Rhyheim Shabazz: 'My Job Is to Live, Learn and Love'

Talk about finding success right out of the gate—just take a look at Rhyheim Shabazz. Especially his Twitter page: 340K followers and climbing. He hasn’t even been shooting gay adult content for a year yet, and has only worked for himself and for one studio: European site TimTales.com. But with a muscular yet streamlined body like his, it’s not surprising Shabazz took off like a champion greyhound leaping out onto the track. This week Shabazz brought home awards from both Sunday’s Str8UpGayPorn Awards and Monday’s Cybersocket Web Awards. And on Friday he’ll be gracing the stage of the 2020 GayVN Awards as one of four hot newcomers tapped to give out trophies. He's nominated for Best Newcomer and Best Three-way Sex Scene and is in the running for three fan-voted awards. “I started the porn for myself, I think it was in March or February officially,” he says. “I got the idea to do porn last year around October and I said, ‘I know, I’ll produce a porn star’s OnlyFans page.’” So Shabazz started working with gay adult performer Leon Redd and had a realization: “The money’s too good. I’ll do it for myself. I opened my own Twitter and OnlyFans.” Shabazz understood he needed a studio to help promote himself, so he reached out to TimTales. “I contacted another porn star—Andy Star—and I asked him to speak to them and Tim Kruger messaged me." And that changed everything for Shabazz. "I shoot with them in Barcelona. ... I didn’t imagine I would be doing so much traveling this year. I thought I was going to be home all year.” Home is Los Angeles, where the former New Jersey resident has been living for 15 years. But he didn’t come here to get into the entertainment biz—either mainstream or adult. And he’s not somebody who loves to pose for photos. So what drew him to porn? “I think I like the creativity of it. I like being able to maneuver people sexually. It’s a weird thing to describe to people,” Shabazz says. He prefers directing the content. “I’m a control freak. That is one thing Rhyheim won’t lie about. I’m not good at taking direction.” His wide independent streak comes from his background in sex work. “My job is to live, learn and love—and get paid for it.” During his time in L.A., he’s learned to love the sprawling city. “When I moved here, coming from the airport the night I got here, I was like, ‘There’s no way I’m getting used to this. Let me start plotting what I’m going to tell everybody in Jersey about why I moved back.’” But he eventually learned to love the lifestyle. “I couldn’t imaging living anywhere else. Any weather outside of the sun is tricky.” There are other attractions besides the balmy climate. “It’s a bit more liberal and people are a bit comfortable in their sexuality here, which made it easier for me to become more comfortable in my sexuality. I think on the East Coast you’re more conscious of the things you do in front of others that would give away your sexuality. Here, I don’t think I ever cared. I learned not to care, which translated into everything else, which made me comfortable with everything else. If you haven’t defined yourself, L.A. is a place that will define you—and usually not in a good way, so I always tell people to come prepared.” As a longtime L.A. resident who has no doubt seen how the party circuit can create problems for others in the adult entertainment industry, Shabazz has good advice to offer. “You have to have some separation. Too much of anything is a bad idea. If you enjoy the partying, you have to be able to balance it out with reading a book or going to hiking or going to a park and just sitting. People come here and they go deep and don’t know how to come out. And another thing: Be conscious of the fact that the person you are now is not the person that you’re going to be in ten years from now, so don’t embarrass that person.” Overall, though, “L.A. is a place where there are so many options, so many avenues to take. You’ve just got to be grounded. But I love L.A. I think it offers so many opportunities.” As for himself, Shabazz claims to be “a very boring person … my day is usually with my dogs and on Twitter. Two huskies and one Labrador.” When not hiking with his dogs in the Hollywood Hills, Shabazz pursues physical fitness. “I have no choice. I’m a porn star,” he says, caressing the words with a velvety tone that is at once sexy and self-deprecating. In other words, thoroughly charming. “I’ve maintained my body as a lifestyle. And I have dogs, so I’m always moving.” Perhaps it’s the physical activity, or maybe just winning the genetic lottery, but either way, Shabazz is drop-dead gorgeous. Surprisingly, he doesn’t love being photographed. “Whenever I have to pose, I feel like I’m posing. I spent too many times looking at magazines and sayiing, ‘Look at them, trying to be sexy.’ Now—oh, no—I’m that person trying to be sexy. Do I look sexy, or do I look stupid? The questions you ask yourself in your head during the process of taking pictures.” He’s far more comfortable in front of a video camera. “I am an exhibitionist but in a different way. Yeah. Having sex and all of those things, yeah, I can go all in without a problem. Sometimes it even surprises me looking at the movies. I remember, just before I filmed, thinking, ‘How am I going to do this? I’m not in the mood to film,’” he muses. “Most of my movies I like to put the attention on the other person. … I learned that it works.” He continues, “Everyone always asks me what is it that I like most about doing porn. I think it’s interesting for me. Because the way I shoot my movies is the way that I have sex. And it’s interesting that people took to my movies because of the way that I have sex. And I don’t know, it’s almost like an instructional video for people. I’m looking at a lot of porn in the past and it lacked intimacy. So it’s nice to feel like I’m teaching people how to be intimate.” Asked what he thinks of the interracial porn genre, Shabazz says, “I like it. For me, I work with a lot of other races.” He gets “flak in the black community” for not shooting more often with black performers. But he thinks it’s important to branch out to other communities to build his fan base. “I am the black crowd—I need to get the white crowd, the Latin crowd,” he says. “I think it’s good, the diversity. I think that’s one thing that hurts performers is when they get stuck in their safety zone and they don’t want to branch out and meet others.” Shabazz definitely likes to step outside of his comfort zone. In terms of musical taste, he says, “I’m an R&B type person. I like mellow, chill music. But I’ll listen to anything if it’s good. Even Dolly Parton,” he adds with an infectious laugh. And his heroes are just as diverse. “David Geffen is really a very smart person—that’s inspirational. In terms of drive, athlete Serena Williams.” And the former poly-sci/English major says he’s a politics junkie, with a caveat: “I don’t believe in engaging politically with anyone. You have to respect people’s thinking.” Does Shabazz want to do more ambitious feature movies? He admits he’s watched some straight porn and “was amazed at the stuff they were producing. It was almost like a real movie. … I like it when I see studios or productions that make it an experience.” But he also sees the appeal of the casual style of performer-made content. “I think people identify with it. It’s more observable. We show them us walking our dogs or laughing with each other. … Then they see that and they can relate to you. It makes them more invested in the sex scene as opposed to laughing at the dialogue and fast-forwarding.” He sees the value of working with TimTales, especially for its ability to promote his content and benefit his brand. But he admits, “It’s interesting the politics of studios—what they can and can’t do. … I’m like the bad kid at TimTales.” But that doesn’t mean he’ll cut back on creating his own content for OnlyFans. After all, he says, “Daddy’s got dogs to feed.”