Growing up on the streets of South Central in Los Angeles, UraelB has been delicately crafting his art since the age of 13. Combining funk and hip hop to spit unmatchable bars, UraelB turns heads with his cadence and infectiously good vibes.

To follow up his well received album, DemiGod: Parallel Universe, which was released in 2020 and featured in Buzz Music, UraelB dropped his first EP of 2023, Flight 772, in collaboration with rap artist and friend, Isaiah Bowers. Not even a month later, he dropped his live project, UraelB (Unplugged), featuring three live tracks including hit songs, ‘Groovy’ and ‘Shadowboxing,” and their two studio versions. UraelB has been catching the eye of many established artists in the hip hop scene wearing collaborations with Nelly and Mick Jenkins on his belt. His thoughtful and intentional lyrics are paving the way to success in hand with his label, Respect the Real.

Maralize Carreon sat down with UraelB to analyze the meaning of his song ‘Grammy,’ the importance of diversifying your music even if it means in songs you’ve already released, and how it feels working with one of your biggest inspirations.

In your music, I can tell that you really value your roots and where you come from. Like, in your song, ‘Grammy,’ you kind of speak on doing it for your family, your people, and your community that’s held you up. So I was just wondering, is ‘Grammy’ alluding to the future and like an ode to your people? Can you tell me what Inglewood means to you?

Yeah, that was a very specific question. I like that. Truthfully. Yeah, it does allude to the future. That’s what the whole song is about. The song is about me making sure that whatever I do now sets the future up for the better, not just for myself, but the people around me.

And when it comes to its meaning to the city, the best part about doing what I do or knowing that I want to make an impact the way I want to means that the other people around me who grew up in the same areas as me, who are in the same environments as me and who have similar upbringing and similar influences, because they’re from the same city, I can help them the best, because I walk that path right before them. So it lets me know that nothing I’m doing is isolated because I have a bunch of people looking after me, whether they did it before me or they’re doing it after me. I’m planning to be a role model for not only people coming up after me, but anybody who dedicates their life to doing something for the better.

So I noticed that you’ve been speaking on the Music Forward Foundation music industry panels the last few weeks. What was that experience like? And what was something that you learned?

Speaking on a music industry panel, on that particular panel, it reminded me, like I was saying just a second ago, what it feels like to be back in those shoes. Coming up, growing up in LA, and having to sit in high school or sit in front of people who are professionals in their careers, really dissecting and wondering what it is that helped them get to where they were.

And being on the opposite end of that now, having to tell about my story, honestly helped me realize how much I’ve done so far and made me realize that I can actually teach this or give

examples of how you can get somewhere step by step or with the blueprint to where I am, because I can explain it to people now.

So it was a beautiful realization for me. Always love being in a position to inspire and reflect and give other people that opportunity to see not only music industry people, but entertainers in general, in the boat of, you’re just like me. I came from where you came from, and I’m a person. At the end of the day, there might be this allure or glorification around me and what I do, but I’m still just a person. So as amazing as you can see me, you can be that amazing too.

I love that. I feel like it’s really hard as a listener when you don’t know an artist personally, to really humanize them. So I love that you’re taking the time to go out and actually talk to people. I really respect that. So as the CEO and founder of Respect The Real (R.T.R) collective, what’s the story behind the label and what was your reason for starting it?

The reason I started Respect The Real and the whole purpose of it was to protect myself and have a foundation of having a business blueprint if I was going to take music seriously.

So jumping into doing as much as I can with music, I needed to have a foundation and a backing. Respect the Real, the name, the mantra, the entire brand, came to me naturally, and I decided that whoever was willing to work with me when I started it, and since then, I’ll be open arms, allowing them to contribute and put forth their effort into being a part of the collective.

So a bunch of people have come and gone, and the people who are still here now, they still resonate with the mantra. They decided themselves that they wanted to take their careers further as well. And we all just help each other. It’s nothing limiting to the collective or being a part of the brand and label, because a lot of what we do is just about moving forward and pushing things to a further level. And when it comes to deciding to really submit this into the industry, I knew that as long as I kept something authentic to myself, no matter what type of positions I got in or how much influence I had, I could have an Apple, I could have a Disney, I can have a larger than life brand and company that lived on beyond me, because people have seen it grow from the ground up, and people have seen me at the face of it. And other people come along and really put on something organic and genuine that all people, as long as you’re willing to connect with good people, can connect with.

