We recently connected with Casey Olivares and have shared our conversation below.

Casey, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you tell us about a time that your work has been misunderstood? Why do you think it happened and did any interesting insights emerge from the experience?

My music walks on a very fine line between Christian Hip-Hop and secular music. Because of this, it makes it challenging to categorize my genre of music.

I want to make something very clear, I am a Christian, but I do not make Christian music. I just make music that tells my story and gives people the option of listening to good, clean music. In my opinion, most rap music is on one extreme or the other. The secular rap artists are rapping about s*x, drugs, and violence, and the Christian rappers are rapping “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus”. While I respect what Christian artists are doing, that just isn’t the path I was called to. I was called to reach those who are lost and need a good alternative to secular rap.

I may not ever get my records played in a club or even in a church, and that is perfectly fine with me. There are plenty of talented Christian artists out there already. I am hoping to reach people on an individual basis that would have never even Christian rap the time of day. My mission is to save souls, and this is the way I’ve been called to do it.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am a husband, a father, and a child of God. I started freestyle rapping in front of crowds at the age of 14, but didn’t take my first crack at writing music until the age of 27. I realized that there was so much more to music than just writing rhymes. Music is a beautifully complex art. As I started to write and release my first few singles back in 2020, I also started to sing on the worship team at my church, which I am still doing today. These two things definitely go hand-in-hand as it gives me the ability to develop vocally and sharpen my creativity.

What sets me apart from other artists, is the fact that I don’t make Gospel rap. I make music that tells my personal story while giving God the glory, sometimes subliminally, and other times explicitly. My goal is to make good music you can share with any type of person and they will be able to relate to it.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

I think the best thing people can do to support and independent artist in today’s environment is to engage with the artist’s social media and share their music with others who may like it. The rules have changed for most artists since the pandemic in 2020, and the best way to build a following and make a living on your music is through social media and streaming. What people may not realize, is that content creation is the best form of marketing an artist has today, so every like, comment, and share boosts that content’s reach and helps the artist get that much closer to their goals.

How did you build your audience on social media?

One way I’ve been able to grow my following is by posting short-form content such as skits, mini-performances, vlogs, and meme-type videos. I recently had an old childhood friend reach out to me and told me my content was “cringe”, but I didn’t let that stop me from creating. This may be hard to come to grips with, but most of the people you grew up with won’t be the ones listening to your music anyway… and they definitely won’t be your biggest fans. They most likely just see you as the person you were 20 years ago, and nothing more. Believe it or not, complete strangers who you’ve never met will be your biggest fans be introduced to the current version of you and will also see your potential! So my biggest advice is just be yourself and stop caring about what people think. Especially people you grew up with.

Contact Info:

• Website: HTTP://kcorap.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kco.rapmusic
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@Kco.rapmusic
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/2GZaj5UkNHKBpp4ZWiopnG?si=InqQUp8xRt-AWqTUx8f00Q