Today we’d like to introduce you to Elmer Abapo.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Elmer. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I’m a hip hop/R&B artist and producer from Las Vegas, but I just recently moved to LA three months ago.
Although I had always had an inner feeling to pursue music as a career since I was a kid, I first got a bachelor’s degree in Architecture. After a few years of working in an architecture office, I was let go, but I took it as an opportunity to pursue music as a fulltime career.
Prior to the pandemic, I developed a good amount of buzz within the Las Vegas music community playing at various festivals, casinos, venues and events.
During that time, I met a great group of songwriters who invited me to work with them and commute back and forth to LA. Being in LA opened up a world full of opportunities, much more than I had experienced in Vegas, and so my girlfriend and I began seeing what plans we could make to move.
It was a very long process of trying to figure it out, and the pandemic definitely did not help. However, in the midst of all the craziness going on in the world, an opportunity opened up for us to move that made sense to us, and my girl and I took it as a sign. So here we!
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
One of the biggest obstacles when starting a fulltime career in music is the financial aspect. I was definitely digging into my savings the first six months of trying to build something.
Some months are better than others, and it’s still a process three years later.
Self-confidence for me is a big one. It’s been a long road of building up my self-confidence to truly represent myself as the artist I want to be.
Another obstacle is dry spells. As much as Artists would love to come up with dope ideas all the time, sometimes you just don’t have ideas and you need to recharge your brain.
Can you give our readers some background on your music?
I definitely brand myself first and foremost as a hip hop and R&B artist that focuses on self-development and encouraging other people to do what their inner spirit calls them to do. A big part of my growth as an artist and by extension, my brand was because of the self-development, spirituality, and financial books I was reading. It has helped me grow into a much better person, and I’d like the music I make to impart that same energy.
I’m mostly an in-house operation; I do 95% of all the songwriting, production, mixing and mastering. My girl and I shoot our own videos and edit them ourselves. I use a lot of my architecture fundamentals to design my own artwork and social media rollout. I guess it’s pretty much a self-contained label, but it’s not out of some sense of pride of doing everything by myself. It’s just out of necessity when you don’t always have the funds to delegate these things.
Sometimes you just gotta do it yourself. I think what separates me from others is the level of transparency when it comes to the brand and music. There’s no smoke and mirrors. There’s no flexing. And this concept even runs all the way down to my stage name, ELMER ABAPO, which is my real name. I want you to know that this is really me. You’re either gonna accept me for who I am and the message I bring into your life, or you won’t.
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
Now that I’m living in LA, I just would like to network as much as I can and meet great people that I can work within the industry. It’s kinda like starting over when I first started. Hopefully, all this pandemic stuff settles down so we can all get back to business. Working on a lot of new music as well as working on a series of side projects that may or may not be related to music in order to make more money. Just trying to create different streams of income!
Contact Info:
- Website: elmerabapo.com
- Email: booking@elmerabapo.com
- Instagram: Instagram.com/elmer.abapo
- Facebook: Facebook.com/elmerabapo
- Twitter: Twitter.com/elmerabapo
- Other: https://spoti.fi/3iGcXLF
Image Credit:
Unofficial Kodak Moments
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