I found Beam when he was 16 years old. He dropped his SoundCloud page onto my Facebook. 'I listened to it and was like, these tracks are actually dope.'
I'm my biggest problem; I'm the thing that stops me most from doing what I need to do to be successful or to achieve success in whatever area of life.
I think a lot of people are making music that shares their life experiences, and that's what I choose to do, too, but in my life experience, I also choose to try to find the hope in the music, and I think a lot of it has to do with my Christian faith.
I'm not going to degrade women, and that's very anti-hip-hop.
I think people see faith as a section of their life, like, 'I go to church on Sunday...' but for me, my faith runs through the entirety of my life.
I think in today's society we are dealing with an epidemic of fatherless homes. We're turning everywhere else for people to be fathered.
'Hook' was one of my favorite movies when I was growing up, so we played with that theme on the title 'Never Land.'
New York City is the greatest city on the planet. It's the capital of the world.
'Hear My Heart' was constructed with the deaf in mind. I wanted a bass line that felt like a heartbeat. I wanted to be able to touch the speakers and feel a clear sense of rhythm.
I think 'Never Land' is, like, my first really strong attempt to create music... that can encourage people who share my faith but also challenge and intrigue people who don't.
I think, for a while, my music was exclusively for those who shared my beliefs. But I realized I was perpetuating the bubble that I was living in instead of inviting people into my world.
For some reason, we have completely separated Christians who are rappers, and we have separated, I guess, regular rappers. I feel that we should be able to mingle, enjoy each other's company, and trade ideas.
I searched YouTube for 'deaf music videos' and watched them with the sound muted. I noticed that though you could understand the words being signed, the sense of rhythm was lost. That's when I had the idea to create a video where you could see the sounds you couldn't hear.
Technology has opened up the music business 100-fold and provided space for all kinds of new faces.
Music is such a powerful tool, and there are so many people who need love and encouragement and hope.
I feel like God's given me a gift that I want to steward and share with the world.
We live in a society of triviality, and my music and what I'm about kind of starts to break that mold and adds more meaning and dialogue to hip hop.
