After Hours with Cade Episode 1: Drew

Published: Dec. 5, 2022 at 1:50 AM CST

LAWTON, Okla. (KSWO) - Lawton is the fifth largest city in the state, but breaking into the music industry as a musician living in Oklahoma can be a harrowing feat.

On After Hours with Cade, we sit down with local artists to discuss Lawton and Southwest Oklahoma’s impact on their career and how it’s helped shape their artistry.

My first guest is Drew, an aspiring artist and Lawton native that’s been working hard and making music for the past three years. He first got into music in High School through his friends, just having fun until he realized that it could potentially be more.

“In high school, we would just, like, do little pencil beats in class and just rap on them. And then over time, one of them got into a studio and was like, ‘hey, Drew, come say something,’ and then ever since, I just fell in love with it,” he said.

Growing up, the one primary influence in his life that led him in the direction of a music career was his uncle when he first started rapping and playing around.

“Before he passed away, he was like, ‘Drew, don’t put down that pencil and paper; don’t stop. Whatever you do, don’t stop; people need to hear this.’ And ever since he passed, I have taken that to heart. I will not stop,” he said.

While rapping may have been his outlet into music, he doesn’t classify himself as a rapper but rather just an artist, with no specific categorization for his music. “It’s all based off of emotion or what I’m feeling at the time. If I were to put a label on it, we could probably say alternative rap or R&B, but I can’t really put a label on it.”

He went on further to talk about his experience growing up in Lawton and where he was able to spark an artistic outlet.

“Lawton is real black and white. It’s either you’re doing everything, or you’re doing nothing. And if you’re doing nothing in Lawton, you have to have a lot of creativity. There’s a lot that goes on outside of Lawton that you have to be tapped into. There’s a lot of shady stuff going on, and that packs into a lot of what I talk about,” he said.

However, Lawton hasn’t been an overtly negative factor in his life. Here in Lawton is where Drew was able to get into the studio for the first time after doing a little research.

“I googled studios near me one time, this man Future popped up, and it said he worked with a whole bunch of artists. He charged about $90 an hour and I was like, “let me see what this is like.” After I recorded with him, he was like, ‘Drew, this is kind of hot. You should put this out somewhere like this one is kind of fire. I’m messing with it.” And ever since that every time I go to him he keeps trying to get me to put stuff out, and hey, if he’s saying it, I got to.”

In addition to a supportive connection in the industry, Drew says the community members who listen to his music are supportive and make sure to be vocal about it.

“Oh man, the community is dope. The people that listen to it, they let you know, like, ‘hey, I saw my friends, and we were all bumping it at a party,’ or ‘every time somebody new comes to the crib, we be bumping your track.’ And it’s crazy; that’s wild. I’ll get in the car with somebody, and they just turn it on, I’m like, ‘bruh chill.’”

“The people that mess with it mess with it. And like my homies, the people close to me, they give me feedback. They let me know what they like and don’t like, and I take into account, sometimes,” Drew continued.

His primary producer, Jash, was a fellow college student, but they were unaware of each other’s music presence until after Drew dropped out.

“I saw him in the hallways, but we never communicated like that. Then after school, through my friend Jimmy, he shoots my music videos, me and Jash clicked up. He started making my beats, and I was like, ‘this is gas.’ It was a dynamic duo immediately. The connection was immediate; it was crazy. I’ll call him up to the crib, and he’ll come with the MacBook on the spot, like whatever I need, he’s right there.”

Breaking into the music industry as someone from the Midwest is a hard accomplishment, but Drew says that can’t be the entire mindset someone up-and-coming should have. “I mean, it’s a little hard, but you shouldn’t really be focused on that when you make music trying to break out.”

“You should make it because you want to make music. Money and fame are cool, but it’s not gonna make nobody happy at the end of the day. So, if you’re not making music because it was fun to make music and you like putting your thoughts and emotions into the world, then it don’t really matter. It’s definitely a little hard being from a smaller town, but there are ways to make it. Social media is a big one right now. TikTok and Instagram reels and all that. If you keep doing that, somebody’s going to watch.” He said.

“It kind of feels like I’m in a box looking out at everybody else living in the world. And the thought of everybody living life and me working this nine-to-five in a town nobody knows about; it makes me want to go after it even more. It’s like, what you can’t have you crave,” he continued.

Over the past summer Drew performed in OKC at MossFest, a festival set on highlighting underground artists without exploiting them and forcing them to pay major fees for a spotlight. However, Drew barely made the deadline to enter, almost costing him the chance to perform in Atlanta.

“Future actually sent me an email one day - and I barely checked my email, I do now, like every day - but he sent me an email, and I saw it on the last day to sign up. I looked it up, and if they like you, they message you and send you to Atlanta. There is no like no set amount of people. If they like you, you go, and I was like, alright. So, I went to the show, which was a last-minute decision. We geared up in cars, went to perform, and the next day I got the email saying, ‘hey we mess with you; you’re going to Atlanta.’”

“It’s an every year thing, too; it’s great. They do it for all the underground artists to just try to build them up, and they don’t ask for no money. I mean, there’s tickets at the show but for the artists, they don’t charge them to perform none like that,” Drew continued.

Over the past five months, Drew has dropped two projects. A mixtape entitled “IDC” on SoundCloud and an album titled “If I Was a God” on Spotify and Apple Music. Drew and I discussed his creative processes for each project and his deciding factor in how to distribute each.

“The mixtape, ‘IDC,’ I feel like that speaks for itself. I really didn’t care. Jash mostly produced it. He just made them beats; I said whatever I was feeling like talking about, and that was it. ‘IDC’ was a relatively quick process. ‘If I Was a God’ took a little more time and a little more thought process. I don’t know, the thought “If I Was a God,” if you listen to the song, it’s talking about the human perspective of being a god and why humans aren’t. So, it definitely took a little more thought process,” he said.

“‘IDC’ was a little earlier in time. I didn’t have as much traction as I do now, so I figured it was just like a startup project, like, let’s see if people really like what we’re doing. So, I released that, performed it in OKC, it got us to the finale in Atlanta, and I was like, okay, cool. So, people like what we’re doing. A couple of people hit me up. ‘Hey, this is dope. Why don’t you release it on YouTube so I can add it to my playlist or Spotify?’ I was like, okay, okay, people like what we doing, so let’s go a little more mainstream with it. ‘If I Was a God’ is still on SoundCloud. But it’s everywhere, more accessible, and that’s how I wanted it to be,” he continued.

When asked whether he had any intentions of posting ‘IDC’ and his earlier singles on Spotify and Apple Music, he giggled.

“Nah, I think they’re gonna live on SoundCloud like, that’s where they started. It’s tradition. Everybody had to be a SoundCloud rapper at one point or something like that,” he said.

Drew can be found online on Spotify, Apple Music, and SoundCloud as Drew. Additionally, he can be found on Instagram at DrewTheGuru1968.