Coming off his latest single "Believe In Me", Vell Le Villain is in the process of finishing his upcoming album LIVEVIL. The 19-year-old from the West Side of Chicago has dropped numerous music videos over the past year including visuals for "Luck", "Relapse", and "Falling Down". It looks like its going to be an eventful year for Vell and his group Exit The Premises.
HM : Where did you grow up and how did that influence your creativity?
VLV : "I’m Vell Le Villain, I'm 19 and from the city of Chicago. I kind of moved all over the city a lot as a kid. The West Side of Chicago is where I’ve spent most of my time and it's where I call home. The environment of the West Side has fueled me with experiences to write about in my music, ranging from finding love, heartbreak to violence from the neighborhood.
I’m constantly inspired by my peers as well- I’m a member of a collective/group/brand??? We don’t know what category to fit in, but we go by Exit The Premises. Simply put....It’s a large group of friends that record music together. The group consists of myself, Goldenboymnny, SoloCelo, Kredit, Jae Rio, T3, Flauntkidtyy and we have ONE producer that makes all our beats- 17 year old prodigy prod. Ra"
HM : If someone hasn’t listened to your music before, what should they listen to?
VLV : “Good Vibes”; we dropped this track recently- available on all platforms. It’s a great teaser for my new project LIVEVIL. I think "Good Vibes" represents a pivot in my music to a more mature sound, versus my first EP Heartbreak Planet."
HM : When did you know you wanted to pursue a career in rap?
VLV : "I knew I wanted to pursue a music career while I was at SXSW in 2017. I had the opportunity to open for A$AP Mob; it was a surreal moment and I was able to chop it up with industry legend Coach K. He gave me confidence that my childhood dreams could become a reality. From that point on, I’ve been recording and perfecting my sound.
A lot of kids my age go to house parties or the club every weekend; in ETP, we smoke and make music constantly. Even though I’m unsigned at the moment, I’m blessed to be living a creative lifestyle like this."
HM : What does your recording process look like?
VLV : "The hardest thing about creating music for me is that I have a really fast work ethic. I can literally record a whole song front-to-back in 30 minutes. This includes lyrics, melody and adlibs. I tend to record as much music as possible-I’ll end up with 20 songs quickly & begin selecting what tracks sound good together and build a project from it."
HM : Who have been some of your favorite people to work with?
VLV : "I love recording with my crew Exit The Premises, Prod. Ra has been cooking up some crazy beats recently. I like working with Frazier Studios, I’ve done a session with Apache Grosse - he’s mad talented."
HM : Goals for yourself in 2020?
VLV : "My goal is for LIVEVIL to create new opportunities for me to travel the world, meet other creatives AND land a major record deal. Everything has been moving so fast- in 2018 I only had two songs out. In 2019, I dropped my first EP and made a collab album with my boy Kredit called 72 Hours- we legit recorded that shit in 72 hours.
I’ve released a few songs here and there while I’ve been fine tuning LIVEVIL- this project was supposed to drop in October. I began playing with some melodies from my choir days as a kid that I never tried on a rap record. My confidence began to build up, I ended scrapping a lot of the previously recorded music and began exploring my range of vocals more and I believe I recorded my best music to date."
HM : What is your favorite music video that you’ve shot?
VLV : “Lie To Me” from my collab album with Kredit called 72 Hours.
It was shot by Vistid, we got some friends together and shot a fun video. I’m planning some doper videos for my next project. Look out for a “Bleed Different” video. This track goes crazy!"
HM : Best producer out right now?
VLV : “Ra it’s not that serious” Prod Ra! He’s blowing up, he’s the producer behind Future Kingz- 3Vets. I also love Pierre Bourne. There’s a lot of talented producers working out of Private Stock I’d like to connect with eventually too."
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