So I think a lot of my time spent building up the label has just been making sure people see it in whatever ways they can, making sure people see the business behind it, and making sure people understand that there’s not a lot of people like me doing what I do. So that’s another thing that makes me special.

So what are your goals for the next year, with the label and everything? Do you have any specific goals?

Truth be told, I want to profit. That’s one of the main goals. Because not only being independent, but just having a corporation in general, it takes so much more to get it off of the ground and in a space where it’s comfortable and it keeps itself afloat that a lot of people don’t understand. And on top of me, knowing that I’m doing better musically and I have a lot of things going for me

opportunity wise, that means I have to keep my business also in that space of growing and getting better and having more to offer to the world. Not just from a protection and legal standpoint for myself, but like I said, to continue having a really large life brand. Aside from that, when it comes to me personally deciding that every year I should get better, I want to drop my album next year and have it be a critically acclaimed album, the best album of the year.

And I want to have a lot of people flock to me, not only just for the music, but for what I represent and everything that I bring to the table as a person in this industry, knowing that I have a lot to give and, yeah, time tells all and I can’t force everything to happen next year, but I do want to take that next step to becoming an icon and superstar is coming.

Right. And I think that you’ve really grown incredibly as an artist this year, from your bars to your music production. So how has the process kind of been? What are some things that you learned about the musical process, growth as an artist, and personally?

Yeah. One of the main things I’ve been harping on all year to different people, is that I had to live life to actually finish making music. I had a bunch of music that I worked on early in 2018 and 2019 for my album, that I’m putting out this coming year, and I knew exactly what I wanted the concept to be. I knew the stories I wanted to tell. But it took me a good five years to actually be able to put it down on paper and on a song so that it could be the way I wanted it to be. And forcing myself to have done it at that time when I first created it would have been undercooking it, underbaking it, and not letting it simmer and marinate to where it can be right now and living life and telling myself that there’s no rush, greatness will happen.

Timeless moments are literally timeless. It doesn’t matter when you put it out, as long as it feels good, it’ll be the best thing you’ve made. So taking the time to not force and rush things and give myself the opportunity to feel more than think has been one of the best things I’ve done.

Aside from that, deciding that whatever I do, I will get better at it, even if it’s not the best right now, I have to keep moving forward. I recently forget who I was listening to, but I recently listened to some podcast or something I was watching on YouTube and they said, “Done completed is better than perfect.” So since I heard that, I’ve been living by that, and I also told myself, perfect doesn’t exist unless people hear it and see it and they deem it perfect. So no matter what you think, it’s always going to be better. Just get it completed and you feel good about it versus holding on to it or telling yourself it’s not perfect. It has to be a certain way, because that way nobody will ever hear it. And that’s one of the most important things about music, is the fact that you can share your art and connect with other people.

I noticed that you did a remake of ‘Groovy’ and ‘Shadowboxing’ in your EP, Uraelb (Unplugged). And I was watching your live performance videos and those are really fire. It really shows your range of talent. You can rap on top of groovy funk and jazz, but at the same time hop on more traditional rap beats and rhythms like on your other EP, Flight 772. So why did you decide to do a live EP and remake ‘Groovy’ and ‘Shadowboxing’ and re-release that this year?

Well, I’ve always liked performing and having a band in general to accompany my artistry. So when it came time to do a live EP, I knew that rappers and hip hop people weren’t doing it. So of course that’s the best thing to do right now, is do what others aren’t. And I know I’m great at it, so to have to put it out there, that was one of the main reasons. Then in addition to that, I’ve always felt like my music had a purpose and a grander fulfillment it needed to reach. So repurposing songs I dropped a couple of years ago into live versions not only gave people a chance to hear those songs, but gave them new renditions of it. A lot of my favorite artists and people I listen to have plenty of versions of the same songs I love, whether it’s a live version, an acoustic version.

You know, sometimes people put different music on their music videos and it doesn’t sound like the album or single version. So I always love finding new ways to repurpose my art and also giving new people a chance to discover it. So the EP was solely for that, to put myself out there with something new that other people in my field weren’t doing and also to repurpose it so that more people can hear it. It just continued to propel itself and push itself.

