It's A Mood: The Rise Of 24kGoldn
Straight from the Bay, this viral rapper is conquering the globe...
To put it simply, It's been an interesting year so far for *24kGoldn*. The San Francisco born artist has enjoyed worldwide success in 2020 and is sure on the way to becoming the next superstar. Goldn is able to blend genres that appeal to a wide audience; his single ‘Mood’ went number one in the global charts, as well as in the UK. Along with this, he featured on a song with Mabel and Clean Bandit which reached Top 10 in the UK during the same period.
Goldn was in good spirits even only after waking up for the talk with Clash moments before. We caught up with the artist a few days after Biden was named the next President of the United States: “Everyone's in good spirits, there was a lot of impending doom on the horizon but yeah we’re good over here now”.
His track ‘Mood’ became a huge hit, as Goldn recalls: “It was just so surreal because I feel normally when you have a song blow up, you get to see how it looks in real life. Like getting recognised on the street more, getting booked for shows and travelling everywhere. For me, I'm doing the same thing I’ve been doing the past six months but my song is going up. It was a very limited perspective of what that’s like. I love it, but can’t wait to really get out in the world, tour, and meet the people who made this possible”.
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To have a song go so big across the globe and not be able to play it live must be a strange feeling, both frustrating but also exciting for when it can happen. Goldn can't wait to play his music out live: “Nothing compares to the feeling of being onstage, singing your heart out with lyrics you wrote that express how you really feel, and having hundreds to thousands of people singing it back to you. It’s like the closest thing I’ve seen to magic”. He carried on “In the past I was opening up for someone else. This will be the first time I meet people who are here just for me”.
The artist has had more reason to celebrate recently - two of the biggest stars in the world, Justin Bieber and J Balvin jumped on a remix of his hit track. Golden explains: “That’s a sign that i'm doing the right thing, because those are two artists that I admire a lot”. The tables are now turning for Golden as he’s now the one attracting the attention. “When I first started making music, no major artists wanted to get on my songs, I was practically out here trying to get any feature I could. But now that they want to get on my song, both Justin and Balvin fucking with the song and asking to jump onto it. It’s a good feeling”.
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We then talk about any future collaborations that are in mind. “Young Thug and Drake. Me and Thug have been talking a bit and I think he’s supposed to come out to L.A soon”. Goldn is also a huge fan of the abstract Atlanta artist Young Thug, adding: “That’s the artist like literally from his first song, I was on Genius looking up all the lyrics”.
Throughout Goldn's recent singles, features and previous EP’s, his music has spanned multiple genres. He says his varying ability is down to his parents, “My parents liked everything. They both travelled the world before they had me, so they formed a very diverse and cultural perspective in terms of food, music and movies. Everything I did from a young age exposed me to different aspects of the world”.
A broader perspective of music has helped Goldn with the current success, enabling him to a wider audience. We compared this to other local artists from his area, he said, “I think in the Bay (region of San Francisco), people are happy to make music that’s popping in the Bay. But I think that music is one of the most powerful tools in the world. This is a big world and you gotta make big songs if you want to bring the world together”.
Looking ahead, Goldn is now working on his next project, explaining: “throughout the quarantine period I got to work on my debut album”. He isn’t rushing the process for this though, and now expectations will be higher after recent success, with the rapper adding: “They say for your first album, you’ve got your whole life to make it, so I’m taking all my time that I can to really make this into something special and unique”.
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Following on from this, we discuss his first EP. “If ‘Dropped Out Of College’ was done to see if I could make a pop song, a rap song or a rock song. My next album ‘El Dorado’ is going to be me combining all those best elements, styles and sounds to create a genre that’s really just me”. Goldn is now finding his style, after looking in so many directions for inspiration.
TikTok has played a huge role in the music industry itself over the past couple of years, and for 24kGoldn himself. He thinks it will be the platform to dominate the industry for a while, “Until somebody makes something that will be more captivating. Instagram was the biggest platform before I feel, but it changed so much that it became less of something you can enjoy and more of something you have to do”.
The amount of users on the app is continuously growing, with 3.7 million active users in the UK currently. He finishes: “TikTok is made purely for entertainment purposes. You’re not comparing yourself to friends, you’re not feeling bad because you’ve seen someone with all this stuff. It’s more about the funny side of things with some dance or whatever, there’s weird shit out there”.
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Words: *Joe Hale* / *@jalewrites*
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