We recently connected with CoCo Chaniel and have shared our conversation below.

CoCo, 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 human being who understands everybody but knowing very slim to none amount of people who understand you can be a blessing and a curse, but I think as long as you know God that’s really all you need. He guides my footsteps and points me in the direction I need to be going. I used to want people to understand me so bad until I finally understood I only need the man above to understand me. To tie that back into my creative space I would just write and write and make my own music because that would let me vent and give the people who love me an outlet to understand where I really be coming from. If you know me as a person you know I rarely talk about stuff that matters. I don’t really let anyone into my thoughts or mindset but I feel like with the music I’m giving people an opportunity to really understand the real me.

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’ve been an artist since 2019, I just really jumped into it because I’ve always dreamed of myself being some type of entertainer. I love music and that’s what gets me through my day. I used to sit in the car and get high and just freestyle with friends for fun until I really just went head first into the game and dropped my first single “Come From.” The music industry is a real dog eat world especially when you independent. From paying for studio time, to paying for music Videos, distribution services, and photo shoots, etc. I found myself getting discouraged. No ones talks about how hard it is to manage all these things while working a 9-5 especially in todays society where you frowned upon for not being a scammer or an influencer. My discipline that I’ve had since a child comes from seeing the days where my Moms had to make stuff work for me and my 7 siblings. Living in a 2 bedroom apartment, always having to share everything is a crazy feeling but somehow it taught me how to be grateful for everything and worry for nothing. I always had God in my life, my Moms instilled that within us since Birth. So I’m just grateful for the mindset I got. That sets me apart from all my peers and people who do what I do. I put God first in all that I do so how could I really ever lose. Even when things seem slow and people think I’m not doing nothing just know God working for me and with me behind them scenes. I’m most proud of all my accomplishments from my smallest to biggest body of work. I had to have discipline and work my butt off to pull that off all on my own, like I said I’m grateful for it all.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

In a world full of popcorn rappers and artist and one hit wonders my main goal is longevity. The world got too many artist giving off this image that society deems important. But what’s really important is to do something you love not just for the money and the fans but to send off a real message. It’s always people watching and we gotta think about the next generations to come. All they hear is guns, having sex, and money. It’s so much more to the world then what we consume daily, I just strive to be one of the ones to change that.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The most awarding aspect of doing what I do is to just hear myself and to know whatever I put my mind to I can do it. I went head first into this not knowing how I was gone find a studio, not knowing how I was gone distribute my music, not knowing how I was gone afford this lifestyle I wanted to pursue. But as long as I put in that work and put God first I know everything will fall into place. It’s a beautiful thing to be proud of the body of work you put out and the process it take to do it all. You gotta lay your foundation brick by brick then eventually you’ll have you a brick wall.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://linktr.ee/CoCoChaniel?utm_source=linktree_profile_share&ltsid=bacfce4c-e959-49a9-b13c-533b02277d26
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coco.chaniel/
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@CoCoChaniel?si=BuY3D_ktDZiG5UE6