We were lucky to catch up with Addiemak recently and have shared our conversation below.

Addiemak, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

I learned to do what I do through trial and error and alot of time and patience. I wasn’t trained in music theory, I never took lessons. I was very persistant in teaching myself how to play the piano and create music. I don’t think I could have speed up my learning process, it takes time to be great, it doesn’t happen overnight. My music is a reflection of my time here on this planet and all the experiences I’ve been through. The skills that were most essential in learning to do what I do is having patience being persistant and being able to absorb information. Alot of artists I’ve met and worked with aren’t persistant and aren’t willing to absorb ideas. I think it’s critical to be persistant, you have to outwork everyone. It’s millions of people that want to be artists and you have to set yourself apart and the best way to do that is to outwork everyone else. The biggest obstacle that stood in the way of me learning more was me still wanting to run the streets instead of being in the studio etc. I knew that you had to have money to be successful and sometimes I prioritized that idea too much.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I got into the industry in the early 2000s. We didn’t have an easy way to make original beats and production so I decided to learn how to do it. I started out with a cheap keyboard from Radio Shack. I started teaching myself how to play the piano and learning music production. I quickly upgraded to using an MPC and Roland Phantom. I was able to solve the problem of finding good original beats for artists to use before there was YouTube, SoundCloud, Beatstars etc. As I perfected my craft I was able to start working with Industry artists such as Dipset, Lil Mo, Trina, Da Brat, Glasses Malone and Cappadonna. I’m proud of the grind and effort that I put in, I outworked everyone when the opportunity presented itself. That dedication kept me in the rooms that God opened the door for me to get in

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

When I first started to take music production and artistry seriously I was still dabbling in the streets. Bills needed to be paid and studio time wasn’t cheap so I was taking some risks to make it happen. I ended up catching a conspiracy charge in Mississippi, I thought my life and music career was over, it was looking bleek facing that much time. I was able to quickly post bail and wait on my hearing. While everything looked like it was falling apart I decided to work on my craft as much as possible before my trial. I basically spent 24 hours a day practicing and learning music production. I didn’t feel like going outside or wasting anytime because I didn’t know what my future held. So I spent all my time working on music for a few months. God had me covered and my case got thrown out. In one of the darkest times in my life I was able to work through it and come out 100x better as a producer/artist.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

Yeah, the music industry is tricky, it’s always evolving and changing. Alot of us older artists came to a point where we were forced to pivot or become irrelevant. The popular sounds changed, the drums changed, the rhyme scheme changed, the cadences changed, rap/hip hop had a metamorphosis. The popular northeast and west coast sound started to be drowned out when the south took over. We had to figure it out!! Producers and artists had to figure it out!! People didn’t want to hear old school samples on “boom bap” type drums, people didn’t want to hear verses with crazy metaphors and straight forward cadences. So we had to pivot, we had to incorporate new styles or rapping over different time signatures, we had to start using 808 basses, auto tune etc. It took me a while to put it together, I was lost for a while making things that sounded too forced and didn’t blend well between the generations. I kept at it and eventually figured it out for now but I have to stay on my toes because it keeps changing

Contact Info:

• Website: Www.Addiemak.com
• Instagram: @Addie_mak
• Facebook: Addiemak
• Twitter: @Addie_mak
• Youtube: 6enate music

Image Credits
Sole Thomas