Big Star Johnson Shares His Aspirations Beyond Hip Hop With A Live Music Focus
Big Star Johnson Shares His Aspirations Beyond Hip Hop With A Live Music Focus. Big Star Johnson is sharpening a new lane. Speaking on Gagasi FM, the rapper shared that he is moving beyond a single label or sound and leaning into the warmth and unpredictability of live music. His answer to a question about genres could not have been clearer, and it came with a tip of the cap to artists who prize musicianship and feel.
“To be honest, I think for the longest time I’ve been trying to break away from just being this hip hop guy,” he said. “I have a live background, so im enjoying the live music that is coming out right now. The Marcus Harvey, your Lia Butler, Im feeling that vibe. Im feeling guys on instruments, you know. Im there, we’re taking it all the way there.”
Those lines do more than hint at taste. They map out a creative direction that favours bands, arrangements, and performance dynamics over plug-and-play loops. A live background usually means time spent with drummers, bassists, pianists, and horn sections. It means learning how songs breathe, when to leave space for a guitar lick, and how to build tension before a chorus that lands like a wave. When that sensibility meets hip hop, the result can be a roomier pocket for storytelling and melody, with choruses that invite a crowd to sing them back.
The artists he name-checks point to the palette he is exploring. In that setting, the beat is not only a grid for bars but a canvas for accents and improvisation. Think bridges that change the mood, breakdowns that drop to just bass and keys, or outros that stretch into short instrumental codas. Tracks like that translate beautifully on stage, where the push and pull between voice and band can turn a good performance into a moment people talk about long after the lights go up.
All of this remains rooted in hip hop. The cadence, pen game, and point of view that made Big Star Johnson stand out do not disappear. They find new ways to speak. They gain room to stretch and surprise. The studio becomes a rehearsal for a show that lives in the memory, and the show becomes a proving ground for songs that grow each time they are performed.
