What first drew you into hip-hop?
Before I got into hip-hop, I was a guitarist. I would play for roughly an hour and a half every night, and I was incredibly passionate about it. When I was in sixth grade, I was in the school’s jazz band, but the environment there killed my love for guitar, and essentially any music with guitar in it. This is what initially brought me to listen to hip-hip/rap: the idea that rapping contained no guitars. The first ever hip hop song I listened to was “Cocoa Butter Kisses” by Chance the Rapper on the way back to our house from Tahoe, California. Initially, I didn’t appreciate the lyrics and what it took to create them, but as I got more into hip-hop, listening primarily to Logic, Eminem, Run DMC, Notorious BIG, and Chance the Rapper, I began to appreciate lyricism a lot more. This drew me into trying to create my own stuff.
Your track “lately” is very modern and sounds very professional. How did you achieve such a great signature sound in such a short time? Also, what is your creative processes like?
I can accredit a lot of the professionalism to the beat producer, Masked Man. Almost every song I’ve written has been to one of his beats. Generally speaking, with every new song, I try to include a new element in which I haven’t had in another song. For “Lately” it was adding singing, or just a tone. The lyrics were created via my writing process: I write about things that impact my life in any way. My intention as an artist is not to appeal to the general crowd, but rather make my own life better by venting about good/bad things on my profile. It’s my creative way to remove feelings from my life that cloud my focus. The attention is always nice, don’t get me wrong. I love attention, as any other normal person would. I just don’t let the attention, or lack thereof, to ever get to me or change me as a person. So, my song “Lately” was one of the two songs that I wrote about getting caught with drugs at school, and how it changed my life, mostly for the better. It was a big change in my life, which lead to a lot of different things to write about. I’m currently experimenting with not writing about myself, but I’ve yet to create something that’s even close to formidable enough to publicize. I have about 30 songs written and recorded that I’m still deciding whether I should post or not. This is partially because of my school, and how I’m being monitored closely because of my poor decisions, but mostly because of myself, and the fact that I don’t want people to learn about what I’m writing about, considering what I’m actually writing about. Even my current published raps have underlying definitions and metaphors in each of them that I couldn’t even explain myself to other people. So, every song I create has a much larger meaning to me than it would to a listener. That’s something I hope to be able to switch for some of my music in the near future.
You have worked with many great producers/artists in the past. If you could work with anyone who would that be?
I would say either Travis Scott or Logic. Both of their styles are completely distinct and I think I could learn a lot from both of them simply by being in a studio with them. Those two people are two styles that I want to try to replicate in coming songs, simply by including elements that they use that I haven’t yet.
Your latest track “demons” is probably your best track to date, Care to share more about your creative processes and how it was like working with masked man?
This track was about how being caught at school with drugs changed my general social interactions and how I went about myself. It’s also about how I was addicted to a few substances, and this “demon” that I have is just the side of myself that is addicted to these substances, and how whenever it “possesses” me then I end up doing these drugs again, without even thinking about it. I’ve never actually talked to Masked Man, although I would love to someday, and I’m sure that he would respond, considering he has a generally low following (although he deserves much more).
Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
I see myself creating music for myself and for listeners while I’m in college. When I have more time, which I definitely should within five years, I’m going to start writing a lot more. I want to try to start publishing two mixtapes a year, with each containing about ten songs, instead of publishing singular songs over a long period of times. I don’t ever really intend to stop writing music, though I do expect the overall quality of my music to improve over time.
What are your goals for the new year, any upcoming projects we can get excited about?
When summer hits, I want to make a mixtape where I’m rapping Dr. Seuss, just for the hell of it. I also want to make a mixtape that is for the listener, which I expect to come out before the end of August if I’m going to put my best effort into it.
Connect With Maks:
Soundcloud
