Stalley Is Shooting For Greatness On Lincoln Way Nights

Ohio native gave up NBA aspirations and tells Mixtape Daily, 'I'm more than an MC.'
By Jayson Rodriguez

Stalley
Photo: Courtesy of Stalley

Fire Starter: Stalley

In person, upstart rapper Stalley is unassuming and measured. But once the former high school sports star gets in the booth, he delivers with the same kind of authority that landed him on the University of Michigan men's basketball team. Now, on the cusp of releasing his next project, Lincoln Way Nights (Intelligent Trunk Music), a mixtape set to drop in February, the Ohio native is poised to make the transition from underground sensation to starter.

"I'm more than an MC, I'm actually a writer. I can write songs. I can write good songs, and that's what I want to do," Stalley told Mixtape Daily. "That's what I did on this project. I wrote out full songs, with ill concepts, ill lyrics and ill beats. Everything is put together. I want to be a great American writer, not just an MC, not just a rapper. So to be that, is just amazing to me."

The Creative Control/ Ski Beatz affiliate first made noise last year with his Madlib-inspired project, MadStalley: The Autobiography. Since then, he's made his mark in a variety of ways, including blog partnerships with Slam magazine and HighSnobiety, a clothing sponsorship with 10 Deep and putting out the rumbling track "Hercules."

Now, three years after giving his undivided attention to hip-hop — back-to-back injuries at Michigan and then Long Island University shifted his focus — he's beginning to see the payoff.

That decision wasn't easy for the Massillon native: His Ohio hometown is obsessive about high school sports (check the movie "Go Tigers"), but Stalley was able to channel that intensity into the laidback Lincoln Way Nights (Intelligent Trunk Music) collection.

"When you're someone known to be a lyricist, when you're writing certain music, it comes off as dumbing it down," he explained of searching for a sound over punchlines. "And people are confused, 'Is this good?' 'Cause you're used to this super lyrical dude. I took that and put it to the side and was just me. I spoke my story in a deeper way over deeper beats. So, I'm really happy with it. I'm becoming the artist I want to be."

For other artists featured in Mixtape Daily, check out Mixtape Daily Headlines.

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Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1656269/stalley-shooting-greatness-on-lincoln-way-nights.jhtml

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