Meet Gertrude

We were lucky to catch up with Gertrude recently and have shared our conversation below.

Gertrude, so good to have you with us today. We’ve got so much planned, so let’s jump right into it. We live in such a diverse world, and in many ways the world is getting better and more understanding but it’s far from perfect. There are so many times where folks find themselves in rooms or situations where they are the only ones that look like them – that might mean being the only woman of color in the room or the only person who grew up in a certain environment etc. Can you talk to us about how you’ve managed to thrive even in situations where you were the only one in the room?

To put it simply…the willingness to go on your path alone is single-handedly the most effective way to be successful when you’re not only, the only one in the room that looks like you but also when the odds are stacked against you. I was someone that took a long time to figure out what I wanted to do growing up. Because I was tall growing up, my parents tried to get me to play every sport under the sun but I was always nerdy, artsy, sensitive, and an insular child so I always quit. But once I discovered my love for guitar when I was 12, I knew that music was going to be a part of my life. Since I was self-taught, there was no room for me in any sort of bands because of my skin level. Thus, in middle school, I honed in on theatre in middle school because it would give me a foundation in performance. I attended a performing arts high school conservatory where I focused more on theatre because of my inability to read music.

Despite growing up very intelligent, I never wanted to go to college because my favorite musicians either didn’t go to college or dropped out of school early. I also was stuck on making a career choice because I didn’t know whether I really wanted to do theatre or music. As a first-generation american to african parents, not attending school was not an option. So, I last minute decided to pursue a music degree as a 15-year-old high school junior and I was not cut out for music school whatsoever.

This is mostly because most people who attend music school have been playing their instruments since they were in elementary school and I was a self-taught guitarist. Typically, for different music degree programs, you have to be on an instrument. Most schools only have a jazz or classical guitar option. At that time, I was only a 15-year old blink-182 and green day superfan that only knew how to play a little bit of each style. If you know anything about classical guitar, it is almost like a completely different instrument and playing technique than modern guitar styles. So, I picked jazz guitar as if it was going to be any easier and I self-taught myself the fundamentals of jazz guitar for auditions. I applied for 12 music schools and I ultimately ended up going.

I attended California State University Northridge during the first couple years of undergrad for Music Industry on Jazz Guitar.

The hardest part was arriving to music school and realizing I was the only one who wasn’t classically trained or playing since I was a kid. My classmates were lightyears ahead of me but I just had to become comfortable with working a little harder than everyone else to pave my path.

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?

Hello!

I’m Gertrude, I’m an Alt Hip-Hop Rapper-Producer from San Diego, California and based out of Los Angeles. My music takes to the likes of Tyler the Creator, Frank Ocean, Steve Lacy, & Smino. I love to tell folks that I am a rapper with a rock band. I was an aspiring teen rockstar turned into an eclectic rapper-producer, aiming to merge these two backgrounds for those who listen to my music. “Black-Girl-Next-Door Rap Music”

I recently realized my first-self-produced project & EP, RUDE which is available to stream on all platforms.

https://gertrude.fanlink.tv/RUDE

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

Self-reliance, Resilience, Indifference

Self-reliance – In order to improve on being more independent, it is important to not wait on permission from those around to do what you want to do in life. Especially if they aren’t going the same places you would like to go. Making those types of choices over and over again will put you in the rooms you want to be in but you have to be willing to stop looking around on the way there. A lot of time can be wasted trying to take everyone with you or put people onto what you’re doing. You have to reinvest those efforts back into yourself in general and when you notice you can’t take someone with you.

Resilience – In the creative industry, the difference between those who succeed and don’t is that the successful people don’t stop or allow minor inconveniences get in their way. As a black woman, I know. that this is a lot easier said than done because there are a lot of odds stacked against minority groups. There are systems in place to put minorities at a disadvantage. I think what builds resilience is knowing when it’s time to take a break and come back to what’s you’re struggling with. Be willing to try a different approach and know you don’t have to do everything alone. Be willing to ask for help.

Indifference – I see being indifferent as being detached. It’s important especially as you’re working towards your goals to immerse yourself in the journey so that you aren’t as emotionally attached to the results. Regardless, there are going to be wins and losses so it’s vita, to be willing to pick back up when you’re “winning” or “losing”.

Alright, so before we go we want to ask you to take a moment to reflect and share what you think you would do if you somehow knew you only had a decade of life left?

– I’m currently working on acceptance of the type of work it will take me to be taken seriously in music and the creative field. As a quirky black woman in hiphop, I have found it a lot more difficult to garner attention to what I do compared to my non-black counterparts. And a part of the reason I look up to Tyler the Creator so much is because he normalized being weird for black kids and specifically young black men in music. I want to see the same for young black women. I don’t feel like the current music landscape has made a similar space for women. Tyler the Creator has had a very length path on his music career to getting the music industry to take him seriously in hiphop as a quirky anti-monolithic black man. So, I understand that as a black woman, it won’t be much different if not harder from what I’ve seen in my experience. I’m learning to get comfortable with this stage of “proving myself” in the hip-hop space and paying my dues but detaching from the current reactions of my music in this phase of my career.

Contact Info:

Image Credits

Raeden Gibran & Lorenzo Hi

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