Julius Writes

Artists You Should Know Vol. 4: Namir Blade  By Julius Banda The great novelist Stephen King has an analogy about writing: the craft, he says, is a lot like a child playing, conjuring up and interacting with imaginary people and places. Musicians, artists, writers - they are all channelling their inner child, with their work serving as the building blocks of the world that they are trying to create.  In rap music, there are still misconceptions  about how creative an artist can get. The prevailing notion is that the genre must remain grounded, rooted in sometimes dull, often harsh reality. Some would go so far as to use the word “storyteller” as a pejorative. As such, this has led to narratives being rehashed, with only slight variations on the same violent, bloody themes. Put simply, a lot of rappers are selling trauma.  One person who does not fall into this trap, however, is Namir Blade - a boundless artist and producer from Nashville who does everything but conform. He confronts

 I catch a glance of my reflection in the fridge door, and instinctively take a step back. I'm thinking of that song by The Streets: Has it come to this? My beard is overgrown, my eyes are blood-shot. It looks as though I'm hoarding nuts in my cheeks. Physically, I pose no threat, gaunt as I am (God has conspired against me such that the precious little fat I have has gone straight to my face); however, I have come to acquire this feral look that says not to fuck with me - the kind that make-up artists and Hollywood actors can't quite fake. The kind that comes as a result of several years of hard drugs and harder knocks. Ha! Sincere apologies, that's the thespian in me. We're all convinced our lives are a one-man drama. Things aren't exactly on the up and up for our intrepid protagonist. But fear not…       I've become accustomed to the dirty looks, the sidelong glances. It's funny how we build narratives about ourselves, firm in our belief that, at our

Artists You Should Know Vol. 3: Kid Mozes By Julius Banda Kid Mozes remembers being a college freshman, and having to burn and distribute CDs of his music because he couldn't get the samples cleared on Pandora… In layman's terms, he's been ill for a long fucking   time. B etween his solo LPs and group projects, Kid Mozes has at least ten full-length albums under his belt. His presence on tracks is undeniable, standing out even on his many posse cuts with his top tier lyricism and buttery flow. He's put in his 10,000 hours, and then some. Still, he works constantly, serving as the in-house audio engineer for his crew, illsinceilleven, with his vision being that it can grow into a self-sustaining ecosystem of like-minded artists. In a sense, it already is : “Everyone on the team contributes - they all bring something unique to the table,” Mo’ proudly beams. For all intents and purposes, he is a veteran. As he enters his thirteenth year creating music, however, he knows he

  Artists You Should Know Vol. 2: KILLVONGARD  By Julius Banda KILLVONGARD , as he is now known, has been plying his trade for well over a decade; however, he feels he is only just coming to grips with his identity as an artist, and has now amassed enough experience to meaningfully chronicle the chapters of his life - for legacy and posterity.  Writing and recording music since 2010, Chicago native Vincent Filice watched his "independent" blog era contemporaries sign seven-figure deals on the strength of their mixtapes and online word of mouth. From an outsider's perspective, it seemed simple enough, and long before he became KILLVONGARD, teenage Vince figured he could do it, too. Fast forward to 2018, though, and he was all but set to retire, at the ripe old age of 23. For reasons beyond him at the time, his music hadn't clicked the way he'd wanted. He'd missed his mark during the blog era, and now the age of Soundcloud was passing him by. Though he was imme