Today we’d like to introduce you to Kobe Red.
Kobe, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
It all started in Dorchester, what most people know as Boston, MA. I come from humble beginnings, we didn’t have it all but we had enough. My mother is an immigrant from Tanzania, a country on the coast of eastern Africa. And my father is a retired social worker who’s lived in Boston for 65+ years. My neighborhood was like many other lower-income areas in Boston; it’s a place where many people get stuck and end up just getting by. A lot of the time, that’s the life my family lived, we were just getting by. I knew early on that was a life I didn’t want, but I never really knew what I wanted to do. When you finding your purpose, sometimes you’ll get lost. Early on, it was instilled in me I had to work 2x harder than everybody else. I excelled as a student all the way until about high school. I thought I wanted to be a doctor or something for a while but as I got older, my love for school fell off. I started to mess around and hoop on the block when I was like 13 or 14. We’d go out there smoke, hoop, and waste time most days. Around that same time, two people in my life would show me what I would later find was my true purpose. If it wasn’t for Damion & Dante introducing me into rapping and recording, I wouldn’t be Kobe Red.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
I haven’t had the easiest road to becoming who I am today at all. I don’t come from very much, so technically its been nothing but breaking down doors for a long time now. Growing up, my parents were never together, so I watched my mother give everything to provide for me and her kids back in Tanzania. My father never left the picture, but our relationship isn’t the closest. As I got older, I dealt with the things that came with living and hanging in the hood. I’ve been shot at, robbed, stabbed, and pistol-whipped before. From the ages of 14 through 18, I never left the house without a hawk (knife). You gotta move in a thorough way where I’m from, otherwise, you’ll get extorted. As I got older, the problems just started to pile on; and when I got to Atlanta many of the same hood problems arose. I came to Atlanta in 2015 after graduating high school, I had this dream of going down in the history books for something. I moved to Atlanta in my junior year, so I could focus on staying in school. This was also the time that I had begun to dip into my passion for music. It wasn’t until an incident occurred where I was shot at in the driveway of my home, did I start to take it seriously. But in the middle of my junior year, I wasn’t able to afford it anymore, and I was forced to drop out. Since that time, I’ve had a couple of run-ins with the law that are jeopardizing what I’m building, but I’ve put my faith in God and it’s been working out for me. Slowly, but surely.
What do you do, what do you specialize in, what are you known for, etc. What are you most proud of? What sets you apart from others?
Well, I am an artist above all else, But my music would definitely be classified as rap. I make music to tell people my story and what I’m going through; all of this in hopes I can get someone through there worst and best times, respectively. I feel like Boston’s story is a lot different, and there aren’t too many big artists to break out of the city. I feel like my stories different because I come from such a diverse place, it gives me a lot of different musical influences to pull from. If you really want to know what I do, I would say tune in; the music kind of speaks for itself.
Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
All glory to God, first and foremost. My mama for sure though, I can’t thank her enough. That woman has sacrificed a lot for me and still does to this day. I don’t think there’s anyone that can love me unconditionally as long as she has. Like I said earlier though Damion & Dante are a big reason why I am who I am. Dante and I are practically brothers, we were raised and grew up together for years. It was always his dream to rap, and he showed me how to put my paper to the pad and write a verse. I used to write poetry when I was young, but I never thought of rapping. Even when he put me on to it, I never took it seriously until I got older. Damion was one of the first friends I made when we moved deeper into Dorchester. We were like brothers, and he always excelled in rapping. It forced me to be on my toes because he introduced me to the art of freestyling. Still to these days, one of the best freestylers I know. I can’t leave out my management crew either DB & Cyran. They’ve made countless sacrifices to push my career forward, even during times where I couldn’t make the push myself. They’ve become my family in many ways, and we don’t see eye to eye on everything but we all see the bigger picture. Finally, the Mobb, Slide gang and my family coming out the Million Dollar Basement, I can’t thank God enough for putting brothers like them in my life.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://linktr.ee/Therealkobered
- Email: therealkobered@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/therealkobered/
- Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/TheRealKobeRed/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/therealkobered?lang=en
- Other: https://youtu.be/A2roWZsyLQY
Image Credit:
Micheala D. photos, Ross Gordon
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