Thanks for taking some time to be interviewed for Clout Culture Magazine. Can you please introduce your self to our readers and tell just a little bit about what you do?
Yea. My name is Imani. I go by Imani B. for my artist name. I’m 26 and I’m from Spring Hill, Florida. I do a lot of different things, but the main things I like to do is make my own songs about my feelings or whatever I am going through. And I like to make beats.
How long have you been producing beats? How long have you been making raps? And who gets bragging rights for introducing you to the music game?
Shidddd. I been making beats since march 2020 and I’ve been making raps since around 20ish. But I didn’t get consistent with writing until I started making my own beats.
As for introducing me, that depends on your definition on introduce? Can you elaborate on that?
What or who got you interested in rapping and making beats?
I started in the music industry as a videographer/video editor. I would be at a lot of shoots and think I want to do this and in the back of my mind it was always something I knew I would chase. That dream started to come to the front of my mind when I went on tour with Sean Kingston. I was his creative director in 2019 and being on stage with him was an energy that I have never received before. The crowd turning up with “the cameraman” before Sean got on stage was wild to me. People wanting to take pics with me simply because I was apart of Seans crew felt amazing. I was hooked to that feeling. I started to realize that after what was 6 years of shooting/editing at the time, it was time for me to chase a new dream. So to answer your question, it was no specific person that introduced me into the music industry. It was more so a series of events that happened in my life.
Thats an awesome human experience! You sound like a jack of all trades! Whats your plan now looking to the future? While doing some research on your music today, I noticed it looks like you have only released singles thus far? Does that mean there is a debut full length album coming?!
Yea. I consider myself a jack of all trades for sure. My current plan is to just build my name dude. I want a cult like following. A group of people who really fuck with me because I’m simply being me. My focus is getting those type of dedicated supporters. I know that is a lot harder to do and more of a long-term thing, but I much rather have people who would pretty much rock with me no matter what. Like how Earl Sweatshirt has his cult following, or Tyler The Creator.
I do not plan to release an album until I feel like I have hit certain milestones in my music career. Right now I believe just releasing singles is whats best for me.
Thats a solid plan. Transparency and genuine energy are the ultimate form of branding. There is not enough of that in the world right now. This energy is lowkey what caught my attention on tik tok and put me on to you in the 1st place. So that checks out. And while we are on the topic of Tiktok, you have a song trending which leads me to my next question…. Why is your Uncle sound like such a bitch? Respectfully. I find the lyrical content of “Bitch Ass Uncle” highly relatable. And I just wanna know? Whats his deal? Hurt people hurt people, what made him like this?
Lmfao I don’t know. He was always cool growing up, but at the same time, I never hung out with him for more than a weekend growing up, so maybe I just painted a false picture of him. What I can say is, I come from a west indian family. All west indian kids have to deal with constant disrespect from our elders and are expected to just take it. Just speaking up for yourself in a POLITE way is deemed disrespectful. I think it stems from a superiority complex all west indian elders have. Thats my theory of why he started acting like a bitch. He didn’t like that I was not tolerating his disrespect.
Wow! That sucks, but it’s also fascinating that it came from
cultural circumstances and tradition. Unfortunate you had to be in the struggle for a bit because of it. But that’s also relatable for a lot of us creatives so maybe it all happened for a reason. Thanks for sharing! Moving on to the next question. If you could go on tour with anyone in the world, who would you choose to be on the bill with you? A man’s dream tour says a lot about him.
? There are a lot. But if I had to pick one, I’d say Tyler The Creator.Just Tyler tho? I couldn’t possibly go on tour without Earl! But aye this ain’t my dream tour haha. But on a serious note, I really hope we get to see them tour or at least get on a track together again. But on some old OFWGKTA vibrations.
If we picking multiple, baby keem, earl, tyler, rocky, kendrick. I would want to tour with all of them.
Drama ruins shit…leading us to the next question. What are the pros, and cons of your local music community?
I’d say the pros are definitely the amount of creativity a lot of artists in the Tampa/St. pete put into their craft. Niggas out here no how to make something out of nothing frfr.
A con for me is that I feel Tampa/St. Pete area can be clique-y. I’m no better though. I’m pretty introverted and it’s rare that I try to work with people outside of the people I would consider apart of my “clique”. Which is something I am trying to work on.
Oh shit, and I forgot to say Key Glock and Duke Deuce. I would love to tour with them as well.
It’s great when strong music communities form but it doesn’t always happen. But one thing is for certain, and its that there has been mad amounts of talent coming out of Florida for years. So sounds like there is a method to the madness. What the craziest thing you have seen on tour or at a show?!
Nothing crazy tbh. The craziest shit I’ve seen at any show are the mosh pits. But I feel like thats standard for any Florida show…….unless you want to count the backstage shit where niggas be doing coke on dirty bathroom sinks. ? I feel like thats pretty standard shit in the music industry.
Yea haha true that. What advice do you have for artists trying to break out onto a platform like TikTok? Or for someone trying to break out into the industry in general. What has worked for you?
For artist trying to break out on tiktok, just be consistent as fuck. If something is not working, try something else. Constantly test and don’t let yourself get down when the views aint looking the way you want them to look. Watch videos and study tiktok as a whole like you were to study a science test. If we talking industry in general, pick up another skill that can help other artists and let that be the way you get your foot in the door. Niggas never want to help the up-n-coming rapper, but they sure as hell will try to become friends with the dope graphic designer or the fire video editor.
All solid advice! As we wrap this up I’d like to say thank you for your time. Is there anything you would like to add? And where is the best place for people to check out your music and content?
I appreciate your time bro. Yea, people can find me on twitter, soundcloud, IG and everything else at @whoisimanib. And soon my website whoisimanib.com that I will be launching in the coming weeks.
