Not long ago, I was exploring rap on Spotify… yeah, I’m a rap junkie,
so shoot me… when I had a real skrt moment, right in the middle of some
playlist called ‘Real Rap’. Out of the blue, I hear these moody flute
notes, and next thing I know, this 120 bpm track with its funky gong has
me grooving to its high-energy, “gotta dance” grip. Obviously, the
track, which is called ‘I’m Not The One’, had me clicking back to the
artist’s profile – where I discovered that Siple, the artist, has several real bangers.
As I bopped Siple, I found myself
totally hooked. ‘Piper Perri’ had me chillin to the raspy main
character‒bass rapster combo, the instrumental refrain somehow reminding
me of ‘Slim Shady’. ‘LOUDcation’ felt like a wake-up call, its staccato
delivery at impactful odds with its high, 160 bpm tempo, and ‘Run It
Up’ had a surreal sound like a nightmare-on-loop. The ‘Product Always
Gold’ track blew my mind as much with its drippy horn-and-cello motif as
its wordplay, while ‘F*ck With Me’ painted vivid word pictures that
just stuck in my head, like, “I’ll lyrically murder you and let the
vultures eat away”…
I had to meet this guy, I decided, and DMd him on Insta…
a short week later, I was Zooming with Jonathan Velasquez, aka Siple,
the rapper from San Jose, Cali. Talking to Siple was interesting and
inspiring in unexpected ways, prompting me to share a condensed version
of the chat with our readers here. In the excerpt below, Siple is
denoted by ‘S’:
Q : Yo, Siple, I think we’re all curious to hear how you came by your artist name. Tell us a bit about that.
S: Yeah,
I get asked that a lot… (laughs) ‘Siple’ is actually my take on
‘disciple’, which is an apt name, I guess, for an artist, ’coz I believe
that an artist has got to learn and evolve constantly, if he wants to
produce great music that his fans can relate to.
Q : Cool thought. What drove you to take up music, and rap, specifically? Have you always been interested in rap?
S : Y’know,
I look back and I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t listening to rap…
I grew up in the ‘hyphy’ era, y’know? My earliest icons were Kanye and
Lupe Fiasco and Atmosphere… with every song they released, they blew my
mind. And later, I widened my listening to artists like Logic and J Cole
and Big Sean… I’ve also been heavily influenced by MCs – their
incredible lyrical ability, their wit. At present, I’m deeply into the
music of Snow Tha Product, Russ, and Tyler The Creator. So yeah, it’s
always been rap for me.
Q : You’ve
got some fly background streams on some of your tracks, and I really
dig the wordplay on some of them, too. What’s your take on the dominant
element in rap?
S : Great
question. I’ve seen rap evolve, from where it was mainly about lyrical
expression, to today, when a lot of it is about the melodic signature…
personally, I’m a huge fan of both styles, and I don’t think there’s
just one way to rap. I think each song demands a different kind of
balance from the artist.
Q : Now that you’ve got multiple hit singles like ‘Run It Up’, ‘I’m Not The One’ and ‘LOUDcation’ on Spotify, what does the future hold – more singles, a complete album? Do you see yourself making music videos?
S : I’ve
just dropped a new track on Spotify, called ‘Ghettoville’… and yeah,
more singles, definitely. I see myself releasing an album not too far
into the future… as for music videos, there’s already one out—you should
go check out the video for my song, ‘Run It Up’ on YouTube.
Q : Wow,
I’ll definitely be doing that. How do you see your background
influencing you as an artist? Do you think it impacts your audience that
you don’t fit the conventional image of a rap artist?
S : If
you’re referring to my ethnic and cultural background, yeah, I’m proud
of the fact that my parents were immigrants from Mexico who worked hard
to put food on the table… and that’s become a big part of who I am,
learning and accepting that in order to succeed, you’ve gotta work your
a*s off.
I might not be what people have in
mind when they think of a rap artist, and I might not make the music
people expect me to make… but when people hear my music, they love it,
and that’s what matters. That connect with my audience, that energy,
it’s incredible—more than anything else, what keeps me going is that
amazing feeling of being in sync with my fans, my peeps.
At the end of the day, rap is my
passion, and I’m proud of my roots, and I’m confident that I’m on my way
to putting my city on the rap map.
The consistency with which Siple has
been putting out dope rap argues that he’s right on the mark. I’ve got
the feeling that we’re soon going to be seeing a new star in the big
leagues.
SOURCE: TheHypeMagazine