Today we’d like to introduce you to Christian Charles.
Christian, before we jump into specific questions about your work, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
From the very beginning, music played a vital role in my life. Raised by my mother and grandparents in Lauderhill, FL I was around music daily. although I was born in the states my family is from the lovely islands of Barbados and St. Vincent by a way of New York and my father’s side is Jamaican. Early on I was introduced to Jazz, Calypso, Reggae, and Gospel music. My grandfather plays the guitar and my grandmother till this day sings in the church choir. The first song I can remember vividly ever hearing was Sade “Your Love Is King” in my grandfather’s truck because his radio was jammed and got stuck on this jazz station. So every time I rode with him somewhere a lot of Sade would play and various other artists, but essentially the first sound I grew to love was jazz and I try to incorporate that sound a lot into my music.
Fast forward to middle and high school, I attended Nova High School, I played basketball from middle school until high school and played a little in college. During middle school I wrote my first song to “3 Peat” by Lil Wayne, I never recorded it or anything just thought it was cool. Moving on to high school I studied rap battles and a lot of freestyle videos and thought it was the coolest thing to just rap unconsciously on the spot. My cousin David use to go to Rap Cypher’s in Miami. I was too young to attend but whenever he came back he would tell me about it and spit his verses to me and him in a way showed me how to freestyle. I would take what he said and go home or whenever I was alone and just freestyle to myself.
I took a hiatus from my rap dream so to say and strictly put my time into basketball full time but I still was a music head. In high school, I would rap in the locker room, on the bus to games, etc. At that time it was all fun and games still nothing serious. Fast forward to college I got a scholarship to play ball at a division three school in Pennsylvania, it was short-lived but a great experience none to less, I used to DJ the off campus house parties and got known around campus for that, me and my roommate would have daily cypher’s when we had downtime from basketball and I began writing again at that time.
A year later I came back home and tried to pursue ball still and school, I ended up getting into a very bad car accident and that put everything on pause, couple months later I made a spontaneous move and up and left for Orlando to live with my cousins to get away and start fresh. I took like two classes at Valencia, got a full time job then dropped out of school. At this time my cousin Alex would hear me freestyling and hear beats playing in my room and every day would try and push me to rap and take it seriously, he tried to get me to go to his friend’s house to record but that never happened. About a year later I had a personal health issue and had to return home. During this time I spent a lot of time writing songs and poems and just creating different ideas. I eventually broke out my shell and hit one of homies Scott up and went to this studio he went to and I met this guy named PC who became my first ever engineer. He taught me how to construct hooks and adlibs, everything about making a song I learned from him. I recorded my first song January of 2018 and from there I ‘ve been taking rapping seriously.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Honestly, it hasn’t to be real, but I rely on my faith to not get shaken up during this process and not quit. Some struggles that I’ve dealt with are people that can’t conduct proper business. Another one is balancing time with work. In the very beginning getting people to see the vision was hard because I have a funny personality so everyone thought it was a joke and should be back playing ball or something. And the last struggle I had for a while was finding the right pocket as far as the lane of music I sit in. All in all these struggles have motivated me to go harder and learn from them each day.
Please tell us about your work.
I go by Casso, I’m an artist from Broward County and I love my craft. What sets me apart from most is my ear for music, I take pride in my beat selection and penmanship. I like a lot of instruments and soulfulness in my music which is what I’m typically known for having a nostalgic soulful feel. I speak from the heart and nothing fabricated. I rap for my friends and my family, not only am I telling my story but I’m speaking for them as well. I come from a place of hope and sorrow, so in my music, there are moments where you feel motivated, sad, happy, etc. I rap to inspire and also to get away from my life problems. What I’m most proud of with this music is I’m doing it on my own besides the help from my team in Las Vegas, everything is all on me.
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
The future for me is looking very promising, I’m currently working on and planning out my first official mixtape. I’m working on branding and strengthening “Lost Prophets” a partnership and label between myself and teammate Justin, which is the music portion of a larger collective that is being built, I also plan to perform at more events and network more. Ultimately I just plan to be consistent and let the hard work and music speak for itself.
Contact Info:
- Phone: 954.806.0965
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/only1casso/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/LP_Casso
- Other: https://soundcloud.com/only1casso
Image Credit:
Kenyan Alexander
Instagram – X.Tranquil
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