My City: SoulStice Takes Us from Chicago to the DMV

SoulStice's life has taken him off the beaten path (at least for your typical rapper), but his travels have only made the soulful Chicago-born emcee's music equally adventurous. Fresh off the release of his powerful "Strange Kinda Love" and his official "Pretty Girls Remix" with Wale, SoulStice returns to our pages to explain how his early days in the Chi shaped his sound, why his current home in the DMV has struggled to find a spot in the national hip-hop spotlight and why he's not concerned with "making it" as a rapper. No seriously, he's not.

RefinedHype: Although you live in Maryland now, you grew up in Chicago. How did those early days in the Chi shape your music now?

SoulStice: I'd say I went through two major phases of development as an artist. The first was at the very beginning in the early nineties when I started writing. Many things affected my artistic development. For one, there were the other artists in Chicago that I was exposed to. Twista, Do or Die, Psychodrama, Common, and others - those are artists that I may not have been up on during that time period if I hadn't been from the region. Then there were the people and atmosphere in Chicago. On one hand, you've got the history of blues, jazz, and soul. On the other hand, you have the gang culture that reached all the way out to the suburb where I spent most of my childhood. All those things factored into my development as a person and as an artist.

The second phase was during my college years at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana. That's where I really transformed from a kid that loved hip hop and wrote lyrics now and then to an early version of the artist that I am now. There was such a talented collection of artists there, it really drove me to improve my writing and performing and increased my overall dedication to the artform. And even though U of I is located in the middle of the cornfields, most of the artists I hung with there were from Chicago, so you really had the influence of the city pretty thick there.

RefinedHype: After years of neglect the DMV area is finally getting some national attention. Why do you think it took so long for the region to earn some widespread hip-hop respect?

SoulStice: I think D.C.'s really been struggling to find a "sound" for the region. As with Chicago, there's really no music industry, so there aren't a lot chances for artists to stumble into deal or opportunities the way an artist in L.A., ATL or NYC might. There's always been a lot of talent in the DMV, but the sound has been more underground than commercial. Go-Go is the indigenous music in DC and until now, that sound hasn't translated that well out of the region. Wale's been able to take his go-go/hip hop mixture and create a sound that's gotten traction outside of the region. Hopefully that'll start a trend for some of the other talented artists from the DMV.

RefinedHype: As opposed to artists in NYC, LA or Atlanta, you're not currently located in a major music industry epicenter. How has this distance from the geographic mainstream shaped your career and sound?

SoulStice: The main thing that it's done is kept me independent and hungry for longer. I think there's a really good chance that if I had moved to NYC or LA at some point, that I would have gotten a record deal by now. I used to think that was a bad thing, but the farther I go in my career, the more I think it's been a good thing. It's allowed me to mature on my own as artist and put out some great music that I'm really proud of. I've gotten a chance to build my career on my own terms, and looking back, the results of that process are invaluable. I've done so many things, like touring overseas, that I thought I could never do just on the strength of my own talent and determination. It's also allowed me to establish myself as a professional engineer and start a family. Now I'm well-grounded, financially stable and at my most productive and creative as an artist. I've written my own ticket, and if I get an opportunity to "get on" at this point, I'm in a great position to kill it without sacrificing the rest of who and what I am. And if I don't, who cares. I'm doing just fine on my own.

RefinedHype: If I'm rolling through the DMV, where can I find you?

SoulStice: If you're rolling through Baltimore, you might find me at the Harbor, on The Johns Hopkins University campus or at Sound Garden in Fell's Point. If you're rolling through D.C., I'm probably on U-Street somewhere performing, hanging out at Bus Boys & Poets or eating at Ben Chili's bowl. If you're in Northern Virginia...man, you can probably find me at Dulles waiting on a transcontinental or transatlantic flight (hard to get out of BWI). If you're rolling through Columbia, you can probably catch me at home with my wife and son.

RefinedHype: Last words?

SoulStice: Thanks to everyone who's supported my music. You can check me out on my site ThinkBeyondBorders.com, and at the sites below:

www.myspace.com/soulstice
www.twitter.com/ashleyllorens
www.facebook.com/ashleyllorens