Mar 10, 2016

What a crazy time to be an artist trying to make it in music.

In January, an 18-year-old Kansas City-based rapper named Rory Fresco got over 150,000 SoundCloud plays in less than 24 hours, and it wasn’t because of a big marketing push, radio play, or a new dance. It was because his song “Lowkey” was chosen by SoundCloud’s algorithm to be played directly after Kanye West’s “Real Friends.” Tens of thousands of people were rushing to listen to Kanye’s new song, and when the song finished, they were introduced to Fresco. The reaction was overwhelmingly positive, and the teenaged rapper won over thousands of news followers.

That was just three months ago, and now Rory Fresco has announced that he’s signed a major label deal with Epic Records.

“The whole SoundCloud thing helped my record pop off, and they heard some other records,” Rory explains via email. “We’ve been trying to set up a showcase for a while now. LA Reid has been on his book tour, so it was kinda hard to fit me in. Well, he came off his book tour for a day just to see me and I blew him away. I decided to sign because I wanted to get to the next level. My plan was never to be an underground artist. I want to be the biggest in the world.”

Epic Records confirmed the signing, and Fresco says the next steps are huge, but he can’t reveal anything yet. He’s still not sure if Kanye has heard his music.

Check out “Lowkey” below, and stay tuned to see Rory Fresco’ first moves with Epic Records.