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While speaking with Kid Ink, we noticed that he’s extremely self aware of his artist identity, what he wants to achieve, and how that greatly differs from the general public’s perception of him. That’s an admirable trait to have during an age where some rhymeslingers get gassed like they won a Grammy after garnering a few thousand Twitter followers.

Much of his humility stems from the fact that his power moves thus far have all been from the muscle. “Honestly, I don’t have anyone who is at the top of their game that’s giving me extra info,” Kid Ink explained. “It’s really just me and DJ Ill Will [who] started from scratch and sticking it out as fans, and just working from there and grinding it out.” The bubbling MC admits that it would be nice at time to have that  mentor at times, but he describes his road to success, so far, as a “learning experience.”

Based on his YouTube hits, which have surpassed 60 million in total, you wouldn’t think such was the case. Fortunately, his aforementioned business partner so happens to be the founder of HotNewHipHop.com, but even with this platform at arms reach, Kid Ink says his grind has been more difficult than most.

“People try to discredit your numbers and your grind,” he said, succinctly. “Every mixtape that I release up until my independent album, I’ve sat and recorded myself in a closet, in the house. I’ve mixed it myself. I’ve written all my own records.”

He continued, “Any songs that I put on the Internet, I don’t look for anything; I don’t over-promote or do anything like that. I’ll release a song, and it’ll be on Hot New Hip-Hop or any website, at the top numbers. You’ll read the comments, and people will be like, ‘Oh, they put this one here. They cranked his numbers up.’ I don’t even know how to begin to do any of that stuff.”

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