Ahmir Talks “TIMELESS”, New Music, KILLSWITCH & More In Exclusive Interview

modrNation: Where are you originally from?

Ahmir: I’m from Charlotte, North Carolina. 

modrNation: Take me through the origin story, how did you get started making music and what was it like growing up there?

Ahmir: My cousin rapped, I had two older cousins from Alabama that made music. They would expose me to everything sonically, all the early Gangsta Grillz Lil Wayne, and everything else. Beyond that, they recorded and when I heard they're voice on a mixtape I remember thinking that it was crazy and I knew I wanted to do that. 

modrNation: Take me through your writing process.

Ahmir: At first I would write most of my lyrics, but now sometimes I write and sometimes I freestyle. It also depends on what part of the song, some parts I have to write down other times it’ll just come off the top when I’m in the booth. I believe it’s a lifestyle thing, writer's block isn’t something that’s out of your control if you're conscious about it. If you sit down and consume and make an effort to seek out inspiration, I try to put myself in a place to create so I can always be at my best. 

modrNation: You dropped your most recent project just last year, how have those tracks aged for you?

Ahmir: It’s aged beautifully, I’m happy I could get it off my chest. That was a project I’d been working on for a few years and everything was written before the pandemic, so the project’s really four or five years old. I’m glad it was well received but I know there’s still a lot of work to do so I’m always looking forward and focusing on getting everything right in terms of videos and all that. Like I said, that project was done before the pandemic so, through the pandemic I put together another album that’s already finished and I’m just perfecting it now. Ideally I'd drop it soon but we’ll see when it comes. I know I’ve got so much more to say, so many new styles and pockets to explore so I’m excited to start dropping again. 

modrNation: How do you feel your music has evolved since then?

Ahmir: I’m not as confined in a sense, I’ve done more now to make myself uncomfortable. On “Timeless” you hear me trying to do high-level everything, so it’s almost safe for me. To me I’ve been the best rapper, so when making that I was just trying to prove that. “Timeless” was just some of my best songs and best verses I had at the time, and now I’ve been doing more experimenting, and the creative process these days has been more moment by moment when “Timeless” was much more introspective and some songs would take months to write. Now I’m focusing on individual moments and capturing what those moments and emotions felt like so I can create a moment in a song and flesh it out as much as I can. I’m just trying to feel the music more and be more involved in the process beyond just writing. 

modrNation: Tell me about your collective Killswitch and what they mean to you?

Ahmir: Those are my brothers, we recorded our first song together in 2017 and that was in Messiah’s closet. We’ve grown together in so many ways past music. KILLSWITCH is me, Messiah, Sco and Mavi, we’re all Charlotte natives. They’re really just my brothers, we make music and all that but to us it’s way more than music. We met in high school and it’s just become a mutual respect and understanding for everyone, we see it as iron sharpens iron and we’re always going to hold each other to a certain standard. We all have like minds, so coming together we knew everything has to elevate and we’ll keep each other sharp. 

modrNation: How did all of you meet?

Ahmir: I met Sco the moment I got out the womb, I had no choice but to f*ck with him, that’s my real blood brother. Sco and I met Mavi at the same time, in Charlotte when we were coming up there weren’t many places to record so we went to this place made for highschool students and that’s where we met Mavi. At first we kind of kept our distance, I stuck with my group and Mavi would mingle with some other people, and after a few weeks of being there I remember hearing Mavi recording and we all thought it was crazy, he was doing something different. One day me and all my homies were in the booth recording a song and Mavi asked if he could come in and get on the track and from there we’ve been close since. He’s always been a real humble dude, similar to how you’d meet him today, so we’ve been locked in since. We met Messiah through Mavi, he went to highschool with him so he brought him to the studio one day and we’ve just been locked in since then. You’ve seen what it’s grown to, but overtime that relationship has outlasted a lot of other ones and it’s been crazy to see how this has all played out.

modrNation: What are you most excited about heading into the future?

Ahmir: I’d just say growth, I’m just looking forward to giving people something new and seeing how everything I’ve been working on is received. I’m excited for the journey, what’s gonna come with it and just to get active. I feel like I’m in a place where I can execute my ideas visually and sonically, this first album was a learning experience so I think people will really see the progression and growth on this next one. I don’t think it'll be this year, but in the next 365 days there will be an album.