Juno Rylee Schultz“Poetry will persist in any conditions. The medium will change but art will always continue on.”
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Interview, words, research, and edits: Juno Rylee Schultz (she/her)
Research: Kylie Tuinier (she/her)
Edits: Bex Stump (she/her), Kylie Tuinier (she/her), and Nathan Thatcher-Miller (he/him)
Elijah Myles is a rapper putting out lyrics about the struggles of our lives, while also finding time to dance inside the joyous times. Elijah has been stirring up hope and spreading out smoke across a staggering amount of tracks for the last three years now, and it’s clear Myles is on the horizon.
I am always pulled to art and music that feels timeless and passionate, and so I’m grateful Elijah Myles agreed to yap across two video calls about his life, music, and what he sees coming in the future.
Our conversation started with Tupac Shakur, one of Elijah’s biggest influences, but we found time to talk about Kendrick Lamar and ‘The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy.’
Elijah’s mind is all over the place as I ask him questions about his life as an artist and a rapper. His last project was just him “having fun” with Elijah saying he had a lot of finished songs on his Macbook that it was time to release, but his beliefs and messaging were still at the front and center.
‘Morals Over Money‘ is packed with 20 tracks, all containing vulnerable messages about something we’re all going through, and how to move forward authentically in a world that doesn’t make it easy.
“Music has taught me so much about the human condition. You are not alone in any circumstance you face. That’s comforting to me, you know?”
Even with the last project being focused on putting out good vibes, Myles knows the quest he has for himself, and the kind of art he wants to put out into the world.
“I have a responsibility to speak on things but sometimes I just wanna have fun too. It’s a dance. I feel like you don’t have a moment without integrity.”
During the making of the last project Elijah made with his frequent producer and collaborator, placard, he said things were as present and focused on the moment just as much as they were on the future and the big picture.
“When Me and placard were in the studio making our last project, there were cartoons on. We were making music non-stop, and I’d have cartoons on to re-up my creative energy. When I was like ‘I’m done’ [from exhaustion] cartoons would bring me back.”
Elijah told me as soon as he returned from the trip to Columbus with his friend Nosa, he knew he needed to get serious about chasing his own dreams. Immediately.
My friend Nosa got me rapping. I’m gonna shout his name out. When he was in college he was like ‘I don’t wanna be an engineer’ and he started his own company. He brought me to Columbus one weekend. He was chasing his dreams and he was like ‘Aren’t you gonna chase yours?’
I went back and bought a 2010 Macbook. I didn’t even tell Nosa. I just did it. He laughed and bought me a better Macbook. He was right though. I couldn’t even download the software I needed. [Laughs].
In the studio, Myles said his impatience with life–and himself–came up, and placard knew exactly what to say.
“I wanna be everyone to everyone, like I’m 25, and I was talking to my friend, Nosa, like ‘I wanna already be where Tupac was’ and he’s like ‘Why you gotta be on Tupac’s timeline?’
Elijah Myles grew up thirty minutes away from Cincinnati, and he always knew he wanted to be a rapper. It was always when, not if, while made and traced his plans out across the stars.
“I used to go home and watch 106 and Park after school. I grew up in a music house. MTV, VH1, The Jonas Brothers. Music is the only thing I’ve ever wanted to be. I said ” a firefighter” to my parents but that’s cause i knew i couldn’t say ‘ a rapper.'”
placard and Myles have continued to work together on the vision, including on Elijah’s upcoming project, ‘Liar.’
“Placard is my closest collaborator in music. We grew up in totally different circumstances. He’s blowing up. He’s on the radar. He’s bigger than me. He’s in California right now but we’re always working on something. I’m working on a project right now but I don’t know what date it’s dropping yet. My next project is called ‘Liar. All my projects have been leading up to this. Before Christmas, that project [Morals over Money], I just wanted to drop 2 projects, and I had some songs on my computer I wanted to drop before the end of the year. Liar is my magnum opus–so far–a deep dive into self-reflection. This project is gonna be more therapy, similar to Kendrick Lamar’s ‘Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers’.”
“I feel like I’m always in the process of making art. any TV show, movie, art, whatever, it’s also helping me further my own art. I’m gonna be able to rap about this shit. I was watching X-Men cartoons the other day and they said ‘PESTILENCE’ and I looked that up and added that shit to my vocabulary.”
Elijah Myles is always working and trying to push himself to keep creating more, conscious the whole time about the world he wants to create around him, for himself and all of us. As part of this, Myles views everything he does as part of the “constant process.”
“I love to be a consumer of art. I love anything that evokes emotion. I feel like I’m in a constant process of consuming and creating art. Everything–even bad art! You watch a bad movie and you laugh at it. [Laughs]. I have to be intentional and push myself though. The fruits of my labors and others motivate me. I’m always working on something though. I just made a verse before we jumped on this call.”
“I’m always working on something though. I just made a verse before we jumped on this call. “
Elijah’s favorite music to listen to is rap music. He believes it’s “one of the diverse genres of music.” But he was eager to express his love for Charli XCX and Hayley Williams during our conversation.
“There’s not a genre of music I’d ever dismiss. Lately I been listening to A$AP Rocky, Lucki Gherbo, JID, Clipse, Veeze, T.I., Charli XCX, Mariah the Scientist, Chief Keef, Rod Wave, Nas, Lil Yachty, and NBA YoungBoy. Oh, and Hayley Williams [Laughs] My Mom, my grandma like ‘You listening to some white people bullshit’ and I’m like ‘Hey, it’s the only white music I really like, alright?’ [Laughs]”
Elijah and I talked about the organic growth of streaming, YouTube, and how the disruption allows for the realest artists to come through. Myles thinks as much as the industry can do good things, the numbers can be distracting for artists and listeners that just want good art at the end of the day.
“I definitely think numbers hurt. I think they should hide numbers. They should just show the number one, number two, number three [and go down the line] but the numbers give the wrong impression of an artist. The more invested in the mage over the art people get, and they may get turned off. I feel like numbers turn people off more than anything.”
Elijah Myles has a strong belief in saying something inside of his music, and he thinks it’s something listeners and history notice and appreciate from all artists.
“Bob Dylan’s got that song about a man being falsely accused of murder. That was saying something, especially back then, and I saw and respected that. I try to convey hope. I don’t always feel hope but at this point in my life, music gives me a lot of hope. I’ll put it this way: you haven’t heard me hopeless on a microphone. I was in a bad depression before I was making music. It’s hard not to pass on that ‘you can do it’ energy.'”