Q&A With Rising Underground Hip Hop Artist AUK5
Please tell us a bit about yourself, how long have you been an artist?
I’ve been an artist for quite a while now. I’ve been rapping, producing, breaking and graf writing since I was a teenager growing up in Racine and Milwaukee WI, with a big contribution coming from the time I lived in Chicago.
How did you get your Emcee name?
I gave it to myself. It stands for Always Under Konstruction and the five elements of myself; breaking, skating, painting, emceeing and production. AUK5 is a company and I am currently transitioning to my actual/new rap name.
Please let us know when was your first time making music?
When I was a kid my mom got us a small keyboard that also saved the beats you made. Plus I also had guitars. So when I was about 8 years old, I remember using the keyboard to make beats and record them. That’s where it started.
Do you remember where/when?
I was about 6-8 years old and we lived in Racine, WI.
Please breakdown the creative process of the new album “Second Star To The Right”. Who produced the album?
Second Star to the Right was fully conceptualized by myself. I also wrote (with exception to features), mixed and recorded the whole thing. It was influenced by the classic story of Neverland with big doses of reality. I produced everything but the track Pirate, which was produced by Sam Piazza “Splash Dr”, and I co-produced Fairway with producer Ham Derosa “Hamonthelow”. The creative process was driven by sound relation, meaning that the beats sounded like they could be from a fairytale. The beats were made according to the feel that I got from each topic. Some of the topics that I wanted to discuss didn’t even make it onto this project because the beat or sound never came to me. I had to move on. The point of the project was to showcase all of my talents and to share that on one project. Not necessarily to show how great of a lyricist I was, but my overall talent, which is great as well. Second Star to the Right was not meant to show off my rapping abilities, I didn’t want to do that on this project. Second Star to the Right was put together to give a balance of everything that I can do and highlight that to the people that don’t know what I am capable of. Second Star to the Right for me means, I’ve accomplished something that I didn’t think I could. It was very hard for me to put out this project. To conceptualize the entire thing and try to stick to the topics at hand with a fairytale influence added to it.
Everyone’s goal is to one day BLOW UP….. In today’s Hip Hop world, seems like social media, FB & IG especially, is blowing up and artists are doubling down on their personal branding not relying on labels anymore. Let me ask you how do you plan on doing that?
The first step was putting together all of my talents on Second Star to the Right to even show that I had the talent, the capability. Once I had all of that together, the next step was to build content around the project that shows my artistic creativity with an effort to establish value to my brand as an artist in general. I’m not just doing the music part, I’m doing all of it. The branding, the videos, the flyers, the stickers. I’m really trying to show everyone that I do it all. And if I can’t, I’m very capable of finding someone who can and handing over the idea to them. That has worked very well for me. I’m very aware of the times we are in so, using social media, coming up with new content constantly is something I realize that needs to be worked on continuously and so, that is also part of my plan.
Please tell us about your mission statement regarding your music and movement…
The mission is to build a fan base of people who can relate to who I am and what I talk about. Honestly, I don’t think Second Star to the Right is a good example of any of that, except for a few songs like One With the Darkness and Lost Boys. If anything, it forced to me to get back to me and forward with the times that we are currently in. The current project that I am working on, is much more of who I am. I think the fan base will grow and show up with this next project I’m working on. That’s the mission. The movement is still developing.
What do you want fans to walk away with after listening to your projects?
I want them to walk away with the thought, “Dude is dope as fuck. I can relate to him and I want more.”
Also, please describe your sound in the simplest way possible?
My real sound is emo-trap, alternative R&B with a little grunge/punk mixed in there. Once again, Second Star to the Right not being a great representation of this.
Anything special for late 2018!!??
Yes! So glad you asked. I’m not exactly sure when, but I’ll soon be releasing a new project in a series called GoldM9n, which is also the name I’ll be transitioning to. First project titled “The Best Part”. This music will be giving you more of who I really am, raw. Also, striving to do much more shows, interviews and creative videos. Looking forward to working with other artists; producers, writers, singers, rappers, etc.
Your TOP 5 Hip Hop artist/group list?
I don’t want to answer this question.
Now this is our most popular question, what is your definition of “Underground Hip Hop”?
Hip Hop that pertains to a particular style of hip hop be it productions, lyrics, lifestyle etc. Also, hip hop that is universally relatable and commercially appealing but not yet exposed to the masses.
Where can fans find your music? Drop all links!!
https://www.auk5.life
https://soundcloud.com/auk5
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/second-star-to-the-right/1388137976
https://open.spotify.com/artist/1Ujb1DBBqqUTOUZFkbmigl?si=PgTTMjFZRNyYGnnUwJU-LQ
Any Shout Outs??
Yeah, shout out to UGHH Blog. I appreciate your honest assessment of my project. Please stay tuned for what’s next!
