Today we’d like to introduce you to Zavian Carter.
Alright, thank you for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us how you got started?
It started the summer going into my first year of high school. I found a free app on my phone to record music and started with some Apple earphones in my closet. After a long time of messing around and trying to find my sound, I eventually got a cheap $15 microphone that I could connect to my phone and continued making music. I never thought of “blowing up” or making it into a business; I did it for myself because I liked it. After a while of just making music for myself, I started releasing it on SoundCloud, as many people do when they first start. Some songs did better than others, but throughout my “SoundCloud rapper” phase, I racked up a few thousand streams and got people around my city to realize who I was and what I was doing. About a year later, I evolved and put my first song on all major platforms like Spotify, Apple Music, etc. The song did better than some of my songs on SoundCloud, which surprised me and gave me this new determination to get myself out into the world. Not for fame necessarily but for people to have something to enjoy. After a few years, the financial deficit of buying music equipment started to add up, and despite not needing money from music, I thought, why not start making money and helping others through something I love? I started service on Fiverr, where I would feature, song-write, and more for people. It took some time, but people saw I was getting good reviews and saw I had the potential to make really good tracks for such a low price. The business eventually picked up to the point where I could raise my prices and do it full-time for a decent and consistent amount each month. Seeing that I could start my service, I thought to try to follow some other ideas I had for a while, a major one being starting a clothing brand that I ended up calling “D3fY”. The shop has only a few sales since it isn’t my priority to promote it yet, but it was cool that I could wear things I created myself. I hope soon in the future to bring small designers onto the project and give them a space to break the norm with their art.
Overall, where I am now has been a long time coming. Though I was very inconsistent for a while, the five years of work adds up to something I’m proud of, and I hope to grow to the point I can go out and help others who were once like me, small businesses or musicians trying to make it but need some funding or direction. That’s the end goal for me at the moment, but I’m just trying to improve myself and work in any way I can to create the vision I see.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Everyone knows music is subjective, so working on something for a long time just for someone to tell you it sucks used to hurt, but you get to a point where you take it and move on. It’s easier said than done, but at the end of the day, you must remember the people you have been able to satisfy because those are your people and the ones that matter. There’s nothing wrong with learning from criticism, though. You can’t just ignore it all the time because if you look at it right, you can improve yourself.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I make music. I’m much more familiar with working with hip hop, but my skills extend further. It started with rapping but later branched into writing for other genres, mixing and mastering music, producing promotion, and other things most people would hire others to do. In the end, though, I’m most known for beats and rapping, and that makes me proud because I’ve gotten to a place where people can genuinely sit back and enjoy something I’ve created. I’ve gotten different answers, but I think my style separates me from others. I have something that is still familiar, but it’s mixed with my personality, giving my style this genuine and honest feel. I do rap things I don’t mean or don’t affiliate myself with all the time, but I try to do it funnily or make it clear what type of person I am behind the music.
What’s next?
I’m looking forward to just working more on the clothing brand. If done right, hopefully, I could finally help my family, get my place since I just graduated, and not go to college.
Contact Info:
- Website: hyperfollow.com/ZaYThree
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zay_three/
- SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/zavian-zayvian/giving-up-freestyle-prod-ayosam/s-J85uf3da4qJ
- Other: D3fy.store
