Easily one of the most talented underground rappers at the moment, Alabama native SeKwence is killin it at the moment with his gruff approach to lyrical rap. He was kind enough to let me shoot him a few questions about his career thus far, his work as part of the Souless collective, and his upcoming album.
1. Your two latest projects are I Feel Like Billy Hoyle 3 and Perfect World, which are in my opinion your most fleshed-out and well put together sets of songs to date. Do you feel like you’ve improved not only as a rapper but as an artist capable of putting together a consistent project over the course of your career?
S: Most definitely. When I first started dropping music my goal was mainly to let everyone know I could rap really well. Now that I’m getting comfortable with the shit the cohesiveness of it comes easier to me. Especially with the team we got. I got every sound I need to work with.
2. What inspired you to start rapping? I’m not sure how long you have been making music but as one tweet I saw said I can tell you’ve been a student of the genre for a while.
S: Man i been obsessed with this rap shit since I can remember. I’ll be 26 this year and I can honestly say I been on this since like prolly 99-00. Just the love for it and me being from where I’m from no one got the story me and my friends got and imma tell it.
3. Your style is undeniably lyrical, and I personally hear a lot of Earl and Retch in your both hoarse delivery and song content. Given that I’m less familiar with the branch of rap you represent, who would you say has been a major influence on you?
S: LIL WAYNE IS THE GOAT.
4. How long have you been a member of Souless and how did the group come together? You have an extremely talented lineup of both MC’s and producers.
S: I appreciate that. And shit man Soułess came out May 5 2017. I started that (not to sound egotistical by any means) but I just kept coming across amazing artists/producers that wasn’t getting enough recognition in my eyes so one of my main goals is to get all these guys the proper recognition they deserve. Me and Splndid (a producer in soułess) actually started something called HopeLess Souls in 2014 when we first started making music then we slowly just cut it into Soułess and here we are.
5. I’m aware you have close connections to the people that produce for you especially those in Souless, and I in particular really enjoyed your Budget Cuts project with Killer Kane and your ‘SEKSHXT’ collab with Caruci. Who would you say you have the most chemistry with as a rapper/producer duo?
S: I literally grew up with Xface and Splndid. We all 3 from a small town in Alabama so that’s naturally a given. Me and Klsr be cooking souls, me and ntvrme, me and Revenxnt, UNCLEBITXHES, literally everyone in soułess.
6. You recently announced a collaboration with Thelonious Martin, and stated he was one of your favourite producers. Are there any other surprising producers on your upcoming album and who else would you like to work with in the future?
S: Yeah man the album got hella surprises on it it’s gonna be really fire. My dream tape with any producer gotta be Alchemist. I’m tryna work with UglyFrank more, Da$h, Sean O Connell, and it’s def a few more. Most of what I listen too is the homies so I just be listening to our shit.
7. You do most of your work alongside the other members of Souless. Are any of them based anywhere near you and if not who else have you worked alongside that hails from your state? I’m curious about the scene there.
S: First thing you must know is there is literally no scene in this state for rap music. I didn’t even grasp the actual concept of making music until like 5 years ago. There ain’t no studios down here fr fr so we just had to build our own. Like i said Xface and Splndid are from here so we got hella work. Shout to supa sortahuman, rich boy, and big krow. Only their rappers in this state (Alabama) worth listening too. We building our own scene here. Imma make sure of it. But we got members everywhere. Bama, Florida, Jersey, UK, Arizona, Texas.. we everywhere.
8. Aside from your project dropping next month, what other projects do you have planned? I know the Souless compilation tape is dropping soon and looking forward to that.
S: Bimbo tape produced by $uff drops 3/21 so peep that. Isaac and Kane got a beat tape coming out 3/22 or 3/23. My album 4/1 and souless comp tape right there after. Lärs, ruci, x, Barry, everyone in the camp working on solo projects too. I got another album dropping this year called 68/92 and I got some collab tapes coming that’s still under wraps.
9. Outside of Souless, who are some of your favourite artists doing numbers in the underground at the moment?
S: I don’t be listening to much outside me and the homies.. Ankhlejohn, Adonis, DariLoso, Chris Crack, Vic Spencer, ThugYeezy, Alpine, PRADO, Pie$, drkmnd, e66s, nopulp.. it’s more but that’s all I can remember.
10. Aside from making music, what do you enjoy doing?
S: My woman, cigarettes, drinking coffee, smokin weed, beer/liquor, watching movies, bonnaroo, and bein outside when the weathers nice. Swimming is fun too
11. What would you say your eventual aim is in your music career? Do you have anything else planned outside of what we’ve already spoken about?
S: I want $ and I want respect on my name and my states name. And I always got a brick up my sleeve word to cam’ron.
And I wanna shout out my AK47BLVD BROTHERS: BINK, G8, YJ, LOLO, KROW. That’s my family too. And shout out anyone who ever listened, shared, streamed, bought my shit. means more than you know.
SOUŁESSBLVD.
Any other questions contact my manager UNCLEBITXHES at oldschooldevilshit@gmail.com .. oh and book me for a fuckin show. SOUŁESS.
Check out SeKwence on Soundcloud. He’s also on Twitter at @Sekwence. You can find me on Twitter at @108mics.
108 MICS 