WEBVTT
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We have a not a brand new but a newer
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hip hop artist in the genre who's friends with Grace
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Graber and also went on tourists Seven Day Slumber. We
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have Stuie Blanco here today. Stewie, thank you for joining
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me today.
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What's up man? Thank you for having me brother.
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And it's great to finally sit down with you after
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a couple of weeks. I've kind of worked this out
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and everything. We had a couple of technical difficulties down
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the way, but we're here and we're ready. Steeve. For
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those who don't know who you are, can you tell
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us a little bit about yourself, how you got into
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the music industry and like, what's your story?
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Man, Well, that starts almost ten years ago.
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I met Seventh Day Slumber actually at a show in
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my hometown here in Washington State. And I went to
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the show and they needed a person to go out
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on the road with them.
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And so I did that.
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And I was already making music at the time and everything.
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But they really like took me under their wing and
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got me opportunities for shows and everything like that.
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And they never.
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They never were stingy with their opportunities at all, Like
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they really blessed me to be able to be in
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the industry, and especially Joseph Rojas. He let me just
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kind of sit in the right rooms with him and
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watched how he ran his business and everything like that.
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So they're they're a big part of it.
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And you know, my older brother before he passed away sadly,
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he was a rapper, and so he got me into
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pretty much everything. Like I won't name any of the
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secular artists names, but yeah, like he got me into everybody.
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That I still listen to today.
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And he got me into all of the things that
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influenced me still. And then as I got older, you know,
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and especially after he passed, I started digging into the
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Christian rap genre, you know, first discovering like Tadashi and
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Trip Lee and Andy Minio of course, like those guys
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big inspirations on on what I do.
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And that Read Records old Reach records is like superior.
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Like if you're like looking up for like if you're
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like a Christian hip hop artist trying to start Reach records,
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it is like a great like the early years especially
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are a great place to start, like dive into those
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artists like Andy Kadachi, Triple and everything but yeah.
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Dude, Like when I was six years old, my dad
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used to put on shows for Christian rappers, and so
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I got to be around people really young.
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Like if you're an oj Christian.
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Hip hophead, you know about like John Rubin and Beautiful Eulogy.
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And stuff like that. So like I was around.
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People like that at a really really young age, behind
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the scenes, you know, and some of them even stayed
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at my house.
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When I was a kid, you know, So like I
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was really around it for a long time.
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And it's funny because my dad, you know, he has
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nothing to do with the rap scene, let alone the
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Christian rap scene, you know, but he just had rappers
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come stay with us and then put on shows and
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in our hometown and everything. So it was it was
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pretty cool to be around as a kid, and it
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definitely affected me obviously, because I mean this is what
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I do now, so.
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You know, that's really exciting. Do you have any like
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favorite people, I don't.
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Know, favorite people's work for lenything in a second.
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Like favorite memory or do you have a memory from
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like any favorite a favorite story from like the time
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like with your dad, like Chris, remember, is there something
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like that inspired you or like stood out, like this
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is really cool. Yeah.
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I was probably seven turning eight, and I saw John
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Rubin for the first time at a show and uh,
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I forget.
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What song it was.
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I don't know, you know, I don't know any of that.
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I don't remember any of that anyways, but he h
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he was playing this song and he like was rapping
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this lyric and then uh, he said something and then
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the lights went out, and then he kept rapping and
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then the lights turned back.
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On, and I don't know. As a kid, I was
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just like that was the coolest thing ever, Like, oh
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my gosh, just freaking out. Yeah, that was one of
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like my favorite memories.
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And like I got to be backstage with him and everything,
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so it was really cool. And I got to be
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backstage with uh. I don't know if you're familiar with
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like the Humble Beast camp from from a while ago,
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like that's like propaganda and stuff.
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Like thatpaganda, Like I know the name, but I don't
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know on toaple.
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Like my head. Yeah.
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Yeah, so yeah, a few of those Humble Beasts artists
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they did a show here too that my dad also
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helped with, and I got to hang with some of
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those guys and that was pretty cool.
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That sounds very exciting and like it's cool to see
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what a Christian hip hop industry was in like two thousand,
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early two thousand now where we are nowadays. It's grown
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a lot in the last I at least the last
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five years, i'd say, and it's going to continue to
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grow grow in general. You just released a new song recently,
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and you've been working releasing a single after single. Can
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you tell us a little bit about your creative progress
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of these songs? Uh?
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Yeah, Yeah. Basically I was just like, I want to
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make three songs and release them for the entire month
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of August, and yeah, man, I just really wanted to
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like pour my heart out in a different way, you know,
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instead of like the typical because I mean I released
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songs almost every single week, sometimes bi weekly, and sometimes
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I'll take a little more time in between just to
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really like build my content up and everything.
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But really, like I had intention. You know, when you're.