I really love the live version of ‘Groovy.’ I remember listening to it when we were on radio earlier this year, and then I was like, oh, you released it again. And I was listening to it and I was like, it sounds really cool with the live band. I feel like live bands really elevate music, whether it’s rap or whatever.

Yeah, that’s the one song I have that it’s played different every single time. I’ve never done the same version of this song ever.

Okay, so next question. Your cadence and your bars, they flow so seamlessly. And you can just tell that you’ve really crafted your sound to be really amazing. It’s very telling of who you are and what you want to talk about. And I feel like everything that you make, it’s always intentional. So I wanted to ask, how did you craft your flow? And I know you have a history with poetry, and so how do you find your inspiration for your lyrics?

Yeah, one of the best things I’ve been able to do is to study and listen to a bunch of music and artists, even if it’s not in the hip hop genre. But one thing I did learn recently that I didn’t know at first, but I was glad I kind of put two and two together, was that Rakim, one of the hip hop artists that I’ve listened to for a while. He was one of the first artists to do like, internal rhyming in the hip hop space in the 80s. Internal rhyming is where you don’t just rhyme the ending lines, you rhyme in between before you get to the final word. And a bunch of artists I’ve been inspired by, like Kendrick Lamar, Eminem, and other people, they’ve been doing that since then, but he was the first, and going back to study him and a bunch of other people just gave me a bunch of things to pull from and a bunch of different arsenal tools to actually create the words and the rhymes I use.

I also watched Battle Rap a lot. That’s one of the other spots in the music space or hip hop space that I gravitate towards because those are some of the best lyricists in the world. A lot of people know about them, but a lot of people don’t. And they craft things beautifully. So just absorbing that level of talent and that level of creativity adds to my own, always make things my own and different on top of that. Just having different musical tastes and backgrounds, learning

from different places has always been something I unconsciously and subconsciously do in my music.

I never try to do the same thing over and over again and the same thing all the time. And that goes to show you that the different music I listen to adds to that flavor and decision-making. I can’t keep it the same all the time. Like I said, ‘Groovy,’ I never perform that the same, ever. It always changes every time I do it. And a bunch of the best musical performances have nuances to them that you won’t get unless you listen to it right then and there, you have to catch it in the moment. And I want to make every single song a moment for people, not just repetitive over and over again. You can listen to this and get exactly what you were looking for. So I like layering my music and having people find different things every time they listen to it.

So what’s your lyrical process like then? I know when people write songs, they just freestyle and then they, you know, tweak that afterwards or some people will like to sit down and write first.

This changed so much over the years. I used to be the person that would write before I ever got a beat or ever heard the music because I could just continue writing ideas and making them connect.

And then I turned into the person that would feel the music and always listen to the beat and add it, speak to me. And then I would pull lyrics out of that. But recently, I’ve honestly stopped writing things down. I’ve been creating things in my head, just giving myself the blueprint. I have a beat, I have a BPM, and this is the way it feels. Now you can write to that and give yourself time and space to think versus the limit to, you know, your phone in the notepad, writing it down on paper. I kind of just let my mind run amuck and do whatever it wants, especially lyrically. Knowing that I’m at a good point where my vocabulary is deep. I’ve said a lot like this only so much you can say when you’re on a song. So sometimes limiting yourself with writing things down is honestly one of the most creative things you can do and stop doing, push yourself to a new boundary.

A lot of my favorite artists don’t write any of their rhymes. So when I decided I wasn’t going to do it either, it actually opened up a new brain mass for me. I didn’t even know I could do it. I’m doing it all because that feels good.

So when you freestyle, is there always a topic in your head that you’re thinking of? Or it’s kind of just what you’re feeling in the moment.

Yeah, it’s what I’m feeling. Recently, I was writing to this beat and the only thing I had was the first line. Like I was listening to it. I came up with a really cool first line. And I just ran with that. Everything after that was a free form of thoughts and my train of thought, leading from one thing to the next. And I never know where I’m gonna take songs until it’s done. But at the end of the day, I always make it connect somehow. Even if I’m not sure exactly what I’m doing, it ends up connecting at the end of the day.

