Local rapper dreams of making it big

22-year-old overcame alcoholism, now hopes to conquer music world

With all the laughter coming out of Carlos Lujan’s mouth, you would never know about the struggles he has faced in his 22 years of life.

Lujan is a rapper, a producer, performer and lyricist who is pursuing his dream of “making it big” in the music business.

photo used with permission

Carlos Lujan at his home studio.

Lujan was born and raised in Albuquerque, NM, and attended Rio Grande High School. He dropped out during his junior year in 2003, around the time he started having difficulties with his family.

“I hung out with dumb people, and never went to class,” Lujan said.

Now that he has perspective on his decision to drop out of high school at the time, Lujan said: “I thought it was stupid. My dad kept pounding that into my head, too.”

Lujan’s auntie, Linda Saiz, said Lujan is friendly and has many friends.

“He’s always been a good kid, and always had respect for his elders, especially for his grandma,” Saiz said.

New Beginnings

Lujan didn’t let dropping out of high school hold him back. In 2008 he earned his General Education Diploma from CNM. Now Lujan works full time and is attending CNM part time for computer animation to earn his associate’s degree in computing technology. He hopes to get into the field of work with movies and video games.

“I love video games,” Lujan said.

But Lujan says getting a degree is his “plan b.” His real passion is music, and he hopes to make a living by writing, producing and performing music.

“Growing up, my dad started to D.J.; I was about 10 years old. I don’t know, I just got interested in music,” Lujan said. “I didn’t ever think I was going to become a rapper, but I ended up just going in that direction, instead of deejaying.”

“He has a passion for music too,” Lujan said about his father Frank Lujan. “I think just one day he got this idea and started buying equipment and once he had enough to do a show, he started doing shows.”

Lujan is currently getting into his father’s business, Latin Fantasy Mobile D.J.

“My pops is getting a little bit too old and can’t do it as well as

he used to,” Lujan said.

photo used with permission

Carlos Lujan at his home studio.

Destruction House

Instead of just playing other artists’ music throughout Albuquerque with his father’s D.J. company, Lujan also makes some of his own music through his rap group, Destruction

House.

Destruction House was formed six years ago when Lujan was introduced to brothers Luciano Mendoza and Felipe Mendoza through his cousin Anthony Sanchez, when Lujan was just 16 years old.

“Now, I like doing shows, I like being on stage. Making music and making beats is fun and it keeps me out of trouble. So I do that almost every day,” Lujan said.

Lujan does a lot of his music production at his home, where he has all of his equipment, including a desktop computer equipped with Cakewalk software, a keyboard controller, along with speakers and a stand-up keyboard.

His group Destruction House has opened for better known music groups in the past including a show at the Sunshine Theater in Albuquerque with Night Owl and Slow Pain as the lead acts.

photo used with permission

Destruction House performing at Neds Downtown in Albuquerque.

“We get calls to do performances for free, because we’re not known,” Lujan said. “So we try to get the exposure and publicity that we can get, and get noticed.”

Destruction House has performed at local car shows and local CD release parties.

When asked what goals he would like to achieve in his life, he said: “With music, I would love to make it big. That would be the greatest thing ever.”

Some of Destruction House’s songs include, “Get Gone,” “

That’s Hot,” “Damn,” “Body Rock” and “Dead and Gone.”

“Dead and Gone” is a song about his three cousins that died in recent years.

Saiz said about Lujan and his music, “It’s some way to escape for him.”

One of Lujan’s biggest musical influences and also his favorite rapper is Tupac Shakur.

Tupac Shakur was a rapper who achieved musical success in the early 1990s.

“A lot of people say that my voice actually resembles his when I rap, I don’t know, I think it sounds like me, but people say it sounds like him. I’m not gonna be mad at that,” Lujan said.

Lujan’s biggest struggles

Lujan comes from a big family and it is apparent that family is the most important thing to him.

The biggest obstacle Lujan said he had overcome in his entire life was overcoming alcoholism. About two and half years ago he fell into drinking after dealing with the deaths of three of his cousins.

“I was addicted for a year or two maybe.”

Lujan’s mother and father both currently struggle with alcoholism, and his mother is suffering from cirrhosis of the liver.

“But my uncle passed away from alcoholism, and I’ve got my mother now that’s addicted and has cirrhosis, so it kind of opened my eyes up,” Lujan said.

Lujan’s auntie, Linda Saiz, said: “He loves his mom and dad. But he can only do so much. But he doesn’t stop going to see them.”

Adding to the loss, Lujan’s grandmother also passed away in recent years.

One of the cousins that died, Joshua Sanchez, was in the Army at the time and was involved in a confrontation inside a bar. He was stabbed and died at the age of 19.

His other two cousins who passed away were, Daniel Lujan, who died at the age of 18 after committing suicide, and Gilbert Houston, who died at the age of 21.

“When I was younger I used to hang around with my cousins a lot, they were more like brothers to me,” Lujan said.

A positive influence today

With all of the issues Lujan has dealt with, he now tries to be a positive influence to those around him.

One of those lives being influenced positively is Lujan’s nephew. Lujan hangs out with him and encourages him to stay and do well in school.

Lujan’s girlfriend of six years, Tamara Struck, said that she admires Lujan for everything he went through in the past few years and how he overcame it all.

“He didn’t let those situations keep him down; he pretty much used them as a stepping stone, and based his life off of those situations,” Struck said. “He made a bad situation into a good one.”

Struck said Lujan has recognized his downfalls in life, like with his past with alcohol, and can now see what it can do to people, and how it can destroy their lives.

“It can destroy his dream basically; because if he keeps drinking then he cannot go to school anymore, and he won’t get his degree. And he’ll pretty much be where he was in high school,” Struck said of Lujan if he were to return to drinking.

Struck said there have been times when Lujan has been in situations and is able to help guide people in the right direction.

Struck is a full-time student at UNM in her fourth semester.

“With me and school, when I do want to give up, he just tells me not to; because he saw everything he had to go through when he did give up. How much longer it took him to get that G.E.D. because he had to go through all this paperwork and testing and all this stuff just to get that G.E.D,” Struck said.

Laughter: a cure for all

“He uses his humor to cover a lot of things he’s going through. Like with his mom and dad,” Saiz said.

Saiz and Struck agree that it’s Lujan’s positive outlook that keeps him going.

“By him being able to see the events that have happened in his life and the way it’s affected him, he’s able to shine some light on other people’s lives and act like a role model and positive influence,” Struck said.

Written April 16, 2009

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