We were lucky to catch up with Mustafa Kemal Kurtoglu recently and have shared our conversation below.
Mustafa Kemal , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Do you feel you or your work has ever been misunderstood or mischaracterized? If so, tell us the story and how/why it happened and if there are any interesting learnings or insights you took from the experience?
Being a white hip-hop artist has it’s pros and cons. I love music and I happen to bump music when I’m driving and I get certain looks from people, not delightful looks for sure, but what they don’t understand is, music is my life, I am music, and I happen to rap some of the songs I bump in my car.
I usually get messages telling me that my songs are very 18+ or rather profane. Yes, it is exactly like that. Whenever I write a song, I write certain words because they happen to fit, or that’s just how I’m really feeling at the time. I learned to live in the moment as well as speak my mind freely, therefore profanity is a must in this form of art. Yes there are rappers that rap about love, feelings or emotions, but what can a person rap about when they’ve gone through so much their only way is to aggressively express themselves in front of the mic.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
For those that don’t know me, I go by the name “REILL” and in my songs you’ll see why I choose that name, and I will always keep it Real just like my name says.
I remember I was around 10 years old, first time seeing the music video for Candy Shop by 50 cent. For some reason that video alone was enough to inspire me to start “thinking” about rhymes and poetry. It wasn’t until when I was in college I started writing. To be frank,I gotta thank my professor at the time for making the lecture so boring that I went and got me notebook and started writing rhymes. A few weeks later, I had found an instrumental that perfectly fit my lyrics and I was in search of a studio. From that point on, the journey has begun.
I rarely tell people to go and listen to my music. I rather let my music do the talking, the people who listen and support my music, do it because they want to.
Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?
Never forget, the greatest resource is the person you see when you look in the mirror. Take care of yourself, elevate your mind, and focus on doing you. When I started to love myself, I’ve seen a huge improvement on my music, as well as my personal life. Forget about who believes in you, but rather focus on believing in YOU first. I believe in myself before making others believe in me.
Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?
I recently released a diss track on Eminem. It’s called Reill – In the Scope.
As you would think, I got a lot of backlash for that song. “He is the greatest, how could you diss Eminem” “It’s very risky for you to do that” they said.
Yes. I know what I signed up for, and it was a risk I HAD to take, and the numbers speak for it self. I consider my self the greatest, in my mind I’m already up there with the rappers who already made it to the top. That’s what motivates me, the motivation keeps pushing me forward, it keeps me writing more, it gives me the fuel I need when I’m in the studio. That’s my niche and I use it to motivate myself.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/realityx96?igsh=NGVhN2U2NjQ0Yg==
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100075555246281&mibextid=ZbWKwL
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@reill587?si=OzaD8rIZlpFuV18w
- Soundcloud: https://on.soundcloud.com/ohZDE9F77Ywvgxm3A
- Other: [email protected]