So a lot of my skills now are just from constant practice and constantly doing it, to the point where I’m telling a story from the moment the song starts to the end. It’s almost like second

nature. I know exactly where I’m gonna go. I just have to let my body and mind connect to that and take it to that place.

So in other genres aside from hip hop, who are your biggest inspirations? Top three. Could be any genre, just not hip hop.

Yeah. I would say my top three, in no order of course, but just top three inspirations that I have, definitely Michael Jackson. I feel like his legacy, something I want and will surpass. And knowing that he did so much with such relatively little time, is also another thing that inspires me. There’s a lot of jazz musicians that I listened to, a bunch that I pulled from, whether I realized it or not, because I absorbed it.

And aside from that, I really, really love movies. Like that’s not a music thing. That’s more of a creative storytelling thing. I like the way people tell stories with images. So I write as if I’m writing a movie, or if I’m telling a story via images and everything I imagine kind of just flows out through words. So my biggest inspirations honestly aren’t always rappers or people in the same field. It’s just life. Like I pull from a lot of things and take it into a different realm because I feel like there’s a creative way to express a lot of stuff through rap. And I had been very fortunate to be able to do that, not only at a high level, but with such potency and such purpose, that people hear me hear what I do. They feel like they’ve heard it before, they’ve seen it before. And that’s what I mean. I like crafting images so that people can always see what I mean and feel what I mean when they’re just listening to what I’m saying too.

You’ve been collabing with some really cool artists pretty early in your career. And like, you’ve worked with Nelly, and Mick Jenkins, most recently. How was that experience for you? And is it kind of like an indication to you that, you know, you’re taking those steps forward and progressing faster than you think?

Yeah, yeah, both experiences actually when I met Nelly on the set of the Dancing with the Stars, that was one of those things I didn’t actually think I would ever do. He wasn’t somebody, I guess, I looked to for inspiration growing up, but I always loved his music and artistry. And being face to face with him, learning from him personally was great. It was something I couldn’t have paid for. Like, I really just had to be in that moment and that opportunity that was once in my lifetime.

And the same when it comes to work with Mick Jenkins, who’s one of those people I’ve listened to and took inspiration from lyrically growing up since I was in high school, and finally getting to work with him full circle 10 years later. It helped me realize in that moment that, yeah, you have literally worked to do this. There is no reason you’re not supposed to be here with him right now in this moment in time. So it solidified a lot of what I felt about myself and what I confirmed to myself, you know, by myself, but having him say it and having him also be there, giving me kudos the same way I give him kudos is great. And I know a lot of people meet their idols or meet people they want to work with and they say don’t meet your heroes, but that was not the case. It was definitely a dope dude. And we went back and forth lyrically. That was one of the things I always imagined doing. So glad it happened.

Speaking of collaboration, who would be your dream collab right now?

All right. So I have a, I call it a hit list for a lack of better words, but the past two years on my Spotify wrapped, I’ve had Mick Jenkins, Victoria Monét, KAYTRANADA, Oshun, and I think Lucky Daye was there one year. Oh, and Earth Gang. So I’ve been going down this list, like the next five years, I have to collab with one of those five artists over the next couple of years and continue doing that bucket list for me. So unbeknownst to me, Mick Jenkins ended up happening in 2023.

So I got to get one of those five over the next couple of years. So I’m definitely looking to do a KAYTRANADA song at some point, because that’s one of those things that propels you somewhere different, in a different stratosphere of rap and hip hop because it’s production.

But any other artists at some point I will work with, I’m not going to cap myself to the five years. That’s just when I would like to do it, if I could say I got those features or work with them in the next five years, I’ll definitely be satisfied.

So it seems like it’s been a really great year for you with garnering over 117k streams on Spotify and releasing 10 tracks just this year. How are you feeling about it? And what is your favorite track that you’ve released?

I feel great about that. That’s one of the things that I couldn’t even anticipate. It was just a goal and an aim I had to do better than I’ve ever done before this year So I’m glad I did that on top of that having one of the best Mick Jenkins features of the year. It’s one of the other things I’m proud of. I feel like that’s my favorite song from this year because of the way that took place. The story behind that is, Mick Jenkins recently has been doing a lot of features and just randomly put out his email to send features to and I hit him up for a month straight like every day for a single month.

