Inspired by Shanghai Apparel Brand, Bonkerz Soars to Another Level with “Till You Fly”

It all started in 2013, while standing in line at a Subway restaurant in Shanghai, China. Two American passport holders hungry for something familiar to eat notice each other – as foreigners abroad tend to do! – and begin a conversation that would change both of their lives.

LA-based, Compton-bred rapper Bonkerz had arrived in China just a couple months earlier. He was recording an album, getting used to life in a foreign country, and that day, hyped to meet such a “cool cat” at a Chinese Subway off the metro (a Subway in the subway lol).

Inspired by their convo about creative projects they were both working on, he invited his new friend to join him at the recording studio where he was headed to next. The aforementioned “cool cat,” Gene Contreras, had recently launched an urban-inspired clothing line and was equally excited to meet someone dope and agreed to come along.

The two ended up building an amazing friendship, as well as collaborating on projects effortlessly throughout their time abroad. Bonkerz would rock Contreras’s brand, Operation Chiin Chilla (OCC), at performances and in music videos as well as help organize shows/pop-ups, while Contreras promoted the rapper’s music to his established network in Shanghai, connecting him with other creatives, foreigners and all the coolest clubs and venues around such a vast, spirited city.

But it was the freedom and ease Bonkerz felt in being able to share his biggest dreams and ideas with Contreras that meant the most to him. “When you tell others your dream, they may kinda downplay it, but this particular person believes the same way I do, so we literally, like, we gonna shoot for the stars,” says Bonkerz. “We shoot beyond that.”

These dreams included building out Contreras’ OCC brand together and spreading its aspirational message of “Till You Fly” to the world.

“Biggie’s album Ready To Die was always one of my favorite albums, and one of my favorite movies as a kid was a Michael Jordan movie called Come Fly with Me,” explains Contreras when describing how the brand’s slogan, “Till You Fly,” was born. “So I just kind of played with words, I like to do that, remix words, make jokes, and then it came to me, ‘Till You Fly.’”

The tag not only resonated with Contreras, but it reflected the hustle of the city the brand was inspired from. “A lot of people in China were there to do something big at the time,” he continues. “I told myself I’m gonna leave a footprint in Shanghai, something big, so ‘Till You Fly’ made the most sense.”

When Bonkerz first saw “Till You Fly,” it was embroidered graffiti-style on a black OCC flat brim hat. His connection to it was fire and immediate. 

"'Till You Fly’ is me,” says Bonkerz. “I am ‘Till You Fly.’ It’s how I live my life every day.”

After that unforgettable moment, there was no looking back; Bonkerz knew he and Contreras had something special on their hands. But eventually, Bonkerz’s time in Shanghai came to an end and he moved back to Los Angeles while Contreras continued living in Shanghai.

“We always had our business plan and ideas ready, but the timing had to be perfect,” Bonkerz explains. “Gene ended up moving to LA [in 2020] and the timing couldn’t have been better, so we were able to close that idea we had and actually make it reality.”

Till You Fly, the album, was a concept that aligned with Bonkerz and Contreras’ dreams that originated in Shanghai, but the idea for the album itself was more recent and spontaneous. Ready to present a more vulnerable side, Bonkerz concentrates on executing clean sonic progression to express his gangland resiliency and to let off some steam that, despite being an artist, doesn’t always come easy when life feels rife with challenges, trauma and heartache. With vocal features by Cruise, YeloHill and Compton AV, the album boasts a melodic West Coast sound with poignant, hard-hitting lyrical content. Till You Fly was produced by Hi-Def Beats and Steelz and mixed/mastered by Cruisemixedit.

In our interview below, we dive deeper into Bonkerz’s “Till You Fly” story, how he balances life as a corporate Vice President by day and rapper by night, and what advice he gives the younger generation of emerging artists today.

Why is the Till You Fly album important to you?

