Tag Archives: rapper

Stranger 99/100 – Kevin

Stranger-99-Kevin.jpgStranger 99/100 – Kevin

“I want to make a name for myself. I want people to know me.”

Meet Kevin.

What advice would you give to your younger self? “Take school extremely seriously. High school, middle school… all of it.”

What is your biggest challenge right now? “Maintaining… keeping a steady pace.”

What’s keeping you from doing that? “Myself… not being disciplined.”

What are your goals? Where do you want to be in ten years? “In ten years… I want to make a name for myself. I want people to know me. I want to make an impact… at least for my family.”

What’s the plan? “I do a little music right now… hip-hop, rap.”

What’s the biggest misconception people have about you? “I don’t know… people just ask me if I’m ok… like I have a mean face all the time. I don’t really talk to a whole lot of people. I just keep to myself.“

If you could put a billboard up in Charlotte, what would it say? “Life goes on.”

Are you active in the music scene yet? “I’m just writing. I haven’t stepped into the studio just yet, but I’ve been writing a lot of stuff.”

What advice would you give to people starting out in music? “Never give up honestly. Nowadays you can really go viral… you just gotta keep going. Even when you feel like you’re not going so good… you’re not gaining fans… even if it takes years, just keep going. Even people who are big now, it took them years. You just gotta keep pursuing it and getting better and better and finding that new thing that people like.”

Technical Notes: It was a cloudy day, and I used a reflector below Kevin’s face to even out the light. Despite the processed look, I barely edited this portrait at all in Lightroom. This was the rare case where the subject, lighting and background all came together at the same time.

Stranger 98/100 – Quay

100 Strangers - QuayStranger 98/100 – Quay

“You gotta go make some moves as far as making a legacy for yourself before you leave the Earth.”

Meet Quay.

What advice would you give to your younger self? “Whatever you plan on doing in the future as a passion or a career or job, whatever, just make sure you go hard… 110%.”

Have you always done that? “Lately I have… not always.”

What made you clue in to that? “Because reality sinks in, and you realize you can’t just sit around procrastinating. You gotta go make some moves as far as making a legacy for yourself before you leave the Earth… because you know you have to go at some point.”

What is your biggest challenge right now? “Trying to make it music-wise. I make music so… Trying to make it as an artist today with so many more emergent artists coming out everyday… it’s kinda hard.”

Tell me about your music…. “Basically, I just talk about my lifestyle. I don’t talk about killin’ people and none of that stuff that the majority of these people who make rap music or hip-hop music talk about nowadays. I talk about things that people can relate to.”

So authenticity is important? “Exactly.”

What are your goals? Where do you want to be in ten years? “I just want to be living comfortably… as little worries as possible.”

If you could put a billboard up in Charlotte, what would it say? “It would say something about unity… not just one’s own race, but all races. If you look at society today whites they stick together with they own race, not to say that they don’t help others, but… that’s how it just go… races stick together. But, if it all comes together… I think the world will be a better place as far as unity goes.”

Technical Notes: I used a reflector to add light to Quay’s face. I did my best to reduce the glare in his glasses, but I couldn’t find an angle where there wasn’t a lot of glare.

Stranger 96/100 – Jay

100 Strangers - JayStranger 96/100 – Jay

“You’re the only person that can be responsible for your own happiness.”

Meet Jay.

What advice would you give to your younger self? “I would say that, at the end of the day, you’re the only person that can be responsible for your own happiness. Everybody goes through their respective struggles, but what makes the difference is how you choose to handle that… how you choose to get back up again. And the moment that you decide that you can’t get up again is where you’ve lost.”

Nice… did you practice for this? “No. {laughs}”

What is your biggest challenge right now”? “My biggest challenge is… finding a dream that’s worth working for. I moved out here for work… in this treadmill of work here… providing value for somebody else. And the things I want to do for myself, my dreams, have gotten lost by the wayside. The passion I used to have when I was younger is gone because of this work. So, now I’m trying to save. I’m trying to get some studio time… I do music. I’m trying to pursue that dream and put it at the forefront of my life rather than having it on the back burner.”

Where do you want to be in ten years? “I would want to be a semi-successful musician and model.”

What kind of music do you make? “I began my music career as a jazz musician. I play drums, guitar, bass and piano. In college I took to producing, mixing, mastering, rapping… I’ve always sang, but years of smoking have caught up to me, so I’m not as great a singer as I used to be or as I could have been. But I do still rap, so what I create is kind of an alternative hip-hop. I don’t really fit into any given genre because I don’t want to tell the same stories. I mean talking about money is cool, you know, if you have it, but I’d rather talk abut things that are real and that I’ve experienced.”

If you could put a billboard up in Charlotte, what would it say? “I’d probably put in really big letters ‘Think’. It’s not a lot to go off of, so any meaning that you draw from it is purely internal.”

Technical Notes: I had taken some photos using a reflector before we stepped into the doorway for the interview. During the interview, I noticed how amazing the light and shadow s looked on Jay’s face. I asked him if I could take another shot, and this is the result with no lights or modifiers.