Behind The Beats: Featuring Rated R
Photo courtesy of Ryan Wardlaw.

Behind The Beats: Featuring Rated R

Students across the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point campus can be found daily working hard towards their musical aspirations, goals and life dreams.

Ryan Wardlaw, sophomore communications major, is one such student working towards making a name for himself in the music industry under the rapper name, Rated R.

Growing up on the west side of Baltimore, Maryland with his mother, Wardlaw said he started writing lyrics at a young age.

“I started writing when I was in the 6th grade,” Wardlaw said. “I was on my way to a boarding school with this guy who I was roommates with and I said my first rap that I ever wrote, which was something real lame like, ‘Ryan is my name, something is the game. Not one lost, but two more to gain.’ It was funny, but it was a good thing though because my roommate was like, ‘man, you’re really good at that. You should write.’”

Interaction with his former roommate, along with other personal influences from home pushed Wardlaw into pursuing a career in the music industry. Wardlaw said that some of his musical influences he has learned from over the years range from classic rappers and artists such as Nelly, 50 Cent, Big Daddy Kane, Common, Lupe Fiasco and J. Cole.

“When I started listening to music, I was listening to all kinds of rap, from early 80s, 90s, and 2000s,” Wardlaw said. “Big Daddy K. was ahead of his time musically. That was one person I looked at and thought, ‘he was different from his time zone, so how can you be different while in the now; how can you be futuristic about your music?’”

Wardlaw said that he has worked with and listened to a lot of artists in the industry such as locals from Baltimore that have helped him grow as a musician.

“There’s one guy named Apollo and every time I heard him I couldn’t believe that he was from Baltimore because a lot of guys sound the same, but this guy was different,” Wardlaw said. “This guy has taught me some things about music just from being around him on how to play with the melodies in music. There’s a difference between being good at lyrics and being good at making songs, and he was good at making songs, so I learned how to get good at making songs a bit from him.”

Wardlaw said that while he wants his music and songs to be good and catchy, that he truly wants his listeners to believe in the lyrics he is creating. He said it reaches a point where he needs to speak about something that’s important to him and the lyrics then just start to flow naturally on their own.

“I see most of my music as not the music that you listen to in the club, but the music that you listen to after you come home from the club or the music that you listen to when you’re dealing with reality” Wardlaw said. “I’m not a person who sells dreams about being rich. I just deal with people’s real feelings, and that was my stamp, to just be relatable.”

Wardlaw has a deep-set passion for speaking for the people, depicting the honest truth and using his wisdom to educate the population about important issues, all while staying true to his morals.

“Right now I am in the process of writing a song that is about rape because it’s a real deep cutting subject that nobody really talks about and that a lot of women and even males go through” Wardlaw said. “Sometimes people feel like they’re the only one, and I feel like people need something to relate to. While that’s not something that has ever happened to me, it has affected me a lot because I see people around me who are affected by it.”

Wardlaw said that while he educates, he also wants people to feel better about themselves and feel better about the image of black people in the music industry.

“I just want people to feel like someone hears them. That someone is telling their story to many more people who are listening to that same thing and to feel a connection with the artist because when I make a lot of money off of what I do that’s definitely a goal, just to give it back to the people.”

Wardlaw knows that getting into the music industry is a risk, but it’s a risk he is willing to take to make his dreams come true.

“It’s a risk because now a days you’ve got a lot of people who want to be rappers and do music, and I don’t think they really understand how much time it takes,” Wardlaw said. “It’s not just about going on your laptop and making a song it’s way more than that. It’s making an investment in your own equipment, in beats, in managers, in products to brand yourself, you have to pay for the things to put together a show to be a success and hope that you make your money back and that people will like you.”

Wardlaw said he hopes that he can get a bigger buzz around his music in 2017 and 2018 and that people will recognize his hard work. He has plans in the works of doing shows all over the UW system, in Baltimore, at an LA festival and some shows in China.

Wardlaw has a clear vision of where he wants his music to go and will continue to work hard to make his dreams come true.

“Malcolm X said, ‘by whatever means necessary,’” Wardlaw said. “I feel like this statement can be taken in so many different ways, but in a situation like mine, as long as it doesn’t go against my moral code or principles, I’ve gotta do whatever I’ve gotta do to make things happen for myself, my music and my future.”

Lhea Owens

Arts and Entertainment Editor

lowen721@uwsp.edu

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