Written by Kadisha Kentish
Elijah Rudisell is a sophomore at Le Moyne College. He’s currently released a mixtape, Soulful Ignorance, skyrocketing at almost 7,000 views and 5 stars. Here’s what Elijah has to say about his journey.
When did you start rapping?
I started rapping and writing when I was eight but I didn’t take it seriously until last year.
Was this your first mix tape?
I would like to say this is my first but it’s not. I put one out last year, but it wasn’t what I wanted it to be so I kind of like try to disregard that one.
What’s your music inspiration?
A lot of things. I don’t know, I mean there are a lot of ways like you can express yourself but this is the way I prefer to do it.
Are you proud of your mix tape?
It’s done well for me. It’s almost at like 4,000 downloads right now and it’s only been 3 weeks without any promotions. I just threw it out there and it’s doing pretty well. I’ve gotten a lot of good reviews and people love it, nothing but good feedback from it so I’m definitely proud of it.
What’s your favorite song on your mix tape?
I don’t really have a favorite song, I can’t even lie, I like them all. I had to make sure every track I put on there was good so, when I look back on it I’m not like damn, I wish that I would have put this song on there or I wish I wouldn’t have put that song on there. Every song on the mix tape is a song I wanted to have and I think every song is good.
What was the hardest song to do?
Probably a song called ‘Love Like.’ It’s just about my ex-girlfriend and my freshmen year when I first got to college. It’s about the whole relationship thing and how it changes from when you’re in highschool and you get to college.
We think everything is going to still be all the same but it’s really not. And those kinds of songs, they get hard to write and actually it’s hard to record because you’re putting your personal life out there for other people to listen to.
What are your rap influences?
I’m influenced by everybody, seriously, whether it’s east coast music, down south music, west coast music, everybody. If it’s good, I always take it in and try to attach it to what I do. But try to do it differently. I don’t copy anybody but I definitely like to incorporate other styles into what I like to do. But if you ask me for one person specifically, probably the most influential person for my music is probably Kanye. Just production wise, not even really rapping wise, just overall.
Where do you want your music to take you?
I kind of want it to open up doors for other things. I don’t plan on being a rapper my whole life, I just want to do it to a point where I can just quit, and I have a legacy. I want people to think of me as one of the best. But I don’t want to be doing this forever. I would like to get into other things which I hope my music will do—allow me to get into other careers, like movies, fashion and stuff.
Where do you see your music in five years?
If it goes the way I want it to go, I’ll be like huge big name in five years, basically. Five years from now, the sound that I have now, won’t even be remembered, people won’t even remember when I did the type of stuff I’m doing now because I try to change it often so I’m always giving you something different. My next mix tape won’t sound like the last one; you know what I mean. I don’t like to bore people.