In every bio that William Kowall, also known as Virtue the emcee, writes about himself for websites, he notes that he’s been “going hard” since age 12. In the seventh grade, he staged a coup against his private school’s curriculum because they only allowed students to either take French and an art class or take French and go to band practice, not participate in both art activities. After the coup, Kowall says, “Option E was available, and over half of the kids took it.”
Kowall, an Emerson senior, is a self-proclaimed “awful student,” but he is pursuing a career most music aficionados only dream of. As a writing, literature and publishing major, he spends 90 percent of his time writing music and says, “Scholastically, I’ve never had a path. I was like, ‘What kind of schooling could accentuate the aspects of my music to grow?’ I decided I loved writing because it helps in a lot of other fields besides music.” He admits to doing as little schoolwork as possible, but a picture he uploaded from his iPhone says his psychology midterm grade reads “100.”
One would think being in four bands would take a toll on a creative mind, but as the work piles on, especially with two albums set to release in the next three months by one of Kowall’s favorite budding record labels, Milled Pavement, Kowall becomes the opposite of a dull boy. “I write the most, and my most powerful stuff, when I’m really stressed about school, because I’m like, ‘F—, I have an essay to write,’ and then it’s fuel to write,” Kowall says. “I can validate my subconscious with doing something else productive.” While most students bide their time with Facebook or other vices, Kowall instead became heavily involved at Emerson in his early college years by co-hosting a radio show on WECB.fm with fellow Canadian and WLP senior, Talia Ralph. Their show, “Shamelessly Fameless,” featured one hour of American hip-hop and one hour of Canadian hip-hop. The name of their show, however, stemmed from Kowall’s own background.
“In Calgary, where I grew up, there was a budding hip-hop community that did open mics and performances, but there was no centralized place for it,” Kowall says. “So, I saw an opportunity for a hip-hop store…and my mom and I started investigating. We opened the first hip-hop store in Calgary called Fameless. When Slug, from Atmosphere, came in around the Seven’s Travels album, he did an autograph signing, and I’ve seen him about every year since then.”
After three successful years, the store closed down due to a manager-turned-thief, but the name and the “Fameless” attitude have become imperative to Kowall’s being as a person and an artist.
Although Fameless Fam, the collective that houses Kowall and his peers’ progressive music projects, connects with its audience through the Internet and the underground hip-hop community, reaching actual Emerson students is a goal he’s hoping to achieve by the time he’s graduated in September. “I had to be at Emerson to meet everyone [such as partyboobytrap, Time Crisis, and George Watsky], and it happened, obviously, because it had to,” Kowall says. “All things ‘Fameless’ have been recorded for free. All of our videos were done by my roommate at Emerson and one of my best friends now, Nicolas Heller. We all kind of fed each others’ hip-hop interests, and in the Emerson community where hip-hop was so not prevalent, that was nourishing.”
With a history of working with the likes of Sleigh Bells, Ikey Owens of the Mars Volta, Sage Francis, and Fresh Daily, to name a few, Kowall’s innovative and humble thinking is nothing short of brilliance in training. Speaking about a show that took place on March 16 with George Watsky, an Emerson alumnus, rapper, and YouTube star with over eight million hits, Kowall says, “There was a full house, but we didn’t have any friends in the audience. It was sweet because it was all new people. But no one knew we were from Boston, and they thought we were touring with Watsky.”
Although being famous is a naive goal many people grow out of when they turn double digits, Kowall seems to never have had that in mind, or any deliberate goal besides making music, writing, and being happy. “My ultimate goal in life is to have enough people care about my music, where I can just tour,” Kowall says. All that this low-maintenance, high passion, soon-to-be dual citizen wants is the bare necessities. “I don’t have to be making big money at all, just enough to have dinner the night of a show, drink tickets, and a hotel. [With that,] I’m set.”
Look out for the albums Following Wild and Never Made it To O’Brien’s releasing in the next three months.
You can “Like” Virtue on Facebook, check out Kowall’s Tumblr, or watch him live on Fameless Fam’s Youtube Channel.