Out of the Blue - The Podcast: Finding the Way Forward
Out of the Blue-the Podcast features interviews with inspirational survivors of traumatic out of the blue events who have overcome unimaginable challenges, sharing their stories of resilience and triumph. By sharing these stories, "Out of the Blue" aims to create a community where others who have faced similar hardships can find solace and strength as together, we find the way forward.
Out of the Blue - The Podcast: Finding the Way Forward
How Rap Defeated Addiction with Cenobio Rayos II a.k.a. The Hare Trigga
Cenobio Rayos II, known in the music world as "The Hare Trigga," reveals his extraordinary journey of resilience that reads like a Hollywood screenplay. Cenobio's path took him through addiction, homelessness, and profound loss before a moment of terrifying clarity changed everything. Unable to stop using even with police lights shining directly on him, he realized he'd completely lost control. "I no longer had power over my own body," he shares with raw honesty.
This turning point, combined with his mother's own recovery journey and memories of his father's struggles with heroin, propelled Cenobio toward rehabilitation. He chose the difficult path of detoxing without medication. "Sometimes we have to walk back through the flames when we were welcomed through them the first time," he explains, capturing the paradoxical nature of healing.
Throughout his darkest moments, music remained his constant. From childhood poetry to freestyle battles, Cenobio learned that he had natural talent and transformed rap from a casual interest into his lifeline and salvation. Today, with 19 years of sobriety and collaborations with hip-hop industry veterans, Cenobio uses his platform to inspire others facing similar struggles. His new album "Journey of my Darkness" represents both his personal odyssey and his mission to reach those still fighting their own battles.
This episode offers a powerful reminder that no matter how far you fall, redemption is always within reach. As Cenobio puts it with quiet confidence: "God isn't finished with me yet."
The Hare Trigga:
Out Of The Blue:
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Welcome back to Out of the Blue, the podcast where real people share real stories of resilience, transformation and the power of the human spirit. I'm your host, vernon West, and joining me today is my son and co-host, vernon West III, a gifted musician who created our logo and theme song. Today's guest is a man whose life reads like a movie, one filled with pain, purpose and an incredible comeback. His name is Sinobio Rios II, but in the music world, he's known as the hair trigger. Diagnosed with autism and ADHD at age five, sinobio struggled through addiction, homelessness and deep personal loss, but through all of it, one thing kept him going music. Rap became his lifeline, his anti-drug, and it led him from the streets to the studio and ultimately to sobriety.
Speaker 1:This past March, he celebrated 19 years clean March. He celebrated 19 years clean Today. He's collaborated with legends like Snoop Dogg, stevie Stone, lazy Bone, bizarre and the late DMX, and his highly anticipated album Journey of my Darkness dropped September 30th 2025. His story is raw, real and a powerful reminder that, no matter how far you fall, redemption is always within reach. Let's welcome the hair trigger, sinobio Rios. Hi, sinobio, how are you doing?
Speaker 2:I'm doing. Great Thanks for having me. How are you?
Speaker 1:So great Myself, good to see you, nice to meet you. And yeah, where we usually start is the first thing we ask is basically what would you say is the eye of the blue event that, had it not happened, you would not be here today, if I didn't ever got sober, none of this would be possible.
Speaker 2:That's beautiful, I most definitely. Sobriety was definitely a cornerstone. I was going down such a dark road I. I had to do something, and the thing is, you know, growing up my father also struggled with his own sobriety, but he got sober off of heroin, and I remember him telling me about how he got clean, and you know how important it was for him to set that example for us.
Speaker 2:He may not have been perfect, but he did do that much for me, and so when I started going down that same rabbit hole and I noticed what heroin was, it was, you know, I got tricked into doing it a couple times or whatever. Never really got addicted to it though, because that was the one thing my dad drilled in my head was never get on that stuff. And that's when I realized where I was at was the bottom, you know. That's when I realized like, hey, man, this is taking over my life, and it's like I wasn't even in control, you know, I just would go on autopilot, and it just took over and the beast drove the bus, you know, and it's like at what point did I get to that? To where I no longer had that control, and that scared the shit out of me.
