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

Hi Zechariah, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

The first time I knew I wanted to pursue music professionally was in 6th grade. There was a talent show they were throwing and I had always messed around with rapping as a child so I figured why not. I got on stage, started rapping and it took someone in the crowd to yell out that the mic wasn’t on. Funny as it was the show continued, I finished my song and the ROAR they let out while the beat was still going really woke up something in young me. Getting off the stage to a bunch of people screaming and scrambling for your attention, trying to give you a high five, it was just a beautiful moment and I want to recreate that moment as many times as I can.

Zechariah, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Yeah definitely, I’m a producer, artist, clothes designer, actor, an entertainer in short. I got into writing music from my cousin and my uncle who were musicians themselves. I started producing at 15 and released my first music video 4 years later in 2019. I started taking my artistry a little more seriously in 2023 as I was moving around and just experiencing life in general. I make music for people who know the struggle, but they don’t let the struggle stop their shine. What sets TOON (The Only One Noble) apart from anything else is that blend of geeky nostalgia mixed with humble and rough beginnings.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

After a bad car wreck I was virtually left with no friends afterwards. The ones I called my friends then didn’t bother to check on me to see how I was doing and that pretty much sealed the nail in the coffin for those relationships. It led to me looking more inward and this was also around the time Hurricane Beryl had came through Houston. Left with no friends to call on for help and because I worked from home at the time I had no money coming in for a while. The power being out for so long didn’t help so I decided to get another job, but that commute required a 2 hour walk to work on top of an hour bus ride. Trust me when I say though when there’s a will there’s a way.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

Simply share the art. It’s free for most people to do and it goes a long way for the creators in general. Nobody hears about the tree that falls in the woods unless someone goes back to tell about it.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/toonkino/profilecard/?igsh=eXg0Y2RlYTNhZzVu
• Soundcloud: https://on.soundcloud.com/8gzdfsNUNzEpPHwG7
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5vaAx7XYm253dC9vSkItHF?si=iiYqgd27RP-PylSRbHPYHg