Recently, we sat down with the up and coming artist, known as GUS. He used to go by the artist name “Kindnessâ€, by which he saw some pretty relevant success, including the popular songs The Joker Ft. Lil Wayne, Babylon USA, WWJD?, Baptized Ft. Gucci Mane, End of Days, Leave and others. These songs did pretty well locally. Over the period of ten years, this artist released many music projects and mixtapes which racked up over a million streams. His last album & project under the moniker “THE LOST TRIBE OF JUDAH†did very well and was hailed by a major hip hop blog and critic as “a hidden gemâ€. The song WWJD? made the national and itunes charts in early 2023. He’s been considered for a major label deal with Universal and other indie deals, before starting his own. As of right now, GUS is working on his debut EP, and is working on securing a distribution deal with EMPIRE or The ORCHARD. His label is entitled GOOD | NEWZ Entertainment and is actively recruiting, faith based and inspirational artist.
Q: Why did you retire your artist name?
A: I had been doing alot of positive and notable work in my city since 2013, at age 19. I decided, GUS is much more marketable. I feel like I’ve evolved to a new level and will truly be considered a mainstream, yet still, low key hyped up artist in the near future.
Q: What is your EP going to soundlike?
A: It’s going to be really unique. I co-produced much of the production. Right now, we are working on doing a cover of JESUS WALKS. I’m very excited about it all.
Q: What is GOOD NEWZ Entertainment?
A: That’s my independent record label. I started it as a division of my non-profit, however, it’s developed into something much larger. And we are actively scouting for like-minded artist and collaborations.
Q: Are you still performing? Where?
A: I had been in talks, with some industry execs i knew, about performing at the 2023 BET Awards Pre Show. Like, literally on live TV. However, I didn’t make the cut. I was very frustrated :(.
Q: Who can you relate your sound too?
A: Hmm. That’s a good question. I want to be very much like “Oh I’m a combo of Tyler and Chris Brownâ€. But I think I’m so much more than that, to the God’s glory. I’m not putting myself into any box. I listen to so much jazz, worship and musical theater. I want to put a combination of it all into my music. I love Beethoven. I love Bach. I love Ye. I love JESUS!
After the interview, we got the vibe that GUS is probably up next. He expressed, his thoughts on the current industry. At how, so much music, seems to be about cloud, rather than meaning. He hopes, his sound can inspire, those who hear it, and cause them to think. His music is very emotionally driven, very thought provoking.
“I’ve encountered many issues, in my city of Saint Louis, in regards to music. I’ve been robbed, attacked, lied about, misused, and sabotaged by many people here. I don’t want to name names, but those people know who they are. There’s even artist, right now from STL, who are blowing up, who I knew since I was 10 and we had been friends since then.. until we had a fallout. I was friends with Smino on Facebook, although I didn’t know him and he’s not who I’m referring to. Metro, is a legend, and he ain’t either. My cousin, was much into the music scene, even though we hadn’t been in contact. He was killed, and he was going to be apart of my label, in my hopes. Yet, may he rest in peace. Please look forward to my EP being released this summer. The date is TBD. Shout of YE, let’s work.â€
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