NASSAU, Bahamas — Growing up in a place where most people were tuned to Reggae, Calypso and other kinds of music, VK da General was drawn to a different sound.
VK loved hip hop — he was constantly listening to Biggie Smalls, Tupac, Jay Z, and he felt a special affinity to Notorious B.I.G.
“I always loved the flow that came from Notorious B.I.G. and the great rappers,” VK said. “I had that love of music but my sound is different. I don’t compare myself with no other rapper in the game, I don’t sound like no other rapper in the game. We don’t talk about the same things that other rappers talk about. I have music to make you feel any type of inspiration or feel any mood.”
VK said music is all about character, and his music has characters that can evoke all the different emotions from people.
“I have music to make you feel any type of inspiration or feel any mood,” he said. “I have music for someone who’s just a college kid and you’re fighting trying to keep the grades up. I got sounds for someone who’s trying to tell the love of their life how much they love them and they want to get married. I’ve got sounds to tell your parents how much you appreciate them. It’s like all different types of sound because you know music is all about character and every song pulls a different character out of you.”
VK says his latest single, “Top of the World,” is an inspirational, rags-to-riches story that talks about what happens when someone makes it big and can reach back and help his or her family.
“Growing up poor, you never realize how poor you were until you became an adult,” he said. “As you became an adult you look back on your life growing up and you realize that you might have had more than other kids ever had, but you still grew up poor. When you look at everyone who made it to like the NFL or the NBA or a great entrepreneur, they all dreamed was that at one point in their life they could tell their mama that hey we made it, you ain’t got to work hard no more, you ain’t got to do what you’re doing anymore, we made it, we’re on top of the world.”
VK pays homage to great men and women who came from humble beginnings to make history when no one expected them to succeed in “Top of the World.” Names like Jackie Robinson, Rosa Parks, and President Obama make the final verse.
“I just want to encourage everybody to never give up on your dream,” he said. “Everything in life started with a dream and it’s all about you to execute. If you look back at the Gucci brand and the Louis Vouton brand, the Ferrari brand, the Lamborghini brand, they all were the dream of somebody. So don’t ever let nobody put stipulations on you like you can’t make it or it’s too big. It’s your dream, if it’s a dream you can achieve it. Just stick to your dream.”
Make sure to stay connected to VK da General on all platforms for new music, videos, and social posts.
Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.co.uk/artists/B07VF23TZJ/vk-da-general
Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/vk-da-general/1473319239
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/6ni9zI4Sowja5oYUefxM4Z
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/vago-knowles/reposts
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmw2EiKK79s
Instagram: https://instagram.com/iamvkdageneral?utm_medium=copy_link
Instagram Fanpage: https://www.instagram.com/vkdageneralfanpage/?hl=en
Twitter: https://twitter.com/general_vk
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Pop and soul singer Sharon Watkins is preparing to share her very first album in 2023. Working alongside producer Sam Miller (known for his work with The Hoosiers and One Direction), she is following up with her newest release, The One That Got Away, which arrives on 18 November 2022. The track is a tender acoustic ballad that tells the story of leaving behind a harmful relationship, finding strength, and welcoming a fresh start. With gentle piano arrangements and Sharon’s unmistakable soulful voice, the song captures an intensely emotional journey.
Her earlier singles, Proud and Stranded, have already connected with listeners in a big way, reaching more than 250,000 views on YouTube and 150,000 streams on Spotify. With this momentum building, Music News sat down with Sharon to talk about her music and what comes next.
Hi Sharon How are you?
Doing really well thanks! So excited about all the momentum we’ve had with our first 3 singles, honestly, it has been insane to have had BBC radio interviews, rotations, global press coverage and to have won an international song contest in such a short space of time!!
Tell us about your latest release ‘The One That Got Away’?
Well, it starts out as a real wintery piano ballad, portraying that moment when you suddenly realise that someone you're with is messing you around. Then, with the help of big strings and orchestral percussion, it develops into a powerful "I'm over you" song…. It is really a defiant two-fingers up at the ex that never appreciated you until it was too late. It moves from the turmoil of still having feelings for that person, cutting lose and moving on to triumphant recovery, knowing that you made the right decision.
The music video is visually stunning and the dance is beautiful, talk to us about the filming of this video and the creative decision to use dance to express the meaning of the track.
Thank you, that means a lot! We’re really pleased with the way the video came out. Me and my brother, Sammy J Stopford, who has been my partner in crime on this whole album project, knew very early on that we wanted a contemporary dance that portrayed the turmoil in this song. I also knew I wanted the video to express the mental turmoil you go through after finishing a relationship and the underwater medium just seamed such an ideal metaphor for that. We put out a request for dancers and choreographers on Instragram not thinking we would get much interest. One of our lessons on this project is that you can’t pore the right energy into a project if you don’t love the music and so this was the main pre-requisite for dancers…. “please only contact us if the song inspires you!”…. we couldn’t believe the response!! We ended up watching so many amazing dance videos from such talented people. Our album is about adult life lessons and so we knew we wanted a believable couple, that had a great connection and were old enough to have gone through an adult relationship and breakup. We chose Florivaldo Mossi (Michael Jackson in West End Show “Thriller”) & Ashley Cavell (Star of many shows, including ABBA Fever) as they are both incredible dancers but also fit the storyline so well. I couldn’t believe it when Choreographer, Stewart Arnold (choreographer & dancer to Kate Bush) agreed to work on the project!!
The writing in the song is very personal. Was it emotional pouring these emotions into lyrics?
Honestly, it is like an exorcism. Songwriting is how I process and deal with life’s ups-and-downs and so I would be lost without that outlet. It forces me to really dig deep on my emotions towards things. You can’t write songs about superficial stuff, otherwise it just sounds cliché.
What do you hope people take away from ‘The One That Got Away’?
I feel like it’s the song you need a friend to play you when you have broken up from someone and are feeling injured and unsure. You need someone to tell you that you missed a bullet and one day that ex will look around and realise that they lost something very special. I have had people reach out already and tell me how relatable the message is and that it has helped them… this is the biggest compliment of all!!
Talk to us about your influences as an artist.
I grew up in Manchester surrounded by an incredible 90’s music scene, in a house where my dad played everything from The Beatles to Zappa. I then spent 8 years living in the states, picking up some great American influences like Carole King. I have now made Nottingham my home, which is where I recorded the album and I have honestly really been enjoying the return in popularity of singer-songwriters like Lewis Capaldi and Tom Odell …. So all-in-all a pretty varied range of influcences… making for an eclectic pop album that I hope you all like.
Going back briefly on the video, you collaborated with some great people on the video such as Stewart Arnold who worked closely with Kate Bush and Florivaldo Mossi, noted for being Michael Jackson in Thriller Live. Tell us about your experience working with them.
It's been the stuff of dreams really. I am a massive Kate Bush fan and to work with Stewart was like a dream come true. He and I had some long conversations about our vision for this video and the turmoil I wanted to portray. His ability to translate that into dance is something amazing to watch. I had the honour of watching him choregraph the dancers on the morning of the shoot and it was like watching a master at work, the artistic ideas that he brought to this project were incredible. Flori Mossi and Ashley Cavell are both experienced dancers but seeing the way they clicked together, and their interaction and interpretation of the song just blew me away.
What can we expect from you next?
Well, we have 3 more singles coming ahead of the album launch in 2023, so make sure you follow me on Spotify to keep up with those (Sharon Watkins) and we’re also going to be doing a series of “Live Lounge” performances of our tracks ahead of the album release so follow me on socials @sharonwatkinsofficial to keep an eye out for those.
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