Speaker 2:Wow the moment of truth. It did.
Speaker 1:It was a moment of truth. It scared me straight, you know. It scared me to want to get straight.
Speaker 2:Wow, the moment of truth. It did. It was a moment of truth. It scared me, straight, you know. It scared me to want to get straight.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:I had tried a couple of times on my own to get clean, you know, and I would. I would go maybe a month, two months, relapse Dang. You know what am I doing wrong? I started going to meetings and it took me going ahead and checking myself into a rehab. I remember the intake worker saying did you want outpatient or inpatient treatment? I said, if you give me outpatient treatment, I'm going to go home and still do this stuff.
Speaker 2:The point is that I need to get off this stuff. You need to lock me up in a place where I can't do it. Give me a good, honest shot. Give myself that honest shot.
Speaker 2:You know, and it's crazy how sometimes, when we're lost in our journeys, we stumble upon the greatest thought and never even realize it. We realize that we really are turning out for help and that at some point it no longer band-aids or medicates that void. That void has become too big and too deep and shallow at the same time, and it's like that moment sometimes doesn't scare people straight. We have a lot of people who die from addiction every day. It's that truth of it, the nature of the beast. Some people only do it one time and end up dying.
Speaker 2:I'm very fortunate that that didn't happen to me. I never did overdose or anything like that, but it was the police, the police. I was in the backwoods and I was getting hot and this cop had his spotlight on me and I realized I couldn't quit hitting that stupid pipe, even with the cop watching me. And that's when I realized like wow, this is really taking over. You know, I no longer had the power of my own choice over my own body and it made me feel violated in a way, you know, like self violated, like how can I let myself down like that? And I just remember praying and I'm just like god, please help god, please help me, but I know going to jail isn't gonna help me. It's gonna hurt, okay, and?
Speaker 2:that cop went one way, I'm right, yeah, and I went to my mom's house and I went to my mom's house and at first I was just trying to get more money to get high and she had a police scanner.
Speaker 2:She knew the police were looking for me, they knew who I was and I'm just like man, so she just kind of was just watching me, you know, and then she just was saying the right things to make me realize she already knew the truth and there was nothing left for me to do but admit it and I had to admit to myself that my life had become unmanageable completely and I had no power, not only over the substance but over myself, because, like I said, she had had a year sober around a year sober, I remember that and so she had been working the steps, so she knew how it worked and so she was able to influence me in a way that allowed me to admit my own powerlessness.
Speaker 2:Once I did that, I hit my knees, I cried out to God with tears in my eyes and everything, and I realized that I had hit that bottom, you know. And good thing my parents taught me against drugs and all that at a young age, because that's what it all goes back to is our childhood, our roots, believe it or not, and in that moment I was centered in that moment and I realized it was now or never. It was now or never and that's where I believe that miracles stem from is when we align our consciousness, our spirituality and our mindset into the present moment. That is when we begin to step out of darkness.
Speaker 1:That's being here now. That's what that is.
Speaker 2:The here and now. There's a book by Eckhart Tolle called the Power of Now.
Speaker 1:I read it every night, it's a good book. Have you read it? I read it every night. I have it on Audible.
Speaker 2:Heck, yeah, I go to bed listening to it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, me too.
Speaker 2:I think self-help books are another great way. You know there are free audiobooks on YouTube too. You can get audiobooks if you need to, if you can't get to a library. If you are like me and I'm dyslexic and reading, I don't comprehend it, but if it's on an audiobook, it's good.
Speaker 1:Me too. I'm not dyslexic, but I just fall asleep when I'm reading. It's really terrible.
Speaker 2:That's how I get too. Yeah, I'll fall asleep Sometimes. I got to reread it several times.
Speaker 2:I'll read the same page for an hour, yeah exactly that's where I'm like I'd rather just listen to it, because when somebody talks, I receive the information better I'm able to. I'd rather just listen to it, because when somebody talks I receive the information better, I'm able to process it better. And that has to go back to my autism, you know. And the thing with that is is like that's why I'm in this field, that's why I'm like I got to be a musician, because I know there are others out there just like who maybe can't get that information through a book. They have to have lived it to feel this.
