We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Raeykwon a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Raeykwon, thanks for joining us today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – walk us through the story?
I feel like it’s been all or nothing specially since the beginning of this year. I feel you aren’t truly chasing your dreams until you’ve doubled down and you’re all in. Getting on yourself is the biggest risk with the highest reward. Telling myself “this is who I am” and not settling for a life of lesser. It’s had its ups and downs too and I’m still figuring it out.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I am a creative born in New Jersey and Based out of Atlanta, Ga. I’ve been making music on and off since 2014. Taking it more and more seriously since the year 2018 and finally starting to find my footing in 2023 under the name “Raeykwon”. I found my earlier musical inspirations from artists such as Xavier Wulf, Raider Clan, and Odd Future. Early in my journey I went by the name “Camoface” and later “Kozy Camo” before dropping the stage names and entering this new era of identity in 2023. Around 2016 was when I did my first performance and started to really immerse myself in music and consuming it. This year I also became involved in a music group known as 4m (more money more motion) with my fellow artists QK! And Myles4m. I’ve bared witness to multiple SoundCloud eras and waves as a student of the game. I believe I offer versatility in a most harmonic way.
I also have a clothing brand I started in 2021 called “incrmnts” that’s been pretty successful for the small amount of hype I’ve generated for it. I’m really into street fashion and modeling and so that really pushed me to start a clothing brand as well. Ever since highschool I’ve stood out ever so slightly for having a distinctive style sense and I’ve only gotten better with expressing myself with style.
I’m most proud of my imagining. And how I’ve refined everything. I know my brand and my targeted audience. I’m ecstatic for the future and to share all of my art with everyone and continue to grow, just just be on the lookout for Raeykwon & incrmnts.
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
So there’s a lot of ways to go about building an audience. And numbers are only the image behind it. I built my core base by essentially being me. Back in 2017 & 2018 social media was view different and times were different, and there was no TikTok. I had a big personality and a unique sense of style so I felt like that was the easiest to capitalize off of. I’d go on live and really do just about anything, and I mean ANYTHING. Eventually doing crazy things on live and making music on live became a formula for averaging 30-50 viewers in my instagram lives. Engaging with people who were interacting with me and building connections.
My advice on building a following, be yourself in the most authentic way, and then polish your brand and image. And always be your biggest fan.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
A lesson I had to unlearn was to stop being a perfectionist and to stop being so hard on myself. There’s a lot of advantages to being a hard critic on yourself, but cons as well. It became stagnant for me. I battle with myself for years with this too. Wanting things to be exactly how I wanted them. Worrying too much about who will like it and not. The trick is to really be a legitimate fan of yourself. Enjoy the craft for just that. Let things flow. There IS someone out there who WILL like it.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.incrmnts.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rae4m
- Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/rae4m
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@Rae4m?si=srbmzBT9T7kas_eq
Image Credits
Honee BackinfxCody BackinfxMoe