Artist Bio: My name is Arkay I’m a 23 Year old Female Musician from Paterson, New Jersey but located in Providence, Rhode Island. The rest of my story can be told by my music.

1) Talk to me about the making of your latest project. What was the inspiration behind it?

The inspiration behind making this project is to simply explain to my listeners Who am I what’s my story, why am I even doing this. My mixtape is called ‘Foreign’ which the definition of it means ‘Strange’ or ‘Unfamiliar’. I provide an Unfamiliar sound as well.

2) With the music industry tanking and record sales falling, how do you currently make money as an independent hip-hop artist?

To be honest, I had to get a job to at least support myself financially. My boyfriend also works so he assists me as well. So, anything that I need to purchase when it comes to music all depends on that check I get from work.

3) From a business point of view, which artists in the game do you think are really pushing the boundaries and changing it up?

Hm, that’s actually a good question. Honestly, I don’t normally pay attention to that but I would go with Dr. Dre because he’s been very successful when it comes to business but I’m not sure if he’s considered an artist, if he is then I would go with him, if he’s not then I would go with P. Diddy.

4) What business lessons have you learnt from the music industry so far?

I’ve learned that it’s great to make investments in different categories for example investing in a different type of business like a sports drink, or designing your own clothing line, designing entertainment products. Trying to be smart with your money is something I want to do, I want to increase my the amount of money I would earn in the long term.

5) What do you love about hip-hop music?

I love the story telling, I love it so much. I love when other artists express their struggle, their feelings, I love being able to relate to somebody. The creativity that a artist may have as well.

6) What still surprises you about hip-hop?

The creativity defintently, most Hip-Hop artists have this incredible way of standing out and I admire that so much. I feel like in Hip-Hop it’s all about showing what you can really do and there’s so many artists that do that, that makes me enjoy Hip-Hop and enjoy being apart of it so much more.

7) If you had the power to change one thing about the hip-hop industry to help independent artists – what would it be?

The message. I’m not assuming you have to send out the same message every time but a positive message about anything really. I don’t wanna hear you talk about how much money you have, I wanna hear you talk about your passion for the game, why do you wake up in the morning and want to make music.

8) Who do you think are top 3 rappers doing it at the moment?

Honestly, people who do know me might assume I’m a little bias for choosing this answer but I’m picking Eminem, Logic, and J.Cole.

9) So what are your plans for the future?

My plans for the future are to continue to chase my dream, improve my life, and to not change into a person I’ve always said I wouldn’t turn into. The fame and money usually always changes a person and most of the time you don’t even notice it.

When you reach that certain level of fame you lose sight of why your even working this hard to get there and I don’t wanna lose my sight on that. I want to make sure that even though I’ve made it, I still need to work even harder than I did in the past.

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Written by Stop The Breaks
Stop The Breaks is an independent music marketing company focused on showcasing independent hip-hop artists. Our goal is to help motivate, inspire and educate independent artists grinding around the world. We provide branding, content marketing, social media, SEO and music promotion services.