Artist Spotlight
Exclusive Interview with Rap-artist Lil Don Young Boss
Lil Don Young Boss is a rapper born in Memphis, Tennessee – USA. He was raised very close to Memphis in the small city of Southaven, Mississippi State. His life started off very okay and quickly descended going from the suburbs…to not the suburbs….
In 2018, he crossed the Atlantic Ocean to join his soul mate and settled in Neuchâtel – Switzerland. Lil Don Young Boss is set to take over Europe and the United States with his music that can change the rap game.
An exclusive interview by Honk Magazine reporter shows much talent in Lil Don Young Boss as you read the following extracts:
Questions:-
- Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
Summing up all of my background and my past starting off in the Mississippi and Memphis Tennessee area. I kind of had my own life struggles and I was going through many different things at several many different times and then I met my wife when I was on vacation on a cruise ship overseas. Then I came to Switzerland and got married. It was hard to blend in and find my role, so after I tried a few jobs and went through some more struggles I felt that my true calling was music.
2. Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started this career?
The most interesting thing that happened since I started my career in Switzerland is culture shock. Going crazy because everything is different and really trying to learn the ways of these people here. Life is totally different from where I come from. Where I am from normal problems are having to do with money, hoping not to get shot or robbed, and trust. Here the normal problems (that I’ve noticed) are trying to find love, or find a purpose in life, of course, money is a problem (but nowhere near the stress in America), and trying to find out what really makes you happy. People over here have so much trust is crazy. The first thing I noticed when I came here was a whole bunch of fresh vegetables on the side of the road. I told my wife to let me take them. She said Okay just put the money in that little box. So on the side of the street, there is a box of money and fresh vegetables ….that would not last 2 seconds where I am from.
3. Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
I guess the funniest mistake that happened since I started was trying to build a team in a place like this. I was really focused on building a team, but this soon changed after I realized how the world works. Nobody really wants to see you doing better than them and time is money. The future became irrelevant to most people I was around and when you talk about a plan most people see it as a dream that will fail. So why do people stay? I learned people normally see self benefits when they can and it makes me laugh so hard because everybody thinks they are the best at what they do. I learned to think differently and never to say I am the best but to truly try to do the best I can do and remain humble. Never will I ever waste my energy on trying to put others on the same page as me again. I know why people say it is lonely at the top.
4. What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now?
I have some amazing projects coming up! Soon I plan on filming a few music videos in Paris, Italy, and possibly to London. And we have already done some amazing things such as taking off in a helicopter and going to the palace of Montreux in a Lamborghini. Many more things coming this year that you need to just watch and see because I cannot spoil everything.
5. Who are some of the most interesting people you have interacted with? What was that like? Do you have any stories?
The most interesting people I have interacted with is definitely the young Swiss Artists! They are all so different. The style of clothing is so different for example; men are wearing fanny packs and purses. The music is different as well. They use so much auto-tune! I learned that they like American music, but they don’t understand and this is why even if you are at a basketball game full of children there is no censored music. The artists here are full of culture from Africa, Italy, Germany, France, and more. I have discovered genres of music I did not even know existed. These experiences are some I will never forget and the artists here are so different it is truly unexplainable. Music is alive.
6. Which tips would you recommend to your colleagues in your industry to help them to thrive and not “burn out”?
Trust yourself. Only believe in yourself and if anybody tells you not to do something then you probably should do it, unless you know that you really shouldn’t.
I would also tell them to remember any game they have ever played. Games can be fun. But if it is too easy it is boring. A good game offers a challenge or challenges. Some are easy and some are hard, but you have to beat the challenge to see what is next. If you do not beat the challenge you are stuck. Do you want to get to the next level or are you going to stay stuck?
7. You have been blessed with success in a career path that can be challenging. Do you have any words of advice for others who may want to embark on this career path, but seem daunted by the prospect of failure?
In reality, whatever you put your time and your energy into becomes you. If you don’t succeed in what you are wanting it is probably because you do not put enough time in it. Life before death is about working. What are you working on daily? Do you have goals? Do you have plans to reach your goals? Are you truly working on trying to get to where you want to be in life, honestly?
8. Can you share with our readers any self-care routines, practices, or treatments that you do to help your body, mind, or heart to thrive? Kindly share a story or an example for each.
If I ever need to feel good, I roll up and I smoke it. If that doesn’t work I love to put my headphones in and go for long walks with just me and the music.
Sometimes when I cannot sleep because I have too much on my mind or I really feel emotional, I just do not talk to anybody and take some time to really think. And I think hard. I think about nothing around me, but just me. What can I do for myself? How can I make myself happy? I ask myself all the questions that make me, me. This helps me so much because sometimes I get so caught up in the world and in everything I tend to forget to even think about myself.
9. What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why? Please share a story or example for each.
a) I wish someone would have told me I didn’t need a team and I could do everything I need to by myself.
b) I wish someone would have told me that the minute you start becoming afraid is the same minute you lose.
c) I wish someone would have shown me how to really market my music and get it out there.
d) I wish someone would have explained how to get all the right connections because some people are just a waste of time.
e) I wish someone told me before how the whole game works.
10. Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
Do not trust anyone, get money, and keep moving forward. This is really relevant to my life because many people come around and try to pretend like they are somebody that they are not, and they wasted my time. Getting money is obviously important in this life because you need food, clothes, and a roof over your head. Moving forward means don’t stop or get stuck, find a way to push through, and keep going even when it seems impossible.
11. None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
Definitely my wife! She is the only one who put in work to help me get to where I am now and to help get me to where I am going. She is capable of using that half of the brain that I don’t use and when you put half and a half together you can truly have a masterpiece! Every day, like a normal job, she sets the alarm clock at 7 a.m. and immediately gets up to start contacting radios, partnerships, podcasts, and anything else musically related. I cannot be lazy because this kind of woman does not allow that. She says if I want to be a rapper I must rap! So she makes sure that I do not miss any opportunity to be behind a microphone from the studio at my house to the clubs and concerts. One(1) song a week is super easy with a woman like this I promise!
12. You are a person of enormous influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
I guess my movement would be conversations. How many people in the world are going through things and only wish they had somebody to talk with. I would start the movement of being out in public taking time to look for someone who is obviously having a bad day and just talk. Try to put a smile on a sad face. Try to make someone’s day better because we all are human and we all have feelings. The day people start actually caring is the day the world changes forever.
13. We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might see this. 🙂
If I could sit down with somebody for breakfast, I think it would be with Kevin Gates because of his strong mentality and the character he portrays to be. I would love to hear how he got to where he is today and how he set his mind to think the way he does now.
14 How can our readers follow you online?
Follow Lil Don Young Boss:
Album Review
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In a world of notifications and automated responses, algorithms, and feedback requests, Cognitive Constellation Corps finds something unexpectedly human inside the machinery. “Thank You for Your Feedback (I)” is an alt-pop exploration of connection, isolation, communication, and the increasingly complicated relationship between people and technology, transforming familiar procedural language into something else.
Created by Brooke Tamsin Clevenger, a Belfast-based artist, the project’s principal composer, lyricist, producer, and conceptual director, the album is deliberately constructed around what happens to human emotion when our lives are increasingly structured by systems that process information rather than necessarily understand feelings. The album opens with “Opening Loop (i),” which introduces that world through the idea of repetition, linking software loops to the habits we humans learn in modern life.
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