Dear Silas

It's impossible to not be taken in by Dear Silas on first contact. Over the last three years, the Jackson, Mississippi rapper/singer has developed a voice imbued with positivity and realism alike, offering his unique and generous perspective over music that often sounds like pure sunlight cutting through the clouds: a mixture of darkness and light, reflecting the simple duality of life's eternal struggles. His second project, The Last Cherry Blossom, arrived on a viral wave following the success of his airy "Skrr Skrr," but don't let the internet's fickleness deceive you: there's more to Dear Silas than meets the meme.

Raised in a family that embraced musicality, Silas Stapleton III started playing piano at eight years old and picked up the trumpet at 11—an early-adopter approach to musicianship encouraged by his father's own prodigious talents as an alto saxophone player. "He set me on the path to become a musician early on," Silas explains. "He's one of the reasons why I'm a musician right now." Throughout high school, he played in various bands while taking notes through his own consumption of popular music—specifically, Michael Jackson's own meteoric ascent: "Just seeing how he was able to captivate crowds and do what he did inspired me to pursue this." From Boyd, to Chastain, to Murrah, and then graduating from Bailey Magnet.


Silas decided to embrace his current moniker around 2014, as his focus increased on the musical side of his career: "I was getting a lot of attention for comedy instead of the music, and I really wanted to hone in on the music. My friend told me, 'People aren't going to take you seriously if you do both.'" He put comedy on the backburner ("If I want to become an actor, I could come back to it") and hunkered down in the lab, eventually emerging with his debut project as Dear Silas, The Day I Died. 2014 was also the year he began being managed by Kamikaze and his company Ourglass Media Group


A record that deftly mixes humor and realism with the effortlessness of flipping a light switch, The Day I Died built buzz around Silas' unique approach—buzz that started months before the record's release, when Chad "Ocho Cinco" Johnson posted a video on social media that featured single "Gullah Gullah Island.": "I had a viral song but no record," he laughs. The song was produced by Jackson-based producer Donche.


"We have so many instances where people of color are getting killed for nothing—in police shootings, in the media," he states while talking about the song's thematic origins. "I went back and rewrote the entire song to what I was feeling at the time. Man, I wish there was a place where we could go, where we wouldn't have to worry about being racially stereotypes. That's what made me make that song."


Coming off The Day I Died, Silas wanted his next move to truly put him on the map—or, as he puts it, "I wanted The Day I Died to be the alley-oop to the slam dunk that the next album would be, and I think I pulled that off." That's where The Last Cherry Blossom comes in: featuring production from Durdy Costello, Flywalker, Swat Team, Professor X, and Hollywood Luck, the record represents the apex of Silas' love of musicality and emphatic personality. While creating it, he stopped listening to new music, deleted his social media accounts, cancelled his streaming-service subscriptions. "I wanted to disconnect with the world while making this record. I didn't want to make something that sounded like something I would be listening to, so I removed myself from the scene completely."


"I'm very into Japanese culture—anime and manga, every aspect of it. All the animation I watch, there's always a cherry blossom tree in there somewhere. I'm always like, 'Man, that shit's so beautiful.' It calms me when I see one. That's what I want my music to exemplify—I want to make beautiful music that you could pick up and enjoy 50 years from now." Initially, he wanted to release The Last Cherry Blossom during the time of year when the cherry blossoms were in full bloom, but he missed that deadline: "I'm a late bloomer in life," he chuckles.


There's a chance you've already heard the heavenly-sounding single "Skrr Skrr," which has been making the rounds in meme-like fashion similar to how "Gullah Gullah Island" blew up. In an instance of strange serendipity, the song came together during a break at the Apple Store where Silas works at the Genius Bar, on the Fourth of July. "Flywalker works at Apple too—he put the beat on, and I was like, 'This is dope.' We were playing around and I was like, 'Skrr, skrr,' and my DJ walked into the room and told me to pitch down the second 'skrr.' Before you know it, all the employees were in the break room singing along, and I started freestyling over it. I knew from the jump that I wanted that to be the melody." "I heard one of my coworkers humming it as we were getting ready to open the store the next day, and I was like, 'Man, if she's humming it the day after, there's something to that.'" That song caught the attention of no less than 5 major record labels who subsequently flew into Jackson to court his services. He ended up choosing to partner with RCA/Sony. Not as an artist but as an equal partner to distribute his music.


On January 10th, Dear Silas released the audio for his new single "I Got It" featuring Meridian, MS natuve Big K.R.I.T. The song instantly took off and the accompanying video featured the world famous JSU Sonic Boom of the South. It also featured prominent landmarks in the city. In an unprecedented move the video was debited on multiple platforms Vevo, The City of Jackson's social media pages, JSU and Sonic Boom social media pages, Visit Jackson, and Visit MS. His new EP Plus Ultra will be released in late February.