ABOUT

When I first began writing songs in 2016, I was very simply, just writing songs. I did what every songwriter does in their glory, oblivious days. I dreamed of attending the Grammys, delivered acceptance speeches while holding my shampoo bottle in the shower, and wondered what it would be like to live in a tour bus for a couple of months. I watched YouTube videos and read articles about famous writers’ journeys to success; they were easy to read because they made triumph look so easy. What I wasn’t quite reading yet, however, were the stories of talented musicians and artists that didn’t quite “make it”. These were the stories that I didn’t want to believe. But once I swallowed my pride and snapped myself back into the harsh realities of the entertainment industry, I found these stories instrumental to discovering myself and my purpose. 

 

These narratives that I read, and later began to relate to personally, were not just about simply writing songs. They covered topics like race, politics, and society– and how these were interconnected with the music industry. Acknowledging that systemic racism would even follow me to my one safe place, music, was both unsettling and intriguing at the same time. I found it ironic how music, broadcasted as a universally inclusive item, was more exclusive than ever. The discrimination of the music industry piqued my interest.

 

Soon, I began intertwining my creative and academic interests as one through my music pursuits. I studied the technical aspects of entertainment law while I was drafting and signing a song license deal as a writer. I chose to write music inspired by books that I was reading, giving characters in these novels a soundtrack to their stories. And one of the most pivotal projects I pursued was writing a twelve page research paper on the historical evolution of economic, political, and technological racism in the U.S. music industry. My experiences writing this paper further solidified my passion for streamlining race studies in the context of music, and urged me to discover and create more spaces for me to quench my curiosities through writing. A platform where I could interlace the lessons I learn from my own music career along with my academic research. That is how I became inspired to start a blog: about music and race, my personal vendetta and love story with them, society, politics, economics, and everything in between. Welcome to “The Rhythm of Race”.