Sean Payne, better known as HKFiftyOne, is a rapper and producer from Colorado who has made a name in the underground community with his high-quality cloud rap sound, which is often backed up by some intricate self-produced instrumentals. Currently standing with 4000 followers on soundcloud, HKFiftyOne does a fantastic job of mixing the moodiness of cloud rap with trap and emo elements, where the latter one specifically stands out with the emotional story-telling lyrics he often brings to the table. As he says himself, “One of my biggest influences is Oliver Francis in terms of style, and lyrically I get most of my inspiration from emo bands like American Football.”
Having grown up listening to a lot of pop punk and hip-hop, it may seem odd that Sean originally started producing trance and dubstep tracks around 2006 while he was still in middle school.
“Kids would think I was weird for not having an ‘identity’ because of my music taste. Since then, I’ve gotten into even more genres, and now my music taste is all over the place.”
No matter the variety of genres that Sean has embraced, he certainly managed to establish a musical identity under HKFiftyOne as a talented producer and vocalist. It was 2015 when HKFiftyOne started producing trap beats for fun, which eventually evolved into making beats for his own songs.
The breaking point when HK started to develop his vocal work was a tough break up that he went through with his girlfriend at the time. “I was still finding my voice and deciding what kind of lyrical content I should focus on. But then things started falling apart with my ex, and that’s when I started writing a lot more. I’ve always used music to express my emotions and those events with my ex are what spurred my desire to finally release music with my vocals on it, since I felt like I had a lot to say and wanted to put it out there. I was hoping others might feel the same things I was feeling, because I didn’t want to be alone with my thoughts anymore.”
The song “stay” is one of his first bigger tracks where we see a genuine mirror-like representation of the inner struggles that Sean goes through. The introspective lyrics on that song deal with issues such as depression and self-harm, which are intertwined with a hopeful message aimed at the listeners encouraging them to keep fighting as they are not alone in this everlasting fight called life. “Stay is a very important song to me, because I still get messages from people telling me that it’s helped them in some way. Personally, I’m doing much better now. I still struggle with some of the things I spoke about in the song, but not nearly as often. Releasing that song was very helpful to my own mental health. Although it was intended to help others, it was also a reminder to me that things will get better.”
Love and heartbreak take a central place in Sean’s music since they got him into rapping in the first place, as we mentioned earlier.
“Love, in my opinion, is a huge part of life, it’s my reason for existing. Without love, or the hope of love, I’m not sure what the point of life would be. Unfortunately, half of love is heartbreak, and that’s the main topic that I sing or rap about so frequently. Because these feelings are so ingrained in my soul, the way they manifest is through music.”
HK’s most famous song “why’d you have to go” is a perfect example for that. The sweet violin that lays foundation for the whole beat is an emblematic sample that Sean uses to express his sorrow after heartbreak. “It captured my emotions so well at the time I made it. I was angry, sad and exhausted by overthinking about the way my ex left.”
Occasionally, Sean breaks off the trap flavored style of his music and goes into spoken word or acoustic melodies as a way of giving a more sincere and revealing story to the listener. “My spoken word songs are probably the most emotional, and when I release those instead of my normal style, it’s because I had a lot to say, more than I could fit into the format of a traditionally structured song.” Spoken word has a special place in Sean’s heart as bands like La Dispute, Old Gray, and Listener have inspired him to write poetry. Nonetheless, acoustic songs and spoken word will likely be as far as HKFiftyOne goes in terms of expanding genres under that name.
However, Sean is starting a Midwestern emo band called Halloween Season and he also has a metalcore band going by the name Six of Kings. Moreover, he is currently in the process of filming music videos for some new songs. “After that I’m going to try and be fairly consistent in dropping music videos. I’m always going to stay true to my roots and keep that vibe that everyone knows me by.”