The Connecticut-bred 17-year-old producer-slash-emcee, Lennon, is an upcoming artist whose eventual goal is to be compared to his idols, such as the late great J. Dilla and the always amazing 9th Wonder. He began concocting beats at 13-years-old, an age where most kids are playing with G.I. Joe’s, not drum machines. Lennon also started a beat-tape series in 2008 called Decktales for Go Skateboarding Day on June 21st, an unofficial annual holiday created by the IASC to promote skateboarding. The third volume of the series will be dropping this June on the Cosmic Souls Collective. His most recent project dropped February 3rd and is titled A Beat Tape. For being as young as he is there is a lot of soul in his music, definitely don’t sleep on this kid and check out his answers to our First 5.
1. Tell us something no one knows about you.
Hmm… most people don’t know that I’ve been involved in music most of my life. I did band when I first moved to my current town, East Hartford and did it until High School. I started for two years with saxophone, doing a little bit of jazz after I originally learned. That’s when I realized that this was something I wanted to do for a while. Then I moved onto Percussion in middle school. Snare, bass, xylophone, timpani, you name it they made me play it at some time hahaha. I actually learned most of the stuff by ear but I could read a little bit of music by the time I was done. I remember in about 7th grade they tried to make me play triangle for a school concert and that’s where I drew the line though, I mean I appreciate the instrument but sitting there going “ting!” every other 10 minutes woulda made me go to sleep. In high school though, I wanted to do football so band was out of the question, but I got hurt so I ended up just working on music, because in 8th grade my cousin Jeremiah introduced me to FL Studio, and its history from there…
2. What do you want people to take away from your music?
I want to move people. The biggest thing for me is knowing not just that someone likes my music but understands it and appreciates what they get from it. I wanna make music for a living I can’t front on that. But even if I never get signed, my goal is to make great music and to influence somebody to go do something, ya know? It’s a lot of dope music I listen to but I’ll listen to it after I bought or downloaded it just once, and it just sits there collecting digital dust in my iTunes. I don’t want that for my own stuff. If someone cops my music I want the play count for my joints in their iTunes to be up there and stay up there… you know how people go back and listen to It Was Written or Ready To Die, almost 20 years after it’s been released, because they feel that music? That’s how I want my stuff to be.
3. What is one of your biggest regrets?
There are opportunities I could have capitalized on when I was younger that I never did. I’m only 17, but I’ve had my fair share of hardships. Not to say I lived a shitty life, hell, I’m glad my mom has the house she does and I have my Xbox 360 that I play and stuff, but I feel that there’s a lot more I could have done to contribute to everything I have in this life that I didn’t… I guess it was me being young and lazy, but I still have some growing up to do.
4. What’s one of your greatest hip-hop memories?
Wow, that’s a hard one… I still haven’t been to a Rock The Bells or SXSW so I’m sure this will change after I do, but personally I think my first cipher was one of the best experiences I’ve ever had. I used to freestyle in the cafeteria when i was like 13 and stuff, but when I went to high school and was really out the house more, I saw a couple older homies crowded outside so I wanted to see what was goin’ on, it’s a small town so not much happens. Then I saw dudes rappin’ over some beats so it was like oh damn, and the dudes were dope so I knew I had to come correct. Then I stepped up and they see me, I was like 5'5-ish at the time and their all 6 foot plus, so they’re like this little dude? psh. When I started spittin’ though they gave me some respect, I mean I wasn’t on their level or anything but I hung in there so it was cool…
5. Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
In five years? To be real, hopefully getting out of school if I’m not already, hopefully with a couple of major placements under my belt… I wanna get some tracks on some videogames maybe or TV, that’s the dream. But in all honesty, being successful is my main goal. As long as I’m more than content with what I’m doing, my morals are where they should be and I’ve got a steady income, I that’s all I need.
Follow Lennon on Twitter(@akidnamedlennon) and check out his website, akidnamedlennon.com.
-via Above Ground Magazine
