Wali "Flo" Shah Talks About Influence, Toronto, & Drake

Wali "Flo" Shah Speaks the Word

Following the release of his mixtape Rhythm & Poetry, Rising Artists Mississauga got a chance to talk with Wali "Flo" Shah about his music, influences, and opinions on the rap scene in Toronto.

RisingArtistsMississauga: Today, an artists' online / YouTube presence is considered only as important as their musical output. How would you describe your vision of your sound?

WaliFloShah: You know what, my vision as an artist is to inspire and help move other people. It's more about the message in the music for me, rather than selling records or getting famous or more popular. It's more than that. Music is really powerful in terms of the message you can bring and how you can impact people.

RAM: People might peg you as someone who sounds influential or a rapper with vision, like Immortal Technique. What's your own opinion?

WFS: You know what, Immortal Technique is someone that has been a huge inspiration and role model to me and I really like his flow, I like what he spits about, it's pretty political and very inspirational. However, I think I am more of my own kind of character. Instead of talking very heavily in politics, I just like to bring something simple to the table because I think its simplicity that at the end of the day that will really move people. It doesn't take a lot of effort or knowledge to get across to people; it just takes the right words and the right love. It's not that hard to help people understand there are things in our world that we need to change and music is the way to bring it about.

RAM: Taking that into account, if you had to write a song for an artist who would it be? It can be any artist.

WFS: If I had to ghost write a song? Hmm, I think I would ghost write for Eminem. I would love to, but then it wouldn't be the same. If you listen to Eminem, you listen to Eminem because it's his stories, it's his life and he spits it real. You know? Maybe I will write something for 2 Chainz because he's a sh*t rapper (laughs). Maybe he will get some real fans with some real support.

RAM: (chuckles) By the way, congrats on your mixtape  I heard every song and its pretty good. How do you feel that your fans and followers have responded? Positively or negatively and why?

WFS: You know what, it's been a great response. You know the proof of it was when I went on the radio a couple weeks back. It was on 101.5FM in Hamilton and the coverage was really big. It was from Hamilton, St. Catherine's, all the way down to Toronto. So that the area of the coverage was really great and a lot of people were really listening in, including my fans and other people. When I finished up the interview, my twitter followers went up to like 10,000 and that was really huge to me and it showed that lot of people are on board with the message that I am trying to bring to the table and they like the music that I am playing as well. I think it's a multitude of things of being an artist, it's not just making great music, but also having a good persona. In my opinion, people at the end of the day don't necessarily buy what you do, they buy who you are. That's important for an artist to recognize.

RAM: Describe your mixtape in three words and why?

WFS: Inspirational, powerful, and unique. It has some poetry in it and I don't think a lot of people cover poetry in hip-hop and rap, but it plays a huge role in that industry. 

RAM: Your music is obviously influential based on what you are aiming for. How have you steered away from the typical Toronto sound of Drake and others like that?

WFS: To be honest it has been quite a challenge to not always spit commercial or mainstream music. It's just because a lot of people typically listen to that stuff especially at a jam or party, no doubt about it. I'ts been a challenge, but I think when people recognize that what you are doing is real and true to your heart and who you are as a person, they buy into who you are a person. It's genuine. I think that a lot of people are recognizing that the music that we listen to on the mainstream is not genuine. It's people who are puppets to a certain extent. I think that when you hear someone that is underground it is different than hearing Drake. He was a total different person before he got signed and I don't think people who recognize that as much because they don't see the genuinity in it.

RAM: So would you say you are concerned about becoming a hipster rapper?

WFS: (laughs hard) I wouldn't say so. I come from Scarborough and I have seen a lot of stuff in my life and a hipster is definitely not going to reflect who I am as a person. I grew up in an area that was pretty bad and I did some stuff in my life too, got in trouble with the police, and stuff like that. Definitely not hipster stuff, but you know that was what represented me at one point. I think that I want to stay true to the hip-hop, baggy jeans kind of thing because I think that definitely represents me. However, the classy look is nice; I like the classy look too.

RAM: Do you have any new length, full albums coming up in the future?

WFS: Actually, I was working on an anti-bullying music video that I am going to team up with a couple of organizations once I get some promo off them. It's in the works right now of actually promoting it and editing it as well. So it's going to be out in a couple of weeks, maybe a week or two, and then from there we are definitely going to lift off.
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We at RAM would like to thank Wali "Flo" Shah for his time and for all of you getting a good outlook on an upcoming rapper's opinion.

Check out Wali "Flo" Shah's new music video for his hit track King of the Castle by clicking the link below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PukghO4p7NI

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