Louisville Magazine is Louisville's city magazine, covering Louisville people, lifestyles, politics, sports, restaurants, entertainment and homes. Includes a monthly calendar of events.
Issue link: https://loumag.epubxp.com/i/853426
LOUISVILLE MAGAZINE 8.17 53 Harlow in his basement recording booth. business during the day and making music at night and on the weekends. "A lot of people have no idea what they want to do," Harlow said. "I've been lucky enough to feel like I've had a purpose since I was 12." He said he was at a strange place creative- ly, basically describing himself as an oxymo- ron: He writes about his life with as much specificity as possible ("Authenticity is the key to all dope shit") but doesn't have much life experience. "I just have to get more in touch with me and figure out the sound I want, who I want to be. 'Cause I still don't know," he said. He had already played the Louisville venues: Headliners, Mercury Ballroom, Haymarket Whiskey Bar and a show at the since-closed New Vintage that was so sweaty — so almost literally fire — that his glasses fogged up. "I rep Louisville completely. Anybody who hears my shit knows I love Louisville," Harlow said. In his music, he has referenced Bardstown Road and the Highlands — and even the Applebee's there ("And I been the type to leave a generous-ass tip too," he raps on "Every Night"). "But a lot of rappers here have a local mentality. If it's a hobby for you, that's fine. I just don't want to be in the same conversation as you. If I hang with people who have goals with a cap on them, naturally mine will too. I don't get any gratification off being known in Louisville anymore. My aspirations are national." Over the course of his first year out of high school — one year is about 5 percent of his life — Harlow would travel to Atlanta for recording sessions; perform sets at South by Southwest, Bonnaroo and Forecastle; re- lease singles, including one called "Routine" that you might have heard on 93.1 the Beat. "I'm young. But I'm impatient," he said. "It's crazy to be able to see your prime and not be there yet." "I can't stop rhyming words," Harlow told his dad one day when he was in middle school. "Every time I hear any- body say anything, I try to rhyme it." e problem had been going on for 10 days. He was getting depressed. "at sounds so corny — 'Ugh, he's a rapper and can't stop rhyming' — but that's really what it was," Harlow says. "I'd be at soccer practice, and I'd hear words, anything multi-syllable, and Photo by Mickie Winters