Meet Krusin

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

Krusin, thank you so much for taking the time to share your lessons learned with us and we’re sure your wisdom will help many. So, one question that comes up often and that we’re hoping you can shed some light on is keeping creativity alive over long stretches – how do you keep your creativity alive?

I try to find inspiration for the art I make in everything I do, which helps me strive to constantly assess my view of the world. I look at every verse, hook and song I write as a way to express the ideas I have, or reflect on the things I see and experience. I also enjoy the entire process, from finding a beat to releasing the product and the fact that I do it all for myself means I can choose which avenue to be creative in. I don’t have to write, I can mix a song or listen to beats. If that isn’t the wave, I can record or just listen to music until I hear a bar that makes me think. The overall variety of ways to harness creative energy makes it easy to stay creative for me.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

I am part of A musical collective from Springfield, Mass called SAYSOME and I am managed by IMMA SAVAGE ENT. Music has been a part of my life for as long as I remember, but I have been releasing music and building my brand for around 5 years. A major aspect of my music has always been self-reflection and betterment, combined with the internal struggle of self-improvement clashing with the darker parts of the mind (ie. my ‘EGO’ tapes). On the other hand, the rest of my music is meant as a fun release, which leads to songs like ‘Hawt Dog’ and ‘Jorge Masvidal (ft. the co-captain of Saysome, Jon Martian). I enjoy and take inspiration from all genres, and I have roots in both theater and playing instruments/reading music starting from elementary school which has definitely helped with recording and performing. I always enjoyed reading and how words can build worlds or paint pictures. In my childhood I was writing poetry and it was a very natural transition into writing lyrics. My main focus is creativity, but of course I would love to grow a fanbase, make better and better music, and live off my art. You can connect with us on all platforms as @Saysome and we are always streaming and throwing shows.

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

One main thing that has helped me gain support, and has opened doors for me in the long run, is the idea I’ve held from the beginning- that you should be studying your fundamentals. Right when I started I knew that in order to get to where I wanted to be I needed to rap more. What I didn’t know was what most of us don’t know from the beginning, and that is that there’s a million things you don’t know you don’t know. You can actually go back to the day I decided it on Youtube, and began rapping and releasing at least a verse a day for 365 days. Some are gone because I jacked Youtube beats, which led to me creating (admittedly not great) instrumentals for myself, leading to me learning to mix and streamline my process. All that lead to me making a few okay instrumentals and convincing people to rap with me. Then i self produced a few okay tapes. Years later I have a couple fans and people ask me to work all the time. We have several producers, I haven’t made a beat in years. Basically, study and apply what you learn as you go but you won’t get anywhere if you can’t do some steps of the process and don’t have funds to spend hundreds on every song yet. But it all starts with taking the steps to do it for yourself. At least in my opinion.
The second thing I’d say helped me is taking a couple risks so you feel more confident doing safe things. This leads back to my song Hawt Dog, but it is a very silly song and I was very unsure of myself when I began performing it in rooms full of people I knew might not respect it. The worst performance of the song actually ended up teaching me the most though. I was at a private event and every other person was rapping gang related music, and the crowd flat-out hated me. No love at all except from the person who invited me and no SaySome squad with me to make me feel better. But I did it. And when I was back in a room I knew I had some love I absolutely crushed it. Sometimes you gonna have a room full of people looking at you like you should quit. Get used to it and use it as motivation if you’re gonna care.
Third, I guess I’d say y’all need to rap (create) more. Start writing freestyles. Write acapellas. Diss your cat (I dissed someone’s cat when I was looking for ideas during the 365challenge). Obviously, if your art is different do whatever it is that helps you polish your skills more. You can’t expect to be the best you can be without practice. We in here talkin’ bout practice. Lmao but seriously, the 10,000 hours thing is real. Yes, some people are naturally amazing. If you’re reading this go practice.

Do you think it’s better to go all in on our strengths or to try to be more well-rounded by investing effort on improving areas you aren’t as strong in?

I believe you should do both. It will never hurt you to improve in any area, whether creative or lifestyle. Nobody who is great at something has neglected to study or train in other areas because discipline, knowledge and experience translate into everything you do. Doing theater and participating in band helped me to inherently understand aspects of song-writing and performance that I watch others struggle with. It helped me to understand and believe that I could rap with just a beat, because I’ve been in the situation where its me, the script I have “memorized” and the audience. Know it or don’t. Making my own beats, although I was never great, taught me how to communicate about beats with my producers. Shooting my own skits and videos teaches me editing and lends perspective to the process so I can communicate video ideas. Freestyling helps me be more confident in conversation because I know I can think on my feet, I practice it. It all connects. You should learn anything you have the opportunity to learn, and lean into your strengths while understanding they are actually just multiple skills you are utilizing.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://Linktree.com/KRUSIN
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KRUSIN413/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@KRUSIN413

Image Credits

Cellar Door Photography