Akala

AKALA on his album and record label:

The inspiration for my debut Album “It’s Not A Rumour” was very simple: Life. I took all my experiences growing up and was as honest as I could be about them and about how those experiences have shaped my view of Humanity as a whole. Honesty is something that I feel has been missing from hip-hop for a long time and it was important to me that my music and lyrics express that.

Five steps I took were:

1)Desire: Having the desire to change the current state of (and subsequently the perception of) Hip-Hop and of the streets in general.

2)Action: Realizing that I couldn’t just sit around hoping for a major label to take interest. I had to make things happen for myself which meant finding like-minded, talented people to help me set up what is now “Illa State Records”.

3)Execution: Working hard in the studio to make quality music and then together with my partners preparing and planning a schedule for release of three singles and a full length album.

4)Teamwork: You have to know your limitations and when necessary you must recruit all the extra expert personnel to complete the team i.e a press company, booking agent, distributor etc.

5)Positive Spirit: You have to believe in yourself. There will always be hard times and you cannot give up. We have always had a guerilla, hands-on attitude to everything we do. No matter what the task we are a team and we all muck-in and we never give up.