Today we’d like to introduce you to Joshua Stuart.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
Born & raised in Oak Cliff, 232 Woodtown, I always had a passion for rhyming. Writing poems at age 6 was my first door. They were always about a girl or a dream I had or even the weather. When I got my first computer through tutoring classes, I started making my own songs. Reggae & Lil Wayne were my main two influences. I always do my best at being true to myself first and then be honest with the things I say in my songs. To this day, I take music seriously, from moving to Deep Ellum to be heard by all crowds to quitting my job so to record every morning. I actually don’t know where I would be right now without the way I was raised & loving to do music.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Honestly, it just became a smooth road for me these past 2 to 3 years. My father passing when I was 3 didn’t really have a ton of weight on my mind due to how young I was, but it was still a little tough knowing I had a father that actually was in my life but is not here anymore. After my mom passed Christmas 2010 to cancer, I went through the toughest decade in my life when it comes to mental health. It felt like I couldn’t breathe for weeks, and it felt like I couldn’t live for years. However, knowing I had two of the strongest parents ever on Earth, I had to try to be even stronger than them. My sister, my nephews & my future keep me going. I always knew holding in thoughts and emotions would only make things worse, so music and being honest when I speak help the most. Chasing your dreams while maintaining a normal life could be a challenge as well, but having patience and believing in yourself is the key to that.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I go by the name Stone Kold Yung Ivan; I’m an artist first and everything else after. I mostly rap, but you can hear the rock & reggae energy in my sounds. Some day I will put one foot into pop if the feeling is there. I learned how to make beats in high school with one of my closest friends, Mitch, and we had fun for a couple of years. I’ve been teaching myself how to engineer my own songs, and most of the time I like my versions better than others when they try. I’m most proud of the artist I have been progressively becoming. I hear the maturity grow as I keep recording, and I hear the flows getting better and better. I’m also proud that I stay in my own lane, knowing how easy it is to follow and mimic what you hear on a daily.
We all have different ways of looking at and defining success. How do you define success?
Success is happiness and security. Before money was even a thing, people’s main objective in life was to be happy. I call money security because it can help you from having too much stress or problems that would take most people a while to solve, The security clears the obstacles out of your head, and the happiness fills that same space with the positive things you want to do next. That’s success to me.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://linktr.ee/StoneKoldYungIV
- Instagram: StoneKoldYungIvan
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/StoneKoldYungIV
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuaftjmsvJR3e905TPiAJDw/featured
- SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/ivlondon
