Burgettii |How A Devastating Heartbreak Heals 500k+ Souls

You normally don’t hear of rappers blooming out of the mid-west in Kentucky, but Burgetti is an exception. He orchestrated 9 artists across the nation to collaborate on one soul mending, emotionally focused album. His collaborative album “Who Are You?” reached hundreds of thousands on Spotify and landed him a record deal with Corbal, the record label that is home to Shiloh Dynasty.

The Kentucky rapper is extremely skilled in conveying raw, heart-wrenching emotion in his verses. Influenced heavily by XXXTENTACION, they share similar experiences in succumbing to dangerously low points and battling demons. It is evident in the music. If you’ve ever gone through a treacherous, demoralizing break up or you simply want to feel what it may be like- that feeling will definitely be acquired after listening to “Journal Entry”.

I hate imagining, cause reminiscing is an ass kicking

The luminous Shiloh Dynasty background vocals share the spot light with Burgettii in developing his emotive sentiment. His relationship of his past lover is beautifully documented in this track which genuinely solidifies the diary confession that is so cleverly titled “Journal Entry”. This song will surely hit you right in the feels and allure the state of awareness that lovers exert exhaustingly to push back into their consciousness. A true Freudian-esque technique displayed by the Kentucky rapper.

After speaking with him one on one, it is clear that he is passionate about having his message heard. He heals through music, and provides therapy for those who listen. To be able to powerfully deliver emotion is in itself a gift, to use that gift to console others is an even greater one. This is the essence of Burgettii.

We had the chance to exclusively interview Burgetti, here at Rap Fiesta.

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Dope to be able to get on call with you Burgettii. I know you mentioned you’re from Kentucky, but how old are you and what’s it like living down there?

I’m 22 years old and I’m doing everything I can to get out of Kentucky. It really feels like a small town of nothing. I’ve lived here my whole life and I don’t really like living here.

Ok so off the bat. What does Burgettii mean and why is there 2 ii’s in it?

Burgetti was what I was called in high school. My last name is Burgett. I had this girl in high school who called me Burgetti and then everybody just picked up on it and just called me it often. I had originally put one i, but when my profile was set up they actually put 2 i’s in there and I just stuck with it.

It kind of trickled into nothing

Your vibe is definitely a sad one and one that reminds us of XXXTentacion. You mentioned you went through hard times when we spoke briefly, would you mind sharing that experience?

I met this girl back in May or June of 2016. We dated for a while and I made the mistake of cheating on her. Everybody makes mistakes but we all learn our lessons, and its the biggest life lesson I’ve ever learned. When I told her, she looked at me in the face and said, “I don’t care, I still like you and I want to be with you” which is crazy because I didn’t expect that. A month later, she changed her mind on me. It probably just ate at her every day. She left, it is what it is. I didn’t get much closure at all. I wasn’t ready for it to be over. It kind of trickled into nothing.  We were talking off and on, and I finally just got cut off one day. It sucked. Then in December 2016, I decided I wanted to rap as a hobby, and she thought it was cool, but it was really wasn’t. It was horrible. That was also the same month that XXX dropped his album ‘17’ and that’s when I got a glimpse of who Shiloh Dynasty was and how she brought emotion to the table, and it was a game changer. It changed everything for me. I actually didn’t even start making music until 2018. My goal was to write about her with the pure raw emotion I had.

So why write music instead of seeking help for your problems, why didn’t you seek therapy?

One, therapy is very expensive. Two, I don’t know what it is about music but I’ve always gone to music for help. Anytime I ever struggled, anytime I ever had a moment in my life where I was low, I went to music for it. When I started to realize I had this capability of writing music, I wanted to write how I felt. I wanted other people to see how I felt based off where I did wrong. I didn’t hear from her for all of last year and then she messaged me recently at 2 in the morning, and I just found out she broke up with her boyfriend and all of this. Then I find that she liked my music, she really liked ‘Journal Entry’ but it didn’t change anything. It is what it is. I was really trying to get her to listen to the music and that was the best part about it, she did. All the other listens and followers I get was extra, and I did not expect any of that.

Your definitely talented and the numbers don’t lie. How does it feel to have a few tracks over 100,000 plays streaming on Spotify?

It feels good because I’m trying to send a message and people are listening. It’s the greatest feeling.

There is no question that your album elicits heavy emotion and that is why so many people can connect with it. We are wondering how fans stumbled on this project. Did you do any promotion on this album?

