PEABOD Used 2019 to Adapt as Full-Time Rapper

When Healthy Snacks was released in 2018, PEABOD never intended for the album to launch him into a Hip-Hop career. Now, he is a 2019 Rapzilla Freshman with a record deal.

“I grew up listening to all rock music and folk music, and I am a bass player and a guitar player. So that’s where I started,” PEABOD said. “I have always listened to a lot of Hip-Hop, and I guess I never saw myself ever really as someone who had a shot at that.”

Centricity Music’s signee from the Seattle area started his career in folk music. With an interest in Hip-Hop, he wrote some of his own lines for fun, and then some beats. As time went on, doubts about whether he could be a rapper turned into planning out Healthy Snacks.

“As much as I enjoy making folk music, there’s definitely a certain vibe where it’s like this is what you sound like and this is how you can interpret it this way… You can do anything you want in Hip-Hop. It’s always been [about] expressing yourself and having freedom in trying things. So I was like, ‘let’s go for it. I’m just going to enjoy this project and make it for myself.’”

Peabod

After independently releasing his debut Hip-Hop project, his community enjoyed it, “way more than the stuff I was putting out for the last four years.”  The Christian record label Centricity Music then heard the project, and a month after Healthy Snacks released, PEABOD signed to the label as a Hip-Hop artist.

The Transition

Now an artist in a different genre, PEABOD has spent 2019 finding himself. So far, his year can be considered productive, with the release of his EP Backpack featuring Marty from Social Club Misfits, The Roadshow 2020 Tour lined up for the spring and festival performances. As his melancholy EP displays, however, the artist needs to take a step back from everything and find his identity as an artist.

“I think a big part of my story is sincerity. I wasn’t good at sarcasm until probably 8th grade. That’s because I had really sarcastic friends… I had to get used to it,” PEABOD said. “I am just a sincere person. So, I made a lot of my music [asking] ‘is this sincere? Is this true to me?’ That is why I was saying, while I was writing Hip-Hop, that I was surprised that it actually felt sincere, because the more I got into it, the more I was like, ‘oh no, this totally vibes with my personality, who I am, and what I want to talk about’.”

On top of that, PEABOD is also dealing with the transition of becoming a full-time artist. The financial well-being of him and his wife now rests on whether people like his music. PEABOD knows God is behind him, and that needs to be all the reassurance required.

“I think I’m learning to let go of the idea that I’m the only one who can make my music happen. So God knows what he wants to do with it or doesn’t want to do with it for a long time, and I need to trust that.”

Upcoming Album?

Peabod

With all this in mind, PEABOD is hoping to turn these experiences and others into a new album. While he is still living out what he is writing, PEABOD is aiming for a 2020 release.

“It’ll probably be like a two-part EP album. We’ll release it in chunks and then they’ll go together if that makes sense, but they’ll be one cohesive project with a central message.”

Life has changed for the folk artist from Seattle. Working as a full-time rapper for a major Christian record has its life changes. His music has shown his character, from the upbeat Healthy Snacks to the wrestling thoughts of Backpack. PEABOD will keep recording and publishing music that he is sure he is sincere in.

“I feel this year has been all about establishing my identity as an artist because it would seem like I got into the Hip-Hop thing on accident,” PEABOD said. “I’ve kind of had to take a step back and then go, ‘OK, we’re here now. Rapzilla Freshmen, releasing new music, [and] got a record deal,’ and I am so grateful and so excited. Apparently, God has a different idea of what he wants from me more than I did because I didn’t think I would be a rapper.”

Listen to PEABOD Below:

Edward Boice
Edward Boice
Edward Boice is a freelance journalist who, like every other writer without a fortune, is grinding hourly to keep a writing career in a video-obsessed world. Mostly known for his role of copy editor at Rapzilla.com, he also writes for local newspapers and press releases for music artists. Whenever he's not hunched over a computer typing methodically, Boice is playing a board or card game with his wife and friends or jamming to Christian Rap and Post-Hardcore.
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