Family is important to Tucson hip-hop artist Cash Lansky. His latest album, “Man of the House” is an ode to his mom who raised him and his siblings as a single parent.
And it’s resonated with his fans.
“Single moms have been reaching out to me and understanding their superpowers,” he said. “They also understand that what they’re doing is really working. I know my mom questioned herself, raising us as a single parent.
“She’s proud of herself. She listened to the project for the first time yesterday. She called me in tears—happy tears. She was just proud.”
Lansky is taking his music to house shows around Arizona. His upcoming gigs include a “Man of the House” show on Friday, May 17; a vinyl, CD and tape release party on Friday, June 14.
He’ll appear at Tucson’s Zia Records on Saturday, June 29. This aligns with Lansky’s untraditional approach to promoting songs.
With heavy hitters behind his music — the indie label Mello Music Group, and producers T-Wade and Mario Luciano (Drake, J. Cole) — he could play endless gigs. But he’s into a slow build.
“These house parties are better for me than one big album release party,” he said.
“Man of the House” shows Lansky’s growth as an artist. He shows a vulnerable side and acknowledges the mental health crisis in the country.
Lansky is pleased with the outcome, even though he went into the studio without a direction.
“I did have somewhat of a direction,” he said. “I wanted to make it as soulful as I could.”
The early recordings of the album were light on rapping. Instead, Lansky was talking, telling listeners how he felt, his views, and his backstory.
“Vulnerability is a superpower,” he said. “Being an artist is a weird thing. We take on things a little differently. We go through these times when the world kind of stops and we’re trying to understand our place in the world.
“Sometimes writing becomes stagnant, other times we’re at the top of the world.”
But this “superpower” also relates to his ability to juggle family (he’s a married father of four), a full-time job and music.
“People tell me I juggle it so well,” he said with a laugh. “Sometimes I’m on autopilot. This writing process saw me unpacking that and understanding why I’m able to juggle the way I do.”
The title of his record, “Man of the House,” refers to his childhood, when he was forced to grow up quickly. The Anchorage native’s grandfather worked on the Alaska pipeline and had a heart transplant in California.
Lansky was introduced to music and recording through his cousin.
“When I was younger, he would drag me to the studio to keep me out of trouble,” Lansky said with a laugh.
“He was the father figure of all the boys in the family.
"Anything he did, we had to do. If he played football or baseball, we had to learn. He showed us to the studio and how keyboards work and how beat machines work.
“I watched his writing process and how he put words together.
"I knew what he was talking about. I realized the power in that; that we were able to express ourselves with words. We weren’t able to express ourselves as Black males. We were told to suck it up, or shut up. We didn’t know how to show emotions.
“He showed us how to express our feeling. I just started writing myself more poems or just words that rhyme. I was afraid to rap in front of people so I rapped in the bathroom. I saw everybody’s reaction to it. I thought, ‘Oh, OK. I am kind of good at it.’ I’ve come too far to give up now. I want to see where it ends.”
Cash Lansky socials
Instagram: @southwestlansky
Facebook: @cashlanskyheis
X: @cashlansky
Mello Music: mellomusicgroup.com