I did actually. I’m  actually signed to a label by the name of Corbal Records out in California. I dropped ‘Now I Feel’ and it got around 6,000 to 7,000 listens and they hit me up. I come to find out they have Shiloh Dynasty signed to their label as well. They wanted to re-release the song onto Shiloh Dynasty’s page which I had the privilege of, and that’s how I got my start. I got 2 of my friends signed as well, one named Wolf, the other D$R. My first song was ‘Journal Entry’ released by them. Wolf dropped ‘Waiting’. Then Devin dropped ‘Lost’ featuring me. Then we got signed and it was great.

Let’s dive a little bit more into the music. I love the way you implemented skits onto ‘Now I Feel X Only You’ and used that to transition smoothly into ‘Only You’. Is that you singing at the end of the track?

That’s Snow actually singing that part, he’s very good. The part right before that when the old man is talking, I recorded a video of that on my phone. I actually worked at AT&T and had this really old man walk into my store thinking we’re Cincinnati Bell and I told him were an AT&T store, and he started telling me stuff the way old folks do. He started telling me stuff that I was shocked about and I asked him to repeat it and I was able to record everything he said. It was raw and authentic as hell, and was exactly what I was trying to say. It was a perfect transition.

I absolutely love your album ‘Who Are You’ in its entirety. It really attacks the vulnerable points of what embodies human emotion. Would you mind telling us how that project came together? 

We all made the singles and Corbal loved it. We all wanted to drop it onto Shiloh’s page and show her the appreciation we had for her art. There was a big waiting period involved too, and we had to wait a couple months at times. In that process, I thought “Why don’t we just put these songs together?”. All of us had singles with Shiloh‘s vocals and then when XXXTentacion died, it just clicked. Let’s do an album with the X tribute on there too, and everybody agreed on it. It took us 3 months to get everything approved, get everybody’s name on it. When it dropped, it took a good month and a half before it was on everybody’s pages. It worked out beautifully though.

I love the X tribute. “Will I end up dead? Will I be the next person with my shirt stained red? Will I fall down too? Why you aiming through the circle won’t you shoot straight through?” The last line really hit me and definitely brings the topic of up of mental health. These lines dance around suicide. How dangerously low was this low point for you? 

It was very low for me. Very low. I was numb to a lot of feelings for a while. To be truthful, I relied on other things to numb that pain. I relied on things that I shouldn’t have relied on. I was high off weed 24/7 365 days just to get through my days. Weed was definitely my best friend throughout that time. That, X’s music, and writing, all helped. I can’t tell you how many countless hours I spent in my car or locked myself in the bathroom with my speaker and just practiced lines for days. It changed the perspective of everything for me, but once I accepted what happened, it made things easier.

there are things that I cannot get over

It is definitely clear in your music that you have battled demons. How successful were you in conquering your demons?

I can’t even say I was successful in conquering my demons. I just try to avoid them and not look them in the eye truthfully. That’s really it. Some things you can get over, but there are things that I cannot get over. I just avoid those things and try hard not to think about them. Other than that, I basically don’t look my demons in the eye.

On ‘Journal Entry’ I love how you started the track with that masked effect on it and then right before the verse begins you pitch it down all the way into a devilish voice at the start of your verse. I absolutely love the engineering on the entire album. Did you mix and master these tracks yourself?

This gentleman is what changed my life in regards to how far I can take my music. I was working at AT&T and had gone through 6 managers at the store. I got this new manager on February 2017 by the name of Jason. Jason Imhofs. Great guy. He and I were talking about music one day, and I told him I was a rapper. He was like, “No way so am I”. I couldn’t believe my manager at AT&T was a rapper. Come to find out, a rapper and a producer. He invited me over and thats when we put ‘Now I Feel’ together. He also put together ‘Journal Entry’s beat from scratch only from using Shilohs Dynasty’s vocals that we found. He’s a great artist, and he can rap at the same time. He’s really the one who changed everything for me. His engineering is wild as you can tell, he did all the engineering for my songs. I met this other producer while my guy was away, by the name of Trig and he put together ‘Emma’s Story‘ for me, which was great. On top of rapping and putting music together, I also decided to help people. If anybody ever needs to talk to me, I sit there and listen without judgement by their side. People love that. For that specific track though, I decided to not only talk about it from my view but in third person too. I wanted to have that devil and angel aspect to it. I wanted to show what most women go through, and I’ve had a lot of people tell me they can actually relate to that and have actually been there before in life. It sucks, but its the God honest truth.

So whats next for Burgettii? 

Thats a good question. I have no idea. Every day something changes. My game plan is to drop another album and I’m definitely going to drop this EP. We’re looking at a lot of music coming forward. In terms of shows, I work with this agency that gets me bookings. Definitely going to put some shows together to get people to hear more of my music and spread the word.