Interview: Shining Light On Austin’s Very Own BlackLight
After witnessing the headliner of last month’s hip-hop show dominate Mohawk with smooth beats, quick and melodic rhymes, as well as amazing support from collaborators, Afterglow was eager to hear more from BlackLight.
Written by Katie Karp
Photos by Amelia Tapia
As a military veteran, audio engineer, father, husband, and recently nominated Queer Eye hero, Reggie DeVore undoubtedly has a spectrum of pride-generating accomplishments. Mr. Impressive is just the latest addition to his already astounding resumé, branching further away from soft melodies and closer to high-energy rhythms. Through his musical project BlackLight, the Austin-based artist motivates listeners to invest in self-love, discovery, and growth through the exploration of his self-worth. Afterglow was fortunate to speak with DeVore, whose drive and humility dominates him, even with his international fanbase and proud musical exterior. In just under an hour, BlackLight gave us a glimpse into his bright personality as he discussed the cinematic story of his path to artistry, his deep-cutting influences, and core themes of his music.
Afterglow: Have you always seen yourself as “Mr. Impressive,” or did you have to work up to that confidence level?
DeVore: Definitely not, and you can hear [this] throughout my albums prior to this one. It’s taken a lot of time to own my power and be confident in the person that I am. I don’t want to be pretentious, yet calling myself Mr. Impressive is very pretentious. I’m a humble guy, but my raps are not. I’m just fully grasping the rap part of me, which I did hide a lot. I didn't even tell my family that I was a rapper until after Queer Eye. I could just imagine their reaction: You got out of the military to become a rapper? Worst idea ever. So maybe the album Mr. Impressive is — I don't want to say like coming out of the closet — like another birthday for them If that makes any sense.
So, when did your family find out about BlackLight?
My family found out about a year and a half ago, but I was making music for a while. Still, I never invited them to my shows or anything like that. Not because not because I didn't love them, but I guess I was too scared of the ridicule of being a once-successful military man turned rapper.
That's definitely a transition that you don't hear very often, but how has that transition been for you?
Eye-opening. It's been really crazy to see everyone be so supportive, especially my mom who's super Christian. I curse in my raps, and I'm very modern lyrically. So, and for her to be like, “I love this. You remind me of Marvin Gaye.” It's crazy.
Are there specific songs reminiscent of Marvin Gaye?
“One More Time,” the song with my favorite video. It's just like a love song, if you know what I mean? And Marvin Gaye was kind of … nasty. They want to say that old-school music wasn't like that, but they were talking about the same stuff we talk about now, just sugar-coated.
How do you think that being in the military influenced your music?
I got out of the military in 2011, but throughout my military career, the people I worked with and I would all freestyle or whatnot when we got off of work. At first, I was just a singer because of my background in the choir. I wasn't even a rapper, but I just kept doing it and realized I was great at it. That freestyling in the military influenced me to fall in love with rap. The military influenced my style because I was freestyling and rapping with people from all over America — from the East Coast, West Coast. Being from down South back in the day was like the Screwed music that was really slow, but I was bringing the really slow Texas freestyle into what everyone else was doing. They were rapping all fast, but I just picked up their cadence and morphed this fast, into my very percussive rap yet still smooth, right?
What are some other big influences on your music?
I went to school in Austin to learn audio engineering out of the Recording Conservatory of Austin, it was a two year program. Right before I graduated, I got an internship at a local studio named Matchbox working with a producer who’s done so much crazy stuff. Anyway, I was interning under him, which had a super huge influence on the way that I engineer because I record and mix and master all my own stuff. It's all done in house, right? Also, Austin influenced my live set because it's like this a lot of music capital of the world. Most times you'll hear a rapper come out by themselves. Normally, I have a band and a lot of instruments on stage with me. But COVID has messed a lot of that up, but I'm trying to get back on my feet. On the 21st of next month, I have another show and will have my drummer and some other people there. But, yeah, in Austin, I have to compete with rock and indie bands out here for the venues, so I'm not just competing with other hip-hop artists, right? So my live shows have to be on point, and I need to have a lot of energy. Another influence that’s more of a motivation was having my baby, you know, 11 months ago because it made music even more real. It solidified that it’s really no longer a hobby, I'm a professional and have to make money to feed my family.
