An Interview with $ENSEIFLY

Dami: What was your first introduction to music?

$ENSEIFLY: Well, if you’re talking about enjoying music then it’s alway been around. From my grandma playing Stevie Wonder to my mom playing west coast classics at every event like Snoop, Ice Cube, Nate Dogg etc. It was always like natural draw for me. Music is like community. I eventually found my own taste in music as I got older.

Dami: Would you say this influenced you to start making music professionally?

$ENSEIFLY: 1000%, listening and watching artists like Wayne, Odd Future, Early Kanye, Pro Era, A$AP Mob, OutKast and others from that cloth do what they do has been magnetic for real. I deadass would forget a math problem quick but ask me to rap Tha Carter 4 and I gotchu with every song lol. So it made me wanna master the craft and have fun with it the way they did.

Dami: Would you say they also shaped your sound?

$ENSEIFLY: In a way. So my sound is heavily influenced by Earl Sweatshirt, Kendrick (GOAT lol), Joey Bada$$, A$AP Rocky, Freddie Gibbs, ScHoolboy Q for the base of my sound, and even my homies that I currently make music with, Monnie Mosbergh, Boy Luna, Zende, Winduu, TVBLACK. They’re constantly inspiring my progression in real time as I continue. My sound is something that I try to keep dynamic cause of the variety of music I enjoy personally.

Dami: How would you describe your sound at the moment?

$ENSEIFLY: Passionate and potent is the best way I could describe it. Whether I’m flowing straight bars over dreamy minimalist production, stacking rhymes on a bouncy alternative-rap beat, or playing in my cloud rap bag. I try to keep the lyrics and flows as potent as I can. Lyrics mean a lot to me, but I also want you to vibe with me too. A lot of passion behind it. If you had to label it, most would say ALTERNATIVE-Rap I guess.

Dami: How much would you say you’ve grown as an artist since your debut?

$ENSEIFLY: I’d say I’ve made strides that the “debut” me wouldn’t see possible. My consistency, my confidence, my beat selection, my voice, my song writing is all skills I can’t say I had well early on. I’m on my 4th project this year while my early years had me stuck on 1 song for months just to record it on GarageBand and take another couple months for another song.

Dami: When making music, where do you grab inspiration for lyrics or subject matter?

$ENSEIFLY: When it comes to lyrics, I just write what I see and feel. My art is a reflection of my life, and then bars that may seem like throw aways hit different for me cause they actually apply somewhere in my life.

Dami: What’s your creative process like?

$ENSEIFLY: Hop in the whip, roll 2 L’s, blast beats out of the car speakers, and ride around the city and write what’s on my mind at the red lights and stop signs. It’s lowkey random but the vibes are unmatched for real lol.

Dami: How do you know when a song is finished?

$ENSEIFLY: It’s really a feeling. There’s been times where I’m working on a song and all my niggas feel it’s ready and want it to drop but there’s something I can’t put into words that lets me know…..this one’s a heater.

Dami: You just dropped a new project. Can you tell us more about it? What inspired it?

$ENSEIFLY: Honestly, this is part 2 in a recent idea I had of making 3PAK EP’s full of jams and putting alot of push behind those. In the past year, I’ve dropped 3-4 mixtapes so this time around I wanted to be more spontaneous and have fun with the releases and songs. They all have different vibes, sometimes different themes, and were often made in sessions where we just were cutting or cooking tf up lol.

Dami: What’s been the biggest challenge in your career so far?

$ENSEIFLY: PROMOTION BRUH. I know that’s hella cliche but you’re legit fighting against algorithms out here, labels, bots, content slumps, etc. I spent so much time learning how to make music that I guess going to marketing school slipped my mind lol. That’s why you gotta appreciate every listen and fan you can get.

Dami: How do you even keep the new fans or listeners?

$ENSEIFLY: Being consistent and interacting as much as you can. Fans love to be fed musically. Who doesn’t get hype when your favorite artists drops type shit?

Dami: Who would you say are your biggest musical influences?

$ENSEIFLY: Anderson Paak, Kendrick Lamar, Earl Sweatshirt, Knxwledge, Early Kanye, A$AP Rocky.

Dami: If you could collaborate with any artist or artists, who would they be?

$ENSEIFLY: Isaiah Rashad, the vibes would be too crazy.

Dami: What can fans expect from your upcoming projects?

$ENSEIFLY: They can expect high level material on so many levels of production. Working on a tape called “Lord of the Fly” so I’m excited to explore that soundscape.

Dami: Can you share what “Lord of the Fly” is about?

$ENSEIFLY: I can’t reveal too much but I’d honestly say it’s a passion project of every skill I’ve learned and vibes I enjoy that I never fully explored. There’s definitely a house influence on it, something to groove to. Something to make you feel “FLY”.

Dami: How do you handle writers block or lack of inspiration?

$ENSEIFLY: There’s 2 ways through it. You can “tunnel” it, which means just keep writing until you snap out of it. The way through every tunnel is forward. Or you can get back to basics and simply listen to music and capture that feeling that made you fall in love with the genre as an art form in the first place. Sometimes, I’ll listen to multiple full albums back to back and get HYPED. Even when my homies drop (Monnie Mosbergh, Boy Luna, TVBLACK, FUNKSHIN, Winduu, Zende); to see what they come up with in their process inspires me to push forward.

Dami: How do you balance making music with your personal life?

$ENSEIFLY: Bruh that’s a hard one but it’s honestly about having a schedule and sticking to it for real. Utilizing every moment you got to make another step forward, do you wanna put your all in somebody else’s business and dream but treat your own like dream like a hassle? That’s backwards of course. You need money and gotta tend to your personal relationships. Everybody needs time to relax, but I treat this just like I treat my actual job at the current time.

Dami: Where do you see yourself in the next 5 years?

$ENSEIFLY: On some type of tour, still working my ass off creatively/musically, having my crew up with me, traveling, maybe voice act in some animations, do some short films, skin glowing, good vibes.

Check out his new project here