A loveable young man known as Lil Hawk Boy has sprouted his own branch of heartfelt, “adorable-core” SoundCloud rap. The sometimes pop, sometimes rap group dxd is on the rise, and Hawk is leading the
charge. Let’s get to know the boy from rural Illinois.
UU: For starters, what are you up to today?
Lil Hawk Boy: I’ve been watching the office all day *laughs* kind of a lazy day.
That sounds like a great day. Lets just jump right into this; so where are you from?
I was born in Chicago, but only lived there until I was like 3 years old. People associate me with Chicago since I was born there, but I’m not really from from there, I’m more like, a little bit Midwest, right in the middle of Illinois.
So, what’s the neighborhood like, cornfields?
Yeah. Literally, that’s it. It’s one big cornfield. I live in a small town called Leroy with about 4,000 people. The community only really supports high school football, it’s the strangest thing ever. So if you don’t play sports you’re not really important here.
That is bizarre. Alright so this is random but uh, is Roblox your favorite video game?
Shit! Uh, no it’s not, but uh…I like that people think it is. Speaking of which, I need to make more Roblox videos. That’s how I’m going to blow up, Roblox, not rap.
I believe it. I was watching one “Let’s play” video with you, Yung Griffin and Yung Mess. Very entertaining.
Yeah, we are so fucking dumb. *laughs*
I’m going to take my shirt off because it’s fucking hot, don’t be weirded out.
Bruh I don’t even have a shirt on either.
So in Chicago where you were born, how was your neighborhood? Do you remember anything at all from that time?
Yeah the first house was in a Mexican gang-affiliated neighborhood, and my parents used to tell me stories all the time. Apparently there were bullet holes in their door on occasion. But, people think that Chicago is one big warzone. When you get downtown it’s very touristy and beautiful. But if you go too far you’ll end up getting fucked up. And I don’t really remember much, I still visit the area every monthish though.
What is important to you in life, in general?
Definitely my friends. My friends are there for me more than my parents. That’s why I have so many friends, it doesn’t even matter to me if it’s over the internet. I just like connecting people and talking to people. And obviously music and art. I didn’t know I wanted to do music till last year but I’ve always been very artistic. Like I still draw. In 1st grade I wanted to be an artist, then a game designer and a bunch of other shit.
And you make beats too, don’t you?
Yeah, I still do but I don’t let anybody listen. I don’t know how to mix, shit is hard!
So you decided to make music 1 year ago. Before that, were you into music? What were some early influences?
Yeah it’s always been huge for me. Everybody has their moment to really get into something, and for me sadly – no, not sadly. It was Linkin Park. I was in 3rd grade just binging their music. Since then I was always into really random shit. Like Pierce the Veil, other emo shit, 21 Pilots. I would just be on Spotify listening to random music.
So when did rap become an interest for you?
Freshman year, about 2 years ago. I used to hate it. I liked everything my dad liked. He has a different taste. Actually, my dad used to make rap.
What is his Soundcloud?
*laughs* He didn’t have one. Apparently once he cuffed my mom he stopped, because she didn’t like the shows. He would make stereotypical conscious-style shit. He showed me once and I was like “Nah.”
So one day, you decided to follow suit and make rap. Is that right?
Kinda. So Freshman year of high school I was going through a lot with my dad. I was homeless with my mom. My parents were splitting. Bunch of shit. I was living with grandparents, so it was an awful year in general. And this kid Jakob bullied me all the time, and I would cry in the bathroom. At the time I listened to 21 Pilots and he bullied the fuck out of me for it. For everything. He’s such a dick. He’s actually my best friend now, he goes by Young Mess.
Were you sensitive growing up?
I still am. If you say something mean to me you can tell so easily. Also, I had never been in that situation. Up until 3rd I was in public school but my parents got religious or… I don’t know what happened. But then I went to Christian private school until 6th grade. So when I should have been learning that kids were different from me, I wasn’t. I went to a public middle school, but high school was so different for me. Jakob was such a dick to me. Such a dick. It was at this point where I found $uicideboy$, and they had such an appeal for weird ass kids like me.
Did it appeal to you as a way to get your anger out?
Oh yeah of course, music has always been an outlet. And yeah, $uicideboy$ was my first rap, and then Denzel Curry. I started showing Jakob and he thought it was all wack.
So why did you show this guy who picked on your favorite music?
I was trying to be accepted, so he wouldn’t pick on me all day.
Did you have other friends?
Yeah, I had my group. I don’t want to label them but they were kinda the weird kids. *laughs* Just who I could relate to, we’d hang out after school and walk around. Then Freshman year something changed.
So how does all of this relate to you starting to rap?
*laughs* Yeah, so at the end of the year Jakob and I made a song over a $uicideboy$ beat and it was horrible! But it got like 1,000 plays on Soundcloud. And I think that’s the experience that made him really wanna be friends with me. We would make these dumb ass diss tracks about kids we didn’t even know. I was really into Counter Strike so I had a mic. I played like everyday. And Jakob had made a song, he want to make music. I wasn’t really into it so I thought I’d make beats or something. But I made one song cause I thought it’d be cool or something, and everyone said it was good, but it was trash.
So you kept going?
Not really. After the song I thought I’d stop cause people liked me at school. I thought I would give up, but I kept going. Why the fuck not? It was still rap, it wasn’t singing like now, and it really wasn’t good. Literally if you go on explore on SoundCloud, that’s exactly what I sounded like. I can’t remember what happened, but I started singing and then I just got really good at it.
