Meet 4Point | Rap Artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with 4Point and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi 4Point, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking
It’s funny because my relationship with risk has evolved a ton over my life, and it’s always been central… but for almost opposite reasons.

When I started making music, I was 17 and terrified of risk, mostly social. I was scared to ask girls out because of my fear of rejection. Same thing with starting conversations and speaking the truth when it might be controversial. I felt like a coward and I hated that because it’s not who I wanted to be.

My journey as an artist was born out of this desire to transcend fear, among other things. I started writing songs about how I felt and putting them out, no matter what people were going to think. I went on a mission to get better at talking to strangers, approaching people on the street, and met hundreds if not thousands of super dope people over the last few years.

In that way, risk was one of the reasons I started… not because I liked it, but because I was scared of it, and felt I needed to conquer it. It gave me a burning desire and drove me forward in those early years, which set me on the path I’m on today

Now, 7 years in, I’m healthier than I was then and more established in my artistry. I’ve come to love risk, and see it as the way forward in both art and business

In art, no one falls in love with an artist who’s playing it safe. You fall in love with artists who tell the truth, particularly the uncomfortable ones… and risk unpopularity or disagreement or conflict (and these days, being “canceled”) in order to say it. Sometimes I write a line and get a little nervous feeling in my stomach, like “oh shit… I don’t know what people are gonna think of that one.” I used to take that as a sign that I should erase it. But I’ve learned it’s actually the universe telling me that that’s exactly where I need to be. The place that’s true and scary at the same time

In business, I love risk because the return on projects isn’t linear… it’s exponential. Most ideas are decent and will hold the ship steady or push it forward a little bit. Some ideas will be really great and have a big impact. And then a few ideas will literally change everything. But you don’t arrive at the home run ideas by sitting and thinking… you do it by trying things that may or may not work out. As I’ve started realizing this, a lot of my approach to business has been to take as many shots as possible… because one home run can pay for a thousand failed experiments. And that’s not even an exaggeration. One home run can change your life forever

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I’m not your typical rapper… I like baking and stuffed animals and going to bed at 10pm

I make music for the underdogs and late bloomers, and my mission is to show the world that we can change who we are

I jokingly refer to myself as the “worst rapper alive,” because I was definitely not supposed to be a rapper. I didn’t have much talent (my first songs were comically bad) and growing up in Seattle, I wasn’t in the culture. But I fell in love with rap music and I decided that I was going to become an artist.

I was also skinny and undisciplined, and I ran away from problems instead of confronting them. I let fear stop me from becoming the person I wanted to be. It got to the point where I knew I was letting myself and everyone else down by leaving all this potential on the table, and I knew it, and I still didn’t do anything about it, and I hated that most of all. So I also decided that I had to change all of that too.

Since then my life has been a quest to transform. I remember writing music in my freshman year dorm room at like 3 or 4am, with my little reading light on at my desk, trying to be quiet so I didn’t wake up my roommate who was sleeping. I would go to class during the main part of the day, eat a huge dinner, hit the gym up until it closed from like 9-10pm, make a retrospectively disgusting protein smoothie, then carry my mic stand and reflection shield a mile or so across campus and record in the school studio til around 1 in the morning. I was also giving myself social challenges to get over my fear of rejection, talking to strangers and doing all these embarrassing things in public to toughen my mind. That’s why I don’t consider myself a “rap artist.” My art is transformation. The music just happens to be the thing that I love, and the most visible output from it.

The journey started as a burning, do-or-die quest with high emotional spikes and bursts of furious action mixed in with down periods. All nighters and creative benders. These days, it’s more of a mature, refined campaign… I’ve shifted my thinking from intensity to consistency. I wake up at 7, write a little music, hit the gym 3 times a week, talk to a stranger a day, and record a song a week. I’m all about getting a little better each day and living healthy so I can still be doing this 10 years from now. But the mission is still the same: get a little closer to who I know I can be, and by doing so, be living proof to the world that we’re not stuck as what we’re born as. With courage and consistency, we get to decide who we are.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Dope stuff, in no particular order:

Restaurants:

The Bando – big vibe, and very Atlanta. They call themselves a hip hop history museum, the place is decorated with 90s stuff. Get the strawberry hot Crack Wings… they’re amazing

Mary Mac’s Tea Room – classic southern food, great vibes, and you get a lot of food. The walls are covered by famous people who have eaten there

Pollo Asado Sinaloense – best Mexican food I’ve had outside of Mexico. This place is legit

Activities:

Scooter the beltline from Krog Street Market to Piedmont Park
Get dinner in West Midtown
Explore Inman Park aka paradise
See the Martin Luther King Jr. tomb and the area around it
Go out to Peter Street Station and the surrounding art shops on a friday or saturday night

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
There’s a lot of people. I definitely want to start with my family, because they’ve done the most for me by far, not even close. My family has given me all the support I could ask for and it’s only because of them that I can even consider starting my own business and pursuing art as my focus in life. If not for all they’ve given me, I’d have to be far more “practical”. So I owe them a ton for putting me in a position where I can even do this.

Apart from them, there’s so many friends and mentors I’ve met over the years that have helped me out hugely. First on that list would be Ben Yonas, McKenzii Webster, and the dopest rock band in the world, Making Movies. They gave me a shot to be their day to day manager and go on tour with them back when I had almost no experience. I got to learn the industry and travel the world with them, which was one of the most exciting periods of my life and extremely important to my development as a person.

Another person who helped me more than I think he could possibly realize is Bryan Calhoun. We only crossed paths a couple times, and I don’t know if he even remembers me, but he sat down with me for 45 minutes and put me onto the most ridiculous game back when I was a 20 year old college student with literally zero industry experience. And he’s big time… like working with Drake and Lil Wayne and G Easy big time. I had no business meeting with him but for whatever reason he was down to talk to me, and he introduced me to the strategies (and a company called Indepreneur, which I recommend to any indie creatives) that have allowed me to actually have some success as an independent artist. 4 years later almost the entire industry is STILL sleeping on the stuff he put me onto. He was one of the few doing it, and because of him, so was I.

I have to shoutout my engineer and collaborator, Dustin Cicero, who’s been a great friend and mentor over the years and has cooked up almost all of my dopest music with me!

Other mentors like Ty Sanders, WANZ, DJ Rasta Root, ED Long, and Richard Dunn have also helped me a ton and I’m very grateful to them for sharing their wisdom and experience with me.

Currently, I’m working with a music industry education non-profit called Beats X Books here in Atlanta (shoutout Torey Best, Randem Word, B Corder and the rest of the team!). I’m grateful to them for welcoming me and I’m very exciting for the things we’re going to build over the next few years.

Website: www.4pointmusic.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/4pointmusic/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/4PointMusic

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkhBQDv8IUePIqLiaSIL26Q

Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/6cNrQvdRSafriKtDUDttvL?si=RXIQ2EjOSDGFKKAhCjpRGA

Image Credits
James Hastur Emory Lemos Nash Pearson