Artist Profile: Cashbo

Cashbo, the rapper and producer from Jackson, Michigan, has been dreaming up lyrically-packed songs since middle school, but now, with his recent re-brand, he is ready to take the world by storm, crafting tracks that simultaneously capture the raw energy that he brings to the mic as well as the introspective qualities of his creative mind.

With a father who was in and out of jail and a young mother who was doing her best to raise him, Cashbo was exposed to pop culture from an early age. He describes his relationship with his mother as, in many ways, like having an older sister that introduced him into her world of Y2K culture.

He always had a penchant for the performing arts, but his introduction to playing music came when he picked up the saxophone in the school band. Growing up, his grandparents had shown him an appreciation for jazz legends such as John Coltrane, and, given the opportunity, he decided to give the instrument a shot.

However, while he enjoyed playing the saxophone, it was always rap that called to him artistically. His step-father, who was in his life from a young age, had introduced him to artists like Pharrell and Kanye West: both of whose capability for expression through their music stuck with him.

“The rap tracks really drew me to it because, as much as you can feel the music when you're listening to jazz and whatnot, the lyrics where you can actually feel it and relate it to something interpersonal is really what grasped a hold of me. I ain't never heard no saxophone and had no tears come down my eyes.”

However, for a long time, he felt as though the art of music-making was contained to a select group of gifted artists: something he was excluded from by pure virtue of not already being a member of that group. Yet, as he looked at the credits of albums by his favorite artists, he realized the sheer number of musicians and people involved in the creation of each track, and, through this realization, he came to understand that these deity-like artists he had idolized were not impossibly out of reach.

Under Cashbo, his new artistic alias, he has found a fresh creative drive, bringing all of the artistic energy and spontaneous ingenuity that he has developed over the last few years with him into this new journey

His first project under this name, a seven-song mixtape entitled CASHBO, serves as a sort of renewed introduction to the young artist. From the grimy energy of the opening track, “lovelife”, to the subdued, introspective vibes of tracks like “no time”, a taste of Cashbo’s full artistic arsenal is on display across the breadth of the project. Moreover, he has embraced a sort of improvisational workflow, one that has been enabled by his growing confidence as an artist.

“Growing up and whatnot, making my little raps, I was always trying to figure out the craziest story I could come up with, and, now that I've grown up and I've got my own sh*t going on and my own stories to tell, it's just so much easier to get it flowing that it's really just like whatever I wake up feeling that's what the next song is going to be about.”

Now, with an expanse of music in the vault and numerous other projects, including short films and music videos, in the works, Cashbo is ready to hit the ground running, unashamedly displaying his vigorous talent to an eager audience.