He didn’t respond I’m pretty sure because he had a lot of emails, but I took like a two -week break. Come January of this year, I started emailing him again, and he finally responded. So he said, “Yeah, I love this song. I’m gonna do it. These are the prices.” I’m like, for sure, I’m gonna make that happen at all costs. Aside from that, he actually lived like 10 minutes from the studio I worked at. So it was even better to actually get in the studio for the verse versus him just sending me something. So when he came through to my friend’s studio, we were working and just having a, you know, a genuine good time, it was one of those feelings that you can’t recreate or purchase honestly. Even though I bought the verse he was just a really dope dude and had a lot of good energy to him. Like I said, he confirmed a lot of things I felt about myself and I felt about myself musically. So at that moment in time, that was one of the best things I could have done not only for myself, but in general because I put forth the money for my career I put forth effort and energy and to actually get in that feature, it proved to be my most successful song of the year.

Aside from that, I feel like musically, my unplugged is amazing. My EP, I dropped with the homie, Isaiah was great too because we were just doing things. We weren’t really thinking about it, we were just making music.

And a lot of this year has just been that, just doing it, making music and not really worrying about the rest, it’ll come as you figure it out as you continue putting your best effort forward. So this year has been amazing. I know 2024 is gonna be even greater because I’m making it greater.

So I’m gonna turn the question back around to you about if you would open up a random black box that showed up your doorstep that says Illuminati. Would you do it?

You know, it’s crazy. I actually gave this answer to somebody else. This is my answer: if I had a black box sitting on my doorstep and it just said Illuminati, I’d pick up the box, put it in my house, put in a shrine case like they do at the museum and just leave it there. Having it on display for people that come to my house and be like, yeah, they hit me up. I left them on read though. I just got the box in the case. I don’t care what’s in it because I’m gonna be successful without it.

If you were on your deathbed, would you open it?

I wouldn’t open it. I would open it but ask somebody else to open it for me and tell me what was in it. That way I can say to the grave, I never opened it.

That’s funny. All right, so, you know, out of all the music and albums that you’ve listened to, which album out of any album that you’ve listened to, do you feel like has influenced you the most in your music?

Yeah, definitely To Pimp A Butterfly by Kendrick Lamar. That was the main album that I decided I would take music seriously from. That entire story, the way it was put together, the sonic influences he pulled from, all of that. All of that just left me speechless. I guess in the era where people were buying albums, you had to like, you know, use iTunes and buy something. That was the only album that I ever bought. And I still have to this day. And I don’t reference it a lot because I want to surpass Kendrick Lamar, but that’s one of the albums I was like yeah, this defined me as an artist.

What’s your favorite song off the album?

You know that album is no skips to be honest. I can’t pick a favorite song, but if I had to just give like, oh yeah, this is the best song for me, it would definitely be ‘King Kunta,’ ‘u,’ ‘The Blacker the Berry,’ and ‘Mortal Man.’

All right, so I mean, you’re familiar with this, but my old organization that I was in, we would always ask each other at the top of every meeting, what’s your song of the week? So I’m continuing this legacy in the interviews that I do. So what is your song of the week?

My song of the week, dang. My song of the week is, I was listening to it, but I got to go to my history book. Oh, ‘You Rock My World’ by Michael Jackson.

You mentioned a little bit earlier what you were going to do for 2024, but are there any particular projects people should be looking out for? Anything that you want eyes on for 2024?

Yeah, so my album, Respect The Real Volume II will drop in 2024. I’m going to put it out in two different installments. The first half is called Nostalgia to take everybody through my life. And the second half is called Rebirth, taking everybody through my new mentality and outlook on life, but it will all come together on one project. And it’ll definitely be the best out of the year.

But anything else, any performances that you got planned or anywhere people should see you live?

Yeah, they haven’t been announced yet, but I’m working on lining up a lot of stuff.

I will be entering the Tiny Desk contest again this year. So I have another live performance that’ll drop at the beginning of the year on top of that. Yeah, once I do announce my show days, I’ll make sure everybody at least gets one free ticket.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/uraelb/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/UraelB
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCa22Uz1fMv7wuxMLZxq0dxw
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/6kc3j1EsXF6jWCDLFWsxJS
Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/uraelb/1408133592