You have an international fanbase. Do you find it harder to pull in an audience within Austin?
Since I do live here, I can see why it's harder to grab a draw of people because I'll also have friends that do shows all the time, and I show up at their shows. So, Austin gets a bigger piece of me because I'm here and I'm performing more in Austin, whereas if I go to another city, it's gonna be a bigger draw. I would also say that the clubs that I've been to assure me that I’m doing very well for a local artist. Now, is there a racist agenda trying to hold me back here? I mean, I don't know how to answer that question because we're just coming out of COVID, and people are having this kind of phobia from being in large groups. So maybe in a couple of months when the live music industry is fully back on its feet fully, we can see. I've seen other hip-hop artists get more shows lately, so it would definitely be unfair to say that nothing's changing.
How and when did you decide on the name BlackLight?
Initially, my favorite color was purple. When you put a black light on — well maybe it’s a UV light, but in my head, it was a black light — you see what's not there, or do you have to relook at what it is? That's kind of why I chose the name BlackLight. One, it's a contradiction in itself, like black and white, light is normally white. Two, a black light is used for uncovering things. Three, I'm a Black person, and I want to speak about the Black struggle and bring a light to what Black people go through.
Your name definitely has many layers to it, which I appreciate. What are some of the overarching themes in your music?
My motivation behind making music is obviously my family, I say a lot of stuff about that. I also think about my father, who actually sold a lot of drugs and would traffic drugs from Panama to America. I was born there, but he actually got caught. They had to fly me out of the country, because they were scared that the cartel was going to kill my sister and me. But, yeah, drugs are one of the many weapons put in place to attack the Black community back in the day. And I'm a product of all of that. So, coming out of all of that, I’m trying to shine a light in balance.
You opened for Katy Perry and Dua Lipa — an you tell me about that experience?
I did at the end of 2019, going into 2020. So the way that happened, OnePlus, which is a cell phone company in India, came to Austin to do some filming, and they were looking for an audio engineer. They called me, and I went to a casting and asked if I could make music, so I sent it to them to listen to it. As I'm getting ready to walk out the door, the producer for the commercial stops me and he's like, “Do you mind if we put this music in the commercial? I was like, “Go ahead!” OnePlus listened to the commercial, and literally a week later they asked if I would mind playing for Katy Perry and Dua Lipa in two weeks. I didn't have a passport or anything, but I was like, “Yeah!” I was scrambling, trying to get to Houston to get a passport. Anyway, long story short, it works out. I went there, and it was just an amazing experience. There was a lot of stuff that went wrong, that I would never let happen again … it was an emotional rollercoaster, but I’m a little bit famous in India and there was a lot of good stuff that happened. I would definitely do it all over again.
To wrap up, now that you've released Mr. Impressive, what can fans look forward to from you?
As of right now, I am trying to make video content for my YouTube channel. Having a visual to connect your music is way more impactful than I was giving credit for. Being an engineer/artist, I was mainly focused on the creation of the music and getting the product to sell. Now I'm still creating more music, but my goal is to make a video for every song that I've ever made. Now, will I reach that goal? Probably not, but as long as I get close to it, I'm doing something right. The long-term goal is to get a tour started so that I can travel the world, but I'll take the United States first if I can. People in Brazil or Sydney or Argentina send so much love and listen to my music, but I’d love to give them a live show.
It will definitely happen at the rate you're going! Thank you so much for your time.
You can follow BlackLight on Instagram @blacklight_hip_hop and Twitter @ATX_blacklight. Stream his music on Spotify and check out his music videos on YouTube.
This interview has been minimally edited for clarity and length.