APtheG comes out with some heavy-duty hip-hop firepower in “762”
APtheG "762" (23:56)
By Kurt Beyers
The kid who used to freestyle on the bus going to elementary school is 30 now. APtheG doesn’t freestyle anymore. He writes and produces his songs, and with more than 30 songs out, now he’s taking his shot at the music place.
He’s coming out with “762,” a hard-charging hip-hop ode to a gun, his history and his ambition. Like most of his music, the song is a story with bits and pieces of his life in it.
“It was a lot of people talking about different guns. Other people were talking about the switches for the Glocks, and I was like, ‘I can’t get my hands on those because it’s illegal.’”
The switches allow a handgun to become fully automatic. But APtheG had a Draco, a semi-auto that fires the AK 47’s 7.62x39 mm cartridge. Hence, the name of the song, “762.”
“So, I said, ‘Well, I’m going to rap up something that I actually got.’ I had a Draco with a beam, and I was excited about it. It’s called a pistol, but it’s basically a baby AK 47.”
The song is like a hip-hop combat fire team. The beat is the heavy caliber, a .45 maybe, firing bursts of four. The melody carries out a sustained pattern of light caliber, chiming piano notes, say 5.56.
And in the middle, the 7.62 in APtheG’s rapid-fire rap.
He made a video that he liked, and he decided to move on with it. This was 2023, and “762” is the first of 13 tracks on The Chosen One, which AP calls a mixtape but Spotify calls an album.
The song has a gun:
Bought a Draco with a beam that bitch be heat seeking
And a few pieces of his life:
I thought the top was out of reach.
Long story short, I was destined what I became to be
And his ambition:
I’m the best — to a blind man it’s plain to see
I’m beast I’m off the leash. It ain’t no taming me.
His artist name is based on two Apollos.
“The Apollo is one of the greatest stages of all,” he said, “and then it was another thing, Apollo the God of music. I put both of them together, APtheG — Apollo the Great.”
The elementary kid freestyling on the bus was inspired by artists such as Lil Wayne, Snoop Dogg, Ice Cube, Biggie, Digital Underground, N.W.A., 50 Cent and Eminem.
Early on, still in school, he started writing songs instead of freestyling and decided that he would try to make something of his music. He didn’t have money to buy studio time, but he had a laptop. That was a start.
“I saved up and got a microphone, and I got M-Track, the software for the studio, and I basically taught myself recording and editing.”
He still produces his own songs and now, with “762,” he is beginning to promote them.
His style is heavily tilted to drill, but he does some R&B and hip-hop. What he likes about drill is the storytelling. All the drill rappers he listens to, he said, tell stories, and his are from his life. They are explicit.
“762,” he said, is hip-hop, “but I try to piece together things that actually happened in my life. Now, I ain’t gonna say everything that happened, but you’ve got to piece together little different parts that happen from the past, and that’s how I created that song.”
Having begun promoting his songs, he considers that he has started in on his career.
“I’m trying to get this song out, along with some others, and trying to build my name and create a brand.”
The brand is his name, APtheG, and the label, GTTM, he created before he really knew what he was doing — GTTM, Get To The Money.
“That was just something a long time ago that stuck with me,” he said.
Like music just stuck to him.
“Out of everything I ever did, music is the thing that actually stuck.”
His next single, “Big Flex,” will be out in a few weeks, and it will be hip-hop rather than drill.
“It’s about people doubting you, and you progress from where they counted you out. Now they see you coming up, you can flex. You’re getting the money, the cars. It’s mostly materialistic stuff, so you’re showing off. That’s your flex.”
After that another single and then, in a couple of months, another mixtape or album.
He said a music guy told him, “Man, you doing some good music. Do something with it.”
“He steered me in the right direction.”
Steer your way into his music and connect to APtheG on all platforms for new music, videos, and social posts.
https://www.amazon.com/music/player/artists/B07QGL16Y3/aptheg
https://music.apple.com/us/artist/aptheg/1432645055
https://open.spotify.com/artist/7b2pRiBUWq1Ugiaa8zhJ2s
https://www.facebook.com/share/1GxNm6DDcq/?mibextid=wwXIfr
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