A profile of Braxton Beachner by Lily Botello
Braxton the Rapper
Music is something everyone can find themselves getting into. Whether it’s a new popular song that keeps hitting the radios on your way to work or school, that quick catchy jingle you hear with commercials, or even that playlist you made full of your favorite songs. Most of the time music can be an even bigger impact when you know how to play an instrument or sing. Music has a way to enter our lives and become a stress reliever and creative outlet in many ways. Braxton is one of the few that gets inspired to make music and enjoys doing it as something with rapping.
What is rap? Most people automatically think of hip-hop when they think of rap. Although that could be true, rap has become more than just a subgenre to hip-hop and has become an outlet for many rap artists around the world. The genre of rap has changed drastically throughout the years. It used to be where people can get away from their day to day struggles in a form that speaks to them. Music has always created an outlet and rap is no different. Rap has easily become a popular way to spread your word through “spitting rhymes” or just as much as listening to your favorite music. From early stars, Grandmaster Flash, Run-DMC, LL Cool J, to early 2000s stars, Lil Wayne, Eminem, Kanye West, and to more recent on growing stars like Kendrick Lamar, Lil Uzi Vert, to even female rappers Nicki Minaj and Cardi B, rap has grown to become something people of today can still sit back and enjoy.
As a kid, Braxton has always found music to be one of his main stress relievers. “It’s just always mellowed me out.” Braxton states. Braxton found rap to become one of his main sources of enjoyment of music. It wasn’t until he saw his cousin, Chiantia, start making music that he became interested in rapping as well. Even before rapping his own music, Braxton found that he would start to rap to the beat of a song and remake his own verses. His cousin was the first instance of him to start seeing rapping as a hobby. “I would go over to my cousin’s house and we would look up random topics on google and he’d make me rap about everything and anything. Even if I got caught up and couldn’t think of what to say next he would tell me to keep going. It taught me how to keep a flow and even helped me get over the fact of performing in front of people.” Braxton states that as he would continue to research about different topics it conditioned him to think fast about what to rap about.
Together Braxton and his cousin continued to make their own music. They became more dedicated in creating something themselves and had invested in a mic and studio to record their music. Once they make something they enjoy, it goes on their Soundcloud, a website that people can post and stream music. They’ve found fame within their hometown and friends. After graduation, Braxton and his friends made a small event where they rapped on stage. ‘We rented out a small facility and performed to a majority of students from our high school and surrounding area.” This has been Braxton’s first and only experience performing on stage so far but he plans on one day performing again. Since then he’s had more experience making music for himself and collaborating with his cousin. Separately, they make their own music but as people become busier Braxton has found it tougher to find time to dedicate himself solely to his music. His cousin is more dedicated to it and though Braxton wishes to release his own music he focuses on school and work where as of now, he plans to take over his family’s construction business. He still would love to keep rapping on the side as a hobby and potentially a “side hustle.”
When making music, Braxton tends to stay away from the writing process. “If I start thinking about what to write about I get too much in my head and start thinking too hard. I find it better to just hear the way the song feels and go off the beat.” He also usually builds off of what his cousin writes. He doesn’t really have specific topics that he raps about. He tends to go from what he hears the music like. Depending whether the music is more upbeat and aggressive or slow and smooth he creates his lyrics to fit the rhythm.
Although Braxton’s cousin has been one of the main influences for rapping, he finds influences by some of his favorite rappers. A lot of these artists are on the Soundcloud platform and post their own music as well. They are perusing a rap career and hope to meet fame one day. As times have changed, overnight fame and exposure is a lot more relative than it was back then. Through social media and networking online, someone can gain global success and make it to bigger audiences. Some notable artists such as Lil Uzi Vert, Lil Peep, Russ, and Lil Yatchy to name a few, all gained global success and started from Soundcloud. Most of who Braxton tends to gravitate to are underground artists, or artists that are not in the mainstream light. Braxton gets really into who he listens to and “researches everything there is to know about them” to see if they really are about what they rap and not just someone that raps about something that doesn’t make sense for them to say. “I find it easier to listen to you if you’re actually real about what you rap about. It doesn’t make sense if drake were to rap about selling drugs and killing when clearly he has money.” He doesn’t necessarily mean that he prefers rappers with a tough upbringing but mostly if you’re being true to who you are as a person.
When you hear the words “Soundcloud Rapper” there’s usually a negative connotation with it. Others may refer to it as "mumble rap" due to the fact that all that is being rapped is said to sound as if the rapper is mumbling through their words and finding random things to rhyme. It’s what is new and because it’s new people may see it as not as good as original old school rap. Giving the label of being a “Soundcloud rapper” has become something that one may look at and think you’re not as credible as a mainstream artist but it’s actually not the case. “Mainstream is more that an artist has made it.” Braxton explained. “People that are on Soundcloud haven’t made it to that extent yet, so the controversy is that people tend to see SoundCloud rappers as rappers just making music for their friends.” In many cases this is true. Being that Soundcloud is a social media platform where millions of people engage through it may seem that way but that doesn’t make them any less credible.
Though Braxton hasn’t found time to make his music due to school and work, he would like to make it to mainstream music and hopefully one day even create a fanbase. Having the liberty to make his own music is what he enjoys most about rapping. He sees that it is something he created and enjoys the feedback that people like it. It has become a hobby that gains him not only a creative relief but he has found a way to make it a side job and create some money. In the future he wishes to be able to make music of his own and make an album but it currently isn’t his main focus. He also would like to plan a video he can post online other than Soundcloud but he’d much rather put his time and effort on something he likes and would be proud of because he is so picky on what he chooses to release. Rap is something Braxton allows in his life for the joy and hard dedication of it.
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