Who Are They: Heycartier

Background

Heycartier is an artist out of Buffalo, NY, who has been bubbling in the underground for a while now. He accidentally received his name by changing his Instagram handle. Fans thought that was his artist alias, so he decided to run with it and give people something recognizable.

Follow Heycartier on Instagram!

Buffalo isn’t known for having huge artists coming out of it, but Heycartier is sure to be one of them.

“We aren’t known for music/art, but there is a lot of talent in the city. We got producers, designers, videographers, and they’re all young tryna make it out just like me. I really want to put my city on the map, and it all starts right now,” he said.

Listeners have witnessed that Heycartier takes inspiration from the likes of Playboi Carti and Lil Tecca because of the remixes he made to their songs, but as he was growing up, he listened to a lot of Lil Wayne, Chief Keef, and Future. But his true inspiration is one of the SoundCloud greats.

“Duwap Kaine is the true inspiration for real,” he said. “He was a young n**** making music, and I wanted to do that too. I say he and Candypaint gave me the confidence to start.”

Listeners can tell Heycartier is also influenced by basketball, hence his many references. He explained that the game made him who he is, and the values and lessons he’s gained from it will stay with him forever.

He was described as a ball hog when he played. He has developed his brand called “Ball Hog” and recently released his first-ever garment, which has now sold out. But instead of seeing the “ball hog” comment as rude, he used it as motivation.

Heycartier in his “BALL HOG” trucker hat.

“That stuck with me as I got older, and I started “passing” in my day-to-day life,” he said. “I felt like I wasn’t taking control of my shit. Then it clicked, like, I have to start shooting for myself and stop worrying about how everyone else feels all the time. When I started doing that, I saw success beginning to come my way.”

Sound and Artistic Process

In describing his sound, Heycartier explained that he is unique.

“You can hear the influences, obviously, but it’s hard to pinpoint. I honestly think I’m developing my own sound,” he explained. “No one really sounds like me, especially from my city.”

If someone were to take a deep dive into his discography – and don’t worry, that’s coming later — they would be able to easily recognize Heycartier’s ability for selecting beats. He said that he sometimes spends hours just listening to beats.

“I sit and listen to hundreds of beats every day, and I always record the ones that sound different from what you usually hear,” he said. “DNTCALLMYPHONE produced by Lockage is a good example of that.”

For being so early in his career, Heycartier dedicates hours, even days, to creating music. He is constantly studying the game and making music that Is consistently more interesting and higher in quality.

Discography

Exclusively on SoundCloud, listeners will find his first two projects, “Summer League” and “Patience.” Both are great projects, but the difference in quality is what separates the two. Heycartier grew exponentially between the two projects, but he’s made even more progress considering how he sounds today.

“The progress is actually insane,” he said. “I don’t even sound the same anymore. Different content, flow, beat selection, practically everything. I’m still proud of those projects, but I’m prouder that I didn’t get comfortable and kept pushing myself to improve.”

Since those projects, and as of recent, Heycartier has generated quite the buzz, receiving over 100,000 plays on a few songs. He detailed the experience as being the most incredible feeling ever.

“I remember when it would take five months just to get 1000 plays on SoundCloud,” he said. “Now, every song I drop, it’s liable to get 50k plus. I worked hard to get here, but I’m truly grateful that people gave me a chance to prove that, and I still got way more to do.”

The next notable series of songs are the different “nod off” pieces that Heycartier has put out. He explained that it all stemmed from tapping in with the producer Lockage.

“I started realizing how crazy he was at producing,” he said. “I never made a Pluggnb song, and people wanted me to make some. I locked in with Lock, and we didn’t miss, so we kept it going. The third one having 175k, just proved that Lock and I had something special on our hands. It’s a blessing for real.”

And speaking of “nod off 3,” it was the first of the series to get its music video. The video was kept simple and textbook so that Heycartier could establish a good foundation for his music videos. He plans to release many more soon.

His most famous song is “be yourself,” which is self-explanatory. Heycartier loves this song so much because of its sentimental value, though.

“My biggest song is me just being myself and telling everyone else that they should be, too,” he said. “God was sending me a sign there.”

My personal favorite from Heycartier is his song “Racks and Swag.” This ambient track where he flaunts his lavish lifestyle and sets an example for what other rappers should become. But, when it was released, Heycartier took to his Instagram story to announce that this song was the last of its kind. It being one of my favorite songs at the moment, I was concerned because I wanted more. But, Heycartier explained that I had misread the situation.

“If you listen to me, you know I just randomly drop shit all the time with no promo,” he said. “I’m trying to change that, so ‘Racks and Swag’ is like the last song I’m just dropping and letting it be.”

So, expect Heycartier to be developing his brand soon. He will learn the art of marketing music on top of releasing the best of the best songs to come out of the underground.

Future

As for his future, Heycartier is undoubtedly bound to go mainstream. He’s working on his next album and the promotion to go with it.

“I’m working OT, man,” he said. “I want this album to be perfect. Videos, visuals, everything. So it might take a while, but when it comes out, it will turn many heads.”

So be sure to check out Heycartier now to say you were one of the OG fans!

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