Data – Q&A Interview

Tell us a little about yourself. Where are you from? How long have you been making Hip Hop?

I’m a seventeen year old kid from Orange, Connecticut. I’ve been huge on music my whole life, like I’ve been singing for as long as I can remember. I played the guitar as a kid, and also played the bass and cello for a while. I stopped all that for some time and left music for a while. When I was fifteen I wrote my first rap as a joke and I really liked how it turned out, so I’ve been writing just about everyday since.

What influences you in making Hip Hop?

I’m influenced by so many artists when I write. I take huge influences from Chance The Rapper, Vic Mensa, Kendrick, Kanye, J Cole, Joey Bada$$, and Logic. I take inspiration from the shit that happens around me in my life. All of my lyrics incorporate something I’ve experienced in my life. I try to keep my music relatable for everyone who listens.

Describe your music, and what separates you from other MCs?

Haha that’s good question, I’ve never really thought of that before. I guess I’m different because I’m not really trying to rap about like generic hip-hop topics like drugs, guns, and women. I think my flow is really unique too, I can switch it up to match different types of songs which helps a lot in the writing process. I’m huge in creating your own art, I’ve never had anyone write a line for me or a verse. Everything I write is 100% me and I intend to keep it that way going forward. All in all, I just think I have a very unique sound to my music.

Who have you collaborated with? Who would you like to collab with in the near future?

I’ve done collaborations with Offset who are a dope hip hop group out of CT as well. Other than that I haven’t been on any songs with anyone. I’m always open to work though I don’t believe in charging for a verse right now, I’d love to work with anyone that would want to. But for people to work with in the future…I’d love to work with Vic Mensa and Chance. Those are huge stretches but I’ll get there one day. I’d also like to work with Chris Webby and represent CT a little more.

Your definition of “Underground Hip Hop”?

My definition of underground hip-hop is truth. Anyone who is trying to make it as a rapper wants to be heard in the worst way, and they want you to know their story. I think we need underground hip hop because it allows us all to connect with each other. A lot of mainstream rap today is so generic. There are very few story telling artists who make you think and change lives. Underground hip-hop is under looked, but it’s so necessary to be heard.

Production wise, who are your influences? Who does your production?  And who would you like to work with?

Right now, I don’t really have a producer. I mean for Methods Of A Kid I just got beats off the internet. Doing that, I tried to use a common sound in the beats used. As for who I want to work with, I want to work more with Tranquility. He’s a dope producer who’s from CT as well. Eventually when I get more popular I’d wanna work with The Social Experiment, Childish Gambino, 6ix, and even get into making my own beats.

Any current or future projects you are promoting?

I’ve already started working on another mixtape that I haven’t named yet. I don’t want to stop writing so I figured I’ll just keep making mixtapes until I actually get noticed haha. I’m featured on OFFSET which will be coming out soon. Thats a sick album by Offset. I mentioned before they’re from CT and this album is going to be nasty so look out for that. I’m also working with Tranquility on a couple of his songs off his upcoming album which hasn’t been named yet.

Can you give us a brief description of the creative process of METHODS OF A KID? Also/ tell us a little bit about the concept and idea behind your Album/Mixtape Cover Art.

So with MOAK I wanted to use the theme of what high school kids go through. So for about three months I wrote down whatever I was thinking or feeling at the time. Eventually those ideas came together and formed songs which made up MOAK. I wrote and recorded one song a week and got it done pretty quick. For the art, I was actually driving in the car thinking about the tape and an image popped in my head. So I hit up my boy Austin MacDonald and told him about my idea for the cover art. He’s really good with art and had done something in the past so when I pitched him the idea I knew it would good. A couple of weeks later he sent me the current cover art, and finally the tape was done.

Where can we find your music and info?

You can follow me on twitter at @Data1034 , My sound cloud is D^TA, and then you can find this mixtape on Datpiff.

Any Shout Outs?

Shout out to everyone that supported me in my music this far. Shout out to the people who told me I’ll never go anywhere. Shout out to all of Offset, especially Roemello for doing a fantastic job mixing the tape. Shout out to my family for always being there and supporting me on my journey in music so far. And last, shout out to the UGHH Blog for giving upcoming artists a chance to make it in such a hard industry.