SoloCelo – SoloCelo @itsSoloCelo

“SoloCelo” is a self titled tape released by an independent Chicago rapper that goes by the same name. In short, Celo wished for the tape to properly showcase his versatility and creativity, which is a theme he wishes his entire career to follow. Along with the tape, Celo also released a music video for fan favorite “Hunnid.” After shooting in Los Angeles with director Jay Pusha, Wetvisuals, Celo hopes to return to collaborate with more artists.

SoloCelo is a young rap artist from Chicago, who’s mission is to express his versatility and creativity on every song. He grew up on the south side of Chicago with an extremely diverse musical background. Being his mother was Colombian and his father was Black, the music he would hear growing up would be more diverse than the average person. He actually didn’t truly get into rap until a few years ago, when it became really the largest genre in the world, and really unavoidable from radio, to movies, and the abundant promotion these songs would end up having. Celo was always creative however.

Before his rap career, he owned a youtube channel with a few friends, called Super Duper Gaming. Named after the brand of popular rap artist SuperDuperKyle. The gaming channel would reach over 100,000 views on youtube, and 1,000 subscribers in just a short few months. After gaining a steady following, Celo and his partners thought they needed something that set them off from other channels. They created a music video to help promote the channel, and it received a lot of attention. After that they continued with the channel, but soon left that to pursue music. This would later turn into Chicago artist collective Exit The Premises. (ETP)

The group would go on to release an overwhelming amount of music, as well as do many shows, in order to gain a local fan base that gave them enough momentum and motivation to pursue the music for another 3 years. They gained a manager who was helping shop them around to labels, but after this the group got complacent and lazy. Since Day 1, Celo had been mixing all the songs for the group, and doing most of the business as well. Pitching to venues and setting up shows as one of the main things Celo did apart from making music. When they got a manager as a group, he began pitching their image to labels as a rap group, and not a collective of independent artists. Celo felt uncomfortable with this from the start, but for the sake of the other artists he was able to bare with it. Sooner or later it came crashing down when — mixing for everyone, travelling, helping coordinate shows and trips, music videos, etc — it just became too much. Along with many arguments and disputes, Celo decided to leave and pursue a solo career.