Speaker 2:And those are my people. Those are the people I'm reaching out to today and I'm hoping to help influence and impact their lives, whether they're still in that dark place or not. Whether people are Christian or not, I like are Christian or not, I like the example of Jesus. I'll leave it at that. The one thing that he did was he sat with the sinners, he sat with the drunkards, he sat with the whores. He went into that dark place to show you the way to the light. I feel that that is one thing that Journey in my Darkness really is about.
Speaker 1:So, nobio, this is such a powerful story and very much needed for people to hear this. You could be helping somebody right now just by talking about this stuff. Really, I mean what a series of wonderful out-of-the-blue events. Really. Your mom got sober a year before. Really, I mean what a series of wonderful out of the blue events. Really, your mom got sober a year before and was already had a year end sobriety. And you come to her and she's right there. She knows you're ready and she says it's. She gets you the detox and you're in the detox Now. From there, you met this guy that really helped you. That's what we want to pick up from there.
Speaker 2:So his name is Lee and he had nine years clean off crack. And this guy, I mean he dressed in the best suits and everything. And I even asked him I said how do you got money to do all that? And he said I'm not giving my money to the Deltman, no more.
Speaker 2:Yep, you know how do you got money to do all that and he said I'm not giving my money to the dope man, no more. Yep, you know. And um one thing he would do he'd wake us up at six o'clock every morning. We'd go up in front of the mirror and he'd play that song by michael jackson, called the man in the mirror, great song he needed us study the lyrics of it.
Speaker 2:He made us, you know, write a paper on it of what it meant to us, and that's where I began really wanting to change my life. I really looked up to Michael Jackson as an artist, especially as a child. I learned how to do the moonwalk and everything, and I to do the moonwalk and everything, and I used to dance for people and everything, whether it be singing in church or dancing. Entertaining is what I've wanted to do my whole life. I've just always had the niche for it. I kind of got it Like, without it having to be talked to me about or taught. I mean, I learned music, I learned how to read music, I learned how to play instruments, but the thing with it was that just was part of my musical journey and I realized that throughout my whole life, the one thing I always had was music. Music had a power over me. That meant more to me than the demons from my addiction amen, that's a beautiful thing right there, wow and like um, have you seen that movie ray about ray charles's life?
Speaker 2:yes, of course yes you know I love that movie. I remember when his wife told him, ray, they're gonna take away your music. You know, like and, and musician and musician that spoke to me. You know, even though I was already sober, even though I mean man, I'm sitting here crying to this movie and everything, because I felt that pain.
Speaker 2:I knew what it was like to detox. I knew what it was like to go through that, and I too did it without the help of any kind of medication, and that is something that not a lot of people do. But that goes back to my dad. My dad did a cold turkey like that too, and he told me the reason that he did it that way is because that's what always kept him from going back to it. So I was like you know and I'm not saying it's going to be like that for everybody, everybody, you know, is different, but for me that's what I did and that's what it took for me to realize the nature of this piece, the reality of it, by putting myself through the hell. Sometimes we have to walk back through the flames when we were welcomed through them the first time. You know what I mean. And it's not so welcoming when we leave.
Speaker 1:That is some serious truth really is. You have gotten sober now. You've got your new sobriety. So I know one thing about sobriety is you get your feelings back, and that's the good thing, but it's also the bad thing. You get your feelings back.
Speaker 2:It's the bad thing? Yeah, exactly, you take some to know one. Huh, yep, it's the bad, exactly you take something, no one, huh, you know, now you gotta feel shit. You know, yeah, now when stuff hurts.
Speaker 1:yeah, it's like whoa, what a rush sobriety. Right, it's something else, man, but but you're taking all that, really the pain, you walking through the feelings that you have to get through to get that sobriety. So you freaking earn it. You know you get that feeling that you earned your sobriety. You didn't take, you know, methadone. You didn't go into taking whatever pills they can give you to ease it off. You went through it like your dad did. And I mean that is some heavy, serious example, power example, I think they say and that's a powerful example. Again, you're right about it, not for everybody. Some people should use the methadone whatever works for them. Right, get them off the shit, get them off, get sober. And then you follow the steps and the steps become they are the steps. You know you're not taking an elevator and not taking an escalator. Yeah, don't take an elevator.
