Story & Lesson Highlights with LexC of Atlanta

We’re looking forward to introducing you to LexC. Check out our conversation below.

LexC, a huge thanks to you for investing the time to share your wisdom with those who are seeking it. We think it’s so important for us to share stories with our neighbors, friends and community because knowledge multiples when we share with each other. Let’s jump in: What do the first 90 minutes of your day look like?
I typically have a few alarms set in the morning. The first is an alarm for 5:45am for me to wake up, but I am a snoozer. So, I have a second alarm set for 6:15am, which is when I ACTUALLY get out of bed. As soon as I get up, I say a quick prayer and talk to God. I then write what are called “morning pages,” which is a daily exercise from the book “The Artist’s Way” by Julia Cameron. For 20-30 minutes, I write 3 pages of whatever comes to mind. This is stream-of-consciousness writing. It doesn’t have to have meaning. It doesn’t have to be good or bad! Then I read a chapter of the Bible. Then I get up to floss, rinse, and brush my teeth and get dressed for the day. By then, the time is about 7am. I head downstairs to have a quick breakfast of overnight oats (I’m really into that right now). Then, I bottle up a homemade juice, water, or hot tea and head out the door to go to work! That’s typically how the first 90 minutes of my day go! If it’s a day where I’m not working my “regular” job, substitute the breakfast and work for an hour at the gym!

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
Hey! My name is LexC, and I am a singer, songwriter, performer, and audio engineer!

I am a music artist as well as a kind of consultant and mentor for other music artists. I help other creatives find their sound and grow their online presence with their music and content creation.

On the artist side, I am mainly an R&B artist. I would describe my style as 90s R&B with a modern sound. I love to use my full vocal range, and I love vocal stacking because I believe that harmonies should hug and embrace you every time you hear a song. They improve the listening experience! The main topic of my music is love – as are most topics within R&B – but I focus on the positive sides of love, not so much the toxic. Unfortunately, I don’t think the beautiful parts of love get enough shine because people tend to gravitate toward the pain music. We can all connect to painful experiences, but it’s important we keep a well-rounded view of love as well. At the moment, my personal favorites are “Real Love,” “This Is The Part Where…,” and “It’s A Good Day (We Outside).”

If you want something a little more “ratchet,” I do also rap. In fact, I’ve gotten more placements with my rap music than my R&B, haha! You can hear those rap songs on the show “Love and Hip Hop: Miami” and the movie “The Comeback” featuring Apryl Jones and Taye Diggs. The names of these songs are “I Understand,” “Dumb Games,” and “Whole Nother Level.”

On the business side, I offer a variety of services related to sound to include audio engineering, songwriting, vocal production, on set sound mixer and post production for film, vocal lessons, features, demos, engineering lessons, photoshoots, video shoots, production, etc.

My goal is to empower other creatives to be self-sufficient in their journeys, which is more sustainable than only betting on getting signed to a label. In this day and age – and especially as an independent artist – we play many roles. Though it’s not the most fun to have to worry about the business side of the “music business,” I encourage artists to learn as much as they can about every facet of the industry we perform within!

Okay, so here’s a deep one: What part of you has served its purpose and must now be released?
This is such an interesting question to me! It’s funny because in the introduction I spoke about how I love to help other people see their own potential and recognize their own capabilities. However, at this point in my journey, I do also see how I have not done a good job at balancing how much I give OF myself versus how much I give TO myself.

I believe that I have done a very good job at being classy and gracious, and I naturally want to be of service to people. This issue with having a spirit of service is that I will often put the needs of others above my own. This is also exacerbated by the fact that because my life is funded by music, I do sometimes have to take clients before I take myself. I have often had to take sessions, even when I didn’t want to, simply because I needed to meet my quota and needed the money.

While my spirit of service has allowed me to be in various rooms with all ranges of celebrity, I do find that I have not been fair to myself and my own creativity. I have not done enough to advocate for myself, and though I have poured into a lot of people, it is no one’s obligation to pour back into me.

So, where before I would have laid down my interests in favor of propelling someone else, I now see that my inability to say “no” to people has been to my detriment in a lot of ways. This part of me no longer serves me. It is time – and it is okay – to be a bit more selfish and selective about the energy I give out.

What fear has held you back the most in your life?
I have a huge fear of being seen as the villain in people’s stories. I am terrified of it, and I don’t know when I developed this fear. However, I now recognize how crippling it has become. It has caused me to be slow to speak up for myself. I become anxious and afraid of bringing up issues when I feel slighted, and I often silence myself in the interest of “keeping the peace.”

But there is no peace within myself. My inner worlds ends up turning into chaos because everything is being held in. That’s not healthy mentally or physically!

At the time of this interview, I am exploring how to break myself of this fear by speaking out no matter how fearful I am of how the other person may feel. I can’t be so worried about the feelings of others that I forget to honor my own feelings, you know? So, as simple as it sounds, I can only work through this fear by challenging myself to SPEAK UP. DO the THING! Do it, and allow the cards to fall where they may! Being courageous is acting despite the fear. We can’t be courageous without the fear, but we cannot let the fear keep us from taking action!

Alright, so if you are open to it, let’s explore some philosophical questions that touch on your values and worldview. Is the public version of you the real you?
Yes! Who I am in public is the same as who I am in private. I, personally, do not believe in having to present a different way from how I am in private just to appease people. There have been many people, especially within the music industry, who have suggested that I will have to put on some type of act or character to be more appealing to the masses. I realized early on that becoming famous would just have to take longer for me because I’m unwilling to act out of character or below what I value.

Okay, so let’s keep going with one more question that means a lot to us: Have you ever gotten what you wanted, and found it did not satisfy you?
I have! As a music artist, there are many people I would love to meet or be in the vicinity of. There was a time when I was able to meet close family and friends of one of my favorite artists. Unfortunately, the relationship did not blossom into what I thought, which I thought it would turn into mentorship and even a record deal. However, I was not in the circle because of my talents. Interest was taken in me because they wanted one thing from me…

It was extremely disappointing. It shattered a certain reverence I held for the family. I did not lose the love I had for my fave artist, but I understood a deeper layer of how no matter who you are – even if you’re the celebrity and meal ticket – you can still suffer from the disgusting actions of the people around you. You can have the purest intentions yet still be brought down because of the people around you.

You would think being linked to such an amazing artist would cause the surrounding family and friends to live in such a way as to maintain respect for the artist, but, in many ways, it emboldens them to be on their worst behavior.

Needless to say…very disappointed that the connections and relationships I thought I wanted to have turned out to be so dissatisfying. But, it did help me to release the need to compare my progress to that of others. You never know what people had to do or what people had to go through to get where they are. I try very hard not to be envious of anyone’s situation.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.lexcatl.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lexcatl
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@LexCATL/releases
• Other: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/lexc/1011384059

Image Credits
@1treydup