A conversation with the SEVENth

I like to consider myself an astute listener to the local trends, and, in particular, the local music scene, especially as it relates to hip hop.  So, it comes as somewhat of a surprise that I had never attended a show by the SEVENth (7th), or Brandon, as his friends know him.  Then again, he is a youngster on the scene, not even twenty-one years old yet, and with a following that typically matches his age, so the local bar and club circuit is not somewhere you typically would find him.  He is a former student at Grand Rapids Christian High School, a graduate of East Kentwood, and a current student at Grand Rapids Community College, he nonethless seems at home anywhere, and where I met him was a mere hours before one of his biggest shows to date at the Intersection, opening for East-side Michigan hiphop star, Mike Posner.  We talked outside the backstage entrance on the ramp of the parking lot at the Intersection on a variety of topics, and I got the sense that he is going to fulfill his pledge to me (and himself, for sure) to be "signed by a label within two years." 

"Music is another type of popularity contest," the SEVENth said, and its easy to see why he thinks he may win that contest.