Speaker 1:You've got to go up them steps, and you've got to use your body and walk them up one at a time. So it's work. You're going to feel every step of it. Yeah, you can't go to the second step. You can't really do that first one.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know that that first one is like the biggest one, you know, it's like 20 feet high. It does seem that way. Why, for me, in my sobriety, I I have to practice the first step every daily, because if I don't remind myself of my powerlessness then I always I thought you know this crazy mind of mine. Because I do have. You know, some part of this disease still runs around in my head. All it takes is me to start taking my power back. Thinking I control things, thinking I can make, I can make them think that I can. You know anything like that. And if I start doing that, I start circling the drain. It's not long before I'll be down that drain. So I can't.
Speaker 1:I got to remember to hold on to that powerlessness that is. Not only is it hard to do, but it's great to do. It takes a load off your mind, doesn't it? It takes a weight off of you when you realize it. You don't have to. It's a disease. You can't control it. You can't control that beast. I heard someone say once that it's like making love to an elephant or a monster or something. It ain't over until the monster says it's over. You know what?
Speaker 2:I mean You're going to get thrown off that elephant's back a couple times and stomped on.
Speaker 1:It's a long way down from the thrown off that elephant's back a couple times and stopped on.
Speaker 2:It's a long way down for the back of that elephant. Yeah.
Speaker 1:So I can't imagine what this must've done for your musical ambition and career. So you're now sober. Now what did you start doing? Does that? When you said that this collaborations with people like Snoop Dogg and DMX and and those?
Speaker 2:right away. Um, I didn't know how to get into music at first, but I wanted to, so the first thing I would do is when, like practicing my fourth step, you know I would I'd write it out, and any time that I write I rhyme, I just do, um, it's something that you know goes back to my fourth grade. My teacher first taught me poetry because she said you are an incredible writer, she said, and I, I think that you have a, a knack for, uh, poetry. From there, you know, I just could tell stories and make them rhyme, even like poem forms that aren't supposed to rhyme.
Speaker 1:I'd still make them right why don't you give us one right now? What was your first one like? Say, you must have one in your mind.
Speaker 2:You could tell right now for us um, so the first one I ever really wrote. I was 16 and you want me to freestyle.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah, of course. Alright, I roll back from the county fair Smoking on my last square as I transform back into a bear to approach my house. I went no more. When I opened the door I ran this mouse someone. I got back from getting a couple mouse traps for storage. I was sitting at the table unable to see any forage. In my living room was a stair. There was a broken chair, but I was tired and I had to munch. He saw us and went upstairs I'm looking for my new porch shorts in a box and lying on my bed with goalie locks. I thought for a second. I know that bitch from class, but she was butt naked so I f***ed her.
Speaker 1:Okay, well, we might bleep that one.
Speaker 2:I mean, it's pretty appropriate for a 16 year old, you know yeah we'll have to put a parental advisory on this episode but yeah, it just was funny, stuff like that, but it would get me kicked out of school, right obvious for obvious reasons for school. But man, the, my classmates and everybody loved it though they'd be like oh man, that's great stuff, you know, and they're like, why don't you write more?
Speaker 2:and I never really did, you know. I was like you know what I mean? Like it just has to come to me. And then I remember at my buddy larry's 17th birthday, we were getting drunk and he um and and he raps and he disses people and he uses the same set of eight bars for everybody. But one time, if he's going to diss you, he'll put your name. He's going to diss me, he'll put my name in.
Speaker 2:And most people don't know how to rap. So, you know, it wasn't like they would just rap back. Well, because I had such, you know, because I knew how to rhyme words and stuff like that, I had already heard that this is what he does. And I remember asking the guy, hey, does he have any other rhymes than just that one? Because I've never heard him say any other one. So I thought, well, if we can get to a second round, we can see what this guy's made of. So I rapped back. You know we were rapping over beats on the radio and you know what I mean. And I just, man, I was owning this guy. I was talking about how, hey, man, I'm going to make you eat those words because that's all you got, you know. And I called his bluff and, sure enough, he choked the second round and I won.
