We were lucky to catch up with Steven Joseph recently and have shared our conversation below.

Steven, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

I wanted to go full-time with music in 2019 but the pandemic made it difficult to rebuild all the momentum that I had before COVID. Financially I wasn’t in a place to invest in the music. Fast forward to 2022, I was faced with a decision to quit or to go all in on my dream. I knew that if I wanted to continue my music career I would have to take a couple of years off working my 9-5 and driving Uber after work to bring in extra money. I knew that if I could make it through those years of working 60 to 70 hours a week I could make music work. I am still in the beginning stages of making my music career a full-time gig but I have learned a lot over the last 5 years.

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.

When I was younger, growing up in Vegas, I would write verses in high school but I didn’t feel it would take me anywhere As time went on, my friends in Vegas who were already making music, heard some of my verses and asked me to start collaborating with them. I began to do shows as a feature and I started to notice how people were responding to my story through song. My story as an artist didn’t start till I was 20 years old.

I make music for people who want to do more than the norm. What sets me apart as an artist is that I can bring people together. My music is clean so people from 5 to 85 can listen to my music. A motto my team and I stand by is ” Fulfill Your Gifts”. No matter what you are passionate about, I want to inspire whoever is listening, to go after their dreams.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

It can be hard being a full-time artist and creative. There has been a lot of confusion on people’s faces when I say I’m quitting my stable job to do music full-time. Especially when you say you are a rapper specifically. Most people go to their job in the morning, work an 8-hour shift 5 days a week, get paid bi-weekly, rinse and repeat. As a creative, you can work for months or even years without seeing any monetary return. For a lot of people, if they don’t see money in exchange for the time they put in, it’s not worth their time.

The time that I put into music is investment. Every time that I put something out I have the belief that it will not only help me financially but it will help someone else as well. I don’t see music as a get-rich-quick scheme or “I want to be as famous as possible”. Because of this, the community I am surrounded by gives me the resources to keep going. If you want to be a creative, you should do it for the right reasons. I make music because I love it. You have your whole life to work a 9-5 but being a creative is a gift that not everyone gets to experience.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

When everything shut down in 2020 I started brainstorming different ways to put myself in front of a bigger audience. I couldn’t do a show because of COVID and I didn’t want to release an album because I couldn’t perform the album anywhere. This led me to rap over some of my favorite instrumentals, and start a series called “Stay at Home Sundays”. The only things I used to make these videos were my phone and CapCut to edit the videos. Every Sunday I would write a verse and shoot a video. The videos did so well inside my own following that I started to run IG ads on them. This took my Instagram following from 900 followers to 10,000 followers in a little under a year.

My advice to grow your socials is to 1. Make something you love and are excited to share. 2. If that post does better than other posts on your page then run ads on that post. 3. Interact with the people that comment on your post. Build a community and get to know the people who like your content. This will help you better understand your audience.

Contact Info:

• Website: https:// linktr.ee/steviegottajay
• Instagram: @steviegottajay
• Youtube: @steviegottajay

Image Credits

Raphael Carmona