KHS Blogs
Friday, 5 May 2017
Thursday, 4 May 2017
Masthead
Development of Masthead
These are some of the logos I designed when trying to create a masthead for my magazine. Wednesday, 3 May 2017
Arcticle for My Music Magazine
Born and
raised in rough streets of Harlem, New York’s Elijah Ames aka Elijah Gold has
been through the struggle and hustle of a hard knock life but he’s now at the
peak of his career and is seen as one of the most influential characters in the
rap game today. Even being the great rapper that he is unbelievers are sceptical
over him and some of his actions but like the rapper said himself, “You’ll
always have haters, no matter how good you are at what you do, people will
doubt you.” But with the upcoming release of Elijah’s new album, “Gold World” he
hopes to prove himself to the rap community, show his talent and reach out to
new people. He insists there are more great things to come. Read more about
Elijah’s views and his come up in The Plug’s
EXCLUSIVE interview.
Gold grasps people, not just by his unique sounding music,
but by his style, presence, mind-set and views. He certainly did that when we
sat down with Elijah in Rocky Suite at London’s opulent West Hotel. The huge
place filled with antique bookcases and porcelain horses, looks like the sort
of place minor royalty would stay if Buck Palace was overbooked. The sofa alone
probably costs more than a decent family car, but this is no time to get
distracted by the furniture. He grins, shakes my hand and sits down; I have
never seen a man with so much swag, looking trill would be an understatement.
Supreme hat, Bape tee, off white sweats and Gucci flip flops, it’s safe to say
that Elijah’s outfit was not cheap.
Elijah who was born in Harlem, New York, named
Elijah Ames made his name with the fresh sound of his 2011 mixtape ‘Long Live Harlem’,
which was different to any current rapper. Elijah’s music was like a drug
states Big Trippa, “Brothers were mesmerized by his flow and bars, he has the
ability to make raps to chill, party or even cry to and I find that extraordinary.”
With meaning and flow, Gold demonstrated his ability to combine and change
numerous rap styles, he also produced the mixtape himself and it included no
features, for the amount of sales the mixtape made it’s unbelievable. The
mixtape also spawned international mega-hits ‘Gold Soul’ and ‘The Harlem Way’ which
both have over 50 million views on YouTube to this date. It’s clear that Elijah
Gold is the ultimate rapper right now.
Elijah’s fame and lavish lifestyle didn’t come over night; he
admits there were many times he thought about giving up. “I thought about
giving up on many occasions, being a white rapper in the game is not easy.” Gold
also told us what sparked his rap career. “Since a young age I had a passion
for rap music that most people didn’t understand. When I was a teen I would
mess around, chill, blaze up and freestyle over beats and it was like a sort of
hobby, it was my life and it just progressed from there really.” At the age of
16 he formed a rap group with two close friends but due to disagreements and
views the group didn’t take off. “The group was called Supreme Rap and yeah it
never really developed into much except some mess around songs and some dope
ass freestyles, we just had different opinions on where we should go as a group
and how to go about it.”
Whilst
growing up in Harlem with an immense passion for rap music Elijah had lots of
inspirations and listened to every style of rap you could think of, some of
which may surprise. “I loved music overall but was only interested in making
rap songs, I was a huge Eminem fan but I could be listening to Biggie in the
morning, Cole in the afternoon then Drake at night, my life revolved around
music, but growing up in New York and seeing the likes of Joey Badass and
Flatbush Zombies doing so well is what inspired and motivated me.”
Whilst in the
company of probably the hottest rap star right now, we proceeded to ask Gold about
being compared to Tupac and what it’s like to be a white artist in a black
dominated genre, he said “People have said I am like the white Tupac and that I’m
here to save hip hop, No one should be compared to Pac, and I mean no one, to
be honest I’m just trying to do my own thing and make inspiring music and if
people ride with me then that’s great. “On the being white thing”, I can’t
change the colour of my skin and someone shouldn’t be dependent on the colour
of their skin, black, white, red, blue if you make dope music you make dope
music.”
It started off as a hobby, but by the age of 16 Elijah was
writing his own songs and by the age of
18 his first mixtape “Long Live Harlem” was complete and released not long
after. We asked Elijah what the story behind the mixtape and the songs was and
when he knew he was creating something special. “I just wanted to vent. In the
mixtape I give people an insight into my world and my thoughts, It started when
people who I see as my homies were listening and buying my music, but I
realised shit was getting real when my music spread across New York…it was like
a disease, I was given the nickname The King Of Harlem, people loved it.”
Over the course of our conversation, I found out why Elijah
is one of the best-selling artists of our generation, from his personality to
his music the man is impeccable. Elijah Gold’s new album “Gold World” including
the hit single “Harlem Love” produced by Dr. Grey is out Friday 12th August.
Tour dates will accompany this release with tickets available on www.ticketmaster.com
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