Speaker 2:So from that moment right there, I was like wow, like I think I really got a talent for this, you know, because I can come up with multiple different things, from, obviously, a parody of Goldilocks and the Three Bears to whatever else you know. And, yeah, I would begin by freestyling and just trying to, you know, get the momentum going and play with words and stuff like that. Oh man, this is good and just, I just began to write and I realized that I was limited on my vocabulary. So I actually became a security guard for an entertainment company called Star Bright Entertainment there in Detroit, and while I was there I got to meet a number of different upcoming artists, producers, things like that.
Speaker 2:And somebody was talking to me one time and they said why don't you ever go to the studio? And I said I don't really have the money to afford a studio. He goes, you know't you ever go to the studio? And I said I don't really have the money to afford a studio. He goes, you know, you can go to school and learn music production. Now, mind you, this is fast forward to when I was sober.
Speaker 1:Yep, yep, of course, when I was working for the entertainment company.
Speaker 2:I was about, oh, about three years sober at this time and he gave me a CD and I looked on the back of it and I seen he produced this on there and I was impressed. I mean, the music was great, the songs, the lyrics, like oh my God. I was like, wow, I want to learn how to do this. He said. The thing is, if I'm going to teach you, it's going to cost you money. He goes, but the power of education, remember now, it's just, he said, if you get to go to school for it, you can learn to do it yourself. And if you learn to do it yourself, then you can charge people to do it. You don't got to pay him to do it. And I'm like, man, that is some really good advice.
Speaker 2:So I, I did, I went back to school, I wanted to get my, my high school diploma and, um, I started studying for my GED and in 2011, I did just that. I went and I got my gd. My daughter was born that same year and my, my ex-wife, was, uh, pregnant with her, and I remember thinking to myself back to my childhood. I'm here, my dad didn't even have a college education, telling me to get an education. You know, it's kind of like him with a cigarette in his hand telling me not to smoke. I'm not going to listen to it. Monkey see, monkey do.
Speaker 2:You know, at this point in my life I thought this is a chance to kind of break a cycle here and be the first one of my mom's kids to go to college. And be the first one of my mom's kids to go to college. And I scored high enough on my GED that I was accepted into Full Sail University for music production.
Speaker 1:Wow, that's a beautiful thing, One of the fruits of sobriety, for sure. So you came out of school. Now what's going on next? When did you find yourself with someone like snoop dogg in the studio?
Speaker 2:so it was a long journey it was. I first began producing my own beats and realized I really didn't know what I was doing and fake it to you. I was trying to put it out there on youtube stuff like that, just trying to get it out there. First song I had flop bad, I got laughed at, I got everything.
Speaker 2:So I got angry, you know, I made the second one called argumentative and, man, this one shut them all up. Okay, then I realized then that I had heavy influence and that people were listening. Even if it's something that they didn't like hearing, they were affected by it. And that's when I learned that my words really have power and I started to go from this artist who would just freestyle over beats to show my different vocabulary and my cadences and rhythm patterns, things like that, you know. And I finally got onto wu-tang radio and it was the song that was about my first battle and it's called gotta be famous, the carrot.
Speaker 2:I remember one bar was like because the guy's name is larry right, and I was like I remember telling larry pikachu he took too many pikachus, and you know those are, uh, they're actually a form of molly or ecstasy, and so let's just say, hey, man, you must have took one too many, because, you know, here you are thinking that you stand a chance against me. And I remember another bar in there said something about I hope you love alphabet soup, because that's a lot of words to be eaten you know, I love it, I love it, so you know.
Speaker 1:So let's go forward to today. We're getting kind of near our ending, so I want us us to kind of get where you are now and set up your new coming album. That's your new album, that's coming. Can you set that up for us? How's that come about? Like, what's going on with that?
Speaker 2:So fast forwarding to. I took like a four year break between 2014, 2018. And I released the single track called see no evil and it features zag johns, who is the cousin of stevie stone. Stevie stone works with uh or work at the time was with uh strange music which is uh techne. And so knowing that my music was being out there and getting heard by these guys, and then they heard my verse and they go wait, who is that? And that was the first time, I guess, they ever looked at me. But I didn't know it until 2023, when I got to work with Snoop Dogg.
