When it comes to the most painful and traumatizing recollections of our past, most people’s first instinct is to bury that deep within ourselves. Put it in a box, seal that and throw it in the depths of the ocean of our memories. For songwriters, musicians and lyricists, these moments can be utilized as content for their songs: breathing fire into a beat and bringing it to life; adding a human element that resonates with anyone that has ever went through any time of life trauma: divorce, death, breakups, loss. Just about everyone on the planet has went through this rite of passage in life. The challenge for artists is creating a message that is uniquely and solely theirs; taking reoccurring themes in writing, art and music and making them their own. Every artist wants to stand out and dreads turning into "Just another song about X".
Songwriter and Artist ID, from the Detroit hip-hip label Loud Reality Records, has his songwriting down to a scientific process. The soulful, charismatic and passionate artist that is ID has been writing music since he was 13, soaking in every bit of life and harnessing raw energy into his tracks. The weight of his parents divorce and the impact it has on his life. ID grew up with only him, his mother and sister in the picture.
"I got a job at 14 so I could support my mom. It was just me, and my mom and my sister. And it was just….as much as we could all work. I used to go to school every day, and go to work right after school every single day, from 14 to the next eight years I was there….at the restaurant. It was just every single week. I didn’t live a normal life like other kids. I never went to the prom, I never went on Spring Break…I never got the chance to play basketball for the school. I never got a chance to play for high school because of that reason, because I had to work." ID says as he reminisces about his adolescence. "I used to write on those tickets that waitresses write on…I used to write lyrics on that when I was at work if I ever thought of lyrics and stuff." In those glaring times, ID has composed himself into a prime storyteller and lyricist, as shown in his tracks.
ID’s own album "Poetic Thought" (https://www.loudreality.com/) was recently released from Loud Reality Records: a composition of heavier, solemn beats propped up by the classic hip-hop rhyme schemes. The album style has a "Drake" feel- sensitive and personal, reminiscing and lingering on the past. "Poetic Thought" was influenced by ID’s transgressions with his father, a heartbreak, and various events and drama from his life.
"When I dropped my "Poetic Thought" mixtape, I posted about it. "This is based off of real life experiences that I went through, or that someone I know went through, or I’m just telling a story.’ ID shares. "If you listen to a song on my album that’s called "No Strings Attached" and the beginning of the song is where basically I’m telling a story about someone that is in love; like I’m in love with her and we’re saying it’s no strings attached. I’m telling her I love her but I don’t, we’re just telling each other what we want to hear. She’s telling me what I want to hear, and I’m telling her what she wants to hear. After the first hook, the song switches totally, and now we’re fighting in the second part of the song. I’m telling stories. In the song "Letter to You" I’m talking about my dad. In the song "What I write’, I live what I write. A song like "Gone" I’m talking about a girl. "Did you hear the news, I’m gone." Every song is telling a story about either love, something in life, uh, real stuff like real things that people have to go through. Something that happened in my life with my dad and my parents. Um and with death. I’ve had a lot of bad experiences and unfortunate experiences that have happened in my life.
It’s never known who is going to be listening to your music and what kind of impact it’s going to have on your listeners. "Someone told me, "When I heard the song "Drowning" it’s just want I needed to hear" according to ID. Loud Reality Records’ EP is coming out this year, and will feature original songs and tracks by ID.