QuESt
In just a half a year, QuESt has done very well for himself. Using the internet to his advantage and promoting his music through various Hip Hop blog sites with material to match the coverage, the 18-year-old emcee has released four mixtapes that not only have shown the growth of his lyrical ability, but likewise has established him as a rapper that is truly committed to his craft. After winning TAG Records’ “Survival of the Freshest” competition earlier this year, this Miami-native has only garnered more poise and dedication as an emerging new voice for Hip Hop.
From his earliest influences to his new mixtape Broken Headphones, QuESt gave DXnext the inside scoop of his journey thus far. And whether this is your first time experiencing QuESt, or a chance for you to find out about the artist behind the music, one thing is for sure; the man has a lot to offer, and he’s only getting started.
Who Is QuESt?: “I’m this guy who raps very well and who likes to speak his mind as often as possible, as well as connecting with people as much as he can. And I’m about my music; I’m definitely about my art work. I put a lot of time into what I do. I’ve been doing this since I was seven. This is what I love, and I hope to continue to do it as long as possible.”
Origins Of His Quest: “I moved from my original neighborhood back in Florida to another neighborhood. When I moved, I didn’t have that many friends because I was relatively new to the neighborhood, so I had a lot of time to myself. On cable, they had The Box music channel. I used to watch that all the time, and the music video that really stood out for me was The Roots [click to read] and Erykah Badu’s [“You Got Me”]. And when I heard it, I didn’t fully understand the content of the song, but I knew that whatever they were doing, I wanted to be doing the same thing.”
“As far as one single artist that struck a chord with me in terms of how I wanted to convey myself as an artist, that was definitely Nas. I heard Nas when I was 11 and as soon as I heard him, the content of everything I was writing at that time just changed. My style, the way I pronounced words, the way I thought about music, it completely changed my outlook on everything.”
Working Off Emotion: “I don’t really like to classify my style because as soon as you start to define yourself musically, that creates contradiction. And it’s not even because I don’t really like to, but I can’t. One minute I’m doing one thing, and the next I’ll feel a complete different way. My music is derived off of pure emotion. So if I had to classify my music, it would be emotion. Everything comes out at one time. For me my style is really a wide range of things.”
The “Go Hard Or Go Home” State Of Mind: “I actually said that off an argument with another rapper. That was two or three weeks after Distant Travels Into Soul Theory came out. That’s when I started to receive critical success through the internet. And another dude was trying to do the same thing, and he was looking at me like, ‘Yo man, I don’t see how you doing it.’ And I told him, ‘I should be doing a lot more than what I am doing,’ and he was kind of getting mad at me because he felt like he was working way harder than me and felt like I didn’t really deserve what I was going after. So after that argument, I was thinking, ‘I put in a lot of time into what I’m doing, so why are you complaining?’ If anything, that means you need to go hard; prove to me that I’m doing something wrong and I need to pick up my game. My motto is “go hard or go home” because a lot of up-and-coming artists like me really lose sight of that. I had to put that into my mind, especially for Broken Headphones, because this is a project that I invested a lot of thought and time in, as well as energy too.”
On The New Mixtape: “Broken Headphones is a derivative of Where’s My Rhymebook? You know, it’s a metaphor in itself. But to really get down to it, it’s my best and most personal body of work. I know this may sound mad corny, but it’s a project that regardless of what anyone else says to me, I’m definitely happy with it. Each track has something in it that’s completely directed toward myself, like a story. It deals with the metaphor of a broken hope. It came from Where’s My Rhymebook? because that project symbolized a loss of direction. At the end of Where’s My Rhymebook? you got the direction, but then you have Broken Headphones, and that symbolizes loss of hope. It’s like you lost your direction, then found it, and you know your goal now, but then that one significant woe happens, and it completely throws you off, like what do you do now? I’ve had a lot of those experiences, and it’s evident in this project.”
Blog Rap: “For me, blogs have been good, but it’s not the end-all be-all. It’s definitely helped me out in terms of getting my music out there and getting people to anticipate my music. But there’s a lot of people out there that are known on the blogs, so I have a long way to go. Basically I’m just trying to grind it out and take my time, and see where my options are.”
What the Future Holds: “A lot of my plans after Broken Headphones are really gonna be focused on branding myself as an artist, because I’m still relatively new. I really can’t be set on my next move, because anything can happen after Broken Headphones drops. I could say something right now that could happen, but then a week after this project, something else may present itself and I’m in a whole other ball game, so it really all depends.”
Fulfilling His Journey: “I know rappers have a theme going where they’ll be like, 'I’m trying to resurrect this and I’m trying to resurrect that,' but I’m really trying to be one of those guys that has THE album. Like if I just had an album, that 10 or 20 years from now my record comes on in the club and everyone goes ballistic. If I can just have one of those, I’m set.”
“I wanna bring a good feeling to people’s heart, with music that anyone can turn on if they’re going through a situation and be like, ‘this song helped me get through this,’ or, ‘this song made me feel this way.’ In terms of why should people tune in, I’m real. And I don’t say that in the sense that I lived a hard life. I say that in the sense that I’m giving you everything I have in my music. If you’re gonna listen to my music, listen to it for what it is and accept it. Because at the end of the day, I know it’s gonna be music that you can relate to.”
