Senior Amir Bruce never expected to be a rapper, but he now has around 10 thousand listeners on Soundcloud.
“I started rapping when I was five years old. I couldn’t even talk correctly,” Bruce said. “Rapping has improved my life in many ways. I grew up in a very rough neighborhood just with my mom and rapping kept me out of trouble, doing a lot of other great things for me,”
During the eighth grade and the COVID-19 pandemic while everyone was stuck at home, Bruce decided to start posting his original music.
“I started posting my music on my YouTube channel and that was the first time I got to see how difficult it was to pull numbers and get my name out there,” Bruce said. “I started getting followers and it made me want to just go that much harder. I’m so dedicated to music I just want to get big and get on that Drake level. That’s my true dream and I’ve got no choice but to accomplish that.
Now Bruce said he is convinced that he has found his future career.
“Honestly, it really came to me as not that big of a surprise because he just has that confidence, you know. He just puts himself out there like that. So the start to his career didn’t strike me in any type of way,” senior Jacob Kollman-Roberts said. “He has that swagger with him, oftentimes in the second hour he will freestyle in front of the whole class. Some kids don’t even want to present in class.”
A part of Bruce’s success is how he differentiates himself from others with his music.
“What separates him from other rappers in high school is his consistency. He makes and puts out a lot of music compared to other high school rappers who might put out one song or just one album and they call it done until they’re older,” Kollman-Roberts said.
Bruce wants to get to a level where he can make music with some of the popular creators.
“I think Amir could collaborate with a few rappers like lil Dirk. Lil baby comes to mind. Amir is versatile. He can rap and he can do that like soft rap too,” senior Binh Le said. “He´s really got all the traits to get big, hes lyrical and diverse and that’s what gets the views in this era of rap,¨ Binh Le said
Bruce, unlike some rappers, writes lyrics that are biographical.
“His lyrics are based around his life and what he’s experienced. And I think that’s cool. He’s just a lyrical rapper. That’s kind of the term. Some rappers are known for their flow, which is their beat stuff like that and their lyrics with the beat, but this is just his lyrics,” senior Binh Le said.
According to Kollman-Roberts, Bruce developed many traits from rapping.
“ He’s become more open. I feel like he used to be one of those people that would keep in all his feelings and then he’d get mad. But Amir’s not like that anymore. He explains how he’s feeling to you,”Kollman-Roberts said. “He’s open about his feelings. Ifs he’s angry, I always know. He’s very straightforward.”
Dedicated rappers always have a way to improve. No rapper is perfect at every rapping trait.
“I think it’s just flow. He just needs to, when he freestyles, he just needs to go. He stops and thinks like the best freestylers; they just kind of keep going. They don’t stop,” Le said.