The Break Presents: Strick

Strick has lived a few lives in his 33 years and his latest chapter has brought him to rap.

Born in Lumberton, N.C., the YSL Records artist dabbled in music as a teenager before enrolling in college and joining the Air Force. After his time serving the country, Strick moved to Atlanta in 2012 to pursue an MBA in Business Administration and work in a high level healthcare position. As the years passed, he excelled at his job, while helping Atlanta rap stalwarts like TM88 (amongst others) with branding and other aspects of music business. His penchant for songwriting led to him co-writing "Coordinate," a cut that appears on Travis Scott's platinum 2016 album, Birds in the Trap Sing McKnight.

In 2017, Strick dropped his first solo project, Risk=Reward, at the urging of Southside. He inked a deal with Young Thug's YSL Records the following year, then followed up with 2019's See You When I Land, a collection of well-produced trips into the extravagant life of a rapper, with the frankness of someone who's seen it all.

Catch up with one of the latest additions to the YSL crew in this week's The Break.

Age: 33

Hometown: Lumberton, N.C.

I grew up listening to: "A lot of 'Pac, a lot of Jay[-Z], Big Pun. I loved a lot of Terror Squad stuff. Scarface, a lot of down South stuff too—Lil Wayne, Cash Money [Records]."

My style’s been compared to: "It's weird, I haven't gotten a lot of comparisons. Maybe my voice [is] like Jay, or my wordplay is similar to a lot of New York rappers. But I haven't really gotten many comparisons."

My standout record: "'Slime Neighbors.' It's my first solo independent record that's garnered over 100,000 views right away. People gravitate to it without a feature or anything like that. It was the last song I was doing in that session and the vibe came off so cool. The next day, when I got home, I couldn't stop playing it."

My most slept-on song: "'Diamond Polish.' Even though a lot of people like [it], I still think it's a slept-on song. It's one of those songs where I say a lot of cool shit. You gotta listen to it once or twice to get the full concept."

My standout moments: "Signing the deal. That made everything official to me. A lot of people in the industry know me—it's kinda that perception, like when [Michael] Jordan is at [University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill]. You're winning championships, you've got [coach] Dean Smith, you're lit. But until you're Jordan from the Chicago Bulls, you're still not the Jordan that we're expecting."

Most people don’t know: "I'm kind of a loner on the low. I'm an only child, so I'm really outgoing. I had to go to school like, 'Hey, what's up, I got toys at my house, I got all the PlayStation games, I got every game console in the world, come play with me.' It just allowed me to be outgoing and have a good personality. But I'm really super chill. I like being by myself."

I’m going to blow up because: "Consistency. I always refer back to going to college and being in the Air Force. I was already set. I didn't wanna be that guy that graduated in five years; I wanted to be the person that got in there and knocked it out. Once I was able to get into the industry and figure out what's going on, I was like, I just gotta focus and do everything I can do until I blow up or make it."

I’m going to be the next: "Entrepreneur and platinum artist. That might be the first of its kind."

Follow Strick on Instagram and SoundCloud.

Standouts:

See You When I Land

"Facecard"

"Slime Neighbors"

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