre after being inspired by fellow musician Marcus Hopsin. However, he also began to branch off into other genres under his actual name “Foster Owens Jr” years later. In 2017 Owens graduated with an associate’s degree in specialized business at the age of 21. He studied film/art at Douglas Education Center where he received instruction from Robert Tinnell. Owens graduated from the first-class herald under the late George A. Romero who is known for revolutionizing the zombie film genre. He then went on to be a part of several feature length film productions. In the summer of 2019 Owens went on to release his first solo HipHop album titled “I R LEGEND” which was the beginning of his inclining career as a professional musician. What have you done musically lately? About 2 weeks ago on Halloween I released an EP titled “Perfect Dark”. It will be available for streaming on all platforms very soon. Who are your musical influences? I’ve had so much exposure to different artists and genres over the course of my life that I’m pretty certain I add a little bit of everything I’ve ever heard into each project. I borrow a little from every artist on my playlist such as Hopsin, Joyner Lucas, Young Dolph, Childish Gambino, Trippie Redd, and Linkin Park. Overall my biggest influence in music since I started in 2013 has been the rapper Hopsin. His style and how he did things different from what I had seen in the mainstream media is what made me want to try making music for myself. Although Joyner Lucas is on replay the most these days.
What have you done with film lately? The last project I filmed which exceeded twenty thousand plays was Abigail jerri’s “Lighter” Music video. That was last summer, which unfortunately things have been a bit static ever since covid.The last feature film set I was on was Rehabilitation of the Hill (2018) working as assistant camera/second assistant camera. What is the best lesson you learned by studying under the late George A. Romero? I learned a lot of things while being mentored by the late George A. Romero, alongside my former mentor Robert Tinnell while in Film/art School. The thing that stuck with me the longest came from a story George was telling me about just getting started filming and not having a huge budget for his own project or even gear. He spoke about just using whatever resources he had available and just doing whatever it is you dreamed of doing. I carry that mentality today. I try not to
let my limitations stop me from working hard and just creating. How do you apply what you learned doing film to your music career? Honestly a lot of skills I have acquired in life and during film have been translatable from one craft to the next. For example, just understanding the vocabulary of the industry has been the biggest game changer. I have sat down with clients and helped them create their music videos from start to finish put me in a completely different mindset when it came to crafting my own music videos. I can clearly communicate what it is I’m attempting to do with my videographers and other crew members. I think if I had been brand new to the industry I would still feel lost; n ever knowing how important even the smallest details such as making a
treatment can make an astronomical difference to the finished project. How did you get the name Grimmshi - what does it mean? So when I was in Highschool I was a huge Anime nerd.(Still am) I studied the Japanese language for about 3 years. While learning to count to 10 I learned that typically the word 4 would be pronounced “shi”. However due to superstitions,4 was seen as an unlucky number because “shi” is a homophone for death. When referring to someone’s age instead of saying “shi”, you would say yon. High School was not a happy time for me and sometimes I felt slightly obsessed with the idea of death. Naturally I took “Grim” from Grim Reaper and combined it with the word for death in Japanese to end up with Grimmshi. How do you feel about the state of hiphop/ music AND the music business right now? I personally believe this is the best time to ever be alive as an artist. The internet gives every musician a direct line to their audience and fans. I love creating and I won’t ever stop. At the same time a part of me is disappointed how political the industry is. It’s no secret that you have to pay to play. That’s why you see so many extremely talented, yet unrecognized artists. Our success is directly related to the value the fans decide we have so you have a lot of young people compromising their integrity for a shot at a better life. Of course, all the ladies want to know if you are single? At this moment I am currently seeing someone. For a while I was keeping my options open in a more casual manner but I think consistency is probably what I need right now. We’ll see how things go.
Grimmshi is an extremely talented, hardworking accomplished artist. We look forward to hearing and seeing more from this rising Grinda! Learn more about him at www.grimmshi. com Check out his movie credits on IMDB: Foster Owens YouTube Music/Videos: Youtube.com/Grimmshi Follow him on Social Media FB • Twitter • Instagram @Grimmshi Writer: K.Bey “Grindaz”