Yesterday I was able to catch up with 18-year-old from Tampa, Florida Lil' Harper (who emerged a year ago and dropped a handful of ready radio songs is striving to make himself a household name) for a phone interview. During the interview Lil' Harper gave me insight on his recording process, mixing down his own songs, his influences, and creating his own sound.
Lil' Harper is part of the wave of rappers whose music is shaped by Kanye West’s 2008 synth-heavy introspective studio album 808s & Heartbreak (“I was influenced a lot by “The Leak” by Lil Wayne, and all of Kid Cudi’s albums. Also 808s and Heartbreak by Kanye West. I admire Kid Cudi, Kanye West, Travi$ Scott and Soulja Boy. Without Soulja Boy no rapper would be able to get poppin’ on the internet, he paved the way. I admire Kanye, Travi$ Scott because they are always pushing the boundaries musically. Kid Cudi and Kanye are at a tie also for my favorite artist ever. My favorite musicians are Kid Cudi, Kanye West, Bon Iver, Lil Wayne, M.I.A, Travi$ Scott and Fall Out Boy”)
Even though Lil' Harper draws from artists like Kanye West, Kid Cudi, and Lil’ Wayne, Lil' Harper is by no means an emo-rapper or part of the “hipster hop” movement.
He is not interested in making avant-garde cringe worthy music and ultimately frustrating his listeners.
Lil' Harper is more focused on making catchy songs with infectious hooks and clever punchlines over hot tracks.
18-year-old Lil' Harper started rapping just a year ago and has already released over a handful of singles since October of last year (“Sell My Soul,” “Ballin’,” “Dabbin’,” “iPhone,” “How Many Times,” “Catch a Body,” “Bye,” “Johnny Cage,” “Crazy,” “I Don’t Know,” and “Jumanji”) available for streaming on Sunshine Jones’ Soundcloud.
Lil' Harper recently had his first show at The Orpheum Theatre and performed for nearly an hour (“It was real cool. One memory I have is when I went to private school we’d have to do plays and musicals. One time I was the lead singer for a show we did and I had to sing Run It by Chris Brown. Although I could sing I hated it so every time we had to rehearse I cried.”)
Lil' Harper mumbles words to himself in his home recording studio before stepping into the microphone room to spit out a complete song (“I freestyle every song. It takes me around 30 minutes to do a song but it won’t actually be “done” for awhile cause I lie to perfect it.”)
Follow Lil' Harper Online:
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/sunshinejones
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SunshineJones_
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