Student By Day Rapper By Night

by tawney noyes

Reinventing Lil Clout.

Senior Christopher Martin, also known as Lil Clout, plans to reinvent the sound in his music after three years.

In 2017, Martin began to explore the world of Soundcloud rappers and took inspiration from them to start his own music career. Despite not having much support from his friends and family, he continued to work on his goal. Now, heading into 2021, Martin plans to redesign and reinvent the sound of his music.

When the wave of Soundcloud rappers hit in 2016, Martin had discovered a new sound he had never heard before. “I used to not even listen to rap really. Just seeing kids my age change their life around from songs they made in their bedrooms really inspired me,” Martin said. He had been writing songs before but nothing like what he had found.

Once Martin found his new style of music, he got to work making music. He came up with the name “Lil Clout” with one of his friends and took inspiration from artists like XXXTentacion, Lil Peep, and Lil Uzi Vert. “When I first started out, I was almost ripping off Lil Pump in a way. He came out with Gucci Gang and I made Clout Clique,” Martin said. Clout Clique is a single he has on his Soundcloud.

In his first year at Bullitt East, Martin became more popular than he was before. He left middle school and went into high school as a rapper. This generated a lot of buzz for Martin to get even more popular around the school and encourage him to make more music.

As his popularity grew, his friends weren’t nearly as impressed as his fans. Although he has good, close friends, only a few of them actually support his music, and his parents don’t know that much about it. “Being a rapper isn’t exactly what my parents had in mind for me, so I haven’t really told them much about it,” Martin said.

Senior Christopher Martin staring into the sunset on Mount Washington. One of Martin’s biggest successes was when he dropped his album ‘Tales From the Mount,’ in 2019. “It got ten thousand streams and a lot of people sent me videos of themselves listening to it,” Martin said. Photo Credit: Tawney Noyes

Despite the lack of support from his friends and family, Martin continued to work on his music career. “I got to play a concert with four other artists and like twenty people in the crowd. It was small,” Martin said. Martin believes that the concert was very eye-opening for him since he got to see other artists who were serious about their music in Kentucky. He also got the chance to be backstage at a Jack Harlow concert because one of the opening acts liked his music.

Most recently, in 2019, he came out with the album ‘Tales From the Mount’ which got a lot of traction around the school. Martin believes most of the school knew about the album. A lot of people sent him videos of themselves listening to it and it ended up with about ten thousand plays.

As 2020 rolled in, Martin found it difficult to get his music out to the world. “A lot of the buzz I was getting was because I would try to be anywhere other people were to spread my music,” Martin said. He would go to big sporting events and fairs to hand out and sell things to raise awareness of who he is and the music he makes. COVID-19 ultimately shut that down for the year.

The break from events has given Martin time to think about his musical identity and how he wants to sound. “I’m trying to reinvent my sound right now. I don’t think it’s a good representation of what I want my art to be right now,” Martin said. His Instagram page has been wiped clean of any posts and he has even considered changing his rapper name from Lil Clout.

Besides any new name or sound, the focus for Martin will most likely always be music. “Music is like a person who is always there for you. You can make anything you want and it’s all fun,” Martin said. He has been into music since he was young and he will continue to make music for a long time.

Creating our own good.

by emi richardson

This year has been a really tough year for all of us, but there is a lot of good that has come out of it. This section talks about good things that happened in 2020. Including: people finding new hobbies, adopting animals, environmental change, better relationships with family, and a person who reinvented themselves.

“New Hobbies” by Brodie Curtsinger talks about branching out and finding new and different things to do.

“Adopting New Animals” by Jenna Tipton explains how the number of animal adoptions has increased.

In “Environmental Change” by Dane Bunel, he talks about how the environment has changed for the better.

“Relationship with Family” by Macie Brown talks about how the more time we’ve had at home this year has impacted how close people have gotten with their family.

In “Re-Invented” by Rebecca Watts, it talks about how having more time at home and away from things has helped to change someone for the better.