Makonnen Sheran, 25, on beating manslaughter charges, quitting his day job, and battling depression. “I just wanted to kill myself, honestly. Now everything is starting to pick up.”
ILoveMakonnen in Atlanta, August 2014.
Photograph by Cam Kirk for BuzzFeed
"What is it, it's July now?" asks Makkonnen Sheran, the Atlanta-based singer and rapper who performs as ILoveMakonnen. In fact, it's eight days into August.
Time is passing quickly for the young singer, whose songs miraculously split the difference between The Killers and Lil B. After spending the years after his high school graduation in jail, on house arrest, and making music in his bedroom, the 25-year-old experienced a sudden blossoming in public this spring. In May, he released a tape with beats made by the city's starting lineup of young producers (Metro Boomin, Sonny Digital, and FKi) and followed that with an EP in June, which Miley Cyrus discovered in July. Soon stars like Young Jeezy, a childhood idol of Atlanta kids everywhere, started calling. Four days after our interview, Drake added a verse to one of Makonnen's most memorable tracks, "Club Goin Up on a Tuesday," hoping that he, even as rap's reigning king, can still assert the song's gusty refrain: "I made my own styyylllle."
I meet Makonnen on a Friday evening in Midtown Atlanta at the apartment of "Tuesday" co-producer Sonny Digital, which is tucked at the corner of a gated community Sonny's mother property manages. Record sleeves are collaged on the downstairs wall, and there's a stripper pole installed outside the attic studio. Stationed on the couch, Makonnen plays with Sonny's German shepherd, Max. "Who made dogs?" he asks no one in particular. "Who was designing 'em? Bruh! How could a dog move from continent to continent?"
Before he was friends with the most successful producers in town, Makonnen went to beauty school. "I was that guy with the mohawk of every color," he says. "It gave me a lot of attention." These days, his hair is its natural mahogany, shaved on the sides and piled in careful curls on top. "I have to make sure it dries or I'll get sick, then I have to make sure the curls don't frizz," he says. This morning it took him 40 minutes to get ready, and he looks great. "Being ILoveMakonnen, it's like geez, I can't do a crazy color right now," he says. "I stand out enough."
ILoveMakonnen at the apartment of producer Sonny Digital in Atlanta.
Photograph by Cam Kirk for BuzzFeed
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