We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Rexx Redd a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Rexx , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you take us back in time to the first dollar you earned as a creative – how did it happen? What’s the story?

Earning your first dollar while doing what you love is a priceless feeling! It took me years to create a formula that would get me paid from my music, and once I did I immediately started to think of ways to scale that dollar into 10 or even 100. I figured out that as long as I can get people to listen to my music on certain platforms I can turn that into a pretty decent income without having a boss or having to answer to anyone. However getting people to hear you is its own monster by itself. I’m currently working on ways to bring in more listeners which will translate into more money. This process has been a lonely one for me so far, however I am committed to my music so I won’t be throwing in the towel anytime soon. I do work 9-5 jobs but I have no interest in traditional work long term. Once I can make a living solely off of income from music I’ll be able to take things even further. I absolutely encourage anyone that is a creative to find a way to make your money on your own. If you have a genuine talent and love what you do, then you should get paid for it in my opinion. Keep Going!

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?

My name is Rexx Redd.. a lot of people ask how or where did that name come from an honestly it is NOT an exciting story behind it. I take the name “Red” from one of my favorite uncles, who was actually the first one to start calling my by that himself so I added the extra D to change things up. The rexx part was well…. Actually pretty random and off the top of my head. I had been going by the name “Loco” or “Loc” throughout high school and by the time I was about 20 I felt it was time to change it. Loco just seemed a bit too corny for me. After a while. I started to hate it.

I got into music at about age 15 or 16. Me and my best friend started a group and eventually had a few other people on board. Prior to that in middle school I would rap with some friends at the lunch table as a joke and people started actually watching us. Little did I know where that would take me. So The first time I went to a studio was my best-friends basement. Somehow he pieced together everything we needed and from there we started recording songs. As we got older I eventually became the only one that still enjoyed making music so everyone else just stopped. At around 18 I started paying for studio time myself and recording whatever I could.

When I started “rapping” (I hate that word) times were a bit different so my idols and influences were completely different than a 15 yr old in todays time. When I started in music what you SAID and structure was the important part of a record, as opposed to now a days it’s more about the beat or how ridiculous you can sound on record just go viral. Also the autotune / sing rap wasn’t born yet so I was never really influenced by t anything like that.

The music I liked started to shift me into emulating what I saw and heard and turn it into my own. The music I make is quite lyrical with lots of punchlines. A lot of people say I come across as like a New York styled rapper, but I think thats only because hip hop music is forever evolving, and times change with it so average listeners don’t categorize it properly. My sound is a bit dark and gritty as well. I’m not your artist that just talks bout money , women, and cars all day. Even though a lot of that music is very entertaining.

My proudest moment was creating my LLC and putting in the beginner stages of signing myself. I would absolutely sign a contract if it’s actually beneficial to me, however I don’t even know where to begin with getting my music to solidified record labels. I’ve done almost everything by myself for years and I’m just trying to the best I know how. I’m am open and actually looking for new and better opportunities to push me forward even more. I want people to understand that I’m just like them. I’m a father twice over now and I don’t do what I do just for myself or my own personal satisfaction. I have a family to feed just like we all do and I want to go as far as I can in order to give my kids the very best.

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

Absolutely! I wish I understood marketing and promotion a lot earlier. I think I would have been a lot further had I know back then what I know now. Also I wish I had more people to take this journey with. This has been an extremely lonely road for me and I see how other artist always have someone in their corner helping them progress. I’ve never had that genuinely and I just would love to experience support sometimes outside of the people that say they support you and then disappear.

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 HUGE lesson i would say I had to learn was self worth and self happiness. I had to UNLEARN putting my self down and self sabotaging myself. This lesson really started for me in 2018 when my ex girlfriend passed away. I talk about her a lot in my music and she was a big inspiration for me. Her death tore me down so bad it was paralyzing. I realized that at some point for whatever reason she became my world and I loved her so much. I didn’t feel like there was anything left for me and I just felt unworthy of everything. I couldn’t get out of my bed for about a week and then one day I just heard her voice in my telling me I need to get up and go find myself. Up until that moment I honestly thought I did. I always wanted to do music but having her just made all my cares go away completely, as long as she was ok then so was I.I now know that isn’t necessarily good. It’s ok if a person can bring you joy but if you can’t bring yourself joy without them then you’re worthless. I didn’t care about self happiness until that point and had to start to figure out what I need to do to feel that for myself . I’ve always been a bit of a loner but never once thought about how happy I was until her passing. Sometimes you have to TEACH yourself to LOVE yourself.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: Instagram.com/rexxredd216
• Facebook: facebook.com/RexxRedd216
• Twitter: Twitter.com/rexxredd216
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@RadioRexxRedd
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/1G3PmOx4Y94vRwLbIXMtiB?si=1JirPu0DRIaXF7fdldFxGg https://music.apple.com/us/artist/rexx-redd/1361384213