By Jake Espinoza. Photography by Logan Smith.
Sol is a smart guy.
The 22-year-old graduated from the University of Washington with degrees in Comparative History of Ideas and American Ethnic Studies. He’s been making music since he was 11 and organized a fundraiser for Haiti that brought in over $7000. He’s also one of handful of Seattle emcees that has an actual fan base. His name was trending with Seattle’s Twitter users after his performance at Bumbershoot this weekend.
I was recently reintroduced to his music after the video for his song with Grynch, “All I Wanna Do”, was released this summer. He followed up with the video “This Shit” last month. The two songs are honestly my favorite two tracks that came out this summer.
He is a solid lyricist, but Sol really stands out writing catchy hooks that subtly persuade his listeners into singing along.
For Example:
“All I want to sip my brew and party, can I party with yall?”
Every time the song comes on I want to sing along because it is how I feel every day of my life. Fuck all of the dumb shit, I just want to drink a beer (or Jameson on the rocks) and have some fun.
Thank you for writing a song about how I feel Sol. And thanks for taking the time to chat with me this morning before heading out to Bumbershoot to watch Kendrick Lamar teach people how to be a rapper.
#OutHereSEA
How was yesterday?
It was epic man. It was probably the most fun I’ve ever had on stage. It was a really good day.
It seemed like Seattle had a lot of people out at Bumbershoot performing.
Mad Rad played that day, Macklemore played that day, and locally as far as hip hop that was it.
And you had some people as part of your set also right?
Yeah. Grynch and Prometheus Brown of Blue Scholars came out and did a song with me. Grieves came out with me, and Ray Dalton came out and we did our song together that is going to be on my new album. And I had a band that I performed with.
Do you generally perform with a live band?
It’s something that we’ve done this summer with the festival dates we’ve been playing. We did it at Zion I in Bellingham, and the Capitol Hill Block Party was the first time we did it. It’s something that I enjoy. I like feeding off the energy on stage.
How’s it been working in Seattle this summer? You guys have a lot of people with some pretty big things going on.
It’s been really cool. Even just with in my band. My DJ is a producer; he’s produced a grip of songs for me. My guitarist raps, is a producer and engineer, and has another rap group he’s in. My drummer produced a couple of beats on my album. Dice is my back up singer, she sings and has a lot going on with her own career.
And with Seattle, just generally speaking, having someone like Macklemore completely filling out the Key Arena is just a testament of what is happening with our music. Obviously he’s really at the forefront right now, but he’s just an example of the type of talent we have here. There are so many artists now that have been given a chance to get exposure.
We’re just going to keep it pushing man, but you can really feel that there are fans of local music. I’ve been making music since I was 11 and playing shows since I was 13. While I was in middle school and even high school, most people didn’t really think about local music. When they thought of hip hop it always felt like it came from a distant land, whether it was the scene in Atlanta, or New York, and even in the West Coast it was just California. I think really for the first time we have mainstream listeners locally. Where you have fans who will pack out venues and their favorite type of hip hop is local hip hop.
What do you think are some big reasons that there has been that shift in attention to local artists in Seattle?
I think it’s been a gradual growth man. On the local level, I think it’s just been putting out quality music that competes with music on the national level and international level. It’s artists putting out great albums. I think having a couple generations of great artists coming out is what has built this momentum, and we just need to keep building. My next album needs to be great, the Blue Scholars last album was great, Shabazz Palaces’ last album was album of the year for me. I really think it is just constant quality music that competes with whatever else is on the iPod. It’s not just being listened to because it’s by someone local.
How’s it been getting the additional attention since the last video came out?
All of the different EP’s have been a process of experimenting with different ways of getting my music to people. You can’t just put music out now; you have to find the people who are going to receive their music. You really have to hand it to them, almost literally. That’s what I’ve been doing with these EPs, just putting new music out and new content out, while still keeping the quality as high as possible.
It’s easier than ever to make videos now because everyone has cameras for cheap, and can do HD videos. So people kind of get lazy with their content. It’s the same thing with music; people get lazy with their recording methods because they have home studios. I’ve always been someone who has a high standard for my music. I work in great studios, with great producers and have a lot of live instruments on my songs. I hold a high standard with my music.
With my video we shot it on a Super 8 MM camera, and pulled out the whole time travelling thing, and did that 70’s vibe video. That was the vibe that the song had. It’s obviously a hip hop song but it felt really retro.
A shorter answer is that we’re always trying to turn creative corners and push the envelope. Right now it’s easier than ever to get your content out to people. But as a musician it’s our job to do something that is going to leave an impact. We don’t necessarily have to be changing for the sake of changing, but we have to grow in order to evolve and for our fans to evolve with us.
Make sure you download Sol’s free music available at www.solsays.com