Photo by Drew Carson Photography
This Minneapolis MC has been grinding extremely hard within the last year. His efforts has landed him a performance at Soundset 2011 and write-ups in magazines such as the City Pages and Vita.MN. In this interview, MaLLy and I talked about his music and his experience at Soundset.
Introduce yourself
My name is MaLLy and I’m from Minneapolis, MN living my life with one foot in Corporate America, while the other is in the world of music. Quite frankly, I am mentally preparing for the day when I leave my day job and never look back. In addition to work and music, I am also a mentor for college students making the transition from undergrad into the area of business.
I enjoy mentoring and being an artist because I believe there is a level of freedom and passion you can apply to a song, a conversation with a student who is looking for guidance and wants to develop in their career as opposed to sitting at a desk. Moral of the story is: Find something you love and stay active in that field or occupation. I promise it will take you places you never imagined.
How long have you been rapping and writing music?
I have been rapping since 2001 (on the low) and openly/proudly since 2007, and the same timeframe applies to my writing skills as well. In all honesty, I didn’t tell anybody except for two or three I could rhyme to avoid being “just another rapper”. Also the skills weren’t where I wanted them to be, so I waited until the right time and dropped my first project The Letter and never looked back.
Who are your influences and what inspires you to create music?
Some of my influences are folks such as Donny Hathaway, Marvin Gaye, Gil Scott-Heron, 2Pac, Eyedea, Terrence Trent D’arby, Stevie Wonder, Brother Ali, Jay-Z, Little Brother, Skyzoo, The Lox, Ma$e, George Michael and many others. Things that inspire me to write are life, good/bad experiences, the future, my Mom and Grandmother, spirituality and what it means to me, my peers whether friend or foe, and some of the dreams I have about what I will turn out to be.
What projects have you released thus far?
In chronological order: The Letter (2007), The Moment (2008), The Passion (2009), The Leaks of Integrity (2010) (Digital EP), and Free On The 15th (2011)
Your Free On The 15th series has been welled received locally, how has this helped your career?
To start from the beginning, the series was an accident (more so the title than anything else). My producer (and friend) The Sundance Kid met through a mutual friend and we liked each other’s work. I can honestly say this meeting/series changed my life in the sense that I didn’t think it would raise the amount of awareness it did in such a short period of time. Now it feels like when I poke my head somewhere people want to work on something together, get my opinion, or even just meet up to talk (which I enjoy more than anything).
Not only has it helped my career, I think The Sundance Kid has been receiving a lot of praise (musically) and lovers of music enjoy our effortless chemistry. I believe wholeheartedly that Free On The 15th (with the help of Airtime, Pwelbs and Wear Eric) has landed me newspaper articles in VitaMN, Star Tribune, The Daily, City Pages, radio play on KMOJ, The Current and other national stations. Soundset was a result of the series, and I was grateful to have been selected for it.
MaLLy on stage at Soundset 2011
Let’s chat about Soundset 2011. What was your highlight of the whole event?
First of all, Soundset 2011 was the largest show to date in my career. So many artists, fans and friends came together and made it the highest attended Soundset of them all. I still vividly remember driving to the festival with a few friends and being calm, collected and laid back, but once I stepped foot on the grounds and saw thousands of people I knew I was home.
A few highlights of my day during the event had to be: Driving there with a few friends, setting my merch tent up, seeing Pwelbs, Wear Eric, Airtime, Sundance Kid all in one space, performing, selling out of MaLLy & The Sundance Kid t-shirts, meeting so many great people who I love and respect and finally seeing Slug wear my t-shirt on stage in front of thousands of people (without asking him to) almost made me cry. If “perfect day from God” was a word in the dictionary, May 29th 2011 would have been it.
How does it feel to have been apart of such an enormous festival?
It felt great to see my name on the bill knowing that Rhymesayers saw something in my work ethic and material to take a chance on me. For awhile when I first got there, I was overwhelmed with huge amounts of joy, and didn’t know which way to turn but when I saw my homies showing love in the crowd, at my table, I knew this was just the beginning to bigger and better things. The whole time I thought to myself “God answers prayer and hard work pays off, Malik”.
How did you prepare for your performance?
I rehearsed several times with Last Word (Get Cryphy DJ) over some of my newer songs that are great to perform live and could get the crowd moving from start to finish. We worked pretty well together before and during SS and have plans to do more work in the future.
Looking back, is there anything you wished you would’ve done differently while on stage?
The only thing that I would have done differently was performed an additional song during my performance. Other than that, I was happy with how everything turned out and felt I rocked the crowd quite well. Well, Pyrotechnics on stage wouldn’t have hurt me at all. That would have surprised many people.
Describe yourself in three words
Talented, Loyal, and Blessed
What’s your biggest pet peeve?
People with limited conversational skills; I enjoy having long discussions or listening to new information on a topic that I have never heard before. I really enjoy getting to know people that I care about whether they are friends or a “romantic” interest of mine. So ladies, please be ready to talk to me ☺
What’s next for you?
My new album with The Sundance Kid titled The Last Great… slated for Fall 2011, more music videos, touring around the nation and God willing I quit my damn job!
Any last words
I would highly encourage up and coming artists to keep the faith and walk in it with all that you do. Treat your friends, business partners and family members how you want to be treated. Continue to progress in life and never be scared to receive constructive feedback from your support base.
I would like to thank God, 33 Jones, TSS, Pwelbs, The Airtime Collection, Mydus, Rem, Wear Eric, The entire state of MN, my family, The Cobalt Commission, Rhymesayers, The Current, KMOJ, City Pages, Star Tribune, VitaMN, Proper Etiket and all other websites, blogs and listeners who have supported MaLLy over the last few years.
