Meet Zado
If you like heavy lyrics and word-play but also enjoy music to ride and vibe to. Zado is your guy. A St.Louis rap artist who finds the middle ground between his life and making a fire song. He’s a very familiar name here in the city as he has been consistent ever since he has picked up the pen, with awards to back up his rapping ability. See what Zado had to say about the St.louis creative scene and his career here as an artist.
Instagram: @zahdough
HOW DID YOU GET STARTED WITH MUSIC?
“ I wrote my first rap when The Carter 1 came out. I bought it on bootleg at the flea market. I remember listening to Wayne rap and feeling like man this is very hard! Wayne sparked my interest in sitting down to write my first rap. I remember my pops found my rap book and I got my ass beat because I was trying to sound like Wayne. I was rapping about stuff I ain’t ever did. So I went back to the drawing board to figure out what made me, me. At that time I was also influenced by other artists such as Jay Z, Pharrell, & Kanye and that helped me find my style somewhere in between everything I was listening to at that time. So, I would say at 17 years old is when I started to take it serious.”
WHAT ARE THE PROS & CONS OF BEING A RAP ARTIST IN ST.LOUIS?
“ For me, the pros are with St.Louis being so rich with talent, all my homies are producers and we already have that connection so it’s easier to work with them because we know each others sound and creative process. Or, I can easily find a talent to make beats, take photos, or whatever it is. The city is filled with talent and with it being fairly small it’s easier to connect. Some cons, I would say is that we don’t have the structure to be able to support a scene. We don’t have the scene where we can build up an artist and blow up an artist from here. But that comes down to resources and money.”
DO YOU FEEL LIKE THE LACK OF A CREATIVE STRUCTURE HERE IS THE ARTIST RESPONSIBILITY?
“ Nah. If we had the money to do it like that, it would definitely get done. I can’t speak for everybody else but I know if I had the money I would put some effort into building that infrastructure for the artists that’s actually putting in work. In that way you wouldn’t have to go to LA or NY for example to find a way to blow up and succeed.”
SO WITH THE RESOURCES WE DO HAVE, WHAT IS YOUR STRATEGY TO SUCCEED AS AN ARTIST IN ST.LOUIS?
“ I think, number one, is being consistent. That’s helped me a lot. Finding out what works best for me and reaching out. I was traveling a lot before the pandemic and I feel like going to places and connecting with different people and bringing that back to the city has helped me also. It’s not as impossible as people think it is but it’s about going 10x harder and staying consistent because people respect consistency.”
WHAT HAS BEEN YOUR PROUDEST ACCOMPLISHMENT AS AN ARTIST HERE?
“ Winning the S.L.U.M Fest award. That was so big for the whole noWhere team because we wanted to make something that would leave an impact because we were in front of a whole different demographic of the city. Like, they seen us walking in with the suits on and was looking like who are they, ya know. We in there with bright suits on and its just a whole different crowd in there. Then they saw us perform and the conversation switched to damn these niggas cold, they got it! So seeing them recognize us let me know that can’t nothing stop the plan & what we got going.”
HOW DID THE GROUP noWhere GET STARTED?
“ When it first started we all just knew we wanted to make a group and we were all just figuring out what we can do to add to it. Eddie was the one kind of helming that and I was on the outside but I was still around and apart of the creative scene and I remember them reaching out to me and I was just like let’s get it. What I envision noWhere being in the long run is a multimedia service in a way that we can produce and provide a service in different media outlets whether it be music, film, art, whatever really. It’s 4 of us right now, but we always have our eyes open for talent that we feel we could add to the group. It’s always about growing man.”
WHAT IS YOUR CREATIVE PROCESS LIKE?
" Usually I get a beat first and sit with it. I take a very methodical approach. I have to take my time with it. Im not the rapper that’s going to go to the booth and make ten songs. If I get a certain amount of time in the studio, Im going to make sure that one song is perfect. I don’t just crank out music. It has to come from the heart for me. Because, then at that point I become a vessel allowing the music to come through me. There’s some times when I hear a beat and it just hit me and I start writing, then there’s times where I have to sit with the beat and it eventually comes to me.”
HOW HAS YOUR MUSIC AND YOUR VOICE AS AN ARTIST CHANGED OVER THE YEARS? HAS YOUR MUSIC ALWAYS BEEN THAT INTROSPECTIVE?
“ Man, the first song I put out in 2011 was called My Holy Trinity and I wrote that in Wal-Mart parking lot while on the clock. I remember writing how I felt and making it a song. A few hours later it was my lunch time, I left and never came back. I just remember feeling super depressed working there. I had a 11-7am shift, I hated it. The money wasn’t nothing for real and I used rap as my outlet to express those thoughts and emotions. It was very natural. So I've always been like that and I feel like that’s what separates me. But, I like making ratchet shit too. My song Big Boy Art is ratchet but I love it. I love being able to turn up to my music. I don’t like how artist clash because they make different type of music. There is nothing wrong with doing both. The main goal is making something that people resonate with. People respect you much more when you can be honest with yourself and see you through a glass house and show those flaws. It’s been times where people have told me that my music has helped them through certain times of their life. It’s also therapy for me. I like making music that’s relatable and that you can feel, Im not trying to be cool.”
5 YEARS FROM NOW, WHERE DO YOU SEE YOURSELF AS AN ARTIST?
“ In 5 years I want to have my Debut out. I want to have 2 or 3 Grammys. I want to have the resources to be able to start the creative infrastructure here in St.Louis. My two biggest lifelong goals was 1. to be able to re-structure the Black Panther program, and how they would provide resources for the black community. They would give kids breakfast for free, provide rehab centers, they had a pro black newspaper, they had this whole infrastructure that was so necessary for the black community to have that option. 2. I want to create something so that artist after me don’t have the same struggles or go through the same things I did coming up as an artist in St.Louis. I just want to make it easier for artist in St.Louis to grow and succeed. Lastly, I want noWhere to be fully functional as a creative service.”
ANYTHING THIS YEAR THAT WE SHOULD BE EXPECTING FROM YOU?
“ Im trying to drop a project with OV in the spring if not a little later. I have some collaborations that Im doing that I can’t speak too much on just yet, but that’s coming. So yea, the project with OV I really want to drop in the spring because I feel like it’s music that you can go outside and chill to and just enjoy the day rather than sitting in the crib playing it. I want people to be able to experience it.”
