{"id":9898,"date":"2019-04-18T23:04:50","date_gmt":"2019-04-18T23:04:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/jsuflash\/?p=9898"},"modified":"2019-04-18T23:04:50","modified_gmt":"2019-04-18T23:04:50","slug":"ishmaiah-graham-uses-his-music-to-uplift-and-inspire-others","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/2019\/04\/18\/ishmaiah-graham-uses-his-music-to-uplift-and-inspire-others\/","title":{"rendered":"Ishmaiah Graham uses his music to uplift and inspire others"},"content":{"rendered":"

Zipporah Jones<\/strong><\/p>\n

MC301\/Staff Writer<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cMusic is so big in my life. I\u2019m with music 22 out of my 24 hours in a day. The first thing I do, before I even get out of bed is listen to music. I\u2019ve been around music my whole life.\u00a0\u00a0Music can change your mood, your pace, your heart rate\u2014 music is so powerful,\u201d said Ishmiah Graham, a local rapper who goes by the name, King K\u00e8m.<\/p>\n

Graham, a junior journalism and media studies major at Jackson State University is a native of Jackson, Miss. and has lived in the same house for 21 years.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Photo provided by Ishmaiah Graham (Ishmaiah Graham, local rapper and journalism and media studies major)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI have two younger siblings, a sister and a brother, so I\u2019ve always been the oldest and a role model. I\u2019m always teaching and showing them new things, especially my brother, who has just gotten into rapping as well,\u201d said Graham.<\/p>\n

He also described that his stage name comes from some aspects of himself and his childhood.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always been really good at whatever I\u2019ve done and I participated in a lot of competitions and pageants when I was young.\u00a0\u00a0I would always win King.\u00a0\u00a0This is where the \u201cKing\u201d part of my name came from. My middle name is Rakem, and this is where the second part of my name came from.<\/p>\n

Graham also points out that those in his family pushed him to be musically oriented as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been interested in rapping my whole life, actually since I was six. My uncle used to rap himself.\u00a0He also used to babysit me as a young child and used to make me freestyle over instrumentals he played out of his tiny radio.\u00a0\u00a0My first project that I released is dedicated to him.\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s called \u2018Unsigned\u2019,\u201d Graham said.<\/p>\n

The Jackson native describes the point in his life that he knew he would start to create his own music.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was in college when I started taking rapping seriously. I\u2019ve always written music, but I never recorded.\u00a0\u00a0Freshmen year, I recorded my first song which was called \u2018King\u2019.<\/p>\n

While at Jackson State, Graham has made lasting connections with other creatives as well. Drevo Coolidge, DevMacc, Lil Lonnie and Ant200 are some artists who helped him on his journey, but the music he makes has been greatly influenced by southern rapper T.I.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my first song I dropped, I got a lot of feedback saying I sounded like T.I.\u00a0\u00a0I\u2019m glad I\u2019ve sprouted and found my own sound (since then).\u00a0The reason he has always been a role model to me is because of how he carried himself on and off camera.\u00a0\u00a0I expect the same things (for myself)\u201d.<\/p>\n

Graham also says that his life has greatly influenced his music.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like my life has influenced my music…110 percent. Everything that has happened in my life is fair game to be put into my music.\u00a0\u00a0If questioned about it, I can describe it,\u201d Graham said.<\/p>\n

Graham has dropped two projects so far, \u201cUnsigned\u201d and \u201cUnsigned 2\u201d. One thing in particular about Graham\u2019s music is that it can be played around any demographic.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would describe my music as clean. It literally can be listened to and enjoyed by a wide range of people. I don\u2019t degrade women in music and I don\u2019t curse in music. My little cousin can listen to my music and my grandma can listen to my music,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Graham is passionate about rapping and encourages others who want to create music to believe in themselves.<\/p>\n

Graham hopes that the music he produces causes positive things to happen.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want my music to pick others up.\u00a0\u00a0I want my music to inspire, put people in a better mood, and relate to people and their situations. I want it to be appropriate for all audiences.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Zipporah Jones MC301\/Staff Writer \u201cMusic is so big in my life. I\u2019m with music 22 out of my 24 hours in a day. The first thing I do, before I even get out of bed is listen to music. I\u2019ve been around music my whole life.\u00a0\u00a0Music can change your mood, your pace, your heart rate\u2014 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-9898","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-variety"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9898\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}