Understanding The Husle of Musiq Soulchild: He's Not Done With R&B, Just Creating a Sound for Those That Grind
The Husle is a new hip hop persona (state of mind) of Musiq Soulchild created to cater to a sound outside of his R&B mainstay. The Husle is not a rapper, nor is he doing trap music. Explaining to Madame Noire, "I'm the kind of person that I like to entertain people according to what they say entertains them." The Husel elaborated to the Breakfast Club, "I'm making songs about, whether directly or indirectly, the mentality you have to have in order to be successful in life. Not quitting, not giving up..."Musiq grew up singing, beatboxing, and freestyling in Philadelphia. Creative people like to experiment. Try new things. This is an ingredient of their makeup that allows them to compose the music we love. In an interview on ThisIs50, The Husel discussed this saying, "Knowing that I'm a creative person, people kept telling me that I could only use one color in the crayon box...I spent almost 15 years letting people get behind the wheel. I'm at the point where, alright, I'm gonna do it my way now...How are you going to tell a creative person to not be creative or tell them that they're being too creative."Traditionally, the music industry likes to keep artists boxed into neat genres: Country, Hip Hop, Jazz, Pop, Rap, R&B, Rock, etc. Business wise this makes sense because staying true to a genre allows the music to be marketed to a specific audience that has an appetite for that category. However, being boxed in is stifling for an artist because musically they're not one-dimensional. This is partly the reason why Motown lost big when they prematurely dropped Bruno Mars from their label. In an interview at an ASCAP conference, Mars stated, "I was trying to do something different, so it was frustrating to explain the kind of music I wanted to do. Instead, I just needed to do it... 'Nothing On You' was this kinda hip hop love jam, then I do 'Billionaire' which became this island reggae thing, 'Grenade' is this hard heavy, it's kind of all over the place and I think it scares suits."
Why the change?
Musiq described his new strategy to Jack Thrilla "The Husle is only really something, I need to get better at...I can't go to the IRS or pay my light bill off of being a legend...I'm about the music, I'm about the art. I'm about the culture, but under the circumstances, in the position that I'm in. This is how I feed my son. This has got to make money one way or another. I'm going to follow the music, which means I got to follow the money. Because I'm only following what ya'll are supporting. Trust me. I've been out there in the trenches doing this R&B thing, and I know what it's like when ya'll don't show up, and tours get canceled because y'all don't care.... That is a real thing...It happened. I figure ya'll liking this other stuff, let me try this....I'm not going to sit hear twiddling my thumbs not making no money, getting mad at the world."Money is not Musiq's only motivator for The Husle. Speaking to the Breakfast Club, "I've been in Atlanta for about 4-5 years. I actually dig that southern sound. That Southern culture is actually dope. turning up is fun. Being an artist you get influenced by your surroundings and atmosphere. You soak it up, and then eventually depending on what type of artist you are, you want to give it back...Me saying that I'm doing this because it seems like R&B is struggling is not to be a gimmick. It's merely to serve this sound that people seem to be digging."
What about Musiq Soulchild?
The Husel is not a replacement for Musiq Soulchild. Both are separate brands created by Taalib Johnson [Musiq], the real man behind both ventures. Describing this to Madame Noire "My intentions are to give people quality content in however many ways I can pull off...If I'm running a business and I got one company that's running, why try to force feed other elements that wasn't intended to be a part of that company. Why not just start a whole new company so that from the ground up it will be what it is. Plus, for political reasons, it's cool to have complete isolation, that way when you see me present myself a certain way, you know what you're getting."Musiq Soulchild is working on a new album, so his fans shouldn't worry that he's giving up on R&B.