Rapzilla Freshmen Will Kellum isn’t exactly new, but his rise over the last year or so has been quick. He debuted about seven years ago with his first project Becoming Light. It’s been awesome to see and hear him grow. To be a fan who goes through life with an artist is really rewarding, but to look around now in 2024 and see that a lot of other people are realizing that Will Kellum is dope, is even better.
Growth
“Man, I’ve grown a lot,” said Kellum. “I feel like I’ve grown as an artist, as a lyricist as well. Back then, me and my friends, we got an inside joke, and they say ‘At this moment’, because at every bar I had, I’ll be like, ‘at this moment’, like at this moment, I’m praying that God will give me some freedom. Or ‘at this moment’ I’m hoping. I’ve realized I was just learning how to write songs, but I didn’t have depth. I feel like I’ve grown as an artist on subject matter, and being able to punch lines together. I didn’t know how to cohesively write a song. So now I know how to write songs and make sure my lyrics tie into one another.”
It’s one thing to be able to spit a verse, it’s another thing to be able to construct a whole song. Will Kellum however has recently taken up creating his own beats, which has unlocked a whole other world of creativity for him. He produced the beat of his latest song done with Alcott, uniquely. I noticed how the beat switched up, and so I asked what the reasoning was for that choice.
“I was basing the track off of Alcott’s Rapzilla cypher verse. Wanted to give him something like that so he could just go off because that cypher verse was so crazy. That was my favorite verse I heard in a while, and I was like, yeah, I got to give him something a little bit more dark and meaty for him to get into. So that’s why I chose that. When I had the first sample, I thought ‘ok this is dope, I love this sample’. Then I was playing around and I thought it’d be crazy to do a beat switch. I could have kept it the same, I’m not gonna lie, because that first sample was crazy. [But my motivation was] to let him get on something he could go off on, so I stuck with it.”
Album
Will recently dropped an album, StoryLinez, that was entirely self-produced and shows off his strong pen game as well.
“I grew up in the hood a little bit. Here in Dayton, Ohio, I was the church boy in the hood, so I wasn’t really in the hood, but I got a lot of cousins that were in and out of jail and were first cousins, so we’re like brothers. Seeing them get out of church and get into gang activity and things like that, and now my cousin’s got 20 to 30 years of prison time, that saddens me and my family. With StoryLinez, I just wanted to write about how I could bring Jesus and the testimony of Christ in my life into that urban community and preach the gospel. That’s what I really wanted to do, and I didn’t feel like it was going to get received well.”
He continued, “My cousin, those are his brothers serving the time, and he was crying in my arms, and it was an amazing feeling. I never had that off of music. Like, man, ‘This song just broke me down’. My song ‘Addictions’…He was like, ‘Man, this song just touched my heart’. We’re both crying. I’m like, ‘Who would think an album could do this’? It is just amazing.”
CHH
We shift the talk to what it’s like trying to navigate the CHH scene and make acquaintances and friendships along the way. Sometimes those can turn into features, sometimes it’s just a solid conversation.
“Just recently, I think I had the dopest connection. I was supposed to keep this under wraps, but me and KRL were working on a track, and it was just dope to connect,” explained Kellum. We got on FaceTime and we were laughing, joking, and then we were talking about how he’s a father now, and I’m a father now, and it was so relatable.”
“One thing about me, I’m nice and I’m outgoing, but I have shyness, and I’ve got to fight that shyness. So when it gets out to talking to people, I’m like, ‘Dang, I don’t want to talk to nobody’, but I got to talk to ’em…Sometimes it’s hard busting through those scenes because you got to get to some of the events. But once you get there, people are really dope to talk to.”
One of those conversations surrounds fellow CHH artist Mike Teezy. At Flavor Fest, Will got to pick his brain a bit.
“We had a great conversation about what it’s like being a full-time artist. He was telling me everything, and it was just really dope.”
New Music
Having already released one album, Will reveals that might not be all for 2024.
“I told myself I’ve got to release three projects in 2024. The next release will be in August, on my birthday. I’m dropping a boom-bap tape. I was super inspired by DJ Mykael V’s Bodega. I love that album. And no features. I’m really dedicated to hip-hop and artistry, so on that tape I’m gonna show people I’m dope without features,” he shared.
