Stalley: Beautiful People 2011
By Whitney Spaner
When Kyle Myricks was eight-years-old, R&B chanteuse Chante Moore pulled him up on stage at a convention center in Ohio and serenaded him with her hit "Chante's Got a Man." A year later, Myricks' mom took him to a Kid 'N' Play concert, and again he was plucked from the crowd to dance with the flat-topped duo. "My mom was like, 'Why do they always pick you out?'" he recalls. All grown up, the gap-toothed 23-year-old rapper now known as Stalley says matter-of-factly: "I always knew I was special. I always knew I would be great."
He just didn't know back in the small, sports-crazed town of Massillon, Ohio, that it was music he would be great at. Though only 6'2" Stalley earned the name "Stallion" in high school for his basketball skills. But after an injury sidelined him at the University of Michigan he transferred to LIU in Brooklyn where he felt free to express his musical side. He shortened Stallion to Stalley and started working on brainy, melodic raps that caught the attention of hip-hop den daddy Dame Dash who invited him to come hang out at his Tribeca gallery/performance space DD172. The loft has become a clubhouse for other up-and-coming rappers like Curren$y, who along with Stalley recorded some tracks with Mos Def and Jay Electronica under the moniker Center Edge
Territory. With a new mixtape and a gig with Nike--he appears in their spring/summer campaign -- things can only go up from her -- or in Stalley's case down. He measures his success by
the length of his trademark beard he started growing the day he went into the studio. "It was a new part of my life," he says, "and I wanted to see something physically there to remind me of
the growth and the struggle."
STALLEY WEARS SWEATER BY PRADA, JEANS BY A.P.C., AND HAT BY NEW ERA
GO BACK TO SEE MORE BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE OF 2011
He just didn't know back in the small, sports-crazed town of Massillon, Ohio, that it was music he would be great at. Though only 6'2" Stalley earned the name "Stallion" in high school for his basketball skills. But after an injury sidelined him at the University of Michigan he transferred to LIU in Brooklyn where he felt free to express his musical side. He shortened Stallion to Stalley and started working on brainy, melodic raps that caught the attention of hip-hop den daddy Dame Dash who invited him to come hang out at his Tribeca gallery/performance space DD172. The loft has become a clubhouse for other up-and-coming rappers like Curren$y, who along with Stalley recorded some tracks with Mos Def and Jay Electronica under the moniker Center Edge
Territory. With a new mixtape and a gig with Nike--he appears in their spring/summer campaign -- things can only go up from her -- or in Stalley's case down. He measures his success by
the length of his trademark beard he started growing the day he went into the studio. "It was a new part of my life," he says, "and I wanted to see something physically there to remind me of
the growth and the struggle."
STALLEY WEARS SWEATER BY PRADA, JEANS BY A.P.C., AND HAT BY NEW ERA
GO BACK TO SEE MORE BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE OF 2011
Your Comment
Posted at 8:27 on Mar 31, 2011
U sure did get it right with him...yummy.