We recently connected with Ultmt. and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Ultmt. thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

As a creative/artist, we take risks everyday. It takes a certain amount of vulnerability to put yourself out there publicly and can be crazy intimidating, to be honest. For me, putting on the mask as an artist was a big risk because in some ways it can come off as gimmicky and the point could be missed entirely, but also my ‘sound’ in general.

I’m less focused on the sonics and more on the actual feeling, because it’s kind of indicative of who I am as a person. I love tapping into the source of things rather than just what’s on the surface, let’s get deep and tell me how you REALLY feel and what makes you you. I think that’s why I gravitated towards the lo-fi scene, because in a lot of ways it was more mood setting and atmosphere driven rather than sound and served a specific purpose other than being about the actual artist. I came from a hip-hop background so it’s very easy for me to default to that, but I had made the conscience decision to make something that sounds as little like hip-hop as possible to push my self and the listener to a place of “it’s cool to like this if you want”, so if you still vibe to it and like something you normally wouldn’t on the surface, then my job is done.

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?

early on, I was discovered by Phife Dawg of A Tribe Called Quest at age 16 and started touring with him globally as his Hypeman (and a 2 year stint as his DJ) from age 19 on. He also had brought me onto his production team alongside himself and my now manager, Dj Rasta Roots. What he said that stood out about me most, to him, was that I wasn’t afraid to be different and bring my own sound to the table and not just play him beats that “Tribe would be perfect on”. That was one of the biggest lessons I had learned from him was that originality was key and a lot of producers would fall into the trap of sending him beats trying to sound as close to tribe as possible, but to him, he was like “we already do that, we got that covered, play me something YOU like, not what you think I like, then let me decide if I like it or not” lol.

I come from a time when being a black skater who watched anime and listened to metal was NOT cool at all and and people would get clowned or bullied for it. For some reason, probably because I just didn’t care and owned it like “yeah that’s what I like, so what?”, they kind of would just leave me be, but was always too weird for the cool Kids, but too cool for the weird kids and hung out both sides equally. Nowadays it’s the opposite and cool to be into all of those things, which I love, and feel like I, in some ways, and others like me, paved the way which is another reason why I jumped into the lofi scene and that’s my mission as an artist, which is to make it okay to just like the things you like with no judgement, no shame, no weirdness. You see it all the time growing up, you can have a close firend that you live near and are into different things, but once they get to school, the more popular one, kind of keeps them at arms distance so that the other kids won’t think they’re weird. In the beginning, people really didn’t understand what I was going for, even my closest friends (some still don’t tbh) but once my numbers had started growing it started to make a little bit more since to them. At first it was the DSPs when a bunch of my songs got a million+ streams, but then my song ‘smiles & sunsets’ went viral on tiktok and got over 5 billion video views, that’s when people started asking more questions about what it is that I do

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

Be different, be creative, be you. There are a ton of phenomenal musicians out there who can be the source for a lot of inspiration, but don’t forget to find your own voice. It’s what drives my every move and decision as an artists. The most satisfying experiences I’ve had in my career is when I get hired/booked for my personal sound and art and 9 out of 10 times they explicitly tell me, that would got me the gig is because I was different from what they are normally given, it becomes too redundant.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

I think being vocal and showing up for your favorite artists is what matters most. You see it with Kpop stans and swifties, but that’s really the only place you see it. Go support them live, don’t be afraid to tag the artists in your stories if you use their music in that story, share the music. In this day and age a digital footprint is key, and your voice helps bring attention to them.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ultmt.music
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ultmtmusic
• Twitter: https://www.x.com/ultmt_music
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@ultmt.
• Soundcloud: https://www.soundcloud.com/ultmt-music

Image Credits

Epifania, Ryan Galvan, Abe 8th One, ultmt., Hay.Low, ultmt., Nadia the Nerdy, ultmt.