“Till You Fly,” it really fits who I am, so that’s the main reason why it’s important. This is a brand that believes in continuing your dream, you know, no matter what obstacles may come from life’s ups and downs, but staying focused on the ultimate goal and having fun while doing it, right? Just hip, cool, down to earth, understanding culture and just being creative.

I think the creative part is what a lot of people who maybe experience trauma or who had a tough upbringing, they’re able to channel their energy into, whether it be music, art, writing, things of that nature.

Most recently, I lost my mother in 2020. She passed away from cirrhosis of the liver, she had an alcoholic addiction and other health issues, and it just goes to, like, the system, the lack of resources there are for those who are below poverty.

So after losing her, that was obviously the downfall of my life, so I haven’t really released any music and haven’t even been able to be creative as much. It’s kinda like having writer’s block while I was grieving. You would think it would be the opposite, that I’d be able to get it all out, but I wasn’t.

So what kinda got me out of that ditch or hiatus was constant conversations with my boy Gene and our goal and dream for us to always collaborate and push the same idea that we have to the world.

So that there, that’s the second importance, was getting out of that ditch, getting back into my creative process, stepping into another realm of creativity, and not staying the same artist. We have to be able to grow as creators.

When you first heard of “Till You Fly,” what was your reaction to it? Did it resonate immediately?

It was immediate. I read it before hearing it, on a hat. And I’m like, “Dude, I need one. WTF is this, man!” And I was, just that! You know, certain consumers may like certain things, they’re not gonna like everything, so for the Operation Chiin Chilla brand, there was lots of things that I liked in the brand and there was also things that weren’t my style.

But no matter what, since my buddy had a dream, Imma help push it. And then when Till You Fly came about, I’m like, this is it. Like, this is me. This is what other people like me stand for, like, this is the one, man. Let’s do something with this. And that’s when the ideas started flowing.

You know, I’m an underground artist and in Shanghai I was an underground Hip Hop artist performing all over the city. So, it was like, this resonates with me and my underground, gritty, fly, prestige, like, that’s kinda how I present myself. I was like, dude, this is the one, let’s move forward with this in a major way.

How did your time in Shanghai define you? I was there for a few years as well and know Shanghai can be an incredible, life-changing experience.

I would say the whole experience just taught me to step outside the box, it taught me patience, and I would say I met some of the most amazing people in my life in Shanghai. And just being Black in China is a total different feel from being Black in America, so it’s like, you get the best and you get the worst and that’s where you patience has to come in.

You have to understand that you immersed yourself into a total other country so whatever you have coming to you is gonna come, kind of thing, you can’t fight other people’s cultures, so that is the patience that it taught me.

[What] was supposed to be eight months ended up being three and a half, four years, and like you said, you fall in love with it, it’s a phenomenal city, it’s like no other. And the people are just something to admire, there’s just so many things within the culture that in American culture just doesn’t exist, a lot of it is just family, that was a big one for me. I met Gene, I met my wife, I met other people within my circle that I still talk to on the daily. It just gave me a total different outlook on life.

You’re not only an artist, but you also work in the corporate world. And I believe you were just promoted, is that right?

Yeah, that’s right. I was recently promoted to the Vice President of Health & Social Services within an organization called Skid Row Housing Trust.

Congrats! And what is that like for you, to be straddling such two different worlds? How do you find balance?

I was always taught that as a man you should be making your own money. I’ve always had a job, I’ve been working since I was 14, so it’s like, for me, having a job is having consistent income that I know is coming. I have a certain lifestyle that I need to upkeep, so I know I need to have a job.

In addition to that, in order to be an artist, you literally have to have money, nothing is free. You pay for music videos, studio time, you pay for beats, merchandise, production, like, there’s so much that goes along with it, not just being able to rap. I have to have a job in order to fund this, I’m the record label. I’m funding myself, Bonkerz the artist, is how I look at it.

