Meet Christopher Asaka Jr.

We were lucky to catch up with Christopher Asaka Jr. recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Christopher, we’re so appreciative of you taking the time to share your nuggets of wisdom with our community. One of the topics we think is most important for folks looking to level up their lives is building up their self-confidence and self-esteem. Can you share how you developed your confidence?
My confidence and self – esteem comes from survival, simply put. My life has been an array of unfortunate events pertaining to my career, my family, and my life in general. I’ve struggled with being homeless for an extensive period of time, as well as Experiencing some significant deaths around me. Enduring a period of helplessness like that can break you. To be completely honest, it almost broke me. Instead, I used that turmoil and anger I felt to channel and new perspective on my life; I’ll never be in this position again.

I worked on developing my purpose through music, really focusing on honing my skill as an MC. I’ve battled, performed multiple shows in a day, and even performed in plenty shows with no support. I realized then that no one will support me more than me. I began to see a change in my artistry, as I gained more and more confidence walking into these environments alone, prepared to perform at one hundred percent no matter the outcome. I gained a lot of respect in my field, but more importantly through all the adversity, I was gaining respect for myself.

Eventually, I became a force to be reckoned with. I remembered all the pain I suffered while homeless. I remembered the death of my best friend during that time period as well. I also remember losing what felt like a sister just a little while afterwards. They both believed in me and even helped me obtain my confidence. I also remember what my family had to go through just to survive before I was even conceived.

I accumulate all those factors and I realize even Through all that, I survived. If I can survive that, I can survive anything. Thus, giving me the confidence necessary to surpass my limits and make the best music I can at all times.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
I am up and coming artist by the name Asaka The Renegade. I feel what excites me most about my music is that I’m able to express myself in ways I never believed I could. Through all my ups and downs, I’ve always found difficulty in let my emotions out. With music, I’m able to channel whatever I’m feeling and release it to the world where someone else may be feeling the same thing. That connectivity to people really makes music feel special to me.

My music ranges through a plethora of different genres, one primarily being hip hop. I’ve also experimented with R&B mostly, as well as funk, dancehall, and even pop.

I’m currently working on an album hoping to be released in October or November, as well as my second concert in Detroit!

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
One of the most impactful things I learned was patience. Waiting on something to happen can drive someone to give up. Jumping at an opportunity too early could be cause for having to start over. I had to learn to wait and move only when I’m truly ready and when the opportunity is truly ready for me.

Another impactful thing I learned is what I call the “absorption skill”. As an artist, sometimes we hit creative blocks and begin to doubt ourselves in the moment. I learned it’s important to absorb absolutely everything from feelings, to the environment , energy, etc.

The third impactful thing I developed was discipline. In this world, we want many things, but we often forget discipline is required to obtain said things. For music, most of the work is done by the artist themselves, which can be very tiring. The important thing is to remember to stay focused on your goals and keep doing the work no matter what!

Is there a particular challenge you are currently facing?
The number one obstacle I’m facing is figuring out how to take the next step in my career. I do my best to capitalize on every opportunity I receive, but it seems to not be enough. I know my time is coming, so I keep working. However, it’s difficult to figure out which direction to apply my work in order to take the next step into the music industry.

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