Milwaukee continues to make its mark in pockets of creative and social niches, whether it be politics or music, our presence is becoming more known to the world. As the wave of the rising talents of Milwaukee continues to flow, more names get added to the list of young people to look out for. Post the drop of his newest single “After The Deal”, Memphis Bleek’s Warehouse Music Group's (WHMG) latest signee Huey V gave us a moment and shared with us his journey leading up to this drop.
/CW: What was your upbringing in Milwaukee? What was your family like, where did you go to school?
HV: I'm a North Side baby, low tres, low tres. Most of my family grew up on 32nd and Galena but we spent a whole bunch of time on 33rd too. Outside of that I kinda lowkey moved all around the north side. I lived on 41st and Congress for a good minute, I wanna say like 7 years… I didn’t really fuck with down town until I turned 16. It was just the North Side, the beach and Mayfair.
/CW: So the North Side was just your little world growing up. You didn't know anything outside of that.
HV: …That was my whole world at that time before I got a car: I'm a youngin, youngin still. If I’m not on the city bus I'm walking, if I'm not walkin I’m on the bike..so I was definitely just exploring [the North Side]. That was the biggest shit to me at the time. I was like 13-14, just discovering the world on my own…
/CW: So anywhere you needed to go you pretty much got there.. What made you get to that point where you're like ‘okay downtown is right there why not just go? Why not see what's over there?’ Was it the music, your artistry?
HV: ..There was a poetry tournament..if I'm correct it was at The Grand... It was my first year on a poetry team and they ended up taking us down there because we had a [competition] with Ronald Reagan High school. That was my first competition..that was my first time seeing what it looked like; white people in suits and shit like that. That wasn't really a common thing for me.
/CW: Did you have a lot of mentorship growing up or was it not until you got older and started taking charge of your own life that you decided ‘I need more discipline with whatever I'm doing and need to seek out that mentorship?’
HV: As a youngin you're supposed to have a mentor but the people that you really see as your mentors are just your uncles and older uncles and shit… but if you feel like you can make a path outside of that, if you feel like you can make a path that might take them off of the shit that they are on then you're not gonna take that advice you just gone be raising yourself. I did pretty much raise myself for a point in time. My Pops was there when I was younger but the older I got, I wanna say around 7, he just started to disappear…Moms can only do so much. She did her part to the fullest but you gotta learn how to be a man on your own.
/CW: So do you feel that you can learn as much as you could from someone who has a profession or perspective outside of what you're doing?
HV: I feel that anybody who has a sense of decency has some type of valuable information to give to somebody. I’ll chop it up with a homeless dude on the corner because I might learn something about life. It might not be financial literacy but he sees stuff on a daily basis that I don't see so there's probably things that I can't even comprehend that he sees on a regular basis so I definitely try not to close out every voice because you might miss your blessing but I definitely dont recieve every opinion as a fact because that’s how you fuck your blessing up…you weren’t meant to accomplish what they were supposed to accomplish but they might’ve sparked the idea for you to make it happen and now you get to change the next 30 peoples’ lives..
/CW: That brings me to my next point of that ‘hustler’s phase’; you get to that point where you know what you wanna do, you're willing to be dedicated, go broke for it, all of that, but then a lot of people get to that point of mastering that hustler’s phase but there's a lack of maintenance of it…
Huey V describes the intention that he puts into his artistry and the real life ease that comes with the concept of quality over quantity, while also admitting to sleepless nights for the benefit of meeting deadlines and being thorough with his production.
/CW: You must be really involved in the other elements of making a song or an album; the production…
HV: .. If I can be. I wouldn't say that I'm a producer or anything like that but I record, I mix myself if I can, [Young] Guru masters everything, I can't do that part. That's his bag. But I mix everything, I record everything…I try to be as hands on as possible with absolutely everything..
/CW: The Midwest culture, particularly the Milwaukee culture, is to be so hands-on. Everyone wants to be independent, because most don't understand the true art of collaboration yet, we are starting to but we are not there yet. Is that why [you are hands on] or is it that you do understand that art but you still want to be educated on [the production]?
HV: Imma be honest with you, I like collaboration, I like teamwork; Working with other people and seeing them get their satisfaction out of it and seeing their dreams come true as well as mine means more to me than just seeing my own shit…but at the same time being in Milwaukee, we’re the home of the warehouses so yes of course Imma try to do everything that I can, I don't wanna be a one-trick pony, but I don't wanna be a ‘Jack of all trades and a master of none’ either so I am hyper-focused on music..
With WHMG having had rappers like Casanova on their roster, Huey V feels a sense of pride with the weight of his label. His courage is greatly accredited to the wide range of influence from Kanye West to Amy Winehouse. Growing up, his family, in parallel to living in mIlwaukee as a whole, was a melting pot of musical tastes. Along with having a background in orchestra, the young artist has been fortunate to have an open ear and appreciation for sound. He brings up Frank Ocean as an example of how introducing a new way of approaching music to someone with a more biased ear can leave them in awe.
/CW: Did you always want to be signed? Was that the height, or was it similar to going to a 2 year college, ‘I'll do this for a little while, get the resources, learn the business, and then go back to being in my own lane, independently?’
HV: It's a mixture of it all. When I was a kid I thought ‘cool maybe i'll get signed,’ the older that I got the more I understood the importance of independence…I swore I was gonna be independent..and then Corona hit.
/CW: You were signed during the Pandemic right?
HV: Yea, actually during that MF…I left for New York on February 7th and I came back the next day and I think Milwaukee either shut down that same month or in March…after that time passed they flew me out to Miami and that's when we made it happen. But when the Pandemic hit I was like ‘dammmmnn’ because all the jobs were shut down, it was either hustling or signing…
/CW: You speak a lot about Divine Timing using subtle words in your music like ‘divine timing, letting God work,’ even the name of your last EP, “As Above,” and your next one, “So Below.” Those are very spiritual statements…
HV: I call it the Matrix, where I've been able to pinpoint that if certain things didn't happen then other things wouldn't have happened the way that they did. In my head everything is prewritten…
/CW: How has that wisdom played a part in how you've grown as a person? In your song “After The Deal” you spoke a lot about having to leave people behind. That survivor's guilt is very real. How did you handle that ego death? Was it a super low moment or was it gradual?
HV: I am used to it. You lose a lot of people. It's easier when they are still around.. It's by your choice and not by life's timing so it's been a bit easier because I understand the value of having to let certain people go to get to where I gotta get to...
/CW: There was a line in your song where you said “I got the deal after the bill collector called..” Was that a true statement?
HV: Ha ha! Aight so what really happened was the bill collector called..Right after the bill collector called was the first time I spoke to Bleek. I didn't even get the heads up that he was finna be callin. When that happened he told me “lil nigga you on right now, you just gotta prove to me that you can keep doing this.” That was literally the song that I made after that…it really makes you appreciate the value of your life, the highs and the lows..
Tell me how YOU feel about “ After The Deal ” Milwaukee. And check out his previous works while you're at it: “As Above” … “So Below” coming soon.
/Naomi-Re’a for CW
