Meet Blyke_Love in Albany

Today we’d like to introduce you to Blyke_Love.

Blyke_Love, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
We met in Albany, GA where we were born & raised, through mutual friends in 2012, & started recording in 2013. At that time, we were just working on Jo3 h3nson’s album “L.A.M.E.” & getting to know each other. 2014, we started kicking it & eventually started dating & fell in love. It’s crazy how our mutual love for music, was what led to us finding love in each other, outside of music. Neither of us ever thought music was gonna lead us to our soul mate, but it did. From there, we kept creating & building creatively & personally, & we decided in 2018 to form “Blyke_Love” since we have so much chemistry musically, & been working together since 2013.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Briley: It has been pretty smooth for me. I didn’t really start pursuing music until after high school, although I had been singing since 1st or 2nd grade. I had recorded a song or 2 here and there with classmates, but never put myself out there as an artist. I knew that I loved music, singing, and dancing but I was afraid to step out on it until I told myself I never want to lose the gift God has given me. When my grandma passed in 2013, I really wanted to pursue something that she would be proud of. It was hard figuring out what I was going to venture into next after she passed, especially since I was her caregiver, but realizing how fast things can be taken away, I didn’t want to risk it. Between 2010 to 2016 I started singing backup for a friend (which led me to meeting Jo3 h3nson), recording hooks for other friends, even performed cover songs with a band called 7th High (thanks to Jo3 h3nson for recommending me lol) which started my journey with being more comfortable on stage. I was never really sure of myself until recently when it comes to singing. I still struggle with my insecurities about singing and writing, but I push through and create something I’m personally proud of. Struggles that I tend to come across personally are overthinking what I write or being “too wordy”, overthinking notes and harmonies to sing, or literally can’t think of anything to write. I tend to get in my own way alot. I also try to rush and hear the finished product before it’s even mixed due to the potential I know the song have. I’m still learning, developing, and growing into “Briley”, so my journey will definitely be documented lol. But that’s life right!?

Jo3 h3nson: The road for me goes back to when I started writing songs & pursuing music when I was 12 yrs old back in 1997. Which was way before Blyke_Love. I didn’t actually release my 1st project til 2010 when I was going by Monte Carlo, which was a name given to me by my older brother, Shawn Jay from Southern Hip-hop group, Field Mob, who signed to MCA Records in 1999, & eventually signed to Ludacris label “Disturbing The Peace.” Being from Albany, GA & having your older brother be part of the 1st rap group to sign a major label deal from a city that the world didn’t even know existed, comes with its own perks, & challenges. I’ve experienced damn near everything an up & coming artist can experience between then & now. Had a lot of doors closed in my face because I chose to make music that was true to me instead of following the trends or doing what every other rapper in the South was doing. I didn’t rap about selling drugs, or violence, or how many women I have sex with or material things like cars, clothes, jewelry, etc. I’ve had ppl tell me I should quit, learned that ppl that I thought were friends were really using me, & weren’t really friends at all, family issues, relationship issues, losing jobs, moving from place to place, being homeless & having to crash at other ppl’s places, making low income working entry-level jobs just so I can have time to pursue my dream because I knew if I tried to get promoted to higher positions at a job, they’d demand too much of my time & I’d get trapped in the cycle of surviving, & my dreams & goals would end up on the backburner. I’ve battled self-doubt countless times because where I’m from, I’m like a striped Minotaur. Lol! So because of that, it wasn’t many ppl that actually supported & believed in me because in the music business ppl want something tried & true, instead of investing or standing behind something new, original, & that challenges the norm musically. I’ve spent & lost thousands on top of thousands of dollars investing in myself & my dreams because I believed in them. Even my brother Shawn & I had conflict because I wanted to pursue music off the merit of my own talent & hard work instead of him using his name & celebrity to open doors for me. There’s so much more that I’ve faced on this road head-on, but even though i battled with self-doubt at times, ultimately, I always knew that I was doing the right thing, & that even though it was hard as hell sometimes, it was worth it. & now, 27 yrs later, I know that I was right to think that because things are aligning. 2008 I decided to be independent & got some studio equipment to record myself, & eventually, I got a camera, & learned how to do everything necessary to run a label, a studio, & be an independent artist, including learning how to shoot/edit my own videos, do my own graphic design, marketing, organizing & booking my own shows, etc. I thank God for everything I endured because all of that is why I’ve grown to the point that I have now, where I can be independent & put out high-quality content/music, & save money in the process because everything is in-house. I’ve built confidence in myself by proving to myself that I can learn & do what I need to do for my career. Long as I have YouTube & Google. Lol!

Blyke_Love – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Blyke_Love is our Hip-hop soul group but we also are partners in other business endeavors. Our Umbrella/Holding company/Merch brand “L.A.M.E.” which means “Living As Me Everyday” is the foundation to everything we do outside of Blyke_Love. We have a Spoken Arts Open Mic called “L.A.M.E. Voices” that we do in our hometown Albany, GA with our partner Chris Jenkins of “See The ViZion” where each yr we provide over 29 artist, from all over the world (most of the performers live in the South) with a platform to showcase their talents as Special Guest Performers, not to mention the open mic artist, poets, comedians, & other creatives, that bless our stage & share their voices. Our open mic centers around the voice so any verbal artform is allowed at our open mic so it ranges from rapping/singing all the way to poetry, storytelling, & even beatboxing. & we do it free of charge because we don’t believe in charging artist to perform. We also just started our Indie label “Egypt of America” (which is an alias for our hometown Albany, GA) where we signed ourselves as artist on our label. Ultimately, we specialize in creative communication at the end of the day. Everything we do centers around creativity & communication one way or another. As a Hip-hop Soul group, what makes Blyke_Love different from other artist/groups is that we’re not saying what everybody else is saying. We try to make a brand new song when we record instead of just regurgitating what’s been said over & over in mainstream music. We also just have a completely different sound from your typical artist & we merge the nostalgia of 90’s hip-hop & rnb with a more innovative approach to songwriting, & how it sounds sonically. We put A LOT of time, energy, & effort into our music.

What is “success” or “successful” for you?
Success is being able to do what we love, being independent, being ourselves, making an impact on our fans with our music, & continuing to be a blessing to other ppl. A marker for success musically will be when we can make a living off of our music & travel the world performing.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://blyke.love
• Email: blyke.love@gmail.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/blyke_love
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/blyke.love
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/blyke_love
• Other: https://linktr.ee/blyke_love

Image Credit:
RDA
Daurian Jackson

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