kyle

Californian rapper Kyle Harvey, better known as KYLE, has recently opened up about his multiracial identity. Project RACE is very interested in what he had to say, so this makes him the perfect candidate for this week’s Famous Friday.

You have probably blasted KYLE’s new hit single iSpy through your radio speakers recently. I know I have, but what I didn’t know is that Kyle is biracial like me! He is only 23 years old, and has already collaborated with awesome artists like Kehlani and Chance the Rapper. Rolling Stone referred to him as ‘one of the ten artists you need to know.’ I am positive that we will be hearing a lot more of KYLE’s music in the future.

However, all of Kyle Harvey’s accomplishments do not impress me as much as what he had to say about being multiracial. In a recent interview Kyle talks about the harsh realities of identifying as multiracial. He says that he felt that he had to be more of one race than the other. In his case with the industry he is in, he felt that he had to be more black than white. “I felt like I couldn’t be as white as I wanted to, if that makes sense. I felt like I couldn’t be the entire me because that wasn’t what I was supposed to do. I felt like I had to conform to what a rapper was supposed to be. So, I was putting on voices and making up stories about things that I’d never been through to make out like someone who was black and a rapper was supposed to be.” I think that a lot us can understand where he is coming from, and I also believe that a lot of us have been placed in similar situations. I know of many situations where I have felt like I had to choose to be only part of who I am.

Luckily, just like KYLE I learned that the best thing that I could be was myself, and myself includes all of my multiracial identity not just half. Kyle Harvey credits his current success to simply being himself. He says that it works if you actually try. I’d like to take his lead and encourage all of you to be yourselves as well! You can find the rest of Kyle’s interview here: http://www.gulf-times.com/story/546550/Kyle-and-the-courage-to-be-just-himself

image courtesy of genius.com