Blake Grossman has been rapping since he was just 8 years old, but when he got to high school, the Hicksville resident amped up his passion by diving into audio production classes at Nassau BOCES Barry Tech. Now, at 17 years old, the young musician is winning awards for his audio production skills.
Following first and third place wins at the Nassau County and Long Island level, respectively, Grossman, along with his project partner, took home first place two weeks ago in the New York State SkillsUSA competition for audio/radio production. The duo were tasked with producing a five-minute radio PSA, including writing, recording, mixing and mastering the audio—no small feat considering their audio equipment experienced a malfunction or two.
“We were absolutely shocked [we won] because anything can happen during these competitions, but it just so happened that some of our equipment wasn’t operating correctly,” Grossman explained. “We had to work around it and work with what we had and we got it done. We were very surprised to see that we came through and we got first place. It was seriously a surreal feeling.”
At the end of June, the pair will travel to Kentucky where they will face off against competitors from around the country.
Until then, Grossman will continue to pursue his music career. Known on stage as Bl8ke G, the artist wrote his first rap with encouragement from his step-father at age 8—hence the number eight replacing the “a” in his name. Today, Grossman is a self-made success with music videos he edited himself on YouTube, tracks he wrote, recorded and mixed on SoundCloud, merch he sells and gigs he books.
“Although I am currently perusing the music industry heavily outside of school, I am an entrepreneur at heart,” Grossman explained. “My whole life I have taken whatever I am interested in and have attempted to create it into a business.”
With his exceptional drive and commitment to his craft, the ambitious young adult has his sights set on growing to stardom, but has a back-up just in case things don’t turn out according to plan.
“I would love to continue my career as an artist, that would be the dream,” Grossman said. “But as a fallback for audio production, the plan is to go for business so I can learn about the back of the industries, be behind the scenes of the industries, so I can make more entrepreneurial endeavors and wherever I go I can hopefully use those skills.”
To learn more about Grossman, visit www.bl8keg.com. To listen to his music, visit www.soundcloud.com/bl8keg.
