INTERVIEW | SKINNY BLACKS RELEASES HIS DEBUT EP ‘THE ART OF PATIENCE & CONFIDENCE’

By Rishma • On Interviews

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Intro­du­cing Skinny Blacks, an artist who is mak­ing waves with his debut EP, “The Art Of Patience & Con­fid­ence.” This pro­ject reflects his per­son­al jour­ney and show­cases his immense poten­tial. Inspired by real-life exper­i­ences, each track, includ­ing the emo­tion­ally charged “Rainy Days,” con­veys pro­found emo­tions and vul­ner­ab­il­ity. With his Ethiopi­an and Jamaic­an her­it­age, Skinny Blacks blends Jamaic­an dance­hall and rap, cre­at­ing a unique sound. Influ­enced by artists like Kendrick Lamar, Vybz Kar­tel, Future, 2pac, and Meek Mill, his music res­on­ates with a broad spec­trum of fans. As an artist, Skinny Blacks aims to leave a last­ing impres­sion, emphas­iz­ing his cre­ativ­ity, poten­tial, and ver­sat­il­ity. Look­ing ahead, he aspires to grow his fan base and has excit­ing pro­jects and col­lab­or­a­tions in the pipeline. Get ready to dive into the world of Skinny Blacks and exper­i­ence “The Art Of Patience & Confidence.”

Can you tell us about the inspir­a­tion behind your new EP, “The Art Of Patience & Con­fid­ence,” and how it reflects your per­son­al jour­ney as an artist?

Great ques­tion, The Art Of Patience & Con­fid­ence is a debut mix­tape to show­case my full poten­tial. Ever since 12 years old I’ve been con­fid­ent but I knew I needed the patience to get where I am today to deliv­er the art with­in the pro­ject, hence the title. My jour­ney reflects in all tracks such as “what’s hap­pen­ing to me?” When I had thought to quit music entirely I had to over­come these thoughts. That’s when I knew it would have to be the intro of the project.

“Rainy Days” is a beau­ti­ful track on the EP. Could you elab­or­ate on how it relates to the bit­ter­sweet nar­rat­ive you men­tioned, and what emo­tions you wanted to con­vey through this song?

Rainy days is a emo­tion­al song I made the day my grand­moth­er past away, I was too scared and shy to share it to the world. Devel­op­ing to the artist I aim to be I knew I had to over­come the fear of vul­ner­ab­il­ity when shar­ing cur­tain songs to the world, I espe­cially knew that the day my close friend com­mit­ted sui­cide in pris­on. The last I spoke to him he said he wanted to hear my song again on the radio. I took it upon myself to add the song onto the tape and add some lyr­ics ded­ic­ated to him on the second verse.

Your music draws on real-life exper­i­ences, as seen in tracks like “Wait Till I Call My Troop­ers” and “What’s Hap­pen­ing To Me?” Can you dis­cuss the sig­ni­fic­ance of these songs and how they con­trib­ute to the over­all mes­sage of the EP?

Songs like “Wait Till I Call My Troop­ers”, “What’s Hap­pen­ing To Me?” And even “Please Don’t Come Here With Your Prob­lems” come from a real place, a place I know oth­ers can relate to. I’ve had thoughts to quit music before, I’ve had to think ahead and try to be some­thing great­er then the nor­mal ste­reo­type in my envir­on­ment grow­ing up and I have had issues I have had to over­come as we all do. All these ele­ments goes in hand with me grow­ing to be the biggest artist the coun­try will ever see. And it all starts with the first step, for which in my case is “ The Art Of Patience & Confidence “

How has your back­ground, par­tic­u­larly your Ethiopi­an and Jamaic­an her­it­age, influ­enced your music­al style and the diverse range of genres in your discography?

Being Jamaic­an you will always be exposed to music, this was the case for me, grow­ing up in Jamaica too I was around a lot of older artist who were try­ing to break into the scene. A couple saw the tal­ent in me and embraced me whilst my time in the coun­try. Whilst they was doing the cul­tur­al genre dance­hall I went in with some­thing dif­fer­ent and rapped. This made me auto­mat­ic­ally dif­fer­ent and it gave me a buzz. I star­ted to see the bene­fits dur­ing my years of prac­tice. Being dif­fer­ent is good it can make one unique. I then began to fuse the genres togeth­er on some tracks and the buzz blew even fur­ther. I knew this would be my lane going for­ward in my career.

