Today we’d like to introduce you to Sloan Karri, aka Sir Karri.
Sloan, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
My interest in music began at the age of 7. My mom introduced me to hip hop, and my uncle played a big role as well. I used to carry a notepad around and write lyrics in it as often as possible. When I got a little older, I got an mp3 player that came with a built in microphone. I’d record myself and upload it to my Myspace to show off at school. Eventually, I started getting into mixing and even bought a microphone. It was a USB mic, but with the software and online tutorials, I’d put things together. I started uploading to YouTube, and some of the songs are even out today. Once I got out of high school, things happened within my personal life that would distract me from my goals as a musician and businessman. However, every time that happened, I’d somehow eventually find myself back on that same path. I wanna say about, 4 years ago, I got tired of my current situation. I had to understand only I could get myself to where I wanted to be.I knew there was more to life than a 9-5. I’ve been making moves with my team ever since.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It’s naturally come with its hurdles. Some of my family didn’t see music as a realistic path for a long time. My education was the number one priority, which today I can understand. At the time though, I felt like my dream was almost being denounced. My dad was one of the people who were quick to encourage me to do just about anything. He always knew how I felt about music and that it was something I wanted to pursue in life. During my sophomore year, I was recording in my room and he had apparently noticed my progress. He was actually excited, so much so that he would always bring it up in conversations in hopes of telling the right person. He’d eventually introduce me to one of his friends. That friend would eventually become my manager. I was excited for what seemed to be first chance to get into the music industry. But then, nothing happened. We’d sometimes record in a shed in the back of his house but the results just weren’t there. We’d meet people, but usually only once due to some deal apparently not going through and a bridge being burned. What made it worse was a lot of the time was spent talking. Admittedly, I didn’t understand that no matter what, or who I worked with, this was going to be a grind. However I did understand that I wasn’t on the grind with the right people. We had maybe done two photo shoots, but that was all that came out of it. It really hit me pretty hard when a year went by and I didn’t see much progress. Over the next couple of years, I’d come to realize that I should be the only one able to stand in my way, and I shouldn’t even allow that to happen. Although it took me a while, this experience, as well as learning to create for myself, really helped me become the artist I am today.
Please tell us about Six19.
Six19 is currently my main focus. Its a platform made to give proper representation of San Diego’s many creative scenes, which right now is primarily hip hop and art. We’ve done several events and several interviews thus far, and we only plan on getting bigger by releasing more original content. I remember making a playlist of some of my favorite local artists and thinking, “who’s gonna cover this?” It didn’t seem like there were many outlets REALLY tapped into our scene; at least not enough to consistently offer artists press on their platform. Mind you, a lot of these hip hop outlets in our city of San Diego present themselves as a platform that brings San Diego hip hop to listeners, but most of the time there’s politics, or just not the best foot put forward plain and simple. This isn’t every platform, but the ratio of accessible platforms to inaccessible platforms is definitely in the latter’s favor. Long story less long, I believe that’s the incorrect approach. There’s a lot of talent out here, and naturally, that’s a lot of ground to cover. We can acknowledge that much. But there’s still no excuse that some of the bigger names in our scene don’t receive acknowledgment for their recent efforts. Lately we’ve been doing a lot of collaborative events. Our last one, Smack City, was a collaborative effort between us and BearPacificWest. It featured hip hop acts such as myself, Fresh Heir, DPTheUnknown, TealiDeal, CaliTheDreamer, Eric Amadeus, BHTK, K. Oh(BearPacificWest), & Laron of CIDE. Everybody on the card had a great set, and we had a great turnout as well. There’s an audience in the city worth catering to. You can find us on our main platform, Instagram, at @Six19SD.
Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
One of my favorite childhood memories has to be when I was in a YMCA summer program in elementary school. When I say being a rapper was just about all I talked about as a kid, it got to a point where they decided to have a talent show. I’m a huge fan of Will Smith’s work, and as a kid, I’d listen to his music a lot. Men In Black was one of my favorite movies and my mom must’ve dropped that information on the staff beforehand when she learned about the talent show. I say that because they came up with the amazing idea to have me close the show “performing” the Men In Black theme song featuring one of the girls to do Coko’s part. They had backup dancers and everything! It was my first time being on stage and even though my microphone was a paper towel tube with a balled up piece of construction paper on top, the crowd was thoroughly entertained. It was my first taste of performing on stage, and it further solidified my love for music & performing at a young age.
Contact Info:
- Email: karri95music@gmail.com
- Instagram: Instagram.com/SirKarri
- Twitter: Twitter.com/SirKarri
- Other: Instagram.com/Six19SD
Image Credit:
NSM & Ryan Joseph
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