So, you have a very dedicated fanbase. What was your growth like? Fast? Slow?
Yeah, it’s crazy I don’t know what the fuck happened. Like I dropped 6 songs in January and for whatever reason they’re all doing really well. But anyways, I was a year into making music. I can’t believe I didn’t talk about this yet. I’m making music, making music, and I dropped “you”, my biggest song. Astari reposted it cause I sent it to him. Everyone is a huge Astari fan. I sent it to him, I was just begging for at least some feedback. And he reposted it. And that was crazy. I was freaking out.
So, anybody on Soundcloud inevitably gets a ton of Spam. Like; “you check my track bro (fire emoji)”, and you were doing that too.
Oh, yeah. That was me. Oh yeah. Just messaging people. But a few months pass, and 6 dogs dropped “flossing”. It felt like everybody knew 6dogs. Around that time his cousin Staryu dropped his first track also. My friend Eli and I were huge fans, like, trying to learn all the words to “flossing” in 24 hours. Fanboys. And then I just ended up just messaging Staryu. And he was like “yeah, you got a really good voice, we should collab.” So I start talking to Staryu and we started to Facetime. And for whatever reason Staryu’s ass is always eating cereal. *laughs* But we were just doing normal people shit. And he told me “Oh yeah, 6dogs likes “you.” Then, 6dogs ended up reposting “you” too, and I was like, freaking out. When you appreciate someone’s music and they even know who you are, that’s amazing. I basically owe everything to Astari and Staryu.
That’s definitely an awesome feeling. Speaking of which, I see you working with a ton of smaller artists. A lot of people will not even give someone a chance if they don’t have a certain amount of followers.
Yeah. That’s fucking dumb. Like all of my friends; everyone in dxd. They don’t have 1,000 followers yet (except Staryu) but they are all super talented and really good dudes. And that’s what matters. It seems like you’re paying it forward, because you were “that kid” not too long ago. I really appreciate that mentality.
Since you mention dxd, what is it? Who are the members?
It’s just our group. So obviously Jakob, Young Mess, is in it and he’s my best friend. I didn’t really talk about it but I kinda changed him into a nice, normal, human being. *laughs* We’re like the same person, he’s like my brother. We’ll just spend like 4-5 days together, spending the night at each others house.Then I think we found Sherf, yeah, Yung Sherrf from Europe. He’s super cool, he learned English from Pokemon.
That is amazing.
*laughs* Yeah, I tell everyone that. From Sherrf, I met Cartoon Ben who is pretty much my producer now. And then we met Lil Turk, another guy from Europe. We actually have a tape coming out together soon.
There’s Staryu, jcam, and our newest member is Teddy, he’s the man. He is the nicest dude. I was super pissed I couldn’t meet him when I came to California. He is the type of person I want to surround myself with. And honestly, dxd is just a like a big friend group. The fact that we all make really good music is just like, an addition.
OH! Dude, what the fuck. Yung Griffin. Griffin, at this point, I don’t even think of him as a music guy. He is like one of my best friends. He’s from Alabama. At first I wasn’t fucking with the first song I heard, but then I heard what he could actually do. He’s super talented. He sounds like he has a lot of thought put into his stuff.
[Since this interview was conducted, animepapi has also been added to dxd’s roster]
He’s super romantic too.
Yeah. *laughs* Huge shoutout Yung Griffin
Don’t take this the wrong way, but dxd is super cute. The friendship, subject matter, and the dreamy “toybox’ beats add up in a very interesting way. Do you guys think about these things? Or
just do what you do, and act genuine.
You know, I think we really underrate ourselves. Severely. I’ll have people on Snapchat who think that I’m famous. That blows my mind. So I feel like it’s kind of a confidence thing with us. We all think we’re not good enough to work with some people. Which is not true at all. I don’t know. Right now we’re just chilling doing our own things.
What’s on your mind right now? Do you have any plans for the future in regards to music?
Sometimes, I’ll just think; “fuck it, I’ll make a tape and surprise everybody.” Like, I got such a sporadic way of thinking. When I want to do something it’ll get done really fast. So I don’t even really know how to plan these things out. Who knows, next month we might have an album exclusively produced by Ben and it’ll be the best shit ever. I just take it as it comes. I feel like this year, If I do everything right, or even if I don’t do anything right, if I remain and be strong with my friends we’ll get somewhere.
That shit is wholesome. With a lot of the music scene going on, people are snaking left and right.
I know! That’s what I hate. Everyone is trying to scam someone. Everybody is trying to backstab. Solid friendships. That’s what will last.
What are you most proud of thus far?
Definitely the impact I have on people. People hit me up saying that their girlfriend broke up with them, or that someone died, and one of my songs helped them through it. That is amazing to me. It actually hurts my own feelings when I can’t respond to a DM.
Before we end this, what do you want to tell the kids?
Don’t stop. Just don’t stop. If you wanna do something, do it. I didn’t think I would get anywhere, and I’m still not making a huge amount of income, but I can buy myself dinner. I don’t have to get a job at McDonalds. That feels good. And I’m only 16. Whatever happens, happens. I think it’s a case of right place, right time. I can literally cry into a mic and people love it. That’s amazing to me.
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