BIJI’s Robin Nazari and Maceo Frost join the Sonical.ly Podcast to break down the story behind their debut album, Legends — a project shaped by Kurdish identity, hip-hop, family, poetry, filmmaking, and modern music production.
Robin and Maceo talk about how a seven-year-old unanswered Facebook message eventually helped bring them together, how an emotional collaboration involving a poem about Robin’s late father became the spark for BIJI, and why the project ultimately became a place where they could create without compromising who they are.
They also break down the production behind Legends: finding unusual samples, combining Kurdish musical influences with contemporary sounds, collaborating with Robin’s mother on lyrics, and learning when an imperfect performance carries more emotion than a polished studio recording.
One of the most powerful stories comes from Sarah’s Poem. After Sarah recorded the original poem on an iPhone, the team repeatedly tried to recreate it in the studio — but the cleaner versions lost the feeling of the original. That eventually led to a simple creative realization: listeners don’t have to understand everything the first time, and sometimes the imperfections are exactly what make something special.
Later in the conversation, Robin explains why BIJI feels like “coming home” — reconnecting with Kurdistan, family, language, and parts of his identity he couldn’t fully express through his earlier music. Maceo also talks about walking away from commercially successful filmmaking work to pursue projects that gave him a sense of purpose and creative energy.
Robin and Maceo also discuss growing up around hip-hop and Kurdish music, why Maceo was forbidden to quantize as a kid, Robin teaching himself to become a stronger rapper, how BIJI searches for rare samples, Kurdish musical influences, creative instinct, staying authentic in the music industry, and the question every artist eventually has to answer: Why are you making music?
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