New Jersey artist atm, the newest Mass Appeal signee, is bringing a more mellow, lo-fi aesthetic to the label’s roster which includes acts like the Starting 5, Dave East, and Black Milk.
Prepping the Friday (April 26) release of his self-titled debut, he revealed to HipHopDX that the single that brought him to this point almost didn’t happen — as he had quit recording almost a year before he wrote it.
“I came off like a seven month period where I didn’t want to make music anymore,” say atm. Luckily for him, that changed after he heard the instrumental for his breakout single “Rush,” which ultimately led to his current situation with Mass Appeal.
“One day I was at Cor Blanco’s house. He played the beat and I was like, ‘all right, let me try this, let me try something different.’ I wrote that song and it just came out beautiful,” he says. “I posted a snippy, I got a lot of feedback like on Twitter and Instagram … I just went with it.”
Soon after, he met his manager and began shopping the record to labels, eventually landing on Nas’s imprint.
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“It’s more like a family label to me,” he says. “They don’t just, you know, sign you and then brush you to the side. This is really hands on — every day doing something, every week I’m in the studio,” he explains, noting that Mass Appeal has an in-house studio.
“Everybody’s in tune there … It’s a real team.”
An interesting element for fans is the fact that his debut on the imprint isn’t a big label affair, but rather a project he initially planned to release independently.
“To be honest, I finished the whole thing before I signed. I was waiting on it,” he says. “This is just the beginning, too. I’m hoping this will showcase my talent and my versatility, cause I feel like I can be on a lot of different genres. I just don’t want to call it right now.
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“I don’t want to be known as a rapper. I want to be known as an artist.”
Though he’s looking forward to touring, making clear his love of bringing music directly to the people — and the Mass Appeal machine’s ability to back it — there is an overwhelming sense that atm is about the music in a deeper way than some of the others in his current lane.
As opposed to a flashy facade, he’s making honest music — and letting his output do the talking.
“I like everyone to find out about me organically,” he says humbly. “I don’t like to like force myself onto people. I feel like it’s more natural when it’s found, you know what I mean? You’ll appreciate it more … and hopefully, love it.”
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Check out atm’s debut project, below.
