Meet Orlando “Khosen” Major and Jerell “Life” Ray– otherwise known as hip hop and R&B duo, khildLike. These artists are the raw representation of the self-made, modern-day music we’re currently witnessing on the rise of the industry. After many years of trial, error, and lots of learning in between, Ray and Major have learned to write, produce, edit, and distribute their own music and achieved well-earned success in the process.
Khosen is known to be the singer of the group while Life is the rapper. The group’s mantra consists of breaking away from the average person’s lifestyle and instead embracing their original and individual greatness by “living life to its fullest potential”. When asked what inspires them and their music, they reply confidently saying: “khildLike represents what you dreamt about when you were a child, before you were tainted by the perspectives and opinions of others and you were in the purest state of yourself.” The duo usually utilizes their personal life experiences and their relationship with God as the motivation behind their powerful lyrics, but they’ve also written about topics regarding important global movements such as the Black Lives Matter organization.
According to Khosen, the hip hop duo’s initial success dates back to a music-writing workshop they attended in 2020 named Mic Session, which happened to be led by Leila Steinberg, the manager for world-renowned superstar rapper, Tupac. The musical artists at the event were instructed to write a song about social injustice, through which khildLike came out with their hit single, “Reparations”. The track has now been listened to over 100,000 times and has been admired across the globe, gaining the attention of average listeners and even A-list musicians like Jim Jones. Since the track’s release, khildLike has been invited to join Jones for a collaboration track in a future album to be released in May 2021.
On other successful notes, the group has also opened up for popular artists like grammy-nominated rapper Nipsey Hustle and contemporary R&B singer Eric Bellinger. While the duo’s climb has been a long time coming (around a decade in the making, to be exact), the patient musicians say it has all come to fruition within the last few months as people are finally beginning to notice the talents and dedication behind every song they’ve created thus far, most of which can be found on the group’s Soundcloud profile. “The years, the challenges, the money spent… It’s all been worth it to get to this moment,” Major said. “And even though it’s been a long journey, we’re only at the beginning.”
To follow khildLike on the rest of their journey to stardom, you can follow them on Instagram or listen to their tracks on Soundcloud.
