An Interview with Rotelle' The Samurai, July 2025
How would you describe your sound? What interests you about your genre specifically?
Collectively, I’ll call my music earnest. No matter what kind of project or track I’m working on, be it genre or theme, I’m still going to approach it in a way that’s my quirky, weird, cool, authentic self. Sometimes I’m not intending to be genre focused, but hip hop is my love and my bread and butter, so I also gotta call my sound some flavor of abstract hip hop. I rap, I produce, I experiment. Sometimes I’m rapping, sometimes It’s just an ambient loop I made. But it’s also hip hop that carries that same energy for me. The foundations of it are built on sampling, reshaping things that are already there and breathing something new into it, and that’s really what I love about it all. Hip Hop is the people, it has something for each of us.
Who/what inspires your music?
Everything about OutKast is an inspiration. I grew up feeling embodied within everything they did as a young black weirdo from the south.
Lupe Fiasco is a big reference for how I want to approach my craft. Megan Thee Stallion is where I go to build up and maintain my self confidence - and recently John Cage, taking inspiration there and experimenting with what “art” and “performance” actually means and approaching things from a more avant garde perspective. I’ve just really started with that so I’m excited to see what I can come up with.
If you could open for any musician/band, who would it be?
Noveliss. Noveliss is also a big inspiration and someone I really admire. The entire Blerd, Otaku mix and being earnest about it, and still being cool as hell. Let me open for Noveliss, thats the crowd I wanna rock
What does making music mean to you? What got you into it/keeps you continuing?
Making music for me is this mix of journaling, veneration, and some pride. I remember being in the 5th grade, about to enter middle school. Our middle school band gave an end of the year performance, gathering interest for anyone who would want to join the band next year. I was there, and that was the day everything changed, like when the fire nation attacked. I joined band as a percussionist in 6th grade and kept with it ever since. In one of the books for band, it came with a demo of Finale, a music notation software, and I started tinkering around with that. From there, I stumbled upon FL Studio, the DAW I use to this day primarily. It’s just been one big continuous journey for me, I have my undergraduate degree in Music Business matter of fact. It became this real intrinsic part of myself. When I’m feeling pretty down and depressed, I acknowledge that it’s often coupled with me not being creative. Making music means I’m pouring into myself and giving back with my art.
How do you keep yourself motivated and inspired/how do you work through creative blocks?
I’ve been coming to feel that creative blocks are often manifestations of being uninspired. I can acknowledge when I’m really struggling to find the drive to create, fighting to find ideas, it’s that I’m often just not fueling my creativity. Finding that earnest curiosity and pursuing things with that in mind has helped me tons. For me, that’s been reading a lot more fiction, spending more time outside, really making space to find and appreciate other perspectives. That’s where the real creativity is for me, just expanding my imagination more.
What is your creative process like? Is it more organized & session based or more sporadic and fleeting?
I definitely start more sporadically. I often will just make random noises, or will just toss out random words, just kind of free styling or improv’ing in the moment. That gets the gears turning in my head, I’m just experimenting, seeing what kind of sounds or themes pop up, and I’ll keep going until something sticks out to my and I’ll build from there. I was listening to 7 Piano Sketches by Andre 3000 and he mentioned how he was just essentially “playing around until something feels good” and that’s kind of the same vibe I go for. Even if I’m trying to be more organized, the process is still starting by just messing around and warming up.
What are some of your rituals/inspirations when writing music? (do you listen/pull inspo from other artists? Do you have a specific place you like to write at? etc.)
Rhythm is often my starting point, keeping that percussionist in me alive. IF I’m writing lyrics to something, I’ll hum or tap out the rhythm I want to use first, and piece in words after the fact like sorting together puzzle pieces.
When it comes to recording, vocally at least, it’s kind of a vulnerable and intimate experience for me when I’m laying down tracks. The feeling is very raw, untouched, unpolished, so I’m often seeking solitude or recording myself. There’s this uncanny difference between performing a song on stage and recording it for the first time for me. The recording part is when that idea is first coming out, so it feels kinda intimate for me and not something I often let other people see.
How does your identity as a nonbinary person inform/inspire your work and creative process? What is it like being gender non-conforming in the rap/music scene?
It ties into my ability to make the art I want to make. I’m nonbinary by way of embracing the totality of the human experience and the potential therein. My relationship to gender is conceptualized by holding space for all that I am, and all that I can be. Im a masculine person, I’m a feminine person, I contain androgyny, i contain multitudes. I relate that to the music as I make art from that same perspective. I’m a rapper, I’m a percussionist, I love ambient music,
I like all of these different things and inspirations, and I tell myself “how can I show that in the music?” For me that means sometimes I’m gonna make a collection lofi hip hop beats, another day I’ll make an electronic album, and tomorrow I’ll be rapping. Being Nonbinary in the arts is letting myself make art without thinking in the box of genre or expectations, it's for me.
I’m still experimenting and figuring out my own gender expression in many ways, so I too am still figuring out how that's fully intersecting with my space in music. But! I do want it to be something that's an extension of myself in the way of feeling accepted in various spaces. Gender and Art are limitless, I think we should welcome everyone into creative spaces, no matter the discipline. Go to an electronic show as a rapper, go to a rap show as a classical musician, go to a mosh pit as a ballet dancer. I want that to be the energy I radiate, being open to everything.
Which song of yours do you consider to be your favorite? Why?
Shameless plug is my latest single, Moonlit, for real reasons though. Musically, over the years, I think Ive really only held myself in this box of being able to produce and curate the creation of some cook art, but hip hop and rap as always been my musical foundation, my first love and where my interest in music as an art stems from. Moonlit is me really giving space for the rapper in me. Rap music raised me, and now I'm finally comfortable to give it back its fruits.
What is your current big goal? What does the future hold/what are you working towards right now?
I’m finishing up a small project and getting my ducks in line for that. I’ve found myself making a home in the more DIY side of things right now. Planning up a house party and a small CD run of the project I’m finishing. Success for me right now is finishing that and seeing that come to life, hopefully by the end of this year. Otherwise, I’m focusing on the art, living life, meeting people, and doing dope things.
Do you have any advice for someone looking to start making music/rap?
Be earnest and be yourself. Give respect to the craft and those who inspire you. You’re gonna get out what you put in, and I mean personal satisfaction more than anything. The music you make, the ideas you develop, be true to yourself, and have fun. I think it's at the intersection of whimsy and discipline that the best things happen.
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