Hey, super nice to have the chance to chat with you. What have you been up to over the past year in this big old mess?
Well, outside of working on finishing my album, I was in the UK this summer thanks to Ashanti Management. I got to work with some very talented local artists. Shout out to the amazing and gifted Emma Lea and big what up to the homie Graft.
I’m very interested in you started your adventure with music, and did you know from the beginning that this is what you wanted to do?
I was always good at writing as far back as I can remember. In grade school, I wasn’t very popular and I used to use poetry as a way to talk to girls. One day at lunch, one of the other kids started beatboxing and I just started reciting one of my poems. But it wasn’t until about 2005 when I was working on my first indie underground album and I did my first concert a year later that I knew this was a path I wanted to take.
Congrats on your new release, ‘Open Letter’. Can you give us some insight into it?
Thank you. Like my childhood, Open Letter started as a poem for a woman I had a crush on. Then one day as I was going through some beats from one of my producers. (Shout out to my guy Basshead Beats) and I came across the track I ended up using for the song. As soon as I heard it, I thought, this sounds like a love song. So I elongated the poem with a little fiction and fantasy and Open Letter was born.
What are you doing to ensure you continue to grow and develop as an artist?
I have been working on my current album for the last 3 years. Part of the reason it’s taking so long is because my thought process and my creative ability have grown and become more multi-dimensional. I’m learning more about my sound and what I want to convey to the world. I’m working and continuing to work with various artists and producers of different genres to push myself in creating differences in my songs. I’m also learning and becoming more involved in the business side of things to educate myself and myself into a better artist.
What should we expect from your next releases in terms of style and sound? How different are they going to be compared to your previous works?
I have 3 video releases coming before the end of the summer. All off the album and all very different from each other. The first titled “Coming Soon” is more of an upbeat/lyrical/street track. Kind of a coming-out prelude to the album. It was originally coming out as a single last year but now it’ll be the first video single after the release of the album in April. That will be followed by a personal track called “Unbreakable” which deals with all of my near-death experiences in my life. And rounding out the summer with a collab love ballad with the talented Kajé on a track titled, “You”.
Where are you based? Can you tell us how the music scene there has inspired your sound at all?
I’m based in LA and being from the east coast, West coast hip hop definitely has a different sound. But being out west has inspired me to collaborate more with west coast artists and blend the two
sounds.
If you could perform at any venue in the world, where would it be and why?
Madison Square Garden. It’s such an iconic place with so much history. I’m an avid Knicks, Spike Lee, and Jay-Z fan and you can’t mention the Garden without those names. And after seeing Jay do it in 2009, I knew I wanted to get in line.
Can we expect a new EP or an album from you in the near future?
My album “Something To Say” drops across all streaming platforms on March 31st. Finally, have you got anything to share regarding upcoming gigs, and what have you got planned for 2023? Well, besides the album, as I mentioned, there will be 3 video singles off the album being released between April and August. I’m hoping for a European tour in the fall and then back to work on the next album titled, “Relationship “Status”.
