BASH junior Micah Cabaniss drew attention this year during Live Day with his original rap “It Goes”, one of his six SoundCloud tracks, which also include “Cypher 52” and “Glad to Be Alive”.

“That was my first real success,” he said. “People around school know me as a rapper now.”

And he doesn’t plan on stopping. With plans on becoming a professional rapper, he’s throwing everything he has into his music.

“I write everyday. I make beats,” he said.”Right now I’m trying to make as many songs as possible and work on getting better.”

Cabaniss’ drive and focus are supplemented by skill. For an aspiring 16-year-old rapper, he’s certainly talented.

“I think I have a good flow. I use a lot of alliteration. And… What’s it called when you use vowel sounds in the middle of words…assonance. I have a lot of literary devices.”

He said the main area he needs to work on is his delivery. “You know, like sounding more confident. But if you listen to my older songs, you can definitely tell I’ve gotten better.”

He says it is hard to say what the most important part of creating a song is.  

“That depends. If you’re trying to make a cool, fun song it’s the beat, but maybe the lyrics if you’re trying a deep reflective song.”

He does not prefer one kind of rap song over another. “I like rap ’cause it can work for any mood or time in your life,” he said. “I just love it.”

His love of rap is pretty refined.  He is open to all of its subgenres and does not dismiss anything as light as 2 Chainz or experimental as Death Grips; notably, he understands each artist for what he is, not criticizing someone for making ignorant party music but accepting them as someone who just strives to entertain people.

Not that he doesn’t appreciate genius or at least talent. As contemporary rappers go, he admires Kendrick Lamar, Lupe Fiasco, and old Lil’ Wayne. But Andre 3000 of Outkast remains his hero, with Aquemini being his favorite album.

How successful does he expect to become in comparison with all these heavy weights?

“I think I’ll get pretty big. Like J. Cole Born Sinner big. But I mean, as long as I can support myself and be comfortable I’ll be happy.”  

His self-confidence comes from an epiphany he had at the age of 15, saying, “I put on one of the songs I made in my basement. I turned it up as loud as I could and I just thought I had something.

His backup plan is to still try to do something involving music “like an audio engineer. Something where I can create things.”

As short term plans go, Cabaniss is striving to create his own style and establish a local following.

“I wanna go to community college here for a couple and focus on my music,” he said. “Just getting better and putting more songs on my SoundCloud you know… Then I wanna go to college in Philly or some other city and actually start making connections.”

He does not see being from Boyertown as a hurdle. “It just gives me more motivation to go out and succeed.”

He wants to perform more this summer, and he also plans on dropping his debut mixtape during senior year.

“I was gonna release this year. But I don’t wanna rush it. I want to be as good as possible.”

He said he is a bit of a perfectionist.

“Yeah, I’m just trying to make the best music possible. That’s what it’s really all about.”