ELHAE (Copy)

What is your earliest memory of music?

It’d be my mom and dad — probably my mom honesty, not my dad — playing Mariah Carey in the basement. I was like maybe three [years old]. Just super, super young. That was probably the earliest. Then, of course, I was heavily into the church scene growing up too. So, I think just being around music in church as a kid, that's all it is. Outside of the sermon, it's music and worship, you know what I mean? So those two things probably had a big influence on the trajectory of where I ended up.

How would you describe yourself as a kid?

I think a lot of people would say I was a jokester. I was a prankster [and] jokester that just like to have fun. I also liked to sing [and] rap. I got very early memories of me and my brother rapping off ringtones in bunk beds. Just playing a ringtone for like 10 seconds, but you gotta rap real quick in that 10-15 second slot. I don't know, I was just adventurous as well. I used to get on that bike and I'd be gone. I don't care where I was going. I’d just be trying to figure out what's around the neighborhood, what's in other people's neighborhoods, going [to the] forest, going down trails. That was me, you know? Just wide-eyed about life and just being a kid.

Who or what inspired you to take music seriously?

I had a good friend of mine, his name is Mark Anthony Freeman. I was a freshman in high school and I remember he asked me to come over one day to record something, and I was like, “Huh?” This is around the time where it's like… these days, everyone's self-sufficient. You can buy all your studio equipment [for] less than $500 around this time, but back then, you had to go into a studio. Everything was thousands of dollars equipment-wise.

He had this USB microphone and this cracked version of Adobe Audition and I remember just rapping on that little USB microphone and then hearing my voice play back over this beat and I was like, “What is going on with me right now? Like, I am in love,” you know what I mean? Just the idea of hearing myself come back through the speakers, I was like, “That is pretty insane. I think I just discovered a new passion.” From that point on, you couldn't get me out of his house and I had to get it into my house. I asked my parents, “Let me get all of this stuff. Let me figure out how to do all of this.” [I] figured it out and I don't think I stopped since. It's been years since then and it's been a long, long-winded passion to this point.

Who is on your music Mount Rushmore?

So it's interesting because for me, growing up, I started as a rapper. I wasn't even so much a singer as I am now because I used to be heavily into rap. Lupe Fiasco growing up was huge for me. Lupe, Pharrell [Williams,] and Kanye [West] was my three go-tos growing up. Then, as I started to mature and come into my own as an R&B artist, it turned into Childish Gambino, Drake… Andre 3000 was a huge one because, of course, he could do both. Then probably Chris [Brown]. I'll probably say Chris.

I wasn't a huge Chris Brown fan growing up, but like I've just grown to respect him in such a manner in the R&B space and what he represents to the R&B space in the culture that I gotta tip my hat off to him. I respect him so much and what he's been able to do, how he operates and functions in this world. I think those four [are] pretty cool in terms of what you can expect from an ELHAE album. Of course, there's my own twist to all of that too. just take what they did and then try to figure out how I can take bits and pieces and fuse it into one new thing.

What would you be doing if it weren’t for music?

So growing up, I drew a lot. I was very into drawing. So I think if I didn't discover music or if I somehow fell out of the desire to want to pursue music, then it would probably be drawing. I wanted to be a cartoonist and draw for Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, or something. I also went to school for audio production, so something dealing with sound and sound design. I'm really big on sound design. I think that comes through my albums from time to time too. Like Trouble In Paradise was all done by me. Sound Foley, just the sound effects [of] walking in the grass and hearing the outside ambiance — those things really are fun to me and I've tried to incorporate a lot of that into my music as well. So I think it would be something with doing that in movies or doing some type of audio engineering mixing — something in those spaces.

What is the significance of Lotus Ave to you in your life?

Lotus Ave was just a place and, I've had to kind of explain this in a few different rooms. Lotus Ave is unique to you. [It’s] whatever you believe is your paradise, your ideal space. For me, Lotus Ave meant peace and just a longing for peace, solidarity, success, and trying to figure out the way to get there. I just used relationships as a vehicle to get there, but the idea behind it was whoever it is that's listening to it, it could mean multiple different things.

I loved the theme of this album, not only for the storytelling, but also the way you were able to capture the atmosphere of a long journey home.

You saying that was how I wanted to start the album. So if you hear it, she's trying to get his attention and he's got his headphones on, essentially like, “Yo, who is this?” Then, you finally take it off, and you hear the world come about. I was hoping that that came across in the beginning, that she's almost kind of bugging him and he's zoned out. I feel the same way when I'm out and I'm going someplace. I'll be in my own world. So I wanted to kind of like capture that in the beginning.

How did you arrive at this theme for this conversation, or what made you want to try this?

Like I said earlier, I grew up with Lupe Fiasco, Kanye West, [and] Kid Cudi. These are all artists that created worlds in their music, Man On The Moon, The Cool, [and] My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy — all these different worlds you just travel to when you're listening to it. So I'm already heavily influenced by those type of artists, and I've always tried to do that. I think my first attempt at it was with Trouble In Paradise, which I released under Atlantic. I think the way that they handled that album, I didn't feel prioritized over there. I didn't feel appreciated and respected as an artist, and we ended up going our separate ways, but I think that really put a damper on just the idea of trying to do that again, and trying to do something different outside of what maybe the norm — my norm is trying. I separated with Atlantic in 2020/2021. I think since then, I just been going with the flow. Just putting stuff out and not really applying myself like I know I can.

