By Bri Renee
When you think about who’s who in the Kentucky rap scene, Hurra Season has to be on your list. His music could be used to score a movie about life in Louisville. Even on a musical hiatus, he’s still putting on for the city...
Hurra Season has an aura about him. As cliche as it may sound, he has a kind of je ne sais quoi. His presence is felt before he speaks. “I grew up everywhere in Louisville,” he says, shrugging as he lists several different areas of the city, "West End, East End, the projects...in the trenches." Though he deflected the more in depth questions I asked about his childhood, stating "it was a normal childhood, a struggling childhood" and that there "wasn't anything special" about it, his demeanor changed, perking up, when we transitioned to talking about his music.
Hurra is a music veteran. He started young, writing his first song around age ten. He began by writing stories, "then I started making them rhyme, then I started doing music", making songs about his life in a single parent household and being the eldest of his siblings. "Back then when I was growing up, music was about telling stories. Everybody got a story to tell."
His teenage years however, were spent doing normal teenage things, "I ain't gonna say we dropped the ball," he says, pausing before reminiscing about the normalcy of his teen years. "I just don't want to make it seem like my life was just strictly music or I had some extraordinary childhood. I was making songs about the struggle. Songs about playing crate ball, going to school or not going to school for whatever reason. I just started putting it in music."
He honed his craft over the years, recording songs and performing at other artists shows then later headlining his own, in and out of state. Surprisingly, he prefers singles over albums, and his reasoning is sound. “I’ll drop a single and get the song out there and popping. I don’t want to put together one big body of work in an album when I can do singles and do them exactly the way I want for that moment.” He explained further that singles are what's going to carry an album, and that he's focused on singles and features. "The generation now has a shorter attention span. You can do two singles and run the whole year. I can do a feature and I make all my money from publishing. If the people are serious about their music, they're pushing it[the song]. Say I do eight or nine features, I'm still doing music, you still hear my name buzzing, and that'll give me time to work on my own single."
Hurra was in his element now, talking music. On the subject of today's music, he elaborated, stating "Its science. The rap game is crazy right now. You can troll a little bit, be active online. Nobody really has to like your music, they just have to buy it. Say something crazy, people are gonna stream it. Take that money, invest in a detail shop or some type of business and you're set. "
When asked about his current hiatus, he says he is focused on other things but still loves music and is still recording. He elaborated, stating “I’m a personal trainer, a mentor, and a barber.” He also has a full-time job and is a family man. His personal training business focuses on boxing and a healthier, more active way of life for people that live a sedentary lifestyle. He mentors children, providing a positive male role model for them to look up to. And lastly, he is a barber, cutting hair in the little time he has left over. All of these things, on top of the hit songs he’s made that brought attention to both the plight and lighter moments of life on the streets of Louisville make it easy to understand why the Mayor made November 27th, 2015 Hurra Season Day.
Every year since, Hurra has chosen to give back to the community by hosting events including the annual DJs vs. Artists Basketball game. He transformed it from a one-day celebration into an entire weekend filled with activities ranging from a kickoff party to the aforementioned basketball game to bikini boxing to child-friendly activities. There is something for everyone to enjoy. "Everything I do in my everyday life, I put into that weekend. I got the local artist concert I do to kick the weekend off. I get multiple artists that can bring their audiences together. Instead of them performing for 5 or 6 people in the crowd, each artists fanbase comes and they get to perform in front of hundreds of people." He then puts the most popular song from each artist on a mixtape that he distributes for free. He explains that his main goal is to help people, and doing this mixtape gives artists that can't afford to distribute their music exposure on a large scale. "The good thing about it is that it's all the hungry newer artists. The established artists feel like they don't have to put the work in. These artists are hungry. That's what I like about it."
In 2020, Hurra plans to keep it pushing. Scaling each of his businesses, making more music, and creating a bigger, better Hurra Season weekend. "I ain't really have any picks on who I want to work with. If they're working, I'm working. We working."