We recently connected with Arnel Christian and have shared our conversation below.

Arnel, appreciate you joining us today. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?

Risks, to me, are a part of life regardless of if it’s low risk or high risk. Betting everything you have on yourself never seemed too crazy and that’s always been in me since I was a kid. Some people are satisfied with catching that little fish everyday and taking that home to eat and provide scraps for the family when you have a chance. It just made more sense to me to take the higher risk and wait for that big fish to take home so everyone can eat generously forever. Scared money never made any money!

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I’ve been writing music before I even knew what I was doing. I wrote my first 4 bars when I was around 8 years old. My brother some days would come in the room and we’d take 5 minutes and write a quick rap and spit them like we were battle rappers. It’s always been in me. I met my brothers Kent Danger and Renzo Starr shortly after graduating high school and they put me in the booth and showed me the ropes of recording my voice and actually creating and putting the songs on wax. I think what sets me apart from others is just the true love and passion for the craft. Even if I never received a dollar from this, I still would do it for the rest of my life. I’m extremely proud to have a team with me that feels exactly as I do. Create as much as you can, no matter what the results of it come out to be. To anybody that’s just now tuning in, you’re right on time. We are just getting started.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

The main thing that gives me that drive on a daily basis is knowing that there is freedom behind these doors I work to unlock. MICHAELTHEVILLAIN and sitting still have never been a good mix. I strive for change and different experiences in my life to grow. It also puts a battery in my back when I see my team working just as hard as I am to get to our utopia. I want it for them just as bad as I want it for me.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

When I first started creating music, everything we did was very DIY and was done in-house. Sometimes that got confusing and too many tasks would be laid on a small amount of people, maybe even one person at times. I had to learn that you gotta step out your zone and allow others to help you for the best results. You can make a beat, record yourself on the track, mix/master it by hand and promote it on the street yourself but as I started progressing, i realized it was in my best interest to find the perfect people for the jobs I didn’t have to do myself in order to get the best results possible. No man has ever did it all alone. It takes a village.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/michaelthevillain/
• Twitter: https://x.com/mikethevillain1/
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@MICHAELTHEVILLAIN1/

Image Credits
Giulio Rose Giannini .7Jay