"What Goes Around": A Conversation with 6am

Interview by Imani Dominique Busby

Photography provided by Wanderstar Creative

From freestyling in battle raps to becoming a singer-songwriter with a deep appreciation for musical craftsmanship, 6am's journey reflects the kind of artistic growth that can only come from passion, persistence, and purpose. In this interview, he opens up about his creative process, the impact of Toronto on his sound, and the milestones that continue to shape his path.

Could you please tell us a little bit about yourself, and why you started making music?

I started out by freestyling and battle rapping. When I was 14 years old, I used to go into a field with one of my best friends, and we would practice. And then slowly and surely from there, from free styling, I started to learn a bit more about the industry. As I progressed, I started to learn and understand that music is more than just spitting bars and freestyling. That there's an actual craft and art behind it.

I learned how to sing. And as of, I think it was in 2017, I started dropping music with me actually singing and making real songs. Over the past couple of years, I've really been pushing the art to a different level for myself. I used to battle rap. And now I'm singing songs, singing love songs.

You mentioned that you're from Toronto. How has being from the city shaped your sound, if at all?

It has a lot, to be honest. The way the weather is, how the people are. Sometimes it's hot, sometimes it's cold. I think the polarity between my sound, comes from the city and the people that are there. 

I think you see that with the big artists that come out of here, like Drake, The Weeknd, Tory and stuff. They're able to adapt to a few different types of styles. You have that dark, R&B, cold vibe. But then all of a sudden it's Caribana, Cabana vibes, and you're dancing and singing, and it's beautiful. That whole sound that I created, too, comes from just embracing the energy that comes from the city and the people.

You mentioned a handful of global superstars who are also from the city. Which artists did you grow up listening to and have they influenced your music today?

The music I listen to is actually very diverse. I started listening to G-Unit, Eminem, and all that stuff when I was a kid. I don't know if you were like this, too, but all of us kids, we used to download music off of Limewire. We're bumping G-Unit, Eminem, all that stuff. Then I grew up and I started listening to classic rock music and blues music. I started listening to Queen, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, and B.B. King, John Lee Hooker, the list goes on. I started to dive into that type of music.

When I was 14 or 15 years old, I found a Telai Collapse remix with “Tupac" on it, the Eminem song, “Tupac” on it. I just I started really diving into Tupac's music. Tupac really started inspiring me to write my own music and learning how to rap and speaking out and standing for something. Then my boys put me on the Drake. And then that was it. From there, I started bumping a lot of Drake, Tory, The Weekend – PartyNextDoor is one of my favourite artists, too.

So now I bump all that music. I listen to country music. I'm a connoisseur of music. I love music. So for me, my inspiration comes from everywhere. But if I had to pick one or two artists that really made me hone in on my sound, it was a combination of Tory Lanez, PartyNextDoor, and I would honestly like, Post Malone really inspired me, too. Those are three artists that really inspired me to channel my music the way that I have now.

Can you walk us through your creative process?


I typically start off my songs by looking for beats. There's two avenues. One, I'll go on YouTube, and find a beat that I like. It lets me tap into that energy that I want to create the song. And then me and my engineer, Roko Santana, we make our own beat just inspired by the energy that we created. 

The other way is I go to the studio with Roko and we just craft straight from the ground up. He's a little bit in guitar and all the instruments. So he’ll lay out whatever we need, I go in there. And then this is where, growing up and free styling comes in.

I'll free style as much as I can until there's nothing left to say on the song. And close my eyes, black out and let that out. And then once I have an idea, there's been songs where I’ve freestyle the songs and we left them the way they are and put them out.

Then there are times where I feel like I can make them better lyrically. I guess that might be the battle rap side of things, but I really take pride in trying to have the good lyrics. I'll sit down, I'll write the song out, try to conceptualize it, and then go back and record it. Whether that be in my home studio and then sending it to Roko where he engineers it or going to Roko’s studio and recording it. That's a beautiful creative process.


Can you share a bit about what that experience was like in the Battle Rap community and coming up in that scene? 


