Words I Said: Full Stream/Download SonReal "Words I Said"
Rachel: What is SonReal? Does the name have some special significance to you?
Aaron: Yeah I mean it’s just something I came up with when I was like 17 or 16 years old and I don’t exactly have like a crazy reasoning behind my name. I’m not like the son of the realist, it just sounded dope and it had a good ring to it. I think that with anybody when they chose their name it should be something that feels good, feels good to say, and feels good to be called. SonReal just describes me and feels good.
R: How did you get into this industry? Did you always want to rap?
A: Uh, yeah I mean like when I was younger I wanted to be a leader singer in a punk band, because I was really into punk when I was really young and that is what I wanted to do. As my music taste changed, I got into hip-hop and just naturally wanted to be a rapper, I don’t know. If I had something to say, I just kinda wanted to spread my little message to anyone who would listen to it.
R: You’ve been climbing up the ladder since 2008, how has the journey treated you?
A: It’s been awesome man, really humbling because I feel like as an artist I have grown like so much. You know back in 2008 things were a lot different like I didn’t have a fan base, youtube wasn’t even that big in 2008 and like just going through the changes of technology and the whole internet becoming the new main force behind artists and us not needing major labels anymore, you know going through all of that has been real cool. It’s been a cool journey, it’s humbling you know and I have been fortunate enough to have my journey constantly going up.
R: Your mixtape “Words I Said” is such a array of musical styles, what inspired you to put these together for a mixtape release?
A: Well I have always been someone who I consider to be a really versatile hip-hop artist and that’s why I have the ability to cross over into different genres. For instance like I can’t even pin-point my demographic because it’s so big. It’s always been my choice to be versatile, I have a wide variety of styles and things like that and “Words I Said” is just like a good depiction of what I am in different styles of music.
R: Let alone a release, what led you to release this mixtape for a free download online?
A: Well #1 it has dubs on it and stuff like that, which means I used other peoples instrumentals and put my own thing in ‘em. Right now I am just trying to build my fan base, like if I can go have 100,000 more fans and instead make less money, that’s more important to me. I’m basically just trying to get my music out there the best way I can and it just so happens that people are really into downloading music for free and what a lot of people don’t understand is when they say “oh why would you give away your music for free, it’s so good, it’s so amazing, why would you give it out for free?”, the thing is you make money in other ways as people catch onto your music and you get people following.
R: You collaborated with some big names in this mixtape, how was that?
A: [Being humble] Uh, I actually didn’t have any super big collabs. I did tracks with Rich Kidd and Luu Breeze, two from Toronto that are doing big things up there, they are definitely both on the come up this year and it was cool to work with them. I had never worked with Luu breeze, but I have worked with Rich Kidd before so it was just cool to connect with them. Another I really looked up to for a long time is JayKin from Vancouver as he is on the mixtape too. He’s someone that came up to hometown when I was like 17 years old and he just taught me a lot. He is just really good at rapping and at the time I like didn’t even know how to rap, I was just trying my best to keep up and it was cool to reconnect with him later in life.
R: Can you give us a hint of what “Good News” will feature?
A: I can’t really say the features, like who is featured on the album, but I did do one with Saigon, that’s always good news, that one is called “Bed Time”. Basically “Good News” is just a wide array of my styles, it’s just sonically the production is way bigger because some really really amazing producers on that record, like some people that are really coming together to make it a great album. I’m excited for “Good News”, it’s just like a lead up to the real big project.
R: Can we expect you to tour in the US?
A: Yeah, that is my main thing right now is trying to break into the US. I will definitely be chilling in the US real soon. As a Canadian artist we are really are not trying to get pigeon holed, in the whole Canadian market. It’s something we are using to our advantage the best we can, but I am definitely not trying to just be a Canadian rapper. I kinda definitely want to go to the US, UK, Japan and places like that.
R: What else can we look forward to in the future from you?
A: Well this year definitely “Good News”, I am just like one of those guys that just constantly works really hard and like to not only critique myself and try to see where I am going right and going wrong and capitalize on that. But like I am just one of those artists that just keeps getting better. So just keep expecting more innovative creative music videos, more innovative projects, more innovative features and just doing a lot of cool shit this year. I am not really stopping, I’m just gonna keep going. I think people are starting to get use to me.
R: One last question and it is completely irrelevant. What’s the craziest thing you have ever done?
A: Wow, uh, what’s the craziest thing I have ever done? Uh, that’s a crazy question. [Begins with a story when he was running away from a party to go to his house, in the opposite direction; clearly drunk] Actually that’s not the craziest thing I’ve ever done, that’s actually the stupidest thing I have ever done. Uh craziest?Uh one time in Whistler we threw a show where it was pretty much jam packed and we literally ended up breaking the stage, like completely in half. We had like 20 people onstage and it like completely busted the stage.
R: I might use that one instead of the running away from the party one.
A: Yeah you had me on the spot. I wasn’t sure what to say!
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