* Valley going on a wave, we speak w new comer Ham the aviator on getting 12k followers, his journey as an artist and more *
When you were in High School, Before music, what did you see yourself doing? That’s so crazy that you ask me that, on the way over here, I was thinking about my life. I had hoop dreams. I wanted to play overseas and surround myself with basketball. When I was 15,16, I thought I was gonna play ball. I never saw myself taking music seriously. I LOVE music, but i didn’t see myself doing this.
Obviously, you had to have had a 9-5// regular job, when would you say that you stopped working a 9-5?
Since October, Nov. I’ve been doing side hustles to fund the music. I used to work in an insurance consulting firm. The money was great but, sometimes I’d work longer. By the time I got home I just wanted to smoke, eat and go to sleep. It came to a time where, realistically, I had to choose. What was I going to tell my boss? Oh ok, I’m going on tour? I had to find another way to hustle. I know they say millionaires have 6 different forms of income, so I started doing 3-4 side hustles, if one dries up, I have more income coming in.
When did you start changing your perspective to say “I want to be a rapper?”
When I was 21,22 there was a point where I was wilding, I didn’t really know what to do. I was always the guy freestyling at parties. I had a homie that we would drink and freestyle. We recorded a track together, and from there, it felt good, I wanted to show it to my homies.
How long would you say that you’re a solidified rapper?
I would say summer 2016, so 2 ½ years.
How did you come up with your name? HAM THE AVIATOR
The movie, the aviator, I don't know why I chose that, it just sounded cool. I was in high school and I used to listen to Tyler The Creator so adding “THE” to your name was cool.
You’re a local valley rapper with 12k followers on IG. How did you manage to get an organic following?
There’s a way that instagram works, you have to find out how it works. You have to match your personality with how it works. That’s how you get your following up. There’s no point in buying your followers, cause you’re playing yourself. Those aren’t real people to interact with. I think you just have to be yourself. For example, I listen to a lot of Wiz Khalifa, He’s someone I look up to in the music world. I feel like his music is similar to mine. What do I do? I go and tap in w his fans. It’s people that you have a feeling that you already know, would f*ck w you. Also, if you feelin like you have a similar style to someone, I would say, those people who appreciate that, will appreciate you as well. tap in with their followers. I figured it out a long time ago because I was just doing funny shit online. I had gone viral through twitter, through dumb tweets, funny memes, stupid shit like that. So I figured it out a while ago. It just worked for me, I just know how to use it.
I have to congratulate you, I think that’s a skill, that not a lot of people know how to do.
I really do think that’s a skill, I just thought I knew a couple things, but now I see it is a skill. There’s artist that haven’t accepted that times have changed and they shy away from social media and they’re hindering themselves from their full capability as an artist. If you already have the talent,if you can market yourself like crazy, you can get out there. Because there’s people who have no talent but market themselves like crazy.
Your catchphrase is “Valley On A Wave” , tell me how that came about.
My song 818, I was singing it, and I just started saying it. It was kind of just like a Hype thing,it really wasn’t anything until some rapper claimed that I stole that from him because I guess he says something similar, I had no idea, He came at me wrong and it wasn’t until then that I was like OK VALLEY ON A WAVE!! I kept saying it and people started taking to it, and people started saying VALLEY ON A WAVE and now we rock with it.
Do you ever see yourself doing a show like Rolling Loud?
Definitely, I went to Rolling Loud 2017 and I was just there studying what they did. If they had a hype man, vocals, I thought to myself, I could definitely see myself doing this. I remember I saw Shoreline Mafia,i didn’t know who they were. They were playing outside and they were playing ‘MUSTY’ and I was like, OH THIS SLAPS!
You’re independent right now, but if it were to come along. Would you accept a label?
I need at least 80-20 or I need to own ¾ of my music. I think you should want to be bought out, because essentially, I’m a business.
I see you move so quickly, what would you say helped you moved so quickly?
Getting my own mic, I have my own set up at home and I get it mix + mastered at professional studios. I stopped going out, stopped partying as much. I didn’t want to be in line anymore, I wanted to be the guy who goes through VIP. I didn’t want to be in line anymore, everytime I went out, I was feeling like that, so I said let me lock in.
What would you say is the one thing that helped you lock in focus? You seem like you have no fear and you’re full of optimism
Everyone has fear, but I don’t let it make me fold. Also, I don’t have anything else to do. I can’t see myself doing anything else at this point. I never let the fear stop me. Also the people around me, the people that support me, I just started making really good music and everything started clicking all at once. At the end of 2017, my manager got shot and it put everything into perspective. He told me he couldn’t do it anymore, so I respected that. I had dropped a video, I didn’t know what to do. I was like ‘Do i book my own shows?” What do I DO?
So are you your own manager?
Yes. I book my own shows, I pay my own studio time, I pay for my videos. I invest and fund everything myself. I was at a cliffhanger, I didn’t know what to do, I started doing everything myself. once I dropped the 818 song and the video created a lot of buzz, and that whole progression, I had random artists hating on me, that’s when I realized I’m doing it. I’m really doing it.
FIND ALL HIS MUSIC:
GOOGLE, SPOTIFY, TIDAL, YOUTUBE : HAM THE AVIATOR
IG:@HennessyHam
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