MEET THE LEGEND: Terrance Lamont
A closer look at Lehigh Valley's Terrance Lamont
Lehigh Valley's Terrance Lamont has been on the music scene for a long time, and has established a name for himself. We got to talk to him about his career, how it started and his personal life.
Q: Who are you?
A: "One of the most funny people you could ever come across. Anybody who knows me knows how much I love to joke around and make people laugh. I really enjoy that shit because that's what life's about, just being able to enjoy life with the people around you. It's hard for people to be negative around me because of my energy and who I am as a person."
Q: What does your name stand for?
A: "It's funny because I always hated my middle name, I remember when I was tryna come up with some unique name, but let's just say it wasn't working out. I went from Kidd Raw, to Kidd Krome, to me just using Krome and breaking it down into an acronym, to Stackz, but none of them fit who I was as an artist. That's when I started debating if I should go by Terrance Lamont or just Lamont. I was going back and forth on that thought. Then my god-brother had made the suggestion, and it stuck."
Q: What was it like growing up where you did and how did it influence you?
A: "I was born in Allentown, PA, lived in Easton until I was 8, then ended up moving to Bethlehem where I was raised. We moved around the Lehigh Valley a lot. I was raised by a single mother, my pops was never in the picture. I didn't meet him until I was around 17-18. My moms did the best she could at raising me on her own at a young age. Her side of the family is from Newark, NJ, where I spent a lot of my younger years. She used to tell me that this is where I come from and where our entire family is from. She choose to raise me in Pennsylvania because she wanted me to have a better upbringing. We lost a lot of family to the streets of Jersey, so I appreciate my mom for that. Seeing the difference between Jersey and Pennsylvania made me wanna take advantage of the opportunities, because she wanted me to be more than a statistic. We struggled, we didn't have everything but she made sure we had enough. At the of the day I'm thankful for everything."
Q: Do you have any other creative outlets/ hobbies?
A: "Acting is something that I've always been into since I was a kid. It's another outlet and way to be free. Growing up watching TV shows & movies and being so in tuned to how these people were able to really bring those characters to life always had my interest. I had my first play back in elementary school in an after school program. I had a role as one of the main characters too. Once I got to high school I had an actual acting class both freshman and sophomore year, which was my favorite class. That took it to the next level for me, I was learning more about acting and the craft itself. We put on a play for an elementary school and that was a dope experience. seeing how excited those kids were was a good feeling. That's how it gotta feel when you doing a movie lol, I would love to do acting later in my career."
Q: Some creative influences?
A: "Before I get into all the big names, I wanna bring it back to where it all started. My aunt and my older god-brother were my very first musical influences. I used to love watching and listening to my aunt rap with my uncles. I remember she had this one mixtape I kept on repeat, that's when I knew I loved rap. I heard so many stories about my aunt, from rapping with famous rappers back in the day, to having opportunities with record labels, down to battling the whole Wu-Tang. My older brother was nice as hell, I remember he use to rap for me and play me all of his songs that he and my cousin made. That always made me hype. Seeing how crazy people looked at him when he would start spitting, that's when I was like "Yoo I wanna be better than him. Only competition I got is this him" lol. Outside of them a few of biggest influences would be Michael Jackson, Pac, Biggie, Em, Hov, and Wayne. I was raised on Michael Jackson, that's all my grandmother ever played around the house. My moms raised me on Pac. Him and Em would be my 2 biggest influences on that list. You weren't allowed to say anything about Biggie in that house hold, Pac slander was not allowed or you got kicked out, all jokes aside. She had every last one of his cds."
Q: When did you start making music?
A: "Back in elementary me and my bro Fig used to spend hours free styling in his room and basement over hundreds of beats. But it wasn't until freshman year in high school that I started writing and recording music. When I was 16 and my god-mother's mother had just passed away which was hard on me because she had always been in my life growing up. I never pictured her passing away. I was out of school for about 2 and a half weeks at my aunts house. My god-brother had his own home-made studio set up, and during that whole time we just stayed in there creating music. We recorded so much music, but he ended up losing all the songs we did on a flashdrive. The first song I had released was a remix to Bow Bow's 'Boyfriend for the Night' on YouTube, along with some of my other old material up there up. That's back when I was a going by Kidd Krome. Thank God for elevation!"
Q: Who are some of your favorite local artists?
A: "BakPakRap without a doubt. That's my team, my family, and my brothers. Shout out to all my brothers Blind Richi, JayLaSoul, Kapri, AV3, and Infinity. Y'all gotta go show love and follow our movement. Those guys are all talented, they all push me to be a better artist, writer, and person. I blame them for my elevation and growth. It's dope because we all make different types of music and bring our own unique style to the table and just create real dope ass music. It's like being in competition with your siblings, that's how we keep that hunger there and to continue to push each other to be the best. I was one of the last people to join BakPakRap, we all look up to each other. When I say BakPak got some shit in the tuck, I just hope the people are ready once we start releasing. We've been on a hiatus still working and creating. Shout out to BakPak! Keep grinding, keep creating! Patience."
Q: What sets you apart from other artists?
A: "Authenticity, substance, content, originality, structure, lyrical ability, versatility and delivery. I put a lot of time and thought into everything I write. I'm very passionate about my craft, everything that I do has a purpose behind it. I'm not just making music to make music, or trying to sound like somebody else, I'm doing this for two reasons. One, because I'm passionate about it, and two, because I want to & will be the best. If you're not in it for those two reasons alone then what are you here for. You can hear the passion & feel the hunger in my music, and I want the listener to feel that with every last one of my songs. No matter what type of track or vibe it is I stay true to myself and what I stand for as a artist. I'm not tryna sound like the next person. If you sound like somebody else, then what separates you from everybody else? That's what's missing right now, originality, and that's what I bring. That's what separates me from other artist. Every track that I've written and/or released has felt different, sounded different, and gave something different. It has still been and will always be me giving my all and staying true to the type of artist I am."
Q: What is your creative process?
A: "Like Cole said on apparently "I like to write alone be in my zone." that's exactly what my process is like, whenever I'm ready to create I isolate myself. I need it to be a nice quite space. I don't start writing right away, I listen to the beat and let the production speak. Whatever I feel in that moment will determine the direction of how the song will come out. Then I take my time and create, it could take a few minutes or it could take days. I don't rush it, I let it all flow out organically so it has more meaning and feeling behind it. I learned how to be patient when it comes to writing because sometimes it won't always come all at once, and whenever I try to rush it ends in writers block. It's funny BakPak knows how my process is. I could finish a whole verse they'll hear it and it'll be hard as hell to them, I'll be like "I don't like it it's not hard enough." and send them something totally different the next day."
Q: Are you working on any projects right now?
A: "Me and my brother JayLaSoul just started working on our joint project titled 'Heads or Tails'. I can't go too deep into details with that one yet, but this is gonna be something completely different from what I'm working on at the moment. I'm currently finishing up my debut EP titled 'For What it's Worth'. I started working on this back in the beginning of March 2016. The meaning behind the title and the project itself is about both growth and being able to learn from my experiences. I did this project for me, I knew what I wanted and how I wanted it. It might not be able to resonate with some people, but others will be able to take it for what it's worth."
Q: Any words of wisdom?
A: "Fuck what the next person says or thinks about you, people are gonna talk no matter what it is you do good or bad. Surround yourself with positive people who all want the same thing. Never question your passion and never compare your progress to the next mans. People have their time. It’s their time right now. Yours will come."
Soundcloud: Terrance Lamont
Twitter: @Terrance_Lamont