I had a conversation with Xavier Omär, a buddy of mine [and] another R&B artist. We did an EP [Truth Be Told] last year together, and when that came out, I really had to take a step back and think, “What is it that I want to say?” [because] I had no idea. He brought to my attention what he was working on and the title of his album, it was called Honeymoon Mountain, and the idea of him trying to establish a world and it really sparked this interest in me to try to tackle it again. Like I said, I attempted it before with Trouble In Paradise, but I was like, what would that sound like? Once I figured out the avenue I wanted to go down, I just applied pen to paper. I typed it up, I was just typing different ideas — lots of ideas — on the cutting room floor and ended up at this place with Lotus Ave.

It's funny, Lotus Ave was actually the name of it was random as hell. So basically, Magic: The Gathering — it's a trading card game, and one of the most expensive cards in the whole game is called the Black Lotus. I think one sold for over a million dollars like last year, or some sh*t like that, and I thought to myself, I love the word Lotus, I've always loved flowers — that's through my whole catalog. You can go through each cover of my anything, I've always had flowers. I thought about [the] Black Lotus and how valuable it that is to people in that space, in that world. It's honestly a little nerdy. It's just something that I looked at and was like this will be fun to look down the road [at] and say that was the reason I named it that. It’s because I saw something that was in that Magic: The Gathering world. Lotus Ave was just basically, you know, a figment, or, like, a extension of the Magic: The Gathering world. It's weird, but it is what it is.

What was the most difficult part of creating an album that made you go deep and have some uncomfortable conversations?

It's funny, I was having a conversation with a buddy of mine yesterday about the same thing. He was coming to me about the fact that a lot of people are going through these things, but don't have the ability to say it on a platform to maybe help other people, and that was the idea going into it. The music is one thing, but the root of it is mental health and attacking that head on and trying to figure out why we think the way we think, especially as males. That was another thing where it was like, who's saying this from the male perspective? Who's really attacking that? We're so guarded and sometimes we don't want help, we don't want to be told about ourselves because we're very ego driven, we're very prideful people — that's just how it is. It's embedded in us. You know the one guy comes and says, “Yo, I'll take your girl,” [and] you're like, “No, you won't. I’ll smack you.” That's just in us to fight for what we love.

I really wanted to hone in on putting a mirror up in front of us and saying, “What are the things that we can work on? What's the worst parts of ourselves that we need to work on? What's the good parts of ourselves that we don't really need to work on? What are those things?” At its core, it was mostly just like, How can I attack, you know, these situations and relationships that can help us?

I want to read a DM I got, and this is not the first one. I've gotten a few, but I want to just read this one. This gives you a little bit of an understanding of the objective and what's come of it. So this lady says, “This is a lovely piece of art that's been really helpful to processing my current situation and giving grace to the man I love.” It's really eye opening for women listening to this, because they're like, “Oh, damn. This is the thought process that my man is going through. Maybe I need to give him a little grace.” This is that. I've gotten a few of those over the last couple of days, just like, “This really helped me understand a little bit more about what he may be thinking [and] what he's going through.” That was cool, you know? That's the power of music.It’s funny, it's hard to translate in words. Sometimes you need someone to sing it to you to understand it in a way.

What are you most proud of in terms of the complete body of work that Lotus Ave is?

That’s a good question. I don’t know, I think just the execution of it all. When I was mixing it, I was very hard on myself about like, “Does it make sense?” and I was mixing it, I was like, “This makes perfect sense.” From top to bottom, it leaves discussion and it leaves conversation. It leaves a place of, “Okay, I take what I can take out of it.” I don't have to necessarily space put it out there like, “This is what this means.” I think people can draw their own conclusions when listening to it, but it's also very cohesive in a way that it makes sense in the story from top to bottom. As an artist, when we're trying to get from point A to Z, from B to Y, it's like, I hope it's not shuffled up. I hope you get everything that you need to get from it. Personally, I think I did what I what I could to make everything make sense, and for us to get there in a smooth ride.

What's the biggest or most impactful lesson, thought, or takeaway that you hope listeners have once they get through the project?

I think just being open. Being open is a huge takeaway. I think when people listen to it, I hope that they're introspective. I hope that they're thinking of things that maybe they could do better in whatever situation it might be in. It might be in life, it might be in a relationship, but yeah, just overall hoping [and] sparking positive change.

I hope people take away, like, “Oh, this is an artist trying to do something different. This an artist that wants to not do what's typical. Track #1, #2, #3, #4, #5 is an artist trying to story-tell, [an] artist that's trying to make great music. I want people just to respect the thought process and the artistry behind it. I think that's another thing to, just from a respect standpoint of, Damn, he could have just did track #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, but he actually decided to do something [where] he's thinking about other people and what they can take away from and then trying to tell a story.

What do you define as success?

Oh that’s a loaded question for me because I've seen a lot of highs and I've seen a lot of lows, especially in this [music] thing. If I was to say, “on stage and selling out shows,” I've been there, done that and I still somehow didn't feel fulfilled. So for me, I think having the people you love, love you back, that’s success, I think creating something and feeling fulfilled by it is success. I think at the end of the day, for me, respect is success. You can talk as much sh*t as you want, but as long as you say, “I gotta respect it,” you know what I mean? That's what I take away from it. As long as you respect it, I'm cool. I think that's my definition. It can mean whatever to anybody, but that's mine.

How would you like your music to be remembered in 25 years?

I don’t think I ever thought about it. I think goes hand-in-hand with what I was just saying. A good artist that tried to push the boundaries and transcend whether he was successful at it or not. It's another conversation, but just being recognized as an artist that tried to do different things.