Raleigh, North Carolina native Safi is flawlessly blending pop and R&B with unique character and energetic nature. Safi discovered his skill and passion for music at the young age of 13, from then on he has been striving to be an independent artist. Safi, which translates to “pure”, aims to create music based on his real-life experiences, he is one of those rare artists who can strings together his hardships and see the light by turning those hardships into admirable lyrics and soundscapes. Safi has established his craft from the ground up, he strives to explore through a diverse variety of genres. Fusing his eclectic span of idols, Safi creates relatable music for everyone. With 12 singles cued for release, Safi is ready to flood the shelves and take the industry by storm.
A new smooth R&B track from Safi is “What You Want" and it’s a creative piece of musical excellence. Safi showcases his finely-calibrated vocal register and angelic tone. The track “What You Want” talks about topics of love, desire, and the emotions that come with that. We love the emotive lyricism and heart-filled hook. Safi delivers flawless verses. Pulling from his wide variety of musical influences, Safi has a voice that’s seasoned well beyond his years. He pours his emotion into his lyrics and music. “What You Want” is well-produced, brilliantly delivered and an overall dreamy R&B hit. We can’t wait to see what Safi drops next
Check out “What You Want” here and read more below in our exclusive interview.
Welcome to BuzzMusic Safi! How have you progressed, starting from when you were first releasing music, to now?
When I first began to seriously pursue producing music, it was only me. I was making my own beats, recording over them in a publicly accessible recording studio, and mixing and mastering these projects with the limited knowledge that I had. My first song "Be Right There," the original, currently unreleased version was mediocre at best, in terms of production quality. I went on to release this song for a short amount of time, about a year ago, along with another, but eventually took them both down. I had realized that putting out one or two songs, without any future productions in mind would not be a very smart marketing strategy. I had discovered that building an immense amount of content and then releasing it on a consistent basis would be a much stronger approach that would help me attract listeners, gain traction, and start to build a fan base. So that is what I did. I kept my head down and out of the public eye and continued to produce music. As they say, if you do something long enough, people will start to take notice and that is what happened. Over time I began to meet people, sound engineers and beat producers, who wanted to work with me and as a result, helped to bring my music to the next level. Today, I have released four singles, consistently, over the past four months, have my own studio, have people who believe in me, and still have a strong number of unreleased music, waiting to be made public. Looking back over the last two years, I can say confidently, with humility, that my music has grown and evolved tremendously, my drive is stronger than ever before, and my dream, to take this world by storm with my music, is more real than ever before. I couldn't have gotten this far, without the people I met on the way and the people who continue to invest and believe in my ability to succeed. So, yes I do have a long road ahead of me, but I know that with the people I have in my corner, I have no excuse but to say, that I am going to make this happen!
How would you say you personally navigate through the music world? What's your secret in becoming a well-rounded artist and musician?
I genuinely believe that authenticity is key. Being yourself, whether its in your writing process, musical style, sense of fashion, or even when you're on stage performing, interacting with your fans, and engaging with them on social media, is like the anchor that keeps you grounded. As Matthew McConaughey once famously stated at his speech at the University of Houston a few years ago, "it is just as important, if not more important, to know who you are not, as it is to know who you are."As an artist, constantly making decisions that will impact your music, your fanbase, your income, and your fame, is part of the job description and that is why it is so integral to tame those decisions by a set of values or core beliefs that allow you to maintain your identity. Many artists struggle mentally and emotionally because they are convinced by the powers that be in the music industry that abandoning who you are and what defines you in order to amass as much wealth and fame is what will bring you success and happiness. I'm not against being wealthy and famous. In fact, I do personally want to attain wealth and fame through my music, but attaining that wealth through authenticity and love for the craft is much more sustainable in the long run and will leave you satisfied and happy with yourself and will also cause your fans to love you and respect you that much more. So I guess, to summarize, my long-winded answer, I feel that the key to being a well-rounded artist and musician that is adored by his/her fans and is content with success and not overwhelmed by wealth and fame, is to surround yourself with decisions and people who will remind you of who you are and what you stand for, because what is an artist truly, without their unique identity?
"What You Want” was transformative in the most important way possible. We truly believe that you are changing the R&B music scene, and curating music that converts the entire category into something new and innovative! What are you main goals as an artist?
My main goal as an artist is to remind people how to be people. I want to remind people that it is okay to express yourself and to be who you are and lead as a role model in that effort. We live in a time that is very divisive, where people are being taught to draw arbitrary lines, distancing themselves from one another, and I want to use my music and the platform that it will provide for me to unite people through my life experiences, authentic charisma, my raw emotional energy, and my music. I believe I have the ability to change the world and I know that the gifts I have been given to connect to people is unmatched and through my music, I can paint a relevant picture of my own life, the good moments, the bad, and the in-between, allowing people to not only hear my music but listen to what I stand for. I want my music and my whole being to inspire hope, passion, love, and optimism for the future. That is my goal as an artist and as a human being. That is what I stand for.
Can you tell us more about your live performances? Do you prefer live performance over the actual songwriting/recording process?
So I have been performing for almost as long as I have been producing music. In the earlier stages of my career, my performances were few and far in between, because I was more dedicated to actually developing content that I would then later perform. Some of my most notable performances included performing on a coke-sponsored stage at a University festival, weddings, open mics, and organizational events geared towards entertainment. Recently I have subscribed to a weekly open mic at a music and art cafe in Downtown Raleigh named Imurj. My goal there is to continue to develop my skills as a performer in front of a very receptive crowd and prepare myself for even bigger venues. To answer your second question, I think the songwriting/recording process and live performances both have their place when it comes to marketing yourself as a brand. The unique aspect about being in front of people on a stage, however, is that it allows people to experience your music and you as an individual in person, which is invaluable and irreplaceable and that is why it is imperative to be a great performer if you want to have great success in the music industry. Currently I am at a point with production where I have enough music professionally developed, waiting to be released, that I can say that I have the luxury of being able to focus on performing live in order to significantly develop and prepare myself for bigger and better opportunities to come.
It was a treat to be featuring such original music here on BuzzMusic! What's the plan now, after the release of "What You Want”?
Right before I released "What You Want," I had begun to shake things up on my production team, which includes mixing engineers, beat producers, visual content developers, and marketers. I let some people go, some had to leave, and I ultimately started to shift into a completely new team. This was important for me because having new people means that I will be working with new creative talent and avoid becoming comfortable and stagnant with what I was already producing. I believe evolving and adapting in order to grow yourself, no matter how uncomfortable it might be, is the key to becoming a successful artist and entrepreneur. Now I'm working with a new mixing engineer and beat producer to rework some of the songs I had lined up to release and improve them to give myself an advantage over my competitors in the industry. I am also collaborating with new visual artists, photographers, and videographers to create content that can go on platforms like Youtube, Instagram, and Spotify and become great complementary content for my music. Developing myself into an excellent performer is also on my checklist of things to accomplish as I move forward. In essence, my goal right now is to take this time that I have, while I keep releasing new music, to make myself more marketable and develop content that will complement my music and move in a direction that will begin a new chapter in my music career. On a side note, my next single will debut on all streaming platforms on October 18th. Just an example of how I'm constantly moving forward and planning my next move!
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