Speaker 2:Oh so that was like two years ago, two years ago, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:So what was that?
Speaker 2:that was when stevie did um get that collaboration track with snoop dogg and he had an open bird and you know, he had uh, he had my buddy reach out to me and say, hey, you know that Stevie's my cousin, right? I'm like, no, I did not know that, but there are many times I've helped this man through different darknesses in his life and it's because of that that I guess Stevie decided okay, that's the deciding factor. I most definitely want to work with this guy. And they asked me my price and what I would charge to be on that track, and that was the first time I ever really had been given a big offer like that. At this time I had been working for Solomon Childs and Wu-Tang for about a year, year and a half. I began doing that in 2022. He heard a song.
Speaker 2:The Worldwide Collaboration is a partner of mine and one of their promoters showed him this song that I that I produced and wrote the lyrics to. I didn't perform the lyrics, but I wrote them and solomon childs was deeply impressed and that is when I put out my album chess moves, and that one has a lot of big features Run DMC, solomon Childs himself just King Crooked. King Crooked signed with Eminem and it's just, it's just so crazy how it just kind of like happened overnight. It went from here I am independently working, just trying to build my name and brand and craft to boom. Here's somebody taking me under their wing and saying hey, I see you, I see you're about sobriety, I see you're about this man and I love that I think that's a wonderful thing.
Speaker 1:You know, before we thought that we brought it. We brought you up to the present so that people could see this journey was amazing, and we come into this wonderful climax and Sony, and really this climax is only the beginning. For you, it's just starting, you know. So this new album you've got coming out, why don't we think of something If you can think of even one or two lines from the new album that we can leave our listeners with something uplifting, something, something you can think of, that you think would like project what you're saying sobriety and all that in the song to reunite is to my kids and it is a clean cut song all the way through.
Speaker 2:It's even available on YouTube, kids. But I'm sitting there saying I know your mom won't let you respond to my letter, so I'm sending you this song To let them know that I still love them, miss them, I care about them. I definitely haven't forgotten, because that is what it took for me to be able to crawl out of this dark place that I last was in. And that's what the song was talking about is that I'm not going to stop until we reunite back together again.
Speaker 1:Wow, I love it so much. Zenobia, you are such an inspiration and I know their work is going to go on and keep that inspiration going. So maybe by the time we air this, we can maybe put a link to anything at the end for people who can download, buy whatnot because you should. I mean, this is some really powerful stuff. If you're listening, just thank you so much for joining us today, Sonobio, and you know you're in the Art of the Blue family, so you're going to be hearing from us again and again, and again. You'll probably get sick of us, but, but we will be back in touch, especially when we get ready to go live thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much, man, for sharing your story it's really beautiful. Yeah, thank you, I'm glad you I'm glad you are where you are now, you know you do.
Speaker 2:And like he said, you know, it's just the beginning. You know, from here I'm still going up. Man, god isn. God isn't finished with me.
Speaker 1:Awesome. What a great place to end. All right, thank you so much, zenobia. Thank you everyone for joining us on this amazing episode of Out of the Blue with Zenobia Rios, the hair trigger, and you got to get his new album coming out soon and get his other album too. While you're at it, and awesome to talk to you today and so nice to meet you and this is Vernon from Out of the Blue, with my son, vernon West III, on co-hosting, and the amazingly talented, amazingly gifted, profound and great writer, sinobio Hantriga Rios. Thank everybody for joining us on Out of the Blue. See you again next time. Out of the Blue, the podcast Hosted by me, vernon West, co-hosted by Vernon West III, edited by Joe Gallo Music and logo by Vernon West III. Have an Out of the Blue story of your own you'd like to share? Reach us at info at outoftheblue-thepodcastorg. Subscribe to Out of the Blue on Apple Podcasts, spotify or wherever you get your podcasts, and on our website, outoftheblue-thepodcastorg. You can also check us out on Patreon for exclusive content.