SOLILOQUIES FROM THE SOUTH is an informal interview series that seeks to provide up-and-coming artists a forum to tell their personal history and speak to their own purpose and motivations as a creator.

so·lil·o·quy
\sə-ˈli-lə-kwē\
noun
an act of speaking one’s thoughts aloud when by oneself or regardless of any hearers, especially by a character in a play

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As a teenager, most everything is a new experience. Really, anything in life, period, whether it’s getting your first debit card, paying bills, graduating high school, or, as is the case with underground hip-hop group [A]RT, being some of the youngest artists to be featured on the radio for a song you made with your favorite rapper. The youth collective from Henry County (who just graduated high school two weeks ago, congrats!) is hitting the road, getting nationwide exposure, and rocking clubs on a greater scale than their peers. They have a lifestyle and come-up journey that most of their family and classmates can’t begin to understand.

For the latest SOLILOQUIES FROM THE SOUTH, [A]RT’s Flip! and (T)ans wanted to share the group’s background, ideals, and plans for the future as they prepare to premiere their track “Mr. Pan” featuring 21 Savage and Uncle Richy tonight on V103.

“We all have the same love and passion for music. Not only is it fun for us, but it keeps us sane and productive. We’re always creating and looking for ways to improve. We don’t even know how we started. People thought that we were good, so we kept going. It all started with us just playing around with our bros; we never imagined we’d doing anything with music, so it’s wild. It’s funny because we were at our bro Bryce’s house — back when he made beats, he would have “cook sessions” at his spot, and this particular day we were there playing around, freestyling on the couch on, like, every beat they played, and our homie Lil Jay, who is also a rapper, was over and randomly came up with a song title for a beat that was being played and he put us on it outta nowhere. We were all 16-17 at the time.

“Uncle Richy and (T)ans are working on a project we would like to put out this summer, maybe before the summer. The production is really like an in-house style, if that makes sense. We have our bro and [A]RT producer Dro BeatZz and Uncle Richy that also produces. We also get beats from Jimmy Newtron who is also a producer, but that’s it so far for what we have out.

“The message behind our music really is just to have fun and enjoy whatever you’re doing. We’re young, so live a little. It’s crazy out here, so every day you see or hear something new. Everything is risky, you just have to work ya wrist. We rap what we actually live too, so everything is not shoot up this sold crack here — yeah, we grew up in that scene and all at, but we really like to talk about the positive side of life with a little druggy flair added to it. There are some opportunities that are coming up such as collabs. (Tans) has a song with Swaghollywood he’s dropping soon and things of that nature but we’re gonna keep quiet and just show everyone that we gonna make it happen.

“We all have different influences. As close as all of us are, we are different in so many ways its ridiculous. But us as a unit, we would say our style and sound is unique. We’d like to think we have our own lane. It’s hard to explain, but it’s crazy. It’s like rap, but it’s the feel of rock. We got bars now, we gonna come with some dope ass lyrics, but it’s really the feeling we’re looking to bring out of people — that lil’ thing in your head that just makes you wanna jig when you hear our music.

“Our friendship is really family, honestly. Most of the members of [A]RT have known each other since elementary and/or middle school, and (T)ans came through in high school. He’s basically the last person that came around. We were the only people we really had common interests with, and we’ve been close ever since. Being a teenager in the rap world is kinda weird because you realize it’s hella old guys out here trying to rap, so it’s kinda funny, but still weird. The only advice we could give to anyone is just be yourself and stick to what works for you because something could be very popular, but still not work out in your favor.

“Seeing other teens like Lil Yachty and Kodak Black inspire us because they’re just like us and have the youth behind them. Like, (T)ans is two days older than Yachty, believe it or not, and probably knows 85% of his songs by heart. So we know once we reach that point we’ll probably think that it’s weird, but it would be pretty lit.

“Being in Atlanta and trying to be a part of the music scene isn’t easy. None of us are from the county. We reside in Henry and [that] isn’t even considered Atlanta, we don’t think, and it’s kinda hard to be taken seriously simply because the county has never had an artist come out to be something big. There’s a million rappers, singers, and producers out here but only a handful get recognized and we appreciate the fact that we’re being recognized with our friends. But it would be cool if Henry County had its own scene.”

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SoundCloud: @artmusick