Exposed Vocals sits down with ‘Prophecy’ for an exclusive interview

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

Prophecy was born and raised in Osceola, AR for majority of his life until he moved to Blytheville, AR when he was 16 and that was where he would call home until he graduated high school and left to join the US Army at 18. He decided to become an artist because writing lyrics helped him overcome situations that he went through growing up around drug dealers and murder. He didn’t want to end up in a bad situation so even though he didn’t have an actual studio to record in he spent almost every minute of the day writing lyrics to stay out of trouble.

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

Prophecy came up with his stage name after looking at the names of other artists in his hometown and in the industry. He decided he wanted to be completely different and wanted to stand out in that aspect and in the aspect of the music that he chooses to produce and release. He wants people to look at him as a god sent musician that connects with people’s situations all over the world and makes them see their situations in a better view or better light.

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

Prophecy feels online music sharing is one of the greatest things he’s ever come in contact with, not only to get his music noticed by people in the industry but for his fans to be able to go and listen/download any of his music that they want for absolutely no charge unless its from his albums. He feels as an artist you should want to put out music that helps people and if thats your motive then why charge for it when it comes to every single song.

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?

Prophecy’s advice to upcoming artists or bands that are trying to get airplay and gigs is network,quality as far as their music, and hard work meaning consistently putting out music. He personally puts out a new track everyday for listeners to hear and to show how dedicated he is to being an artist.

Exposed Vocals: Do you ever make mistakes during performances? How do you handle that?

Prophecy has personally never made a mistake when performing, he’s so self conscious about everything he does that he rehearses literally almost 24/7, he has no idea how he would handle messing up during a performance because of he self consciousness and is afraid to do so.

Exposed Vocals: Do you tour? Anything interesting happen on tour that you think our readers would enjoy hearing about?

Prophecy has yet to go on any tours because he is looking for a manager and team members to help him get more exposure, shows, ect. Its hard to do producing, networking, recording and at the same time take care of two children and a wife when your team only has two people.

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

Prophecy usually gathers his songwriting ideas from his own life situations that he goes through on a daily basis. In 25 years he’s been in a nearly fatal military accident, lost a child when she was 4 months old, and many more so he has plenty to write in reference to. Whatever it is he’s writing about he’ll find an instrumental first that really catches his attention, purchase it or make his own, and usually the chorus is first last but not least comes his verses.

Exposed Vocals: What are some really embarrassing songs that we might find on your mp3 player?

Some of prophecy’s embarrassing songs on his mp3 from his point of view would be the songs he’s released in reference to violence. He’s no longer the type of artist that promotes violence as he expresses in his new upcoming album The Hustle Chronicles he wants to promote peace and comfortable living.

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

If prophecy was given a half a million dollars and a year off, he thinks he would put $250,000 away and take his family anywhere in the world they would want to go as well as give his wife a proper wedding because when they got married they were not fortunate enough to be able to have an actual wedding and no family was able to attend due to financial problems.

Exposed Vocals: Any planned studio upgrades? What are you working with now?

Prophecy plans to upgrade to a newer mac in the near future and a new microphone for better sound quality so that his music can sound more professional. He works with a PreSonus mic at the moment and although it sounds  decent for the pricing he wants the quality of his music to be better.

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

Everyday Prophecy looks up new ways to promote music online to get more exposure and appeal to even more fans, he also messages people on Twitter, Soundcloud, Facebook, Instagram, and other various places to get more advice on where to post his music. He doesn’t really feel anything works best,in his opinion every place that you use for promotion gives whatever you give into it.

Exposed Vocals: If you could perform anywhere and with any artists (Dead or Alive) where and who would it be with? Why?

If Prophecy could perform anywhere in the world live it would be anywhere in the world, no specific place because he just wants to perform,but he would love for it to be with Wale, Rick Ross, Jay-Z, or Kendrick Lamar. These artists have had a huge impact on his music and have kept him motivated to keep going because he wants to do everything they’re doing and be everything they are to the world, mostly kendrick. He feels in this generation Kendrick is so many people hope and thats exactly what he wants to do.

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

Prophecy just released a mixtape July, 23 2016 titled “Lions, Tigers and Bears” which includes 11 tracks and almost every track is memorable to him in some aspect but his favorite tracks are “The Jungle” to Eminem’s “Almost Famous”, “Don’t Get Killed(Tryna Kill My Vibe)” to kendrick’s “Kill My Vibe”, “Rap God” to Eminem’s “Cinderella Man”, and “Live Life” to Meek Mill’s Tribute To Lil Snupe. His first album is being released August 24th titled “The Hustle Chronicles” and in his opinion it is his best work he’s ever done in all of the 13 years he’s been doing music. This album is a brand new Prophecy as far as his lyricism. He looks forward to seeing the finished material and can’t wait to release it. Two of the singles titled “Silver Linings”, “Descretion”, and “100” are available to be streamed on his soundcloud page at https://soundcloud.com/prophecydalyricalmenace so feel free to go give them a listen.

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

If Prophecy wasn’t making music he doesn’t know what he would be doing. Music is his life and the only occupation he desires, all he needs is for someone from the industry to hear a couple of his songs and give him a chance.

Exposed Vocals: Do you remember buying your first album? Who was it? What was going through your head?

Prophecy’s actual first album is The Hustle Chronicles. His first actual mixtape was  “ReDefined” which included his hit “Emotional Roll & Coast” and the first time it was actually downloaded he couldn’t control himself. It was a person that followed him on all of his social networks that he had never come in contact with, never talked to or anything but he remembers thinking “I hope he likes it.” About an hour went by and the person actually messaged him and told him it was some of the best music he’s ever heard and that he could visualize everything said in almost every song. His criticism only went towards the quality of the tracks and its been the same with almost every other person thats ever heard his music.

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

Prophecy finds it very easy to juggle music and the rest of his responsibilities most of the time. There are a few times that he will get too wrapped up in his music sessions and his wife will have to let him know but he feels if you love your family like you should that’ll barely happen and if you have the proper support system they’ll know that when you are away that you’re doing it all for them.

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

As far as the rest of 2016, Prophecy’s fans can look forward to him releasing atleast 4 to 6 more mixtapes and the album “The Hustle Chronicles”. He is already working on his new mixtape and although the name isn’t concrete he’s thinking of naming it “Iconically Psychotic”. That is to be determined as he keeps recording the tracks to the whole project.