GRiZ dropped out of Michigan State to chase music full time, betting on saxophone and piano skills he'd had since childhood rather than any electronic-production background — the sax is still the whole signature, live horn solos over glitchy, dubstep-adjacent bass that he's called “future funk,” backed by a 15-piece live band rather than a laptop and a controller.
His albums have gotten more guest-heavy over time — Say It Loud, in 2015, brought in Talib Kweli and Ivan Neville, and 2019's Ride Waves landed Snoop Dogg and Bootsy Collins — while the Chasing the Golden Hour series, running since 2015, stays mellower and more melodic, a deliberate contrast to the full-throttle sax solos that define his actual shows.