For Local MC, Inspiration Is Everywhere

For San Lorenzo rapper Enzyme Dynamite — one half of the underground hip-hop duo the Bayliens — inspiration comes at the most unexpected moments: A near-death experience becomes a quirky tattoo; a conversation with a roommate leads to an impromptu show in a cock-fighting ring in the Philippines; a heart-wrenching phone call morphs into an iTunes smash hit.

"Inspirations come from everywhere, from movies, feelings, conversations, other songs," said the rapper (whose given name is Jared Magers), slurping a chocolate milk during an interview with San Lorenzo Patch at the Starbucks on Lewelling Boulevard. "There's a world of inspiration around you every day."

The song "Love is Like War" was inspired by a long-distance girlfriend who called to end their relationship while the Bayliens were in the studio. "My Moment," which played on Live 105 and has sold well on iTunes, came out of a medical study Enzyme put himself through to make ends meet. And the song that got the Bayliens onstage with Lil'Wayne? The rapper doesn't peg it to anything, actually. That one just happened.

"We're seriously like pirates, and we're sailing the Seven Seas. We've hijacked everything, without any label or funding behind us," Enzyme said of the Bayliens' success so far. "We can turn trash into treasure."

Now 27, Enzyme still has the taffy-pulled look of a teenager — his arms are ropey and tattooed and his long legs splay out at opposite angles, his black laquered high-top kicks peeking out from under the table.

He and his parents immigrated to the United States from the Dominican Republic in the '80s. The family bopped around a bit, landing first in Minnesota and detouring to Hawaii before Magers and his mother eventually arrived in the East Bay. Though they moved nearly every year while he was growing up, "It was always in this little corridor," he said.

"I like this area the best out of the entire Bay Area. I feel like it's the most central location," Magers said, gesturing out at I-880. "You want to go to San Francisco, you want to go to the airport, to the Oakland airport. You got San Jose over there, you got Walnut Creek right there. I feel like it's just perfect to be here."

He first tried rap at age 14, on one of his weekly skate pilgrimages to San Francisco. There, Enzyme said, he fell in with a crew of kids who rhymed like it was breathing. They pulled him into MCing the same way teenagers rope other teenagers into any new activity — with peer pressure.

"They never shut up — they were always doing it," he said. "I had this best friend who got me really into it. He would push me, say do it, do it, do it. From the first time I tried it, I knew it was what I wanted to do."

His current partner in crime, Spaceman Cell (Marcel Jovan Merriweather, 28), said the pair met in the early aughts, while Enzyme was MCing for a group called Audible Monsters and Spaceman was DJing for Forensic Science. Though they began collaborating early on, Spaceman said they were reluctant to put a label on their work.

"[We wanted] all of the benefits, none of the drama," Spaceman said — but fans kept clamoring for a name. A third member suggested "Bayliens," and it stuck.

On a whim, the group followed Enzyme's Filipino roommate to Manila. Armed only with a bio and a CD of their music, they sweet-talked their way onto MTV. Later, they hooked up with Brooklyn-based rapper Mike Swift, who spirited them away to his hometown in the rural province of Batangas. Enzyme said no one there had seen a rapper before, but the Bayliens gave them a show anyway, performing inside a cockfighting arena.

"They were into it — it was crazy," Enzyme said. "You had 60- and 70-year-old people going crazy for you." 

Traveling soon became a way of life. The Bayliens have performed all across southeast Asia, playing to amped-up crowds in Japan and Taiwan. After a year-long hiatus, the group just concluded a state-wide tour with local hip-hop artists Zion I.

Money comes and goes, mostly from touring and merchandise. Spaceman blogs for Zion I and moonlights as a model. Despite pressure to pursue a more "practical" career, Enzyme said he's never regretted his decision to pursue music.

"I've had so many priceless experiences that someone who was too afraid to follow their dreams or not motivated enough to go get it will never experience," Enzyme said. "That all just comes from not being afraid to follow our dreams."

Editor's Note: Fans can catch the Bayliens on Nov. 12 at Slim's in San Francisco.