Yeah, it's a cutthroat community. I think people are... Yeah, cutthroat. It's honestly the epitome of going to war. In art, that is. Preparation is the number one key in that. I really take that now and put that into my art where it's like, if I'm not prepared mentally to get something done, I know I'm not going to do my best. And performance is the biggest thing in battle rap. You might not have the best bars, but if you perform those bars properly, people will feel that shit versus the other way around. And so battle rap was honestly the foreground of shaping my mentality as an artist and understanding that people won't love you until you really... Am I allowed to cuss? People won't love you until you stand on some shit. You know what I mean? Until you really put your all on the table and you're like, “Yo, I do this. Yo, come at me.” And then all of a sudden people start to respect you. It's strategy. It’s work.

What would you say has been your biggest challenge coming up as an artist in Toronto?


You have this constant battle in your head of, “Is this hot?” You know what I mean? You're making something, you're pouring your heart out, and then you're like, “Am I conveying this message properly? Am I conveying this message in a way where people are going to who not only interpret it the way I wanted to, but leave enough room of interpretation for them?” And lastly, “Is this going to get played? Does this sound good? And does it make people feel how I want them to feel?” And I think that's something a lot of artists will feel as they're coming up, especially if you haven't popped off yet, because there is not as much proof in the concept at that point. I feel like that's probably the hardest thing as an artist.

Is there a project that you've worked on or that you've put out or have in the works that you're especially proud of and that you can share a bit about?

Yeah, of course. For “What Goes Around”, that was the first time I just closed my eyes and I said to myself, I'm like, “If people hate this, I don't care. If people love this, I don't care. I want to put this album out, and I want to just know that it's dope. And if anybody says otherwise, I don't care.” I took pride in it. And that album shaped me not only as an artist, but as a man. Because it's an era of comparison that we're in right now. And that was the first time where I didn't care about how I compared to anybody.

Going off of the comparison aspect, what is your relationship to social media as an artist?

My relationship to social media is that it's a means to connect to people. It's a place where you can talk to people and can really connect. And anything further than that, in my opinion, is where people get consumed. And I've tried my best I've gotten consumed and pulled myself out, and it's a never-ending cycle. Not never-ending, but it's something I'm trying to work on. But I feel like social media is meant to be what it is.

And sometimes people forget that it's not reality.

Is there a message or a theme that you want your listeners to take away from your work your music?

Yeah. Our experiences might be unique, but the way that we feel isn’t.

What milestones and goals are you gunning for? Whether that's in the next three years, two years, one year?

I would love to be touring. I would love to be connecting with other people who are fans of my music, traveling, and just sharing my art with the world. That's my goal, whether that be in a year, two years, three years, four years. I feel like man plans and God laughs. But if I had a goal tomorrow, I'm on tour and I'm traveling the world and all that good stuff. Yeah, but I do have another album coming out this summer. It's a sequel to “What Goes Around”, which we call “Comes Around”. And I got a couple of EPs in the works as well. So it's a lot of music coming out this year. So in terms of your short term goals, I got that ready.

Do you have any shows coming up as well to accompany the drop?


Yeah, absolutely. So when I dropped the album in 2024, it was July 14th, we hosted a listening party. I didn't think a lot of people were going to come. I just thought it was going to be 40 people, 50 people, something like that. And then over 150 people pulled up.

So we're going to do a sequel to that. Whether it be, July, August, when I dropped the next album, I want to just put something out, have people celebrate. It was fun. We all got together, and it was amazing.


What would you want your legacy in the Toronto rap scene to be?

That I kept it real, that I was authentically myself. That's what I want people to remember me as- that I didn't switch up. I didn't give up, kept my head down, and I not only made it happen, but I made it happen being myself.


Is there anything that you would want to add or that you feel was missed or that you'd want to share?

I want people to know that they should and could be themselves, and people shouldn't be switching up and acting different ways to lead another audience or people that actually don't care about them because as you get older and you grow and you become yourself, you realize that you spent a lot of time hiding behind somebody that you weren't. And if you work on building that person that you weren't, you're going to have to come back and start building on the person you actually are after the fact. So love life, love time, love yourself, and respect all of those things as well.

That's very beautiful. It's a great way to live life and good life advice. Thanks for sharing.

Of course.

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