So, in doing what I do at Skid Row Housing Trust, this company was the only company that kinda allows you to be yourself that allowed me to progress the way I did. You know, other companies you kinda have to turn yourself off and be this super, like, “Yes, uh, absolutely!” That’s not who you really are as a person, you know, you’re putting on a front just to work, and I’ve always hated that about certain jobs. So when I got this job, I didn’t have to do that, I talk to you how I talk to them. This is who I am, and I’m accepted for that and allowed to show the great work that I can do.

Not only that, I’m doing something for my community and for my culture. I mean, my father was once on drugs, my mother had an alcoholic addiction, it’s very close to me, and I have a cousin that lives on Skid Row currently, so you know, it’s just a part of my life. This is my way to give back and at the same time, make a living.

I’ve always been for the people, so working with juveniles and at-risk, working with under-privileged folks, people experiencing homelessness, that’s just who I am. I just wanna help people, so that job allows me to do that, and my artistry allows me to also do my passion and still stay true to who I am. So all day I’m able to stay true and authentic and do what I love doing.

It’s tough to balance both. It’s literally tough, like eighteen-hour days, waking up early, maybe talking to Gene about some items we need to produce, jump on the laptop, go do some emails, plan the day, get ready to go to work, go downtown, put a solid eight hours in there, come home and immediately start talking production, merchandise, mixing songs, writing songs, recording and fall asleep and do it all over. There’s no break, it’s like it’s work all day, just different kind of jobs. I still have to balance relationships, friendships, etc.

When did you know music was the path you wanted to take?

In 2008, I lost my father, he passed away because of a heart attack. It was unexpected, and I was young and in college at the time, and my passion has always been rappin’, so one day I wrote a song for my dad, random, and I’m like you know what, maybe let me just record it.

So I called a friend who I knew was into recording music. I went to his house and recorded the song, sent the song to my brothers and my mom and then they listened to it and of course loved it. My one brother was like, you really should take this serious, like you’re actually really good. At that point I’m like, man, it actually felt really good it was so cool and fun, maybe I should, and since then, just haven’t stopped.

I knew I always wanted to be successful, like I knew that, I didn’t know how, and I didn’t for sure think corporate. College was just kind of a fluke, I didn’t plan on going to college, it was just a football opportunity that I had. It was super last minute, the coach called me like, hey, like get your ass here. So I left LA, went to Vegas at UNLV, that’s how I got into the school. It was super random.

At the time, I needed to leave California, LA, and just kinda get out the streets because, you know, you can just take one left turn and then your life’s just totally different. Growin’ up, you know, with no money in the house and being just a young boy, you get into a lot of things being from the neighborhood I was from, just a whole bunch of stuff, street activities that just probably wasn’t my route that I needed to take. At the time when college came about, it was just perfect timing, get my head on straight, do something positive.

So, when you were recruited to play for UNLV, did it enter your mind that your path was to become a pro football player? What happened with that, or are you secretly also a football player in addition to being a rapper and corporate VP!

My football days are done [laughs]! But yeah, I played football in high school. In college, I actually got hurt and that ended my chances for that scholarship, so I ended up having to take out school loans. When my dad died it was around the same time I got hurt and lost the scholarship, so like, I really wanted to just move back home, but I knew that would be the worst thing for me, and I would probably end up in prison. So I’m like, well, maybe I should just stay and just see what happens.

During that transition period I was, like, ok, football is over. Growin’ up I never had dreams of being a rapper, like, I knew every single rap song there was and I loved music as a kid and always said, hey I could be that guy on the TV, but I never tried that as a career because I knew you couldn’t make money. There was no way I could tell my mom and dad this is what I’m gonna do, so it was never like a dream like that. And then after football totally ended for me, I’m like, yeah, ok, maybe music is my next passion, and that’s how it became a thing.

What advice would you give to younger artists?

The best thing I can tell them is “Till You Fly,” baby! And when they get the brand, they’ll understand, you know, never stop. Continue something you believe in and stay true to it, and make sure you’re learning, you always have to learn throughout the whole process.

Thanks for sharing your story, Bonkerz. Till You Fly! – Hype