What is your name and what city do you rep?
UnLearn The World, I rep The Bay Area, California by way of New York City. I’m currently based in Oakland, but New York is my heart.
Tell us about your latest releases, what inspired you to create them?
My album CROWNS dropped back in October. It’s a milestone album for me because my fans could really hear tue growth. I recorded it all in Hollywood and it’s been continuing to gain more and more momentum. We recently released the remix for my song “Never That” featuring the guy Nems. That’s the lead single for The Luxury Edition of the album, dropping with 7 new songs this summer. This go ‘round, I wanted to give the people some outside music and even harder beats and bars and keep it all together in the same body of work. This way, the new fans can listen to the best and most recent version of me.
What is unique about you and your music?
I’ve been calling my music “True School Hip Hop” lately. I think it’s a perfect blend of classic Boom Bap hip hop, new school vibes, trap and anything that impacting the culture. Because I make my own beats, I find a way to blend 3 decades of the culture into my sound.
What shaped your music?
Everything from the hood, the movies I watch, books I read, conversations I have, life experiences. It’s not so much about what shapes my music as it’s about what has shaped me as a human being. I’m trying to tell me my story, so they can understand the message, which is UnLearn The World.
When did you realize you were going to make music professionally?
When I started interning at record labels when I was 15. I was part of the promotion street team for Loud Records, Bad Boy, then my first job out of high school was with Warner Music group, working behind the scenes for artists like Busta Rhymes, Fat Joe and Missy Elliot. I was learning so much about marketing and being an A&R. I would sit in the office and soak up game as execs would listen to beats and talk about who each beat should be given to to make records and then how to market those records. I knew whether I was signed or independent, I had what I needed to get paid for my art.
What type of music do you listen to?
Everything. I’m really into Kaytranada right now as a producer as IDK as an artist. With that said, I’m always going back to classics like Big Pun, Biggie Pac but also exploring other genres like the group Jungle and a lot of Afro Beat artists. I’m everywhere!
What do you do when you don’t do music (creative or otherwise) and that you are passionate about?
That’s thought because I’m always creating something. Even when I’m watching movies with my two kids. Aside from music, I do Hip Hop education work. I’m the Education director for an amazing organization called Hip Hop For Change. We teach Hip Hop to kids in school all over the country, so if I’m not creating, I’m teaching the next generation how they can be creative.
Happiness to you is…
The life I’m living now. I’m so grateful for everything I have and everything I’m doing. The people I’m meeting, the rooms I get to be in. It’s everything I imagined as a kid, even the hard moments and the stress. I’m very much in my bag right now .
What do you wish you were told when you first started making music that you think would help artists just starting out?
How much money it was gonna cost, haha! How much you’re willing to invest in yourself is directly related to how much you really believe in yourself. You have to have those hard conversations with yourself. I have that dialogue with myself all the time. I’m constantly talking to the future me and the me from the past. It’s part of the growth and healing work that I think we all need to do.
Tell us about your upcoming projects…
The Luxury Edition of my album CROWNS dropping soon!