Every now and then you come across an artist who’s not only talented, but also has a level-head on his shoulders. QuESt is one such artist. The Miami born spitter is on the rise, shooting visuals that rival those of today’s “greats” and dropping bars that solidify him a position in the forever evolving world of hip-hop. With just over 4k followers on Twitter, he already has a verified account. Not that it means much to QuEST, because it doesn’t, but it does mean that people are paying attention; a whole lot of people.

How long have you been making music?

I’ve been writing music since I was 7, I’ve been recording music since I was 12 and I’ve been putting music out on the internet since I was 17; I’m 21 now.

“John Q speak from the heart pardon my honesty.” – Would you mind explaining to the fans the origins of the quote?

No doubt. John Q is actually my alias, it originated from a freestyle I did on one of my earlier projects,  How Thoughtful. It was a song called “NEATO.” In one of the lines I say John Q speak from the heart pardon my honesty / Honestly it’s a part of me and it just kind of resonated. It just resonated with my personality, in terms of me being honest, my lyrics are very genuine and they come from an honest place. Everything that I speak of comes from the heart. I felt that it was a good way to create another character within my music. When I say “John Q speak from the heart pardon my honesty” it’s like a slogan for myself, it reminds me of what my true character is and what I stand for as an artist.

When it comes to making music, do you ever worry about your achievements? Or do you just put out what comes naturally and people either like it or they don’t?

It’s always a struggle, it’s always a battle. I wouldn’t say I’m overly paranoid to the point where I won’t put out a record due to self-consciousness, but I am very conscience of what I do put out. I want to make sure that I’m protecting my brand and protecting who I am, the perception I have of myself and the perception that people have of me. I think every artist has that phobia sometimes.

For me it always comes down to feeling comfortable, if I can go to sleep at night with what I put out then I’m fine. Regardless of what people may think of it, everyone is going to have their own opinion, as long as I can go to sleep at night knowing that I’m comfortable with what I put out I’m pretty sure I’ll be alright.

Fear Not Failure, your latest project, has done very well. How’d you come up with the title?

It has it’s parts, I wanted people to understand what I was going through and to take something positive from it as well. Lately that’s been the theme of my music, it’s all about shedding your fears and embracing your failures. We fail every single day, you have to brush it off and keep on moving. It’s literally fear that stops you from doing anything that you want to do in this world. That’s something that I wanted to share with my listeners because that’s something that I learned for myself. I just wanted people to get a glimpse of what I feel and also take something positive away from it.

It’s fear, not failure, that really holds us back. Failures will never hold us back, but fear can literally stop you from doing anything you want to do.

What’s the backstory between you and Crooked Engine?

It started out with an A&R from Atlantic, who now works at Sony– her name is Amanda Berkowitz. She reached out to my management because she wanted to stay in contact and see how I was progressing as an artist. The relationship blossomed into the proposal of Crooked Engine. In a sense it’s an artist development company, but it’s true purpose is an ad agency. Crooked Engine is a creative group of people that are trying to push the envelope, we’ve been riding together for about a year and a half now. It’s been a good transitional period in my career, we wanted to develop a completely different sound and establish something that was going to set me apart from the rest of the bunch, we wanted to create an identity for me as an artist.

Your recent video for “Gambler” is one of my favorite visuals, David Helman is extremely talented.

Oh, absolutely. David Helman actually came about through Crooked Engine. We had this dope concept for a while and we pitched it to Helman, he loved it and we flew out to Los Angeles, California. It was great, it was actually my first real video shoot, I was on set for twelve hours. Helman is a really talented guy, hopefully we’ll be doing more videos with him in the future.

Who came up with the treatment for “Gambler?”

It started with me, I pitched my idea to Crooked Engine and together we pitched it to Helman; he refined it. I would give credit to all of us but the real due-credit is to Helman.

Your Twitter account was recently verified, right? 

Yeah [Laughs], it actually happened when I was on tour; it was the icing on the cake. It’s all status shit though, to me. It’s very, very, crazy to me. For me, as an artist, it’s just a blue check; it’s not that serious. I want to get to the point where I’m selling out venues and having fans wanting to see my shows — that’s where my real goals are, not Twitter verifications [Laughs]. For me it’s all about the fans, and the music.

What is something that happened in your career that has changed you as an artist?

The tour that I just came off of, with Logic on the West Coast, really changed me as an artist. It was my first tour, it was short, but I saw that what I was doing was really possible, I saw the potential. It gave me a completely different mind set, all I care about now is having genuine fans.

I know your a big fan of Jay-Z’s Reasonable Doubt, what’s your favorite album of all-time?

[Laughs] Absolutely, but my favorite album of all-time is Kanye West’s Late Registration. Reasonable Doubt is like a lyrical Bible in my opinion. It’s definitely in my top 5 albums, it’s probably number two or three, which is crazy because Jay-Z’s my favorite artist. I’m a big Kanye fan because of what he did for music, everything changed after Late Registration dropped. [Kanye West] brought true composition into hip-hop.

What can we expect next from QuESt?

I’m working a new project now, but it’s not going to be released until sometime next year; Spring or Summer. It’s going to be somewhat of an “open letter.” I’m about 6 or 7 records in, I plan on recording about 40 and then refining the tracks down to a good 16. It’s going to be my most revealing project to date. I’ll let the fans into my life and allow them to see what’s going on in my mind. I want people to get to know me not only as an artist but as a person as well.

I’ll also be putting out more visuals off of Fear Not Failure, I don’t want people to forget about that, we plan on doing 5 or 6 more before the end of the year. Also, I’ll be performing at a couple of festivals this year; I’m really looking forward to that.

The post “It’s not about if, it’s just about when” — Exclusive Interview w/ QuESt appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

Over the past couple years QuESt has been putting in all the ground work required to make an impact in the hip-hop community. He recently released Fear Not Failure, which can be downloaded here. The below visuals are directed by David M. Helman, check out their YouTube channels for some more eye candy.

The post New Video: QuESt – Gambler (Directed by David M. Helman) appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.