As an artist, you pride your­self on your abil­ity to adapt to dif­fer­ent music­al path­ways. Could you give us some examples of the music­al influ­ences that have inspired you and how they have shaped your sound?

My influ­ences are Kendrick Lamar, Vybz Kar­tel, Future, 2pac and Meek Mill. These artist have all impacted the genres they par­ti­cip­ate in in a sig­ni­fic­ant way. They all inspire me in dif­fer­ent ways wheth­er it’s music that’s con­scious to anthems to songs for the female audi­ence to records that res­on­ate to the streets, I aim to do it all.

With “The Art Of Patience & Con­fid­ence” being an intro­duct­ory pro­ject, what do you hope listen­ers will take away from it and what impres­sion do you want to leave with them about your cre­ativ­ity, poten­tial, and ver­sat­il­ity as an artist?

After listen­ing to the “The Art Of Patience & Con­fid­ence” I want listen­ers to say it’s a good body of work what else does he have for me to listen to. The seeds to build a fan base that are loy­al with consistency

Could you walk us through your cre­at­ive pro­cess when craft­ing a song or an entire EP? How do you approach blend­ing dif­fer­ent genres and cre­at­ing a cohes­ive music­al experience?

To be hon­est, I like mak­ing music in gen­er­al when cre­at­ing these songs I nev­er had the plan of put­ting it all into the EP, it just nat­ur­ally came to be. It was nev­er forced. Out of all the songs I’ve got writ­ten or recor­ded the only thing I most likely forced was the track list­ing. I wanted to make sure at least one song on the pro­ject will res­on­ate with a person.

In your opin­ion, what sets your music apart from oth­ers in the industry and makes it res­on­ate with such a broad spec­trum of music fans?

What sets my music apart from oth­ers com­ing up is my unique style, approach on the mic fear­less­ness will to try new sounds and styles and per­son­al­ity. I don’t try to be someone I’m not I’m already dif­fer­ent and unique as we all are, if I be myself in my music that would already sep­ar­ate me from the norm.

Los­ing a close friend and ful­filling their last request to hear your song on the radio must have been a deeply emo­tion­al exper­i­ence. How did this event shape your determ­in­a­tion to com­plete the pro­ject, and what sig­ni­fic­ance does it hold for you personally?

It holds a lot, I was avoid­ing talk­ing to him at the time because I had thoughts of giv­ing up again. Some­thing I knew he would argue with me about. But the last con­ver­sa­tions we had put me back in the right head­space and gave me the push that I truly needed to fully believe in what I can bring to the table of music.

Look­ing ahead, what are your aspir­a­tions as an artist, and what can fans expect from you in the future? Are there any upcom­ing pro­jects or col­lab­or­a­tions you would like to share with us?

My inspir­a­tions is see­ing the growth of an artist, I per­son­ally like to listen to an artist and fol­low his jour­ney. This is what a fan does and I’m a fan of music, from see­ing them just have a hit song and doing small shows to see­ing them do aren­as in my city it motiv­ates me to see that it’s pos­sible with hard work and con­sist­ency. Going for­ward I’ll be look­ing into hope­fully releas­ing anoth­er this year and have a fea­ture or two on it with some artists I have in mind.

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Rishma

Edit­or / PR Con­sult­ant at No Bounds
Rishma Dhali­w­al has extens­ive exper­i­ence study­ing and work­ing in the music and media industry. Hav­ing writ­ten a thes­is on how Hip Hop acts as a social move­ment, she has spent years research­ing and con­nect­ing with artists who use the art form as a tool for bring­ing a voice to the voiceless.

About Rishma

Rishma Dhaliwal has extensive experience studying and working in the music and media industry. Having written a thesis on how Hip Hop acts as a social movement, she has spent years researching and connecting with artists who use the art form as a tool for bringing a voice to the voiceless.