| Observer-Dispatch
Aspiring rapper Leeky XIV is developing a loyal local fan base and a strong following on social media
When it was needed more than ever as a shot in the arm to bring the community together through live music, the Levitt AMP Utica Music Series had to be canceled this year out of concern for public health and safety.
As they say, the show must go on, and indeed it did — although virtually — as “AMP the House,” a two-hour showcase of performances by local artists and musicians that was taped in Munson-Williams-Proctor Art Institute’s indoor courtyard and broadcast locally in late August.
One of those local artists was 23-year-old Malik Johnson, performing under the rap name Leeky XIV, who was on the bill this past summer as part of the weekly concert series held in Utica’s Kopernik Park. The series focuses on presenting a diversity of music, arts and culture for the purpose of building community engagement, enrichment and revitalization.
As fate would have it, Program Coordinator Michelle Truett learned about Johnson from the brother of his fellow rapper and frequent collaborator, Eric “Generic” Armitage. Johnson met Armitage at SUNY Polytechnic Institute, where they discovered a mutual interest in writing and producing rap music, and became close friends and collaborators. Armitage is featured on Leeky XIV’s “AMP the House” performance.
For any emerging artist, performing live shows, producing fresh material, and attracting a noticeable following is difficult enough. Overlay the raw, hard core stigma that’s often broadly applied to rap and hip hop music despite their wide variety of styles, and it presents an additional challenge in terms of gaining mainstream acceptance.
“The stigma is there,” Johnson acknowledged. “I have the same gripes with some artists in rap and hip hop. I don’t put out negative songs that glorify negative things. I make music with a positive message and that just makes people feel good. Most pop songs are ones that people like to listen to because it makes them feel good, or they like the beat. Listeners respond to positive messages as much as negative ones.”
Johnson considers himself more a pop-style rapper with heavy hip-hop influences, including Kanye West, Nas, Slick Rick and Wiz Khalifa. He also includes Michael Jackson, Kendrick Lamar and Linkin Park as artists who shaped his music.
“They are storytellers,” he noted, “and the peak of hip hop is storytelling. That doesn’t happen all the time or in the most popular songs. You have to ask yourself, do you want to do what’s most popular, or do you want to do what’s in your heart and make the music you want to make. I’d rather tell a story.”
Defining himself today as a lyrical or conscious rapper, Johnson never had dreams of rap success when he was younger. The son of an Army nurse and an IT professional, he grew up in Hudson Valley’s Highland Falls and was a standout basketball player at James I. O’Neill High School. It was there he realized he might be onto something fun and creative.
“Before that point, I didn’t think about making music,” said Johnson. “In high school, there was a time a bunch of friends were free-styling at a football game. One was a girl, and she was the best rapper there. I decided to randomly throw two lines out, and it was pretty cool. I thought about starting to make music after that. I guess a female friend may have influenced my rap career,” he laughed.
Johnson had a few rapper friends in high school when he began writing so he started working with them, uploading their music to the internet, telling their friends, and hoping it would go viral. When he arrived at SUNY Poly and met Armitage, he found himself getting seriously creative and became increasingly passionate about producing music.
As he explains, rap and hip-hop styles are regional and are identifiable by distinctive, defining beats, such as the east coast’s “boom-bap” cadence. Johnson says his music “definitely has a boom-bap, pop influence,” and he’s recently taken note of other artists who are incorporating jazz in their music, featuring trumpets, for example.
At a rap or hip-hop song’s core, though, are the beats, and Johnson typically begins the process there.
“I do searches for specific beats on YouTube, like Kanye or NWA beats, which people make all the time,” he explained. “I have friends that make them for me, too. Good beats are melodic, they feel positive and upbeat, and have samples in them with music or vocals.”
However, his creative process can vary. Sometimes, he likes to sit, listen to a beat, come up with a chorus or a “hook,” and then write lyrics to the verses. Then there are times when he prefers to simply free-style, which is tantamount to extemporaneous ad-libbing. Either way, in Johnson’s mind, a rap song is a combination of rhythm and poetry.
“I need a beat and then come up with a concept,” he explained. “Sometimes I don’t even write and just get on a mic and come up with a cadence on the go. A lot of songs I put out this year I didn’t write. I’ve been getting better at the improv part, so I like doing it.”
While working independently and honing his improv skills, he does enjoy writing and collaborating with fellow rappers in his North Utica home recording studio. Earlier this year, they produced an eight-song collaborative project called “Something Different.” It featured a song and video Johnson wrote and produced about quarantining entitled “Turtle,” which has more than 8,000 streams on Spotify alone. Leeky XIV’s music can be found on all social media platforms.
While all live shows are postponed indefinitely, Johnson may still get his chance to perform before a local audience at next summer’s Levitt AMP series. He looks forward to getting back on stage soon.
“We did plenty of shows during our time at SUNY, and performed at Saranac Thursday last year,” he said. “There were a lot of people, which was awesome. It was the biggest stage and the biggest crowd I’d been in front of, which was a little nerve wracking, but I was so excited to do it because I love performing.”
He also did a show at Utica’s Handshake City urban container park where he felt somewhat more comfortable.
“That was just our crowd,” Johnson said. “There was maybe a hundred people, but when you have a crowd that knows you and is jumping with you, you feel like you can do anything.”
For the time being, Johnson is content to call Utica home, after deciding to remain in the area following his 2019 graduation. During the day, he teaches math and ELA to first graders at Utica Academy of Science and uses his free time to create music and related content.
“We have to become content creators,” he observed. “We have to learn to shoot and edit photos and videos. Market yourself on the internet and social media. Create an image, become a brand and not just an artist, which will separate you from other artists.”
Becoming a number one rapper isn’t his goal, but Johnson admits he would like to gain enough popularity to make money from music and do it full-time. He believes Utica is as good a place as any to make it happen.
“There are different opportunities for artists today. I think about the progress I’ve made in the past two years being in Utica and it’s crazy.”
Positively crazy.
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