Exposed Vocals Interviews Samuel Raps

Exposed Vocals: So tell us your story. Where did you grow up? What made you decide to become an artist?

 

Samuel: I was born in Lake Forest, Illinois, but raised in Morgan Hill, California. I’ve always been passionate about all kinds of music since I was a little kid. My parents grew up in the 60’s and 70’s and always played music in the house from around that era while I was growing up. I fell in love with hiphop/rap when I was in 4th grade and I started to rap for school projects in middle school and they were met with a lot of love from my peers and from then on, I was addicted to creating. Even with the positive response, I was very timid to show people. I put out a few remixes when I was a freshman and sophomore in high school and put out a lot of work on Soundcloud as a junior, but again, I was too timid to share it that much because I wasn’t sure of myself. I only showed my homie AJ (SlayyJayy) because he was also really into music and we got really close because of it. After starting fresh on Soundcloud at the end of my senior year, I finally put my music out to the world with my first mixtape, ‘Forever Summer’ and a year later here we are.

 

Exposed Vocals: How did you come up with that name? What was your inspiration behind it?

 

Samuel: I wish I had a crazy story for my name, but it’s just my first name. I just figured there’s nothing more real than my real name and since everyone I know calls me Sam, I thought that Samuel was different enough.

Exposed Vocals: What do you think about online music sharing? Do you ever give your music away for free? Why?

 

Samuel: Soundcloud is the shit, I love it. Anytime I can give my music away for free I am going to because I want everyone who supports me to be able to listen to my music for free. Every song will be available for free download off my upcoming mixtape on Soundcloud and there will be a few of those songs available on iTunes also if you want to support me financially as an independent artist by streaming, buying or sharing my music. Don’t worry if you can’t though, just come out to see me on tour when I’m in your city!

Exposed Vocals: Since everyone was a start-up once, can you give any smaller or local bands or artists looking to get gigs and airplay some tips?

Samuel: No matter what level I’m at in my career, I’ll always consider myself starting up. I feel like I stay hungry that way. As for advice, the best thing you can do as an artist is to treat the fans right. No matter how many fans I get I always try my best to make personal connections with everyone. My fans know they are my family and they can hit me up anytime to talk about whatever! Treat the fans with respect because at the end of the day, no matter how many fans you make, the fans make you. Positivity always.

 

Exposed Vocals: Where do you usually gather songwriting inspiration? What is your usual songwriting process?

 

Samuel: Every weekend I’ll have some new stories to write about. I usually write about relationships, drugs and life in general. I’m just growing up and getting drunk and figuring shit out, just like everyone is doing. No one has it figured out and that’s the beauty of life; we’ll never understand it.

Exposed Vocals: Do you have a band website? What online platforms do you use to share your music?

 

Samuel: Yeah! You can check out my website right here: http://officialsamuel.co/#samuel . This summer there will be a bunch of cool shit on there and we’ll be launching some dope merch really soon. We’ll have some exclusives on music and early drops on merch on the website this summer so stay connected for that!

Exposed Vocals: If you were given half a million dollars and a year off, what would you do? How would you spend it?

 

Samuel: I’d get $500,000 worth of weed and cereal and then say fuck the year off and start working on some new music for y’all. I love creating too much to take a break from it.

Exposed Vocals: How do you find ways to promote your music? What works best for you?

 

Samuel: I promote my music mostly through my twitter and my instagram: @samuelraps and you should definitely add my ass on snapchat: samuel_raps . I just started my youtube page so go  subscribe on there also: samuel raps . We’ll be posting my first music video really soon and also be getting a lot of tour recap and ‘day in the life’ style footage on there as well. Also, I got too lit last week and lost my phone while fucking around on a mechanical bull lmao so I’m sorry if you’ve tried to reach me recently. I’m getting a new phone as soon as I can!

Exposed Vocals: So, what’s next? Any new upcoming projects that you want to talk about?

 

Samuel: My new mixtape ‘WAVES’ is coming out Monday, June 20th at 1pm! This is my most complete and diverse project I’ve ever made and I can’t wait to share it with everyone. I’ve been working hard these last few months to bring you music on a new level for me. I always try to top myself with every song and every project I do and ‘WAVES’ stays true to that claim. There is a song on here for everyone. I never want to be put in a box creatively and this project definitely shows what I can do.

Exposed Vocals: If you weren’t making music, what would you be doing?

 

Samuel: If I wasn’t making music I’d be sad as fuck lmao. But I’d definitely still be involved in the music industry in anyway I could. I want to start a record label later on in my career and I want to design high fashion clothing and start a non-profit and do stand up and write poetry and screenplays and act in/direct films and write stories. I wrote the rough draft for a book last year that I’m looking to get published sometime in 2016. I basically want to do everything, so I got a lot of work ahead of me.

Exposed Vocals: How do you juggle the rest of your responsibilities while trying to stay ahead in your music life?

 

Samuel: This semester at school I think I’m going to scrape a 2.3 GPA so to answer your question, not very well lmao. I really put all of my time and money into my music so far this year because I want to give you all the best music that I possibly can and the music that you all deserve from me.

Exposed Vocals: What should fans look forward to in 2016?

Samuel: After ‘WAVES’ drops we’ll be kicking off the ‘That’s a Bet’ tour in NY, then stopping in

NJ, Boston and Clark’s Summit, PA so everyone come out and rage with me, SlayyJayy and Kid Kern! We’ll be performing an unreleased song on tour that we’ll drop in early July and my first couple of music videos will be dropping this summer! We’ll also be working all summer on new music for you all so stay connected with me!

I just want to take this time to shout out my mom and dad, and all the homies back home and in LA for supporting me and my music. Shout out to Overtime Media for shooting the videos, shout out Aj, Justin, Josiah, Noah, Alex and Brandon for creative input, shout out Myles “you can’t hesitate” and shout out to all for you reading this. I wouldn’t be anywhere without your support and love. Thank you. Let’s take over this summer and move up together.