Meet Julius King

Today we’d like to introduce you to Julius King.

Every artist has a unique story. Can you briefly walk us through yours?
I was born in Los Angeles, California and moved to Arizona at a young age. My mother is an immigrant from Mexico and my dad is from Detroit. I have a very mixed cultural background that reflects through my music. I have always loved writing music but didn’t start to perform and pursue it seriously until I was about 18 years old. I began starting to write songs and join other collectives that shared the same interest. I then began playing shows, my first one being an opening show for Lil Durk, a popular up and coming artist. From there I linked up with different promoters and began performing at all kinds of venues and events around town.

This lead allowed me to gain a following and notoriety around the city. After a couple years of work, I was able to accomplish performing at some of the top local/national festivals including The A3C Festival in Atlanta, Georgia, the AZ Hip Hop Festival and the Full Moon Festival. I’ve also gained radio play on every major hip hop radio station in Arizona such as Power 98.3, 101.1 The Beat, and a feature on 104.7 Kiss FM/iHeartRadio. The Phoenix New Times even wrote about me as the one of the “Hip Hop Artists to Watch in 2018”. I have been able to accomplish a lot and I plan on accomplishing more, it’s been a wild ride.

Please tell us about your art.
My art is as mixed and cultured as I am. I come from a family filled with people who vary in ideas, culture, style, attitude, and I like to incorporate these different styles into my art. I create music and build my lyrics based off how I feel rather than sticking to a certain genre. I don’t spend my time feeling only one emotion so I don’t believe I should be bound to one genre. When I write music, I like to think about the whole performance, the performance aspect is very important to me.

I like connecting with the audience and making them feel like they are a part of the show with me, rather than them just sitting and watching me. I build out a whole show that’s coordinated with my lyrics and catered to the audience I’m performing for. I do this because I like to feel connected with the people viewing me. I always felt the beautiful thing about being an artist isn’t that you’re more special than someone, it’s that you’re tapping into your human nature and articulating something that everyone feels but can’t explain. If I can connect with my audience on that human level and have a whole experience with them then I know I did what I’m supposed to do.

As an artist, how do you define success and what quality or characteristic do you feel is essential to success as an artist?
My idea of success is being able to live my life boundlessly without worrying about money issues, having to have my family or friends struggle. I want to be able to do what I love and have the people around me comfortable as well. What I love is to connect with people through music, so if I can do that while providing for myself and those, I love then I’m a success in my eyes.

How or where can people see your work? How can people support your work?
I have many shows locally, I mainly post on my Instagram @juliusking. I also have my music on SoundCloud as well as my new singles that can be found on all major streaming platforms.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.juliusking.com
• Email: juliusthink@gmail.com
• Instagram: juliusking
• Facebook: juliusthink
• Twitter: juliusthink

Image Credit:
Andrew Finch
Dylan Story
Grahm Pritchard
Aidan Ault (LiquidEthos)

Getting in touch: VoyagePhoenix is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.