From his earliest influences to his new mixtape Broken Headphones, QuESt gave DXnext the inside scoop of his journey thus far. And whether this is your first time experiencing QuESt, or a chance for you to find out about the artist behind the music, one thing is for sure; the man has a lot to offer, and he’s only getting started.
Who Is QuESt?: “I’m this guy who raps very well and who likes to speak his mind as often as possible, as well as connecting with people as much as he can. And I’m about my music; I’m definitely about my art work. I put a lot of time into what I do. I’ve been doing this since I was seven. This is what I love, and I hope to continue to do it as long as possible.”
Origins Of His Quest: “I moved from my original neighborhood back in Florida to another neighborhood. When I moved, I didn’t have that many friends because I was relatively new to the neighborhood, so I had a lot of time to myself. On cable, they had The Box music channel. I used to watch that all the time, and the music video that really stood out for me was The Roots [click to read] and Erykah Badu’s [“You Got Me”]. And when I heard it, I didn’t fully understand the content of the song, but I knew that whatever they were doing, I wanted to be doing the same thing.”
“As far as one single artist that struck a chord with me in terms of how I wanted to convey myself as an artist, that was definitely Nas. I heard Nas when I was 11 and as soon as I heard him, the content of everything I was writing at that time just changed. My style, the way I pronounced words, the way I thought about music, it completely changed my outlook on everything.”
Working Off Emotion: “I don’t really like to classify my style because as soon as you start to define yourself musically, that creates contradiction. And it’s not even because I don’t really like to, but I can’t. One minute I’m doing one thing, and the next I’ll feel a complete different way. My music is derived off of pure emotion. So if I had to classify my music, it would be emotion. Everything comes out at one time. For me my style is really a wide range of things.”
The “Go Hard Or Go Home” State Of Mind: “I actually said that off an argument with another rapper. That was two or three weeks after Distant Travels Into Soul Theory came out. That’s when I started to receive critical success through the internet. And another dude was trying to do the same thing, and he was looking at me like, ‘Yo man, I don’t see how you doing it.’ And I told him, ‘I should be doing a lot more than what I am doing,’ and he was kind of getting mad at me because he felt like he was working way harder than me and felt like I didn’t really deserve what I was going after. So after that argument, I was thinking, ‘I put in a lot of time into what I’m doing, so why are you complaining?’ If anything, that means you need to go hard; prove to me that I’m doing something wrong and I need to pick up my game. My motto is “go hard or go home” because a lot of up-and-coming artists like me really lose sight of that. I had to put that into my mind, especially for Broken Headphones, because this is a project that I invested a lot of thought and time in, as well as energy too.”
On The New Mixtape: “Broken Headphones is a derivative of Where’s My Rhymebook? You know, it’s a metaphor in itself. But to really get down to it, it’s my best and most personal body of work. I know this may sound mad corny, but it’s a project that regardless of what anyone else says to me, I’m definitely happy with it. Each track has something in it that’s completely directed toward myself, like a story. It deals with the metaphor of a broken hope. It came from Where’s My Rhymebook? because that project symbolized a loss of direction. At the end of Where’s My Rhymebook? you got the direction, but then you have Broken Headphones, and that symbolizes loss of hope. It’s like you lost your direction, then found it, and you know your goal now, but then that one significant woe happens, and it completely throws you off, like what do you do now? I’ve had a lot of those experiences, and it’s evident in this project.”
Blog Rap: “For me, blogs have been good, but it’s not the end-all be-all. It’s definitely helped me out in terms of getting my music out there and getting people to anticipate my music. But there’s a lot of people out there that are known on the blogs, so I have a long way to go. Basically I’m just trying to grind it out and take my time, and see where my options are.”
What the Future Holds: “A lot of my plans after Broken Headphones are really gonna be focused on branding myself as an artist, because I’m still relatively new. I really can’t be set on my next move, because anything can happen after Broken Headphones drops. I could say something right now that could happen, but then a week after this project, something else may present itself and I’m in a whole other ball game, so it really all depends.”
Fulfilling His Journey: “I know rappers have a theme going where they’ll be like, 'I’m trying to resurrect this and I’m trying to resurrect that,' but I’m really trying to be one of those guys that has THE album. Like if I just had an album, that 10 or 20 years from now my record comes on in the club and everyone goes ballistic. If I can just have one of those, I’m set.”
“I wanna bring a good feeling to people’s heart, with music that anyone can turn on if they’re going through a situation and be like, ‘this song helped me get through this,’ or, ‘this song made me feel this way.’ In terms of why should people tune in, I’m real. And I don’t say that in the sense that I lived a hard life. I say that in the sense that I’m giving you everything I have in my music. If you’re gonna listen to my music, listen to it for what it is and accept it. Because at the end of the day, I know it’s gonna be music that you can relate to.”
one moment...
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