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Smaller artist, you know, it doesn't do you justice to
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really put out a project, you know, because songs can
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get buried, especially if fans aren't looking for a project
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from you. So so what I wanted to do was
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just like give people something to.
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Listen to like in a row.
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You know, that's like a project, but they're still singles
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so that way nothing.
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Ever gets hidden, you know.
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And uh, they're like the three songs that I have
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coming out this month. I only have one more coming
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out it's called ten, but they're all meant to be
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in like a small ep like so they all kind
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of go together, and hopefully when you hear the third
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one too, you'll you'll kind of see how they all
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kind of tie in.
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That's really cool, and like, I see a lot more
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artists in that. I think the proper term correctly if
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I'm wrong, it's called the umbro efect. So they'll release
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one song, then they'll release the next song, but they'll
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put the first song in the next like release with
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the next new release. Then they'll put the third song
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then the other two releases. They call it like the umbrella.
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I think that's what the name of it is. It's
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very cool just to see that, and it's like a
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more popular trendament scene between the small artists. And it's
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works really well on Spotify with the algorithm and everything there.
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It helps you be consistent too.
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That's another thing that I'm just in right now. I'm
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just in my consistency mode. And you know, because like
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I believe in hard work. You know, like just because
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you're talented and a Christian doesn't mean that you deserve,
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you know, all the accolades and platforms that other people get.
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Like you have to build what God gave you, you know,
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and you know, like think back to Noah in the Arc.
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You know, it took him a long time to build
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that arc, and he got hated on the whole time
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he was building it too, you know, And so I
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kind of think of it that way, you know, just
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like you know what, it's gonna take time. I have
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to just keep trusting God behind the scenes and keep
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putting out content, keep putting out pieces of the arc,
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you know, and just keep building.
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And so you know, that's another reason.
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Why the the three Songs for the Month of August
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is kind of a thing right now, just to not
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shy away from from the hard work that needs to
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be done when you are an artist, because you know,
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because of the Internet and everything, it's a very saturated market,
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so it's tougher to stick out than it used to be.
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It is, and the Internet's been changing like the streaming,
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Like I think TikTok is a big platform now. I've
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talked about this a lot before, Like that's one way
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the music industrict gross too. And it's just crazy how
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much things growing like a year like from like if
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we talk this time next year, like everything's gonna change again.
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So there's a like there's consistency, but every in the
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genre now they pully different, like, oh, try a pop song,
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Try a country song, try rap song, Like it's every
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genre now, Like like you look at Brandon Link's I
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always get Brandon Link for an example, just because everyone
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knows who he is. But he has like worship, he
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has pop, he has country, has rocked, and he kind
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of tried to dive into hip hop and everything in
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this song and it's just all over the place.
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Forrest Frank, I mean he's multi talented artists and like
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you know, he can write the best pop song you've
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ever heard, but then he can also rap, Like I
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really hope nobody who listens to Forrest Frank sleeps on
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how good of a rapper that man is?
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And if you want to hear Forst Frank rap, I
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think he has some rap parts in his band Surfaces
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before he became like I mean Forest Franks's real name,
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but before he went Forrest Frank, he was with Surfaces
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music and everything.
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Yeah, dude, they got some bops too, man, they got
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some bops.
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And definitely And for for people that haven't checked out
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your music, Stude, how would he describe your music style?
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For those are now like, oh, I want to check
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out Stue's music, And for those that were listening.
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Watching, I would describe it as.
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Uh, I don't want to get to I don't want
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to get to technical or whatever.
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But I guess you could describe it as like what
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I would call it is trap neo soul.
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That's what I would call it.
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And yeah, because like I have a lot of moments
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where like I'll have songs that are just like straight
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R and B and like even some of my harder
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rap songs, I use a lot of R and B
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samples and like everything. So like, yeah, like trap, neo soul,
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R and B. Probably like how I describe it, you know.
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And do you have a message for like any aspiring
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like artists in the industry or like some just people
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in the industry, do you or like say, like there
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was a younger version of you, and they want to
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make it do something in the industry, or I'll playing
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hip hop artist, but they don't know how to do.
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Do you like any advice or wisdom you would like
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to hear with.
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That, If God gave you the vision, then just stick
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with it despite what anybody says to you. You don't
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need people to believe in you in order to carry
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out something that God gave you, you know. And that's
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a very big misconception, is that you need a whole
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group of people in order to do this. And I
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see a lot of people saying like, oh man, I
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gotta wait till I get a better camera, or I
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gotta wait till this and wait till that. Like there's
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very popular artists right now who make music on their
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phone and it sounds great, you know. So there's like
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there's no excuses really, And so yeah, that's something I
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would tell a new or a younger version of me,
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just like, don't don't look at what you don't have,
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look at what you do have and utilize it to
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the best of your ability, and just follow God's plan
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for your life, because that's all you gotta do.
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Easier said than done, though, definitely exactly.
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And from there